Having a workout partner is how you keep yourself motivated and how you can also motivate someone else. After last weeks’ ride to the Leslie St Spit (which was a first for me), I was super stoked (yes, I said stoked, get over it) to do it again. I’ve told Rick that I have scheduled rides until the end of September. Now I ran into Rick around lunch for a status check to make sure we were still going. Thumbs up. Now when I got to the Danforth, I brought my stuff in side and Rick confessed that if I hadn’t shown up it would have been a glass of wine and a night of vegetating.
I met Greg for the first time (he missed last week with a concussion received playing soccer), he is Rick’s normal riding partner. We tacked up and headed of towards the final destination (and I remembered to start the GPS when the ride started, instead of 2km in) with a nice easy pace. Now I should mention that the two guys I’m riding with are 150lbs (as long as they are wearing 5lb weights attached to their shirts) and the pace they set seemed to be faster than the pace Rick and I had going last week.
I did lose them a couple of times because they are some kinda fast and they are competing with each other. We made it down to the Lakeshore and had a nice ride down to the entrance to the spit. Here is where the headwind started (and what looked like the start of a storm blowing in off Lake Ontario). We started down the path (reverse of last week) to the bridge when we discovered that the bridge had floated away. Back we go and the long way it is. We road through some awful road and when we hit the new pavement I decided to show my partners that I’m not the slowest biker on the planet. Came up behind them without changing gears at a high RPM and then as soon as I got alongside, hammer down and I was gone. I opened a huge lead in the final stretch and figured I was free and clear. I turned to my left and Greg was right there… Damn he was fast.
The way back and the headwind was still A FREAKING HEADWIND! I can’t believe how that’s even possible. We are just about to leave through the tiny gate, Greg is already through but Rick isn’t paying attention and has to try and make a hard turn. I let him go ahead of me and everything was fine until he hammers the breaks and comes to a complete stop. I wasn’t ready for it and had to lock up the breaks and try and unclip. I came out of the clip, but it hurt like a b#$ch. I limped it back the rest of the way.
Here’s where the problems occurred. I got back up the Don Valley without too many problems, but about halfway up the hill I pushed down and my ankle exploded. I unclipped and had to walk it the rest of the way. Brutal. We got back to Rick’s and headed out to the Danforth for dinner. Saganaki and hummus (and a Coors light). It was a little reward for a 35km ride burning 2300+ calories.
Next up riding with the Morton’s,
Beez
