May 18th (Afternoon)
· Fluids Intake
o Morning: 2 bottles of water, 1 cup of coffee (cream and sugar)
o Afternoon: 2 bottles of water
· Food Intake
o Morning: 2 pieces of whole wheat toast with butter and peanut butter, 1 banana
o Afternoon: 2 hotdogs with cheese
Well, I thought I’d try an “easy” route home today. It was raining pretty good during the afternoon, and Corrie and I even talked about her coming up to get me, but we decided I would just ride. My cold isn’t getting worse, and in fact it may even be getting better? I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch yet, but it does seem as much.
So, with a little bit of drizzly rain, I headed out. I decided to ride only on paved streets all the way home, meaning I’d have to tackle the Juniper hill at the end. But, I felt that this would be easier in the end than riding the trails, with less upper body work. I rode down Hillside, across Notre Dame, down Columbia and then across to Valleyview road. The ride was pretty good, actually, and the streets were drying up already by the time I got past the mall. I really only encountered one impatient/unobservant motorist who seemed a bit perturbed that she wasn’t able to merge and had to hit her brakes to avoid running me over (thank you). Other than that, it was pretty decent really.
Then I turned up the Juniper hill.
Corrie said something about the wind when I left work, but it wasn’t at all windy here so I didn’t think much of it. But as soon as I turned off of Valleyview Road onto Highland Road and headed up to Juniper, the wind slapped me in the face with authority. I think I even heard “You.... shall.... not... PASS!!!” in the distance. :)
By the first corner, I had dropped into the granny gear and rode on the dirt off the road (it was very busy, and motorists do not take kindly to going slow up this hill as they absolutely must make it to the top as fast as possible for no reason at all). I had a bit of a hard time breathing deeply, probably due to my cold. And the rain started pelting me pretty hard, which made it very difficult to see the bumps and rocks to avoid. And every time the hill got steeper, the wind seemed to get all the worse! In fact, at the very top the winds blew so hard, that I was struggling just to stay on the road (I had moved back to the pavement at this point due to the shoulder being very ripped up by the rain and water flowing down to the ditches). When I arrived at home, I was dripping wet, soaked to the bone! It was a bit crazy for sure! The kids didn’t even want to hug me... :)
So, after that ride, I suddenly wasn’t sure if this actually was they “easy” route. I guess it was the “easier” route, but not easy by a long stretch! My time and speeds were actually all still the same, but with 2 kilometres added to my overall distance. My cold doesn’t feel too bad at all, maybe even better now, so I hope I didn’t just prolong it with this ride. I think I’ll still do this again tomorrow and possibly for the rest of the week. It actually wouldn’t be a bad idea to ride this route one week each month just to switch up the routine a bit.
May 19th (Morning)
· Fluids Intake
o Evening Before: 1 bottle of Gatorade, 1 glass of water, 1 glass of milk
o Morning Of: Nothing
· Food Intake
o Evening Before: 1 small bowl of Chili, two buns, 4 perogies, asparagus, 1 cupcake and 1-1/2 pieces of chocolate cake both with cream cheese icing
o Morning Of: Nothing
So I definitely ate too many sweets last night, and didn’t feel that great this morning (just more unsettled than anything else). But the ride into Lansdowne was pretty good considering. Juniper’s hill was cleaned up a bit (no more gravel/rocks across the road from the rain) so I was able to let the bike go this morning (I hit 77km/h, and that was with a bit of brake tapping at the first corner for fear of gravel on the road). I had the big ring in use mostly from Vicars to the bus stop, so that’s always a good indication of how good I feel. I took the bus again all the way up to Roger’s Way as my cold is still not gone. I will most likely keep this route ‘till next Monday just to be sure. The ride up Hugh Allan hill was really good again, but my “pulling” muscles in my thighs are really starting to complain lately... :)
I was complaining earlier this week about my cold, thinking that my immune system should be better with the exercise I’ve been doing. Well, now I’m thinking maybe it is better, as it is fighting this cold off better than the colds I’ve had for the last 5 or so years! Normally, a little cold sticks with me for about 2 weeks, and usually turns into a fever/flu as well. This time it’s stayed as simply a runny nose with a bit of a scratchy throat, and now seems to be getting better already after just a few days. Nice!
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