June 18th (Afternoon)
Today was a warm 25°, sunny with very little wind. That combination means a bit of a hot ride coming up out of Peterson’s Creek, but the rest of the ride isn’t too bad as long as I keep moving to keep the breeze going. I decided to try the path down into Peterson’s Creek that runs along the north side of the highway instead (Brian takes this trail as he comes from TRU each morning). The trail head is right near the end of the off ramp from the highway. Actually, I guess seeing as the traffic is going the other way, it would be considered the beginning of the off-ramp. The end for me as I was riding against traffic down the shoulder. Anyways, I found the trail and too it down into Peterson’s creek for a change of scenery. It was a fun trail, way easier than the one I normally take where I have to drag my foot on the corners, and miss the switchbacks. This trail, instead, is just a constant downhill grade that rolls its way along to the bottom. The only tricky part is right at the bottom the trail drops about 10 feet down into a little gulley with a stream at the bottom. Making the trail down, across and back up was tough, but I know I could do it now that I know what to expect. This route did add about an extra 1/2 kilometre to my overall route, but it wasn’t a hard 1/2 kilometre. Nonetheless, going up the regular way I felt very tired and only made it to the bottom of the sandy switchback (where I have lately been making it right up and into the switchback before losing traction in the deep stuff. I still made it the rest of the way up in 3 stops total, so for the way I was feeling I was happy with that.
The section through Frolek’s land was not too bad. I still felt a bit heavy and tired, but managed to keep a decent rate of speed up overall. At the pipeline section of Rose Hill, I still missed both the final climbs. I had a decent effort on both hills, and I know it won’t be long before I’m climbing the 2nd to last hill again. I even think with better speed down, and once the trail starts smoothing out a bit more, I will be making a pretty good stab at the way up the other side.
I took the main trial into Juniper as my parents were due to arrive this afternoon for the weekend, so I wanted to take the fastest way in. All in all, a good ride for a Friday, but I was ready for the weekend. Strange, as I had 2 full days off this week... Well, until Monday then!
June 21st (Morning)
Here I thought I had beaten this cold? I felt the cold coming on early last week, and then was sure I was over it by this weekend. Friday and Thursday I felt great, with maybe the odd cough nagging me but nothing else. Last night, though, the coughing was frequent and my throat was getting sore again. This morning I for sure didn’t feel very good, but figured that maybe after a bit of riding I would feel OK (I have done this before). Unfortunately, by about 20 minutes into the ride, I knew that I wasn’t getting any better. Instead of turning around, however, I kept pushing. In fact, I made it up all the hills on the pipeline section at Rose Hill! I was thinking I would try taking it easy, but this wasn’t taking it easy. It was good, but then the ride across Frolek’s land I knew I was getting worse. If I had a toonie or spare bus tickets, I would’ve ridden down to Lansdowne from there and grabbed a bus the rest of the way. Maybe I should carry spare change with me for this very reason.
Anyways, I basically walked the entire way up Peterson’s Creek. Even going down, by the time I got near the bottom, I was feeling bad. I attempted a bit of climbing up through the first technical section, and then walked up all the way ‘till the final section where I usually ride. I attempted to ride it, and made it out of the canyon and half the way up the following trail to the top and then walked it again. Even with walking, I was stopping a lot just to try and breath. By now I knew I had made a poor choice in continuing to ride, but what was I going to do? Riding the rest of the way to work was better than riding back home at this point. So I kept going, slowly. I still made it the entire way with no stops for rest or puking so that was good... :) I did drop down to the granny gear at the end of the Hugh Allan hill, though.
And now, here I am at work waiting for Corrie to come and get me to take me back home... Oops... Not the brightest thing I’ve done I guess, but hopefully a day of rest will be all I need and I can be back in the saddle tomorrow morning again.
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