I've invested in a good rain vest and helmet cap(?), and my booties mostly work, but more importantly, I've given the big middle finger to mother nature and decided, training in those conditions may actually pay off when a race weather turns sour.
Lo and behold, Banff Bike Fest 2011.
I've written at length about those disappointing but fun events, so no need to add more to that, except to say that I've come away feeling a desperate for redemption. I've immediately adjusted my commutes to include a 40km tour of south Calgary in the mornings, and varying changeups after work, time permitting, including some extra hills.
Also, Darryl gave me a dose of running intervals last week.Man that hurt... took me almost 3 days for my legs to feel normal again!
To wrap up the month, Mike and I decided to get in a nice 100km ride from work to home, via Bragg Creek. But why make only 2 people suffer when you can make 3? And what better way to pay back Darryl... muahaha.
So off we went, at 2:30 sharp, from the IStock HQ. Skies were clear, a little drizzle had come and gone and hour earlier, but it was dry now. A little windy, it would seem. Casual pace through downtown to pick up Mike, and off to Edworthy (shudder).
The hill did not disappoint. Though unstated, there are certain bragging rights for cresting the climb first. Virtual mountain points, if you will. Mike handedly took it, although I did put in a little kick at the end to try and catch him but he sped off with around 40m to go. Darryl "Anarchist" Penner was starting to show some cracking at this point. Poor guy has been marathon training all year, not exactly prepped for this stuff.
The subsequent 5 km are all climb, all the time. And into a crazy headwind. According to environment Canada, the wind speed/direction around 4 & 5 pm was WSW 24 gust 39!
Guess which direction we were going... West, followed by Southwest, eventually East.
So we hit Springbank Road and it hit back. Top speed on the steep descents was a whopping around 34 kmph! Should have been almost double that... Mike commented that if he stopped pedalling he felt like he was being blown up the hill in reverse!
Darryl was looking pretty hurtin' at one point and decided to gracefully turn back. Great job man hanging in a long as you did in that crazy wind with hardly any saddle time. You'll be back...
I was actually feeling pretty good in this section. Perhaps thanks to my rest day yesterday, maybe it was the big bowl of Bev's macaroni at lunch, but I did a lot of the pulling on that Springbank road. That didn't last into the Hwy 22 turnoff though, as both Mike and I were reeling from the now nearly 2 hours of defying Ma' Nature. A snail pace into Bragg Creek as gust after gust of wind was taking it's toll on our spirits.
Finally made it to Bragg Creek! We only stopped for about 5 minutes to eat a Honey Stinger waffle and stretch the back a bit before heading off, but that did a world of wonder.
Not to mention the roads around Bragg Creek are well protected by trees, and you could start to feel our direction become inline with the wind.
On to 22x and we started flying. The two major climbs out of B.Creek barely dented our pace (yes, more virtual mountain points for Mike!), as we started averaging speeds of 50 kmph.
So nice to see my trip average speed climb steadily from 24 back up to 30 on the 2nd half.
Gotta hand it to Mike that for all the pulling I did on Springbank, he made up for on 22x!
The final unspoken target was the Cranston/Mackenzie turnoff. Mike looked to hesitate at the Chapparal intersection and I hammered past him, down into the valley and up the last climb to the finish. Victory!
Great ride, no mechanicals, no rain. Definitely got a workout today!
See garmin report below (stupid thing includes my morning commute too though):
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95975170
Anyway, some stats for June:
- 41 total workouts
- 952 kms on the bike
- 72 kms running
Of note is that this is the first month I've soley relied on my garmin for maps/stats. No more MMR!
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