On destruct testing

Of all the things that were subjected to destruct testing yesterday, the thing that came off the worst was my planning. I failed to allow enough time with regards to the rental of the car that took me to and from Repentigny yesterday. Consequently, I unduly rushed in order finish all 145 km of the Metropolitan challenge.

Actually, my odometer readings for yesterday was 146.92 km, done in 6 hours, 1 minute and 14 seconds of cycling time, giving an average speed of 24.3 km/h, with a maximum speed of 52.8 km/h (down a hill). It claims that 2537.0 calories were thus burned, but given that the bike computer doesn't know about my weight, the wind factor or hills, we can ignore the calories.

These results are based a closed circuit on relatively flat terrain, with a light load on Leonardo, fitted with 700x28C tires in good weather with a fair wind coming from the starting point. They are not what I intend to do on the trip. Leonardo will be much more heavily loaded and, even now, is fitted with 700x32C (i.e. wider and therefore slower) tires. My intent, yesterday, was to test myself to see just how much punishment I could take, as well as to build up my bum muscles. By pushing as hard as possible and then gauging the results I have a better idea of my relative fitness level.

If I had been smarter about the car, I would have had a better average speed as I would have stopped to rest a couple of times in the last 40 km or so. In addition, I wouldn't be as tired.

I am sore today from both muscle fatigue and sunburn from badly applied sunscreen. However, I made it into work (7.5 km) today so I can't be that sore.

What was particularly irksome yesterday was that the last 40 km or so alluded to earlier were into the wind beside the St-Lawrence (i.e. very open ground). They were very tough to do and were a very predictable challenge that the organizers could have reduced by reversing the route. Had the Challenge been in a counter-clockwise rather than clockwise direction, the winds in the afternoon would have been somewhat lessened. I stopped at a vineyard to use the loo in the afternoon. The man at the place asked about the route we were taking and expressed the opinion that it should have been counter-clockwise. He was a cyclist (which was probably why the place was a designated pit stop). When he went for trips in the area, he would come back along the river (i.e. with the prevailing winds) and would go against the wind inland where the wind would be reduced. The place was called Vignoble Le Mernois. They deserve the name drop for letting cyclists in.

After getting home, abluting and having supper, I set about changing Leonardo's tires from the ordinary tires he came with, to the expedition grade Schwalbe 700x32C's. I had Schwalbe Marathons on Leonardo in Spain but one of them was pierced by a large piece of glass in Madrid on the very last day of biking. I discarded that one. My parents were kind enough to give me a Marathon Plus with SmartGuard for my birthday to replace it. My brother Stephen questioned the need for such a deluxe tire. (It had been on my wish list.) After all, he made do with much more ordinary tires. My response was that it is one thing to fix or replace a flat tire in your home city, but quite another to do so on the road. In addition, when I asked him how often he replaced his tires (not inner tubes), he indicated more than once a year. I have found that by paying the extra bit of money for premium tires I actually spend less as I have to replace the tires much less often and thus end up saving money.

The tire changing process was not without challenge: at one point I realized I was so tired and stupid that I wasn't 100% certain which way the drive arrow on the tires should be pointing. Luckily, Margo was only a phone call away. Thank you Margo for the advice, and thank you Parents for the new tire.

Getting back to the destruct testing concept, I think I now have a better picture of just how many kilometers I can easily do in a day, thanks to having done many more kilometers than I can easily do in a day! I hope this makes sense.

On a relatively busy week

In the last week, I have come to the end of my Memories of Spain sequence, "booked" 5 to 6 nights of accommodation for phase 1 of Plan 5C (Montreal to Le Bic), booked my ticket from Deer Lake to Montreal (with Air Canada, despite its confusing website), worked out the logistics of getting Leonardo tuned up before phase 1, but after the Défi Métropolitain tomorrow, became a member of Hostel International Canada, acquired a new bicycle bell, secured the storage of Leonardo in Le Bic and picked up a new pair of biking sunglasses.

Where to begin? I arranged beds with both my cousin Marianne in Quebec City and with Philip's friend Pascale, la fille, in Le Bic. In both cases, I received a much warmer reception than I had expected. In case you were wondering, Philip has two friends called "Pascal". In order to differentiate them in conversation, it has become a trope in my family's conversation to refer to "Pasal, le gars" and "Pascale, la fille". (Confusing the matter, I have a good friend by the name of Pascal St-Onge (male). ;-) ) Getting back the subject at hand, I hadn't expected either Marianne or Pascale to turn me down, but the warmth of emotion they expressed towards me was considerable given that I am not particularly close to either. I guess it is karma as I also volunteered to house an acquaintance of Margo's this week. Then again, maybe I am also a nice guy who makes a decent impression with friends and relations.

In order to pick up a membership package from HI, I went to their hostel on Mackay street this morning. I was wearing my red MEC Slicker Jersey. As went in, an older man inquired, tongue in cheek, "How do you expect people to see you on your bike?" I thought it was funny. While I filled out the form, I was gratified to overhear two or three people inquire about when the bicycle tour of Montreal was going to start. Go bike-tourism!

The membership package included some remarkably useless pamphlets from Foreign Affairs Canada. Given that I will be in Canada the whole time, I think you can guess why they aren't terribly relevant given the issuing body. In addition, one of them was titled: "Drugs and Travel: why they don't mix". Well, duh! For the record, I have never, ever used illicit drugs.

While my old MEC Chameleon sunglasses are adequate, they are getting rather scratched. Therefore, I took the plunge and bought a new pair of MEC Expresso sunglasses. These are rather fetching as they come with plain grey lenses rather than the blue mirrored lenses of my old chameleons. Furthermore, they come with a red frame. I like red. Red is best.

Tomorrow comes the first big challenge of the season, the Metropolitan Challenge! The weather conditions look very good: sunny, yet cool. The only possible weather hiccup is that the (light-ish) winds will be out of the southwest tomorrow which means they will be against me at the end of the day. I guess you can't have everything.

On a cute photo from the Magog trial run

As I was cycling down beside the Magog river, I saw this sign attached to a tree. I thought it warranted a photo.

On only tangentially biking related matters

I was reading Polly Evans' "Kiwis might fly" at lunch time. Polly Evans wrote a book called "It's not about the tapas" that detailed her bike tour in Spain. As the title of "Kiwis might fly" suggests, this time she is in New Zealand. Not on a bike but a motorcycle.

Intriguingly, her trip started roughly the time that my trip to New Zealand ended: December 2002. In addition, she went on a day hike at the start of the Milford track (which I did). She describes a former hut wardens at the powerless Clinton Hut (the first hut of the route) as saying: "Sometimes, for a laugh, we used to screw an electric socket into the wall. You'd be amazed how many people tried to plug stuff in. Some had even carried hair dryers all the way out here." When I did the track, there was a man who was carrying his wife's propane-powered hair curling iron!

I am vaguely tempted to write to Polly Evans about this.

Memories of Spain, part 15

Santiago was so close I found it hard to wait for the parade. We had come across the Fiesta of San Isidro in the town of Camporrapado, or at least the parade thereof which was waiting for the word to start. What it lack in size, it definitely made up for in enthusiasm! There were only a few floats, the most notable being the one below. I could not make out the theme of the float beyond it had a number of motorcycles from the 1950's on it. The occupants of the float were very friendly and offered us tripe stew that rather hit the spot given the iffy weather.

They also offered us wine from their copious supply of unmarked bottles. It was drinkable if not exceptional. However, the sheer quantity of it and their willingness to share with very random strangers was a mite unnerving. Those of us who drank in the party had to beg off after a glass given that we still had number of miles to go until we reached Santiago.Santiago is a city built on hill surrounded by valleys. This means we had a lovely whee downhill before...
...having to go up this hill and reach the old city. We all had to push our way up it.We got lost in the maze of streets of Santiago before we found the square in front of the cathedral.
We had made it!!!

Memories of Spain, part 14

We left Ourense very early in the morning, before it was quite light outside. Of course, the fact that the morning was overcast did not help the matter. We left the old part of Ourense by a very old bridge.Our first stop of the day was in the village of Cea. It is fairly well known for its bread that is very distinctive in Spain. Not only in style but also in law. By law, you can only make this bread in Cea. It is appellation controlé to the point that the loaf we bought had a serial number on the bag. To be honest, I didn't think it was that special, aside from its double bun shape. It was more interesting than the average Spanish loaf though.We were getting ever closer to Santiago. Cockle shells were increasingly common on the roadsides, such as the one I am photographing in the photograph taken by Chris.
We made a fairly significant detour to visit a monastery whose name eludes me but it was very impressive. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside it. Likewise, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside a nearby museum of old agricultural implements. I would have dearly love to be able to take a snap of the matatopo or "molekiller" in essence a large club.From the monastery we climbed along and up a ridge into an upland that looked more like my idea of undeveloped section of rural Ireland than rural Spain.
Atop the ridge, we saw the blades of wind turbines swooping out the mist in an almost spooky manner.
Afterwards, there was a long, and glorious downhill made all the more satisfying with the knowledge that there would be no more big ridges to climb before Santiago. Near the end of that day my odometer went from this......to this!!!It had been at zero in Seville.

On another trial run

I am spending the long weekend with the parents in North Hatley. I got out here by a combination of bus and bike. I put Leonardo with bags and all on the bus to Magog. From Magog, I cycled to North Hatley, but not by the direct route. Instead of going via Katevale, (a.k.a. Sainte-Catherine de Hatley) and the dreaded Katevale hill, I rode down besides the Magog river to Sherbrooke on the réseau des Grandes Fourches bike path network. There, I lunched at Louis'. From Sherbrooke, I made my way to Lennoxville, and from there took the granddaddy of local bike paths to North Hatley.

While this route was significantly flatter than the Katevale hill, it was also much longer. According to Google Maps, the direct route is about 17 kms. My route was 50 kms and very scenic it was, passing at least four sites where beavers were in evidence as well as seeing moose tracks.

Another reason for the trip was to see how well I remembered riding with fullish panniers on my bike. I think I did fairly well.