Feeling a Bit Hardcore...

Me smiling and looking all unassuming
and friendly before heading out and
pressuring my friends like a bossy pants to
do the ride I prefer!  (Don't trust that smile.)

Joy here...I woke up Sunday morning, feeling good after my 9 1/2 hours of cycling last week, (just shy of the optimal 10 hours per week that cycling guru Joe Friel indicates is when you'll start to see results and be ready for the serious kind of training outlined in his aptly titled Cyclist's Training Bible, some of the content of which he makes available online).  I checked my email before getting ready for a Sunday ride to read the following words from the Sashinator:  "I'm pretty happy about our Friday morning ride, and will be feeling hardcore about that ride for some time to come."  Then I logged on to Facebook to read Power Penna's comment about my post about our ride:  "you guys are hardcore!" And, I have to agree, after a good week of cycling like last week, I will be feeling hardcore for some time to come.

So when The Trainer, The Professor, and another spinning instructor who rode with us on my epic, first-ever 100km ride last summer who all work together at the same gym (The Point) were scheming together about a 50km ride on Sunday, I quickly invited myself along with them.  In fact, I was such a bossy pants, that I pressured them to forgo their planned ride out of the city along busy country roads - a ride I did with them last summer and didn't enjoy at all because of the traffic and poor road quality - in favour of a more civilized ride along the Aviation Parkway (which is where I rode my first outdoor ride of the year this year with Cili Padi before she left for a cycling trip to France, where I rode last weekend, and where the women's Time Trial series will be held throughout the summer that I'm thinking of signing up for).

Changing the tube at the side of the road.

They caved in to my request, so out we headed through the downtown city streets, past the Prime Minister's house, past the Governor General's house, and through some bumpy roads that need resurfacing, and just before we made it to the velvet like tarmac of the Aviation Parkway we had to pull over so that one of the riders could change her tire...somehow she had picked up a slow leak along the way.

Now flat tires happen all the time while cycling - Superdave had one on one of our last fall rides of 2011 - and they're nothing really all that dramatic.  Of course, the cyclist who had a leak in her tire and needed to change her tube this time is the same woman whose tube blew when we were out on our 100km ride in August!  So this being only the second ride I've ever done with her, the group was pretty much convinced that it was my presence that was the jinx.  Given that the last time she changed a tube in my presence we were all startled by the huge BANG of the C02 cartridge exploding the new tube, we stood a healthy distance back while she worked her magic to change the tube and replace the tire.

The Trainer prepared for a C02 cartridge explosion.
(Note how her helmet is aimed towards the bike
to protect her brain from any tube shrapnel!)

Without any mishaps, exploded tubes, or dramatic sounds, the tube was changed and we were back on our way.  The Trainer lead the way out along the parkway with a nice tail wind pushing us faster than we thought we could go, and it was my turn to lead on the way back, right into the head wind.  I did my best to sit as tall as a I could to protect the three riders behind me from the brunt of the wind, but I'm not so sure that I did a great job of it.

Once the two other riders peeled off at the end of the ride, the final 5kms or so were just me and The Trainer making it back to our neighbourhood, and so I went to the front and kept the pace at around 32-ish km/hr into the wind, and no matter how hard I pushed it, that Trainer was right behind me, sticking to my back wheel like glue.  Let me tell you...she's one tough lady.

If anyone's a little hardcore, it might be her.

Over and out,
Joy