Joy here...I've admitted the fact that Nomi and Lulu will leave me in their running dust this summer, and I'm a-okay with that, because instead of chasing after them like some annoying little sister dogging their heels,
I've decided to take a right turn into duathlons, leaving them running straight ahead towards their next running race,
Australia's Gold Coast marathon.
So now instead of feeling somewhat guilty for heading out there on my bike rides, I can come up with a coherent plan that intertwines both running and cycling, as I build up my courage to sign up for my first-ever duathlon in early June.
Roughly here's what that plan looks like:
SUNDAY - bike ride in the park
MONDAY - rest day
TUESDAY - short run (5km) & intervals on the bike (which will be the women's Time Trial series, starting in May)
WEDNESDAY - bike ride in the park (ideally some hill repeats)
THURSDAY - short run (5km) & strength training
FRIDAY - long run (10km)
SATURDAY - bike intervals on the parkway out by the Aviation museum
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| The lake at the top of the steep part of the Fortune climb. |
This is just a rough sketch, since I don't really know what I'm doing, but the first day of this new plan was Sunday. Cili Padi returned from a month in France and was keen for her first ride in the park, and she was keen to ride up to Champlain Lookout via Fortune. The last two times that I've gone up to the lookout (
first as an unplanned surprise ride up to the top and
then testing out my beloved brand new bike all the way up there), we have gone the "backwards" way. Basically we've ridden up the same way that we've then come down, so it's not been a true and full loop, but rather an out-and-back.
Well, Cili Padi was having none of that. She was keen to drag us up the regular loop, complete with the steep climb up Fortune.
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| Just waiting for them to come around the corner! |
So out we went into the 3C temperatures on Sunday morning to conquer not just that steep Pink Lake climb, but Fortune as well.
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| My new bike enjoying the view. |
And it would seem that the gods were smiling on us, giving us good fortune as we rode up Fortune. At least the
goddess Fortuna seemed to be smiling down on me and giving me a little extra push in my legs, for I just rode up Pink Lake as easy as can be, chatting with Superdave the whole way, and then by the time we reached the Fortune climb, I felt like my legs were light as air, and I was able to keep my bike in a gear harder than I ever have before up that climb, and as I paused to wait for Cili Padi and The Professor once I had topped the steepest part, I couldn't believe just how short that climb seemed to be. I remembered it being a long sufferfest, but on Sunday, with the goddess smiling down on me and my new bike beneath me, I literally flew up that hill. It was over before I knew it.
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| The view that always makes it all worthwhile. |
As we regrouped and rode the rest of the way up to the Champlain Lookout, I felt that I owed my new bike a debt of gratitude. She was fast; she was powerful, and she was easy to ride. She made me feel relaxed and strong, and as my friends and I snacked up top and looked over the spring fields where the great Canadian Shield meets the Ottawa Valley, I gave my new bike a little pat, sighed a bit to myself, and smiled to my friends before we began the rip-roaring descent back down through the park and then along the rolling pathways home...where I could justify eating a big, giant meal.
After all, I surely deserved it after such a ride, right?
Over and out,
Joy
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