The days of September are ticking by and summer hasn’t completely let go. Last night I took advantage of the weather and went for my first ride with the Tues/Thurs morning bike group as they switched to evenings for now. So there I was at my office, having biked to work, when I got the message at 4:15 that the group was meeting at the duck pond in Assiniboine Park at 5:30. Tight time frame but being someone who never passes up an opportunity, especially on a nice evening, I couldn’t resist, even with the extra pedaling just to get there on time.
Quick change from my work duds while talking on the phone to my wife and trying to tug on my bike shorts (my door was closed) I managed to leave the office at 4:35 (for once). Rode the 10K or so home into the warm and sweat-producing headwind. A great warm-up I thought! Got home at 5:00, changed from my ride-to-work bike shorts to my workout-ride pair (although my rides to work often fall into the workout category), changed my bike shoes (same story as the shorts), and helmet (ditto), grabbed a water bottle, pumped up the tires on the Cervelo (the Giant hybrid falls into the same category as those shorts, shoes and helmet) and high tailed it to the Duck Pond with 5 minutes to spare. Really warmed up now.
Met up with 3 other riders (all who looked varying degrees of younger, fitter and stronger than me, not a good sign) and hit the road (figuratively) to Headingley, into the wind again, shrewdly taking up the position at the end of the line. Figured I’d need to conserve as much energy as possible. Managed to keep up most of the way, even did one pull, and yet found myself sagging behind a couple of times. I was very grateful when they eased up to let me catch up and get back into the draft. The ride back was a little better with the tail wind, which of course was now starting to weaken. Not a monster ride but a good workout. Legs are a little achy-shaky today, but not enough to keep me from heading to Pan Am tonight for my first TriMB swim of the fall. Or from joining the cruisers again tomorrow nite for another ride since the good weather is supposed to hang on.
Speaking of good weather my daughter Steph lives out at Lac du Bonnet and said she went for a swim on Monday Sept. 22 breaking her record for late season swims by a few days. She says that if the weather holds she’s going for Oct. 1. I know where she gets that spirit from. We’re heading out there this Sunday so I’m hoping that she doesn’t try to talk me into swimming with her. If she does ask me my brain will turn it into something like, “Well when would you ever have another opportunity to swim with your daughter on Sept. 29?” I know and you probably know what my answer to that would be.
Last Sunday was the TriMB awards luncheon. I hadn’t planned on going but a friend RC was going for the first time so I decided to keep him company. I like the opportunity to be there to pay tribute to all the award winners, and yes to receive my award for winning the sprint distance race series for my age category. I confess that I’m not a fan of the food that is served and think that Bel Acres is capable of much better. I expressed this concern to the folks at TriMB a couple of years ago but it seems like I’m the only one who’s spoken up. No point belabouring it, it’s my choice whether to go or not.
BW contacted me to set up the first meeting to go over the fitness program. That’ll likely be in the next week or so. When it comes time to do the first assessment to set the baseline for my program, I’m not sure whether I should try to go all out to impress him, which is highly unlikely to the point of laughable, or to barely do anything so the base is set so low that anything I do after that will be an improvement. If I know me I’m just going to be PureJohn.
It’s off to the pool now. Stay tuned!
PureJohn
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