Training Log Archive: iansmith

Easy neighborhood ride. Finch west of Bathurst was particularly underwhelming with frequent lights and a lot of road construction. The best Toronto rectangular rides seem to be to the north and east, at least for where I live. The thunderstorm forecast for today never materialized.

I find myself wanting to buy more cycling toys, but I don't feel I've earned them. I've logged 2500 km and 100 hours so far this year (starting in earnest in April), but to put in perspective how little that is, that's almost exactly 8 rides of what I did last Saturday. I bought a proper, bright yellow bike jersey as a reward for biking 200 km in a day back in May. As a reward for my 300 km ride, I'm buying clip-on aerobars, which I am hoping will increase my top speed by 2-3 kph for the same effort. But unlike running and like photograph, cycling offers perilous and tempting purchases. On the other hand, I already feel like I have to remember and carry an armful of gear when I go on long rides; there is a lot to be said for minimalism.

Things I have purchased:
- Bicycle (2013)
- Clipless SPD-SL pedals and shoes (2013)
- Helmet, 2x unpadded bike shorts, running tights, bright yellow long sleeve running shirts, running wind breaker, sunglasses, Garmin Forerunner (various)
- Gatorskin tires (2018?)
- 3L platypus bladder (2008?, 2020)
- Bike jersey (2020)
- Saddle (2020)
- 3L frame bag (2020)
- Bike lights (various)
- Clip-on Aerobars (pending)

Things I am considering buying, in rough priority:
- 4L of chocomilk
- New handlebar tape
- Padded shorts
- Winter clothes: Cycling vest, tight long sleeve, jacket.
- Better (more aerodynamic) helmet
- More bikepacking bags
- Bike computer
- Trips to Ireland, Scotland, Canary Islands for epic bike expeditions.

C • Buying all the things 15

Easy ride. I checked out some local hills systematically; I have ridden them many times before, but never as designed workouts.

I decided to go out and have a bit of a proper workout. It wasn't quite proper, as there wasn't much structure to it, but I went at a higher intensity than I have recently been running. It would probably be best to do more nx5 minute VO2 max bouts and nx20 minute tempo bouts, but this was also fun.

My route was an expansion of the usual fun hr route: Bayview, Finch, Birchmount, Lawrence, Victoria Park, and O'Connor. The further you get out of the city, the longer you can go between stops, and this circuit was pleasant.

I started with a 15 minute warmup to get me past the Eglinton and Bayview intersection; this was necessarily slow, as there was a lot of waiting at intersections - including a three minute stop for some weird construction at Eglinton. Once past Eglinton, I increase my effort to what felt like tempo pace. As I have never raced bicycles, I don't really have a sense of equivalences for certain efforts the way I might describe a 3 km, 5 km or half marathon pace for running.

I managed 31.3 kph over the hour effort, including at least five annoying red lights; the speed graph suggests at least eight braking spikes. I suspect that I could have averaged over 32 or 33 kph if there had been no stops. Oddly, my right leg feels weaker than my left leg for some reason.

Turning right onto O'Connor and moving at about 27 kph, I was passed on the outside by a car also turning right. It came up beside me and braked hard enough that I almost crashed into their right passenger door during my turn. I yelled at least one obscenity, and I was motivated in my fury to try to catch the car on O'Connor and berate them. Perhaps fortunately, despite reaching 50 kph on that gentle descent and traveling those two kilometers in 2:45, I was unable to catch up to the incompetent driver. Despite this, it was a pleasant night.

Sunnybrook loop with Katie; actual time was 1:22, but was reduced to reflect effort. On June 27, we did a minor variation on this loop with her on a Toronto bike share tank; this was to be a comparison on her hybrid. We weren't racing at all - in many cases, we couldn't due to pedestrian traffic, but she described the experience as dramatically different and much more pleasant on her new bike. Getting down to the Don Valley bikepath from our place is tricky; it's a 70m descent with no calm road options. When I go there solo, I take Bayview Ave, but descending that hill easily takes me up to 60 kph without trying on a busy road, and I don't think Katie's ready for that yet.

Anyway, apart from a creative route by me to the BrickWorks that didn't really work, everything else went smoothly. Even with light pedestrian traffic, we averaged a bit over 20 kph on the trail by the Science Centre and Sunnybrook itself. Katie crushed the two hills up to Bayview and Mt Pleasant and had no trouble descending on Yonge. A fun outing, though one a bit constrained by obstacles unrelated to the cycling itself.

Evening ride. I felt slightly sluggish - heavy legs, tender butt muscles, but especially given that I was a bit unlucky on the red lights tonight, my pace wasn't far off a typical ride. My rear light died on the way which was disconcerting.

Surprisingly, the parts of my body hurting most after yesterday's adventure are my shoulders. I need to work on my core so that crouching doesn't tax my upper body as much. I suspect biggins has learned much about distance cycling, especially fueling, that would be useful; I must seek his wisdom.

On the plus side, I'm well on my way to completing an ambitious mileage goal for August.