Now that the Friends for Life crew has finished their ride, I've been left to go on rides on my own. Yesterday was my first solo medium-distance ride... or so I thought. Since Aisha is in the shop getting the door fixed, I had no transportation to one of the subway stations I'm used to starting from. Not if I wanted to bring the bike with me. So I actually left from home. Unfortunately I had to go to work first.

I used the 20k ride to work as a time trial. The first time I did it, I made the 21k trip in 50 minutes. This time I did 20k in 45. Not bad at all. I felt much better. This time I took the main streets instead of trying to sneak around the side streets. Same route as if I drove. I'm not quite as afraid of the big streets as I used to be, but when I get out to the suburbs I really feel like I'm fighting the traffic. There are a lot of boneheaded drivers.

After the hour break (as if you can call working a break), I took off through the Rouge valley and on to the Waterfront Trail. The Waterfront Trail is a more-or-less trail that more-or-less connects Niagara to Brockville. I had missed a lot of it when I took it the first time a couple years ago on what was my epic journey of the time - 66.6k (and no, that's not a fake rounding). I was pretty determined to take it for the whole ride. I was planning on doing about a 100k ride out to Whitby Mental Health Centre and back. Maybe 110k.

The trail ride started out relatively uneventful. I was still moving fairly fast, my average speed was much higher than usual, around 29 km/h. I thought I had a tailwind, but I wasn't really sure. There were a lot of people walking the trail through sections, so I tried to alert them as early as I could. If the two young women I scared the shit out of are reading this I'm really sorry. As I was riding by I relatively quietly said "left" and they screamed and jumped back. I could see the look on the face of the second one as I was apologizing and all I could see were her eyes bulging out of her head.

I found one section which on the map was listed as being an informal trail through a field. I'm not afraid of taking my road bike through off-road trails, as long as there's no mud or roots or need for traction. By some of the potholes I've ridden over a little gravel can't hurt. After that was the Lynde Shores Conversation Area. I could have sworn I remembered the trail going through it (I prefer not to bring maps, so I try and memorize as much of the trip as possible). First the trail ended at a lookout for some birds. I secretly like birdwatching, so I took that as an opportunity to watch a couple things fly by and eat my first Clif Bar. Yummy!

From there I turned back and took the other fork in the trail. This one ended at a beach. I figured the trail must continue a little ways down. I didn't think how ridiculous it sounded. This is where the rain started to tease me. There was thunder coming from somewhere, and I could see lightning out of the corner of my eye. I walked down the beach with my bike, climbing over fallen trees blocking my path. The beach kept getting smaller and with more trees. Looking at my GPS it looked like I was walking on water.  It turned out that I was on just a small sliver of land between the lake and a marsh.

I'm pretty stubborn sometimes, so I refused to turn around. I ended up having to pull my bike through the lake, collecting seaweed and getting my legs wet up to my mid calves. It was not pleasant. I saw a small path going away from the beach, so I took it and ended up in the middle of the conservation area. Right when I got out it started to pour.

I don't know what came over me at this point. It was a hot day and the rain was a little refreshing. Riding my seaweed (or is it just algae?) covered bike on the road in the pouring rain made me feel like a hardcore motherfucker! I pushed harder than I ever have riding with the traffic. I was very glad I wore my bright orange shirt in these conditions without my Camelbak. I kept looking up and screaming "is that all you've got? You're not going to make me stop, I'm never going to quit!"

I rode under a bridge where these vroom vroom bikers were stopped. I was going through at a good 40 km/h, panting and grunting. I heard them yell something, either "you're so hardcore, keep it up," or "you're an idiot, get a real bike." They sound so similar... I took it as the former and used it to empower me. After yelling at the clouds again I got a response. There was a sheet of rain just ahead of me. You know that scene in the movie Perfect Storm where they're about to go up the wave that's about to kill them? That's exactly what this looked like.



When I made it back to the trail the rain let up, and there was nobody around. At this point I had hit the 60k mark. I figured if I turned around then, I'd probably end up around 100k. That was all I wanted. But I was so close to Oshawa, I figured I might as well make it all the way there.

This is where it really started raining. I couldn't even keep my eyes open it was so bad. Drops would get into my eyes, and my contacts would slip and nearly fall out. I pulled in to a strip mall and hung out a bit while eating another power gel. I was very tempted to get something done at the tattoo and piercing place I happened to stop at until I saw how old the kids working there were. I figured if I stopped too long I'd probably not be able to start again, so I kept going.

I got to ride by a few old friends' houses, but I didn't want to call or stop by. It's been a long time, and I didn't want them to feel obliged to provide me with asylum, especially considering how insane I must have looked. I regret not riding 30 feet east though... I was very close to the border with Clarington. Just to say I went past Oshawa. I rode around the city a bit and then headed back to the trail after I saw 80k on the computer. Halfway to a hundred miles.

As soon as I got back to the trail the rain stopped just as suddenly as it started. It was bright and sunny, and I dried off right away. There were birds and rabbits everywhere. I must have seen at least six rabbits. They must breed like... rabbits. Thinking that I might actually finish my first century I started coming up with titles for this post.

I got encouragement from the most coincidental places. I rode by these kids playing and had to slow down almost to a stop. The oldest one said "sorry... you're an ANIMAL!" I wondered if he knew what I had been through already. Just after that I passed a dad pushing his kids in a toy car up a hill. He said, "I can do this for a hundred miles." I thought "OMG, I'm doing an expression."

My estimates and calculations were pretty close, I was on course to only do 145k. I had to add a bit more disance to my ride, so I went down to the Beach(es). The Martin Goodman Trail is absolutely ridiculous to try and get around on. I wasn't feeling the ride along Queen and I just wanted to get away from the traffic. There were so many people walking on it, across it, along it. I nearly ran over a girl who was so obliviously talking on her cell phone that she had no idea that she was zig zagging across both lanes of traffic. It's just like driving.

When I passed the Cherry St. spit, I knew it was finally time to try it. I wished I had my camera, that really is an awesome part of the city. We had about 15 feet of fog or mist just above the water, which made things very spooky, and very weird with the bright sun right above it.

By the time I got home I was showing 169k on the odometer. 105 miles. That was my first serious distance goal for the last few years. I'm very happy.

This year I might try a double metric century (200k), but probably not much more than that. There's really no reason to. I've finally learned how to manage myself over long distances. I know how to listen to my body and what it's saying, so that I can continue seemingly forever. On my 66.6k ride two years ago I didn't know any of that. I hit the wall and literally collapsed on the grass. Now I would never get to that point.

Next year I'm going to go all the way and complete a proper double century (200 miles): the TBN Hairshirt. Why not? If I keep the pace I had yesterday, I would finish last... but I would finish. I don't have a problem with that. I can't wait.

Final stats:
Distance: 169.0 km
Time: 7:39
Actual time: 8:46
Average speed: 22.1 km/h
Max speed: 69.3 km/h
Average HR: 133
Peak HR: 181
Time in zone 3: 2:38
Total ascent: 1824 ft