While I was up at the cottage this past weekend, it was perfect cycling weather. My brother is busy training for a big ride and so I decided to relive my glory days of my bike ride to Montreal (660km in 6 days. Yep- that’s like 450 miles) and go for an extended ride on the side roads near my cottage. I wanted to ride to the town of Wilberforce. Who wouldn’t want to ride to a town called Wilberforce? It sounds like the name of a groundhog army.
There were two major things I forgot about when it comes to long distance, country riding.
1. Hills
2. Wind
My brother claims that when he sees a big hill before him he thinks of it as a challenge. When I came upon a crazy huge hill, I looked up (waaaaaay) up to the top and thought “Wow! That’s a big freaking hill. I wonder if I’ll vomit at the top”. And then I got angry at my brother, who wasn’t even with me, for recommending this route.
Of course I got to the top. I was panting and wheezing and I was probably blue in the face but I didn’t barf which was cool and then I began to coast down. For every uphill there is always a downhill. I went down and down and down aaaaaand down. Apparently, aside from the one big hill I climbed, Wilberforce was all down hill from my cottage. I contemplated calling my parents to come get me once I cruised to the bottom.
I arrived in Wilberforce to find a Foodland, an LCBO and a Scotiabank but no groundhog army. I had some water, stretched and got back on my bike for the uphill ride home.
One of the hills was 2.5km without any levelling off. The wind was in my face and I was hating my brother with ever little bit of me. I must say though, when I did get to the top and knew that I had just one giant hill to coast back down, it did feel good. When my odometer hit 40 km/hr I thought I might take off ET style into the sky. It had been a long time since I had challenged myself physically like that and I was absolutely and simultaneously reminded that:
1. We must take the good with the bad.
2. We can do anything we want.
3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
4. Downhill is more fun.
Isn’t this a symbol for everything though? It is easier to follow the flow of nature rather than fight against it and if we really want to make a change in ourselves or in our lives or of course, in our health, all we have to do is find the right motivation to drive us up that great big hill.
I was out for dinner with Ashley last week and we had a chat about this. She has inspired me to take on a new and wonderful challenge and I am very excited for it.
My one regret about my ride to Wilberforce was that I didn’t bring a camera. I googled Wilberforce and came up with a picture of some of the town’s lively, swinging singles.
September is a great time to start on new goals. Start thinking about that and find a really strong, solid motivation to keep you going with it. Trying for Five Days Vegan might be a good goal to try on for size (hint hint on upcoming tutorial which is NOT the big thing to be revealed Monday).
If you liked that ride, there are a few others I would recommend…If you are looking for more cycling challenges.
I am out of breath just looking at that hill!
all my brothers are BRATS! BRING IT ON!
HA
I love challenges…. bring it ON …. it’s a BRING it kinda day!
Happy Friday
The Wilburforce army wears little walnut shell goggles, right?
Ok, just so we’re on the same page.
Got any good non-trafficy routes to suggest in TO?
[...] the gym. I am not lazy, that’s for sheezees. I ride a clunker of a bike all over the city, take on more serious rides, heart my yoga, and am happy to get outside for long walks, snow shoe adventures, dance parties for [...]
Michael… you are not forgiven. And I can’t believe it has taken you 11 months to actually read my blog and your torturing me is what it took.
Alex, check out bikerally.org. It is the site for the friends for life bike rally. They have great rides from anywhere from 34K to 126K. Al leave from one of the endpoints of the subway. In terms of city riding, my favourite tends to be Sunnybrook park, which you can take right to the lake.