Sunny Days

Yesterday rain was forecast all day, so we decided to postpone the training ride to Sunday. The power of my new rain jacket meant the rain never really turned up, but it was nevertheless a good chance to catch up on home chores that have been much neglected.

One of the things I happened to do was check back through some old emails that I had sent in November 2011. In one of them I found that I had written down the dedications (positive statements) that Stuart said out loud each time he swallowed one of his chemo pills (5 in the morning and 5 at night). I thought they were worth sharing:-

1 – Dr Melnychuk – for him to be amazed by Stuart’s progress
2 – For Stuart and I to be able to have a meal out in a restaurant (achieved Wed 9th Nov)
3 – For the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer – for Stuart to be on that ride
4 – to be able to send a good news email to family and friends (achieved Fri 11th Nov)
5 – to be able to say goodbye to pain

I can hardly believe that 18 months later the ride is really going to happen!

But first another training ride!

We really enjoyed the ride last Sunday to Senneville, so decide to do the same 95km ride again. Last week, whilst Stuart was leading the way I thought he was actually going to take us on the highway to Ottawa, fortunately there is an exit that lead us safely to a back road.



Having posted on facebook last week about cycling in Senneville, our friend Cecile commented on how much she would like to cycle in the area, so we give her a call and she and Stephan join us on the ride.




It’s quite a hot day today, and I’m still struggling with my water carrier. No water seemed to be coming out whenever I tried to drink and ride. I finally figured out that I should unclip the water tube whilst riding, otherwise the water won’t flow properly. It’s just as well that I finally got this figured out as the forecast for next week is looking pretty warm!




Inevitably we head back to Herbs for our usual lunch break!



Today, we had both decided to wear our ride jerseys




We saw at least a dozen other riders out today, also in their jerseys, so it was great to be able to give them a wave. It will be amazing next week, when there are 2,000 of us! Now, I’m really starting to look forward to the ride!


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Anniversary Ride!

Quite a big bike ride planned today and we set off at 7.30am this morning because my bike is booked into Paul’s Cycles in Pointe Claire for a tune up and look at the gears. (Everything needs to be ready for the big day!)

We arrive about 9.15 to drop the bike off.




Whilst I’m signing the bike in, Stuart is discussing very high end range road bikes with the staff. I think I’ll have to keep an eye on him over the next few days, check he doesn’t make any unauthorised visits to this store. Perhaps I’ll put a tracker app on his mobile phone, or not, since he doesn’t have a mobile phone!

After a cup of tea and a muffin we pick the bike up and head off on a new route to Senneville in the north west corner of the island. After a couple of close shaves with the Highway, we find ourselves on the beautiful Chemin de l’Anse A L’Orme.



This is a really picturesque spot to cycle through and we see some houses that make the Hudson mansions look like Pieds-a-Terres. Here’s Stuart in front of a particular huge house. In fact the turreted garage is probably bigger than our house back home (which doesn’t have any turrets).



The route we have chosen somehow loops back to our favourite restaurant Herbs, where we enjoy a lovely Sunday Brunch.



Yesterday I made two purchases to get ready for the ride. Here is my first one. A new camel bak. (water carrier in a back pack)



I haven’t managed to get the hang of taking the water bottle out of the carrier and drinking whilst riding, so I keep having to make water stops. The camel bak feels OK to ride in, and I think I will be able to wear it for the day, but I’m still having trouble drinking whilst riding. I put my head down and take my eye off the path whilst attempting to drink, and judging from the look of horror on the face of an oncoming jogger (now jogging just off the edge of the bike track), I guess I was pretty close to mowing him down today. This is going to need some work (the drinking, not mowing down joggers).

Almost at the end of the ride (which happened to be 97km in the end) we stop at the St Ambroise Terrace by Lachine Canal for a refreshing Apricot Beer!




And now here’s me with my second “getting ready for the ride” purchase



I’ve been borrowing Stuart’s light weight rain jacket for some of the rides, and given the weather lately we realised that I probably need one of my own. However, despite storms being forecast for the afternoon, the sun comes out and the rain stays away. The power of a new rain jacket!

As you will see it’s a white jacket, and in fact 6 years ago today I was also wearing white, which is one of the cheesiest ways to shoehorn in a photo of our wedding 6 years ago today!




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Leader of the pack?

No – not even in the pack!


There’s a training ride organised by the Ride to Conquer Cancer crew today so we decide to join them. It starts at Vaudreuil over to the west of the island so we need to hire a Communauto car to get there for 8am. It’s a tight squeeze, but by taking all 4 wheels off, we get the bikes into the car and are away by 7am!



I’ve never ridden in a group before, so I’m looking forward to seeing if I can keep up! There’s about 30 of us, and of course rain is forecast (but at least it’s warm)



We all depart the car park together and I make the serious mistake of leaving with the first group (the roadies). The ride is only supposed to be ridden at 20-25km /hr, but these people are cycling at 28 – 30 km/hr. I keep up for about 10km (ish!) but am soon dropped! Unfortunately, these boys have taken a wrong turn, and are heading round the circular route the wrong way! We will all end up at the same rest stop (Tim Hortons, unsurprisingly) but now there is no group behind us to join onto. It seems like I am destined not to ride in a pack after all!

We arrive at the rest stop (last of course!) and decide to only ride part of the second loop. We can’t afford to return the Communauto car late. When you sign up for Communauto they give you a hell and damnation lecture about never bringing the car back late!

Towards the end of the ride, it starts to rain gently. Ha –after last week’s epic adventure I don’t see that this counts as rain at all, so I leave my rain jacket in the handy rain jacket carrier on the bike.



We only chopped 10km off the ride, so find that we have ridden 68km and arrived back at the car park at noon. (we actually had time to do the whole ride, but never mind). I’m delighted to find that we arrive just behind the roadies, but ahead of everyone else (we skipped the second rest stop, this may have helped). So I’m very pleased that I felt the ride was well within my capabilities and that my average speed was a stunning (well for me anyway) 21.7 km/hr!



As we are loading the bikes in the car, one of the other riders says to Stuart, hey aren’t you the guy in the video, that’s an amazing story. I feel myself welling up. Goodness knows what I will be like at the actual Ride!


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One hell of a day

Sunday morning and I wake thoroughly refreshed. I was sent to bed at 9.30 (by pretty much everyone) as I could not keep my eyes open. So now I am awake before everybody else, so head to the dock to read the papers (not the Sunday Times, you can’t have everything). It’s very early, so there are lots of bugs around, but I’ve been here before so have come prepared, I have bug spray, I tuck my trousers in my socks, pull my hoody down over my face and I probably last 30 mins out there!



After a leisurely breakfast, just as we are about to depart, the rain starts. Oh don’t worry says Anne, the weather never lasts around here. She’s probably right. I think we towed the rain cloud with us away from Saint Sauveur all the way back to Montreal.

It starts to rain really hard, the climb in reverse is now a slippery scary downhill. I cling onto my brakes for dear life. Suddenly we get to the 17% gradient hill, only now it is an uphill for us. I’ve been telling Stuart that I’m going to walk this bit, but he’s amazed to see that I just keep pedalling. My thighs are burning and my heart feels like it is going to burst out of my chest, but I keep going and I make it!




What I then have to confess to Stuart is that I actually didn’t think I could stop without falling off! I was pedalling so slowly, that I didn’t think I had time to yank my foot out of the pedals before I would have toppled over. Once the climb had started I was locked in!
We finish the rest of the scary decent, rejoin the Petit Train du Nord and have only cycled about 11km in total, when we reach the Prevost Halt. I demand a break from the rain (it’s very heavy) and we go inside just to drip really.

My feet are soaking, and I find that I can wring quite a lot of water out of my socks.



I would happily have traded my PJs for my wet weather booties, but we hadn’t realised the weather would be so bad.

It’s another 12km to St Jerome and we stop for a cup of tea. By this time I’m manky.



We probably sit for an hour and a half in the café, with our clothes drying out, just watching the rain sheeting down, hoping it would slow down



The rain doesn’t slow down, but Stuart says, it’s a sunny day somewhere. In fact it’s a sunny day inside his head. (This is why I love Stuart. However, inside my head it’s just as wet and miserable as it is outside!)

Having dried off a little bit we reluctantly venture outside again, and are just as wet as we were before within a few minutes. It’s 40km to the metro and the rain doesn’t ease up at all.

There’s a French phrase for raining cats and dogs. “Il pleut des cordes”. Today the cordes are slamming horizontally into my face. My face stings.

We crazily decide to take the shorter route home again (missing out 15km to get out of the rain quicker seemed like a good idea), but today in the gloomy darkness and heavy wet weather the highway takes on a whole new aspect. What was unnerving yesterday is today quite frightening. We use the sidewalk wherever possible and have to take tremendous care at junctions. Not an experience to be repeated.

We pass through the “still picturesque despite the rain” town of Sainte Rose and decide against stopping for lunch. I fear that one more change of clothes will leave me nothing but my PJs for the journey back on the metro. These are flowery, pink ribbony, no denying they’re PJs kind of PJs. We keep cycling.

One good thing about today, is there’s nobody else on the cycle paths (and why would there be?). So Stuart and I can cycle side by side. We chat about how today is the kind of day where you should be sitting in front of a log fire reading the papers, and promise ourselves that when that day happens we’ll look back on today, and be grateful to be inside the warm and dry.

Eventually, finally, soggily we make it back to the metro



It’s been one hell of a day!



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My friends who live by a lake.....

.....shall henceforth be known as my friends who live on top of a mountain!

A couple of weeks ago we decided to spend this weekend visiting our friends Anne & Peter who have a lovely cottage by a lake just near Saint Sauveur. A leisurely 65km ride from the end of the metro to their place, spend the night and return the next day – marvellous! I forgot one thing - the mountain! Saint Sauveur is a ski resort, not cross country ski-ing, but downhill ski-ing! We have only ever driven to their cottage before and you just don’t notice hills when you are in a car. Anyway, that is the end of the ride, more of which later.

We start the day pretty late, it's been a hectic week, and Saturday morning I need to sleep. We eventually get to the metro about 11 and so begin the ride at about 11.30 from metro de la concorde.

It’s a beautiful day and the first part of the ride is great, all on bike tracks.



There was only some minor crankiness, due to some mal adjusted gears, but we’ll gloss over that. Really, I’m in a good mood today! I get to ride my road bike, whilst Stuart has volunteered to take his touring bike, so he can carry two panniers with the overnight stuff.



I am severely limited in what I get to take, one pair of shorts for the next day, 1 new cycling top, evening longs and t shirt, fleece, swimsuit, rain jacket and PJs. I traded sandals for the evening, for my PJs. I’m quite getting used to the cleaty cycling shoes now.

Stuart has designed a new route for us, and thinks he has found a better way than Route Verte 1, we can chop 15km off the ride, by cycling along about 5km of route 117 and then rejoining Route Verte 2 just after St Therese. He’s checked the route via google maps and can see that there is a wide hard shoulder, so we opt for the shorter route. Unfortunately, we don’t spot on google maps that the hard shoulder and indeed the sidewalk completely disappear at times, and the road is pretty busy, especially round the intersection with autoroute 640. It’s an unnerving ride, and not one I enjoy. We did however, get to cycle through the very pretty town of Sainte Rose, with lots of lovely restaurants. Looks like it may be worth a visit for lunch tomorrow.
After St Therese, we reach the bike path Petit Train du Nord, a particularly pleasant bike path that heads north to Tremblant



We stop in Saint Jerome for a lovely lunch in the sunshine.



It’s been a gorgeous day for cycling, no wind, sunny, warm, pretty perfect. It’s just 13km from St Jerome to Prevost, where we leave the Petit Train du Nord and start to head towards our friends cottage.

This is the beginning of the climb and I’m not happy.



It’s a 6km climb and a steady steep up hill. It’s grim. I drop to my lowest gear and just keep pedalling. I’m not convinced, I’m going to make it, but I grit my teeth and just keep going. There’s one point on the climb, where you suddenly plunge into a short very sharp downhill (17% gradient), excellent, I skoosh down that to build up some speed and try not to think about the reverse journey tomorrow. The climb recommences and I find that as we near the cottage I actually overtake Stuart. OK, so he’s on a touring bike, laden down with “hardly anything in them at all” panniers and he has a bad knee, but technically I overtake him at the top, and this is so unusual I am recording it for posterity!

We arrive at Anne & Peter’s cottage.



It’s a really charming, quaint place and Anne has heeded my request for an Apricot Beer on arrival. In fact she bursts out the house with the beer on a silver platter. I wish I had a photo of this moment, but I am so delighted to be granted my wish for the beer that I’m afraid my first response is to sit down and drink it!




We’ve made it before sundown, so head to the dock for some convivial conversation, with Anne & Peter, Fred and Helen (Peter’s Mum and Dad).




Last summer I drank an apricot beer on a warm sunny evening, and the thought of that beer and the heat of summer kept me going through Montreal’s long cold winter days. I made myself a promise that I would have that beer again when Summer arrived.

Today was that day



Beer has never tasted so good!

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Whatever happened to Gavin?

Today our friend Gavin planned to join us, we spoke to him Saturday night, he was all packed and ready. I called at 7.30am on Sunday morning as agreed, and unfortunately told him that I thought my blog post may have to be called “I’m glad I’m not Gavin”! He hasn’t done any bike riding all year, and I’m aiming for 100km today. I was quite looking forward to not being the least fit and slowest of the group! Gavin has had a change of heart and decides not to come, I hope my proposed blog title wasn’t the cause!

We’re doing the Oka/Hudson/Saint Anne de Belleview ride again, which is around 85km. However, to make the ride longer we get off the train three stops early at Iles Bigras.

Iles Bigras is not a major station




We cycle to Deux Montagnes and find we have only done 7km, we are going to need to find a few more km if I’m going to hit the 100 today!

We see a flock of geese in the sky, and I’m a bit worried that it’s not geese arriving, but geese that have given up on Montreal’s summer and are heading back south again!

However, it’s a perfect day for cycling, the sun comes out, it’s warm, but not too hot, and there’s just enough breeze to keep the bugs at bay!






Waiting for the ferry at Oka, Stuart tells me to stop taking photos of him. He’s wrong, they’re really photos of me!




By the time we get to St Anne de Belleview (as indicated by Stuart) we have done just over 50km




We’ve earned our lovely organic homemade lunch!




As we head back to Montreal we look for ways to increase the distance of our ride. We do a gratuitous circuit round the sculpture park at Lachine (an extra 3km) and then instead of heading straight back down Lachine canal, we loop around via LaSalle (this turns out to be an extra 7km). We’ve overcooked it. We hit the 100km at Farine Five Roses.




When we finally get home we’ve done 104km and I’m delighted (and tired and sore!). Now I am reasonably confident that day 1 of the ride is very doable. I’m not thinking about day 2.

Gavin you missed a lovely day out!


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Dog-tired

My goal this weekend is a medium ride and a long ride. Saturday we’ll start with a medium ride to Point Claire and back. (Get me, a 60km ride is now classified as medium!)

Depressingly, this is the weather forecast for the week.



Montreal – what is going on? This is not how things should be!

Today I find the ride a huge struggle. I am so slow that Stuart puts me at the front as he keeps losing me if he rides ahead. He even has to tell me when to make a turn, despite me knowing the route really well. I have nothing in the tank. It’s been a hectic week at work (month end and budgets) and some post midnight finishes. I’m completely exhausted. This does not bode well. The ride is a month away, and this will clash equally well with quarter end and budgets. I resolve to be in bed by 10.30 every night the week before the ride!

I’m surprised to find myself at the coffee house at Pointe Claire. At times I thought I wasn’t going to make it.



It’s lovely weather for fish.



Obviously it has rained all morning! This is a plant sculpture by the Lakeshore bike path.

My average speed for the morning has dropped to 17.7km/hr, but on the plus side nobody overtook me today! That is of course because there was nobody else foolish enough to be out on their bikes today!


Last week at Tour d'ile I spotted this dog been taken for a ride. I wonder if they do adult versions of these carriers? Stuart is fit enough to pedal for two!





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Tour d'ile

Montreal Tour de l’ile is another major bike fest. This time the ride is during the day, with even more cyclists and closing even more roads. You have to feel sorry for the motorists, well, no not really.

Stuart and Nathaniel are signed up for the 100km ride, and I’m going to do the 50km with Ann. We signed up for the ride months ago, and it never occurred to me that I should be aiming to ride 100km. Recently I did check to see if I could sign up for the longer ride, but I was relieved to see that it had sold out. I’m not sure that I’m ready for 100km yet.

Stuart and Nathaniel set off at 7am, no doubt going to try and out race each other. It’s raining steadily already. Ann and I agree a more leisurely departure time of 8.15. (it’s still raining steadily). I’m surprised to find that she’s not at the meeting point. It transpires that she has a puncture to fix. I head over to the guest house to pretend I can lend a hand.




Puncture is fixed in no time, and I’m no help whatsoever!

We head off again (it’s still raining steadily), but now we are too late for the Grand Depart. As we cycle down Rue Rachel, we see the cavalcade heading towards us! Easiest option, turn the bikes around and join in!



It’s a lot of fun cycling in a huge group through the streets of Montreal, and it’s not raining steadily anymore. It’s bucketing down! At one point I can hardly see in front of me there’s so much water streaming over my eyes. I’ve forgotten my wet weather booties and I can feel the water sloshing around inside my shoes!

We get to the first rest stop and wade through the park to pick up the snacks and treats that they hand out. It’s still raining so we don’t hang around.



Fortunately, over the next leg of the ride, the rain gradually stops, the sun comes out and we slowly dry out. By the time we stop for lunch the skies are blue and all is well.



Lovely weather for ducks



At the end of the ride, we meet up with everyone (100km, 50km and 25km riders) and are able to sit chatting in the sun, and listen to tales of Stuart and Nathaniel trying to out ride each other (which seemed to end up with Stuart lying flat on his back in a puddle), but he’s all in one piece and everyone is dry now and all have enjoyed a great day out!




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Things don't start too well

Having spent the previous evening cycling around town to applause and cheers on my touring bike. I find it hard to adjust to my road bike and cleats. I also miss the cheering crowds. Less than 1km from home I completely forget that I am wearing cleats, until I slowly start to tip sideways. There’s no recovery I land in a heap on the bike path. I decide that actually I am glad there are no crowds today.



We’re heading back to do the Oka/Hudson/St Anne de Bellevue ride and Ann decides to join us. So we’re on the train chatting over a cup of coffee and instead of telling reassuring stories about how once you fall off your bike then it never happens again, Ann spends the whole journey regaling us with stories of how often she’s fallen off due to cleat issues. You can seriously go off somebody!



Unfortunately, I like to drink an extra large coffee, and when we get off the train at Deux Montagnes the station toilet is locked. No worries, I’ll just nip into the bushes. Big mistake! It’s Canada. It’s May. It’s warm and still. I’m no more than 30 secs, but that’s too long. When I get back on my bike I realise there is something terribly wrong. As soon as we pass a gas station I nip inside to the bathroom to discover 4 mosquitoes down my shorts. I can’t begin to imagine the discomfort that lies ahead!

However, the day gets better and the ride is wonderful . The weather looks threatening, but Stuart points out that the skies are clearing in the direction we are headed. (until later!)



It makes a real change to cycle behind someone other than Stuart. Ann is a bit of a roadie and even cycles in pacelines (a long line of cyclists, with the lead cyclist setting the pace). In order to cycle in a paceline it’s important to give lots of hand signals to the cyclist behind you. I’m fascinated by all the signals that Ann is making and find that I am keeping up just to discover what will be signed next (pot holes, obstacles, road humps, railway tracks). In fact I even request a new hand signal, which Stuart and Ann demonstrate below. It means “there’s a puppy to pat up ahead”



It’s a great day, and we have another lovely lunch at Herbs.



On the way home, we are running a bit late, Ann needs to meet up with Nathaniel before the evening meal. Stuart suggests that he heads off with Ann down the bike path as fast as they can, and he will point her in the right direction for the guest house once they get back to old port. He’ll then wait for me to catch up and we’ll head home more slowly. They head off like a rocket. Just for fun I stick behind them to see how long I’ll last. Very surprisingly, when they arrive at the old port I’m right behind them. They come to a stop and are surprised to hear me call, well what are we waiting for?! They call me a fraud for slacking earlier, but I don’t care! I kept up and my average speed for the day was 18.9km/hr!

That evening, we head out to a restaurant for a meal with Nathaniel’s random collection of friends that he picks up at the major bike events. As we are walking home from the restaurant the heaven’s open. I don’t think I have ever been so completely soaked (until tomorrow!)





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