108 KMS, first long ride!

Peter McCormick, Randi Flynn and myself left my house at 0830 heading out to Shubenacadie 52kms one way.  It was only about 8C, quite chilly and a very strong head wind all the way.  Randi and I were kind of slow for Peter who is a very strong road cyclist and did the ride last year.  Anyway he stayed with us most of the way but had to turn around to head back to his office for the afternoon.  Randi and I forged on to Shubie into the wind.  We finally made it and stopped for a pee, food and liquid break.  It never did warm up and we actually ran into a few sprinkles and it stayed cloudy all day.  As you can see from my bike mounted GPS we did our 100KMS, YEAH!!!  The actual riding time was 4hrs/50mins and total trip time was 5hrs/42mins.  Our moving avg. was fairly slow due to the strong head winds going out but we made up well over a kilometer per hour on the way back with the tail wind.  Randi did awesome, she endured the whole trip in style!  We wished she was coming on the ride in October and I think she would love to but too many family commitments!  I passed the $4,000 fund raising mark last night so looks good for deadline of Oct. 1.  Cheers - Rennie

60 kms with strong head wind coming home

Did 60K with my neighbor, good friend and riding buddy Randi Flinn.  We were just going to do Laurie Park and back but we went to Enfield, Irving Big Stop.  We flew out with a stong tail wind but you pay for it coming back into the wind, BRUTAL!!  I felt really good the whole way and am learning more each ride about road biking as compared to mountain biking.  Getting use to gearing has taken some time but now very comfortable with road gears and using big ring sure increases average speeds.  I now know I need some new biking shorts as my 15 year olds just don't cut it anymore:) 

 This time next month I will be in Vancouver with my sister resting for our departure on October 12!

Mountain biking and Soccer

Last Thursday my friend Denise came down from Woodstock NB and brought both mountain and road bike.  We went for mountain bike rides both Thursday and Friday and planned for a good road ride Saturday.  When she arrived at my place Saturday morning it started raining and neither of us wanted to ride in a semi-hurricane.  She went home on Sunday.  I did a good road ride on Monday into Halifax, toured around and back out to Bedford for about 40K.  Road up Basinview Hill to home, good climb on the road bike!  I feel that mountian biking complements the road riding and is good cross training for the upcoming ride in October.

My daughter Alina is playing on the Bedford Tier 1 team (Bedford Titans) and in first place.  They played on Saturday night during the middle of the storm on turf.  I wasn't there but my wife was and she was totally soaked and cold when she arrived home about 1030.  I guess every umbrella was broken within minutes into the game.  Anyway, they are going on to the Provincials in September and then if all goes as we hope, they will be representing Nova Scotia at the U14 Nationals in October.  Once in a lifetime event!!!