101km ride: fantastic fun
well, it was a fantastic ride on sunday. The sun came out part-way through, and there was plenty of great company. On saturday, there were several people who said things ranging from “maybe” to “i’ll come for coffee beforehand” to “i’ll ride part-way”, but on sunday morning we had 6 people who were keen, and everyone went the entire distance.
We met at Bean Around the World at 20th & Main, and ended up going straight from BAtW to UBC, which gave us some decent hills to mash up. that woke us up a bit. then we turned onto marine drive and followed it all the way to new westminster. Marine was sorta not the greatest…lots of cars, and lots of crap along the side of the road. i just wanted to burn past it to get to richmond.
after crossing over the queensborough bridge to get to river road in richmond, it was much more pleasant. Lots of great scenery, and almost no cars. after cruising along the waterfront for several km, we turned south on #6 road and went all the way to the water on the south side of the island, with the sun coming out along the way. after a brief rest and a snack, we continued on along the dyke road amongst some farms until we got to a pier at the base of #2 road. we stopped to watch some eagles and fishing boats for a bit.
After that we went north on #2 road to the airport, and then out to Iona beach on the northwest corner of Sea Island. I hadn’t been out there before, and it was quite nice. lots of wetland area, with at least 10-15 different kinds of wildfowl easily visible (and that was without really making much effort to look). lots of dabbling ducks, and a lot of different diving birds.
after a brief rest, we fought a headwind back to the Arthur Lang bridge before crossing back to vancouver. Then it was just uphill and back to east van. Upon arriving back at the coffee shop where we started, we had travelled 101km with an average speed of 23.6 km/h, which is about 4 hours & 20 minutes of riding time.
a great ride, with lots of scenery and a decent amount of sunshine, and plenty of good conversation. i was pleasantly tired in the evening, and then after dinner i was feeling pretty exhausted. i ended up going to sleep at about 10pm after trying to stay awake. i should have gone to bed at 9 ;)
i think it’ll be (mentally) more easy to ride the 27km to work now…it’ll feel like a nice leisurely ride. plus, i’ve got fenders now, and waterproof booties for my feet, and some nice warm pants, so i’m running out of excuses not to do it all the time. I think i’ll work up to 2x per week, and then 3x per week…maybe one of these days i’ll ride every day. it’d definitely be good for my fitness level :)
Ride hard, ride free