4 Day weekend
Been meaning to get around to posting about my Canada Day weekend. A bit late... but here it is.Friday night, I stopped down at Element to pick up my final piece of race equipment. I had been bugging Cam to get some Spiuk aero helmets for a while.. and they finally came in. I really like it! Much nicer than the other aero helmets... except for maybe the LAS helmets.... they are bad-ass looking!
On Saturday, I awoke early and off I went to discover some more of the rural highways around Edmonton. After hitting Beaumont, I turned south and took highway 814 to Wetaskiwin. I was a bit unsure of how safe this road would be... but as I progressed south, the pavement became newer and the shoulder a bit wider. Besides a dog with a death wish running down the highway and chasing me and other cars... it was smooth sailing. Well... if you can call grinding away into a 15-20kmh headwind sailing. Traffic was light.... I assume most people were sitting in the shade with a cool drink somewhere... the temps were hovering above 30C.
Ahhh Wetaskiwin... I did the town tour for fun. The smell of fresh livestock feed and fertilizer reminded me of summer days in SK. I noticed a Starbucks in the Safeway store, so pulled up there to get a caffeine fix for the ride home. I asked the clerk at the til where the Tim Hortons was and he gave me an odd look... why was I asking for a Tim's when I was at Starbucks? Well.... after my Starbucks triple-espresso, I rode over to Tim's to fill up my water bottles and of course.. get a maple dip donut for fuel! I must have had some icing on my face or something as the greasy, tattooed, Harley-Davidson worshipping locals were staring at at me the whole time.... ;-)
For a bit of extra mileage, I took highway 2a to Leduc from Wetaskiwin. I won't do that again... heavy traffic, bumpy and not that scenic. As I once again approached Beaumont I ran into a couple of other triathletes out training that day. It's strange.... with so many cyclists in the Edmonton area... I rarely see anyone out on my rides. I chatted with them briefly, but decided to not stop in Beaumont and make time back to the park. OOPS! I ran out of water 10km from home. I was a bit dehydrated, but made it home, refueled, then went out for another 20km to finish off my ride.
Sunday, Naomi and I were off to Hubbles to swim. The water was WARM! Probably the warmest I have ever felt Hubbles. With all this hot weather... it's going to be a tough swim on race day.... I prefer a bit cooler for racing. With our swim done, we headed to my condo in the west end.. I wanted to watch the Euro Cup final.. and Naomi needed a nap. With the weather so nice, we decided to try and find a beach and headed out to Miquelon Lake. Wow, the lake was a marsh.. full of algae and not that pleasant. We opted to not even go past our knees and drove back to the Park disappointed.
Didn't want to go to the office on Monday for only one day.... so instead stayed in the Park and trained with Naomi. :-)
Tuesday was Canada Day! WOO! Happy 141st b-day! Naomi and I hammered out a swim at Millennium, then hopped on our bikes to the Legislature grounds to watch the criterium races. We ran into a bunch of friends, watched some high speed action, and soaked up the sun. A great finish to the weekend.
This weekend is Great White North, my first A race of this season. I've never felt more prepared for a race than I do for a race... looking forward to a great day! And.... I hope I don't jinx it... but the weather looks to be HOT HOT HOT. :-)
posted by Greg Nicholson @ 7/03/2008
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