Apart from the Midhurst ice-cream stop Mariposa has to be our favourite place to ride to.  Mariposa is in Orillia and is a great ride for lunch.  It is a round trip of 110 kms, but very easy.  Orillia is the mid-way point we have lunch and then cycle home again.

There are a couple of different routes we can take to get there.  Today\’s route was out Ridge Road and back along the Lakeshore.  The other route is to go up to Bass Lake Side Road and  back along the Lakeshore.  This is a hillier route, but still a good cycling route to take.

Mariposa is a great bakery, cafe, gift shop.  If we could carry cake home with us we would.  Maybe when we do this ride with SweetCheeks we can carry cake!  Although today on our way home, along the Lakeshore we saw some Girl Guides out selling cookies, Ralf had his Camelbak which had enough room for a box of cookies.  We quickly turned round and bought the cookies.

The weather was hot, but a good breeze.

May 13-17, 2013

Not such an all weather cyclist quite yet !

It was a windy week, which doesn\’t stop me from cycling but . .  when I am cycling to work and it is primarily down hill and I am cycling hard to make 20 kph it is a tough ride to work.  However the upside is that cycling home I am hardly pedaling and clocking 26 kph that is a good tail wind.

I actually cancelled the Wednesday night ride due to wind-gusts of 65-73 ks.

To cap off my week, on Thursday I woke up to a thunder storm and Ralf took me to work in the car.  I know we will have to cycle in all weathers on the Grand Adventure, but it is still early in the season and I am a fair weather cyclist at the moment.

It must have been a good omen for me to sell my car, the weather this week was perfect.  Lovely cool mornings and warm afternoons.  What a difference a week makes.  The trees are all in bud and sprouting.  The grass is green and of course the dandelions are taking over the lawns everywhere.  Spring has finally arrived.

I had a great ride on Wednesday evening – only one of the ladies was able to get out for the ride.  Tricia is a really strong rider so we had a great fast ride.  It was a bit windy but a lovely ride.  It is very different riding Sweet Cheeks and the Green Mean machine.

SweetCheeks is built for stamina and to go for ever, the Green mean machine is built for speed.  It\’s like driving a Pick-Up Truck and then driving a Ferrari.

After attending the Wine and Cheese get together for the Trek Women that Ride road clinics, I sent an email to last year’s participants and reinstated the Wednesday Evening Rides.  I got a good response for the first ride on Wednesday (4 including me) and the weather was perfect.  This means that I can really follow my Century Training and get some miles in on a Wednesday.  I will be able to cycle my 20 kms to and from work, then 20 kms to and from the start of the ride and however many kilometres we get in on a Wednesday evening.  A total of 60 kms on a Wednesday should be good training.  They are a really nice bunch of ladies and hopefully we will be able to get a few more ladies out as the Clinics progress and they are more apt to go for a mid-week ride.

Sunday April 28, 2013

Our first long ride.  It was a beautiful day with temperatures touching 20 degrees.  The sun was out and to start we hardly had any wind, it did pick up slightly on the way home but it was a lovely ride.  We cycled our ice-cream route.  This is a route that takes us through Shanty Bay, up Line 3, down Old Barrie Road through Dalston and then into Midhurst.  We always stop at the General Store in Midhurst for an ice-cream.  This is the best ice-cream store in the area.  The ice-cream portions are huge and the price is right.  It is a perfect place to stop.  After we have our ice-cream we can choose two different routes home.  This week we decided to take the \”short-cut\” home.  We decided 65 kms was long enough for our first ride.

As we were coming home up Hurst, I must admit I was feeling a little tired.  When we made the turn on to Big Bay Point I spotted 4 cyclists ahead, decked out in BMC cycling gear, with high-end Tri-bikes.  I am not sure what possess me when I see a group of cyclists, but I have to chase them down and pass them.  Ralf had taken the lead coming up Hurst and was taking it steady.  I shouted to him to go and we both took off to catch the professionals and caught them up at the traffic lights, we all took of up the hill and Ralf battled it out with the shaved leg pro and I followed in third place. We saw the others reach the top of the hill as we cycled through the subdivision to make sure we got 65 kms on the computer.

Ralf was laughing as we got home.   Competitive – no not me.

Week beginning Monday April 22

Finally I think I can cycle to work on a regular basis.  I am going to follow my Century Training Plan.  This is a weekly plan that increases mileage each week, over and above my normal miles to work. I do not plan to cycle a century at GOBA, but I should be ready for it, if I decide to do it.

Cycled to work three times to work this week and added a longer route on the way home. I also loaded up my panniers, so carrying some weight other than my winter weight that I have put on – I feel like a little porky pig.  I will soon drop it once I am cycling regularly again.

Tuesday evening was the Trek Women that Rides wine and cheese and general get together.  A couple of the ladies that I cycled with last year were there and asked if I would organize the rides on a Wednesday evening again. Meagan was there so I told her about the Grand Adventure, she thinks it is awesome.  I think I will send an email out to all the ladies that road last year to see if we can start riding on Wednesday evenings next week, weather permitting. Check out the Trek Store post under the Gear tab.

Week of April 15, 2013

The weather forecast for the week looked fairly promising for cycling to work.  I cycled on Monday and did not get wet:) .  In fact cycling home it was 15 degrees (C).

On Tuesday the ice finally went out of the lake.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with where I currently live, I live in Barrie which is located on Kempenfelt Bay, Lake Simcoe.  It is a beautiful area with lots to do in the summer and winter.  Every winter the lake freezes and houses a small village of colourful ice-huts for ice fishing.  The ice on the lake is usually about 18 inches or more thick, very safe to be walking on or placing a small hut so that you can drill a hole through the ice and fish, a very strange way to spend a day.  I would rather be curled up in front of a fire with a good book.

Now the ice has gone from the lake I know it is spring and I am really looking forward to cycling.

Cycled to work twice this week, hoping to cycle three times next week.  The weather is still very changeable, but I am hoping to sell my car soon which will force me to ride rain or shine.

This week I also registered for the first of our week-long cycling holidays. The Great Ohio Bike Adventure (GOBA).  This will be our third time doing this ride and the 25^th Anniversary for GOBA.  They know how to organize a ride.  Over 2,000 cyclists usually participate in this ride give or take a couple of riders. It is geared for families and is very reasonably priced.  It is camping, but you don’t have to carry anything with you, GOBA provides 3 or 4 tractor trailers to transport all the gear from one over night stop to the next. The days mileage ranges from 43-56 miles (70-90 kms) with an optional 100 mile route referred to as a Century Ride.  GOBA is in June and always starts on Father’s Day.

Check out their website at GOBA – The Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure.

Monday April 8 weather forecast was good with a chance of rain after 6:00pm.  I guess the weather forgot that we were on Summer time and decided to rain at 5:00pm.  I got soaked cycling home again.  I had to rinse and dry Mrs SweetCheeks again.  It’s nice to note that the brakes work well even in the wet.

The rest of the week winter came back with a vengeance, including freezing rain and ice pellets on Friday.  I was worried about my crocuses that were about to bloom as they were covered in ice on Friday morning.  As you can see they have survived and are blooming beautifully.

After my ride last week, I had planned on riding regularly to work starting on April 1, 2013.  What a joke Mother Nature is playing on us.  I took this photo this morning and by the time I got to work almost 10 cms of snow had fallen in downtown Barrie.

On a lighter note I saw my first Robin this evening.  Robins in Canada are the indication that Spring has arrived!!