Sun, hills, wind and some tunes.

What an wicked sweet training weekend. Glad that flu passed quickly. Sun, about 15 degrees, and some wind. Well, the wind wasn't sweet, but it makes you hard, so it evens out. Set out Saturday morning to meet up with les boys Keir and Jamie up in the Gats. Took the long way to get there and managed to track them down eventually. After some riding around in the hills, I discovery they had never been to the Chelsea bakery. This alarming bit of information, launched you henceforth to said bakery. After some of the most delicious treats you have ever laid eyes on (a cinnamon bun and ham and brie croissant for myself) we the proceeded down the street to the local coffee shop for some espresso to re-enforce us for the remainder of the ride. After finally managing to leave the Gatineaus, I then showed les boys some of the many bike paths that traverse Ottawa, eventually popping us out by the airport. Cruising back roads from there to Manotick at 45km/h, I began to worry about my choice of riding with them, as I would then have to ride solo into the wind to get home. Deciding that it was a good day, and I had some awesome new tunes (courtesy of several CBC radio 3 podcasts, which are incredible and should be checked out by all at http://radio3.cbc.ca/) I then decided to attempt to minimize the direct headwind by taking the longest possible route home, and riding mostly with it as a cross wind, but occasionally hitting me head on to slow me to a crawl several times. After just over 6 hours and 165km, I finally made it home. Just in time for a nap before watching the Senators trounce the Devils! After some mandatory celebration in the form of copious amounts of alcohol, I met up with my teammates Steve and Geoff for a nice 4 hour ride in the hills today. Luckily the sun was out, and no one was particularly interested in pushing the pace, so we continued along, picking up more riders along the way. Riding the gorgeous Macgregor lake loop on the Quebec sided proved to be the perfect hangover cure. 4.5 hours and 135km later, I now sit here in the sun typing this and drinking a cold beer. Quite content with myself, my fitness and life in general right now.
The next project for the week will now be to start baking myself some homemade ride fuel and learn to bake my own break. Nothing beats fresh bread in the morning I've decided. My morning ritual needs to be expanded, currently it involves an Americano, a grapefruit, some toast and some homemade yogurt with granola. Thats how to live! More information to go on this project as available, perhaps even some pictures of the end result. Until then, go enjoy the sun...