More class cancellations and therefore more ride time

Sandy's Week Totals For the week:
Class time - 8 hours (plus 5 more tomorrow)
Ride time - 14 hours
Needless to say, I am quite content with my week. Yet somehow still looking forward to the weekend so much. 1 more day of "class". And by class I mean English as an 12th language and shop. Tough, I know. But no time for a ride. Apparently my instructor from math, who also happens to be my Safety teacher, has not shown up all week to school. Hence my lack of attendance today in safety. Hence anyone's attendance. So instead got home at the lovely hour of 11am and proceed to have the coffee and breakfast I slept through in the morning before shop. I knew it was a little bright out when I woke up... Got some laundry done, ironed a shirt. Yes, I am fully domesticated now. Then, you guessed it - hit the road. Saddled up and decided to try out a new route. So rode to Calabogie and back. First stretch is a little busy traffic wise, but the middle 4 hours of the ride was wicked. Flat to Lanark, gentle rollers, steep rollers and finally some long rollers. Turn around and do it all over again in reverse home. Couple of serious pitches, but mostly nice steady gradients. Couple of climbs more than a km in length too. Felt good to do a few extended climbs. Quick stop to restock the ride food supplies and water and that was it. 5 hours and 130 some odd kms later, its dinner. Leftover scalloped potatoes and meat loaf. Time for some relaxation now followed by a very sound sleep I feel. Back to Ottawa tomorrow. No race this weekend. Heading up to the areal park at Fortune instead. Should be a good weekend. Posting may vary.
Good luck to those racing cross Nat's this weekend. Try for some repeats and perhaps a few new jerseys.

$$

Car battery died. Forked over some cash monies to Canadian Tire for a new one. Ouch. Plus, this cut into my ride time for the day. Burn. Still got 3.5 hours in. Felt pretty good, and the weather was pretty good for mid October. Started out really nice, but then the clouds rolled in and brought some wind. But hey, I had a vest and some gloves so no worries. Weather is looking somewhat iffy for the next few days. Luckily I've had some decent training to date this week so won't feel terrible about missing a day. I'm even going to go so far as to start my homework tonight. Well before most of it is due. Keep in mind I will try. No guaranties. But to be fair, my weekend is filling up quickly with much more entertaining options than homework. Plus I don't want to be screwed by a bunch of homework all at once. Important question wise, what for dinner? I know I want some tea, but I gotta start cooking soon. I think I'm feeling meatloaf. Maybe with some scalloped potatoes. I feel some stretching tonight too. Weekend is almost here...

wing night

Tuesday night is wing night at O'Reilly's here in Perth. Cheep wings, good beer and live music. Needless to say, I have participated and attempted to improve my social status from "that guy who rides his bike." Other wise, good day in life. Managed to get 3 hours riding in plus some grocery shopping in. So it was a productive day. Day of tomorrow. Gotta check the car (it was giving me some worries today) to see if I will a) be doing a real nice long ride, or, b) heading into Ottawa to get the car checked out and a shorter ride. Here's hoping for a good clean start for the ol' Civic tomorrow! Really looking forward to the weekend today. Even with the mid-week day off, it seems to just make me crave the real weekend that much more. None the less, I'm off to bed cause its late and my roommates bought me a few beers. Gotta sleep that off pre long ride tomorrow.

class cancellations and an impromtu sprint work out

Math was canceled. Glorious day. Yet at the same time unfortunate, as out of 7 weeks of school we have now had 3 classes (out of a possible 7) and of those 3, we only accomplished anything in 1 (the other 2 involved us talking and waiting for our workbooks to be shipped to the school). Needless to say, although fun to miss math, we are ridiculously behind and most likely screwed when it comes time for a test or something like say, an exam. I predict for class next week, we will be again handed out 7 bagillion pages of worksheets and told to work on them and learn. This works in theory, until you don't understand how to do something and it can not be explained. Pretty sure, with this kind of ammo there is no way the school can fail me though. Other wise a tame day. Haircut and some other errands in the morning. Had to get the now overgrown Euro-mullet trimmed up to go with the suit for the weekend. Few groceries to be done tomorrow now, and I should be set for the week. On the plus side got out for a nice 3.5 hours on the bike instead of math. Cruised the sweet roads until after dusk (woops). Some good climbs, and the aforementioned impromptu sprint workout. The dog caught me by surprise the first time, but the second time I saw him so slipped up into the 53x11 and played match sprint with him. Wanker. Pedaled along a-la track match sprint, and waited for Lassie to make his move and then gunned it. In his defense, he lasted much longer than I expected, but got wupped none the less. Robbie Mac races horses, I out gun large dogs. What. Got a little carried away trying to make the ride go 3.5 hours instead of the planned 3, and got caught out a little. But made it home fine. May have found some rollers, though if anyone local has any there are wanting to get rid of; let me know!, which will be nice. Be able to keep riding past 6:30 and still technically not be riding the "trainer". Easy way to add on an extra hour or so to my later day rides and not freeze in the rain on other days. None the less, always nice to end a day with a nice ride. Time to get used to starting some days with a ride too I suppose. Even got a check in the mail today for my bursary from school. How they got this address, I will never know. On the other hand, though I have this check burning a hole in my pocket, I do believe it is supposed to go to my mother as it is to pay for school. Unless she is reading this and feeling generous. Thats a hint. I'll give you until the weekend to claim it mom.

Relaxin in the fall

Sums up my weekend pretty well. No rides. No worries, mostly was not at home (avoiding the work waiting there). For sure one of the best weekends in a while. Back Friday night, made sushi with Sarah and watched the Wallace and Gromit movie, hilarious. Worked Saturday, then out to Barrymore's to see some pretty sweet shows and enjoy a few beers. Clarke came out, good to see him again before he jumps his flight to Aus soon. Planned on getting up Sunday morning to head out to Almonte to at least watch the cross race. But received a better offer of stay in bed and head out for breakfast at the more reasonable hour of 10. Sure beat the idea of walking home at 6am and getting on my bike. Hung out in a laundromat, more fun than it sounds, reading th paper and drinking coffee and some general people watching. Home, put to work cleaning out the basement. Dinner and now back in Perth. Stuff to do this week: start riding again, find myself a dress shirt (Sandy may be going formal next weekend) and attend class. Easy enough. We'll see how it goes. Enjoy your week. Perhaps I can update with some more exciting news as it comes. Speaking of riding actually, I need some rollers. This lack of sunlight thing is not helping my training efforts. Anyone out there in internet land got some they want to let go of cheep?

coffee

Thats my plan. Wheels are not only in motion, but they are rolling. Coming soon. Coffee. From me (slash Coutt's Coffee Company of Perth) fresh roasted, organic, fair trade coffee. Get ready for the unveiling, and look for it at a bike race near you. Basically, had a good meeting today with the owner (who is a wicked cool guy) and just need to finish off ironing out the final details, but he is quite excited to sell to us. And by us I mean me and the bidniss partner, Keir. Let me know what kind of coffee people like (medium, dark, espresso) in the comments section. Cause I'll be pushing this stuff on you soon, and let me tell you. It's delicious. Hope to be up and running about the end of the month. More details to come, plus some snazzy logo action.
On a separate note, this weather blows. Cold, rainy and generally miserable weather. That combined with the fact that my day has gotten rather busy with business meetings, has now meant that I will not be riding outside today. And not inside, because I have not brought a trainer up. I'm thinking yoga could be fun tonight....

Who new you could tear gatorskin?

Fun ride today. Belgian ride basically. Little rain, quiet roads. Long. Nice 5 hours in the saddle, nice crisp air. More exploring of the wondrous roads around Westport. Flatted my tyre after about 2 hours. Actually sliced a big gash across the top of the rubber (not through the Vectran) but also sliced the sidewall, straight through the Vectran. Woops. Didn't even realize it until after I pumped up the new tube and saw it bulging out the sidewall. Pulled a Macguyver and used a sharp rock and my teeth to cut out a section of the old tube and boot the tyre. Pumped her back up, not too much pressure, and continued along. Thought about heading home early, but decided to screw it and keep going on my exploration. Just skipped over the gravel roads for today. 130km anyways, probably 90 of which on this booted tyre. Quick shower and an omelette then hit the road to pick up a new mini fridge for my room from some family in Richmond. Back to school tomorrow though. No more riding all day, at least until the weekend. Movie time with some more turkey now.