Saturday, May 26, 2007

Days 25 and 26: Regina

We made it. Another rest day. I have to say, we deserve it. Yesterday's ride was epic. We originally thought it was going to be 112kms and it turned out to be 120km, but that in itself is manageable. The sad, sad part was that it took us 6hours and 11minutes to do that 120km. The 140km ride the day before took us 5 hours and 59 minutes. That's over 12 hours in 2 days. Impressive? Yes, I think so, for the average person anyways. Sore bum? OH, HO YEAH. Quads also knew we'd worked them for 6 days, but the bum....well let's just say that my bike saddle was feeling as small at it is!

The "problem" was that we had a decent, steady headwind the entire day. And that the vast majority of the day was spent pedalling uphill. What?!?! You say? Uphill? In the prairies? Yup. It may be slight (quite slight in some portions), but it was enough to be noticeable, particularly with that headwind.

Fact is, it took us just under 2 hours to get to Moose Jaw from the campground. A mere 38km distance. Fortunately, the team decided to hit the Tim Horton's for a good wholesome lunch break there which was a nice rest.

For some reason I was also feeling really low on energy during the first part of the ride as well. I tried to keep eating, but nothing seemed to help replenish the energy stores for long. Fortunately, the Tim Horton's stop managed to do just that and we were off again!

If I may go off on a tangent here for a moment... speaking of keeping eating, I have to say the amount of food I've been eating is astounding. I mean, I've been eating more than I thought possible for these past 3 or so weeks and yet, the seemingly impossible happened over the past two days...I was even hungrier than before. (I've been calling them "hungry days"...creative, I know) I eat and eat and eat....it's ridiculous. It makes sense given the amount of exercise we're doing, but still, I'm amazed. Warren thinks that I'm not eating enough at the right times...which would contribute to the next day being especially hungry. In his opinion, he doesn't think I'm consuming enough calories during the ride, then I'm starving at the end of the day and eating tons then. Needless to say, I'm going to try to eat more while riding to see if this helps.

Anyhoo, back to the Regina ride. We finally arrived at the western side of the city (after having seen it coming, slowly, closer for 2 hours prior), then rode through the city and joined back onto the TransCanada on the eastern side where our campground is.

Today, our restday, I haven't done much at all, which was just what I wanted. Although our campsite is the closest to the city, it's still quite far from the downtown core, thereby not making it particularly easy to go exploring. We could have ridden into town, as Tanya opted to do, but my knee was bothering me again (though it is MUCH better than it had been, hooray!), so I didn't want to bike or walk a whole bunch today so as to let it rest. To be honest, with the amount of travelling and moving that we're doing every other day, I really revel in just sitting on my behind reading or popping on the internet for a bit, if available, or just putting around for the restdays at the campsite.

As this day is quickly coming to a close, I too shall do so with this post.

Hope everyone is doing well, and that you're sending sunny, warm, windless weather our way!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Hillary and the sore ass threesome:
Weather seems much different than you guys are getting. For the most part has been sunny and warm. There is some sort of crane operator strike here so the last boat launch was really not a launch as the Napaneee Crane Service was abiding by the strike. The first Tuesday night race is this next Tuesday and Wednesday will be the first Soling race. Peter Bennett, his brother Bob and I were busily getting the Soling ready to launch Monday or Tuesday morning. I suppose if we have to we will drive the whole damned trailor right into the lake. My guess is that you will be taking Hwy 48 just east of Regina and work you way down to Winnipeg. Hope to catch up with you somewhere in Ontario. (NO NOT RIDING MY BIKE)

What is the cell phone number that your mom & dad are using?

Continued safe journey.

Suzanne & Keith

Unknown said...

Hey Hill!
At the rate you're going, you'll be back here for a bbq in no time! looking forward to seeing you and Warren again. I've been really enjoying blog and following your progress across the country.

take care of that knee, and eat a donut or two for those of us who feel guilty afterwards!

cheers
Mandy

Veena said...

Hillary! I've been thinking about you, and finally got to your blog today. I can't believe you rode 12 hours in 2 days. That is insane! You guys are amazing! Keep going and I will keep following you through this blog! Hope you find another nice campground soon.
Hi to Warren and the other riders,
Veena
xo