Despite a lot of holiday weekend inertia I got out for a lovely bike ride yesterday. It didn’t start out easily though. After changing all my clothes, and getting in the elevator with my bike to go downstairs, I saw myself in the mirror. No helmet. Back upstairs I go, grab the helmet and back out.
Except I miscalculated something. After one ride with exceptional weather I walked outside into 12 degree weather with a stiff northwest wind with only shorts and a jersey. I am not going to go back up again, though. It is warm enough that there’s no physical risk. It’s only a risk of discomfort. One cool thing about cycling is that just like a car that can overheat climbing a steep hill, I can make myself generate more heat also by working harder. And so I did and managed several personal records even as I headed into the wind. Take that inner critic who says I’m getting slower.
I was once again on a tile bagging mission to get a few in a gap just west of me. It won’t be as long a ride as Friday’s but still over 30 km, an nice little rip around the neighbourhood so to speak.
Despite the wind and cold, I put my head down and pushed myself hard enough that I was no longer uncomfortably cold by the time I stopped at the G. Ross Lord Park Reservoir about 6 km away.
This marked the end of my time on the fully off-road Finch Hydro Corridor and onto the roads. However, since I first rode in this area back in 2008, things have changed a ton. Now there are more bike lanes, some even separated so the it felt extremely safe. However, there’s one things bike lanes won’t protect you from, trains.
What is it about the sound of trains that is so ominous and scary. Even though I was completely safe waiting behind the barrier but the sound of the horn and engine definitely activated something in my animal brain.
My next landmark, Downsview Park, used to be an airport used by both the military and later Bombardier. Now it’s mostly park land – a huge wide open space with a view of downtown. This year Rogers is opening a stadium there so in theory I could easily ride my bike to a concert.
But more exciting than the stadium (none of whose summer lineup appeals to me in the least), check out that wide bike lane!
Now while I have a bike computer with GPS to tell me when to turn I still sometimes get a bit turned around. This time I ended up finding an iron sculpture that speaks to the memory of this space’s former use:
I popped out of the park and briefly ended up in a quiet suburban neighbourhood before my route took me into Downsview Dells Park. Now with the wind behind me and a bit of a downward slope, I moved quickly making me less excited about stopping. Sorry for the lack of photos but now you know why. Black Creek Trail which took me through the park was lined with trees and despite the fact that clouds were rolling in and the temperature was still dropping, there were many people there. I was enticed by the smell of many barbecues and the sounds of reggae and soca music playing.
This took me to the end of the park and the southwesternmost tile I needed. Time to head back east and because Toronto is a city of ravines and I was in the Black Creek valley, that meant climbing a big hill to get back up to street level.
Toronto’s west end, particularly in the northern section has a lot of busy streets – conduits between downtown and the suburbs and now I was at a point where the only way to get to my destination was to use these roads. First I found myself on Keele street which wasn’t terribly busy and was downhill so I could maintain a bit of speed and in just a few hundred metres, it was over. Unfortunately “Over” meant now I would have to take Wilson avenue.
Wilson runs parallel to Highway 401, under the Allen Expressway and near some big shopping plazas. I admit I was not looking forward to this section of the trip. When I turned onto the road and saw I had over 2 kilometres to go, I was even more hesitant. But then Mother Nature came to my rescue. That wind I’d been fighting much of the day was now mostly at my back. I got down into the drops and pushed myself and reaped the benefits. Instead of my usual 20-21 km/hr average, I was now moving at an average of 27 km/hr, getting up to 48 km/hr at one point. It was as I was riding that I figured out one of the reasons this feels more comfortable for me than going slowly. The closer I get to the speed of the cars around me, the slower a car going at speed approaches me and the safer it is. But it’s also really fun. And of course there were no photos there. I didn’t want to have to work my way back into traffic after taking one. I did see a number of interesting Latin American, Turkish, and African restaurants, bakeries and stores zoom by. I made a mental note to look them up when I got home.
Those 2.4 kilometres went by fast and fun in just over eight minutes. But working with a tailwind can be like borrowing money on credit. You will have to pay eventually and all those southbound kilometres where I was pushed through the park now came to collect as I headed north back toward the hydro corridor. Back down into the drops I got and pushed myself with a hope that I could still keep up a good average speed, aiming even with the worst winds to keep above 20 km/hr and looking forward to my next turn.
I succeeded at pushing myself hard enough and then turned back home on the Hydro Corridor. It was time to withdraw all the savings I put into the headwind bank as I travelled west. Like on Wilson, it felt like I had an electric assist and I zoomed across town. After the second stoplight, I picked up another cyclist about my age. As I cruised along at a bit above 30 km/hr he stayed right on my tail. My rear facing radar noted that at several points he was going even faster though he never could quite get past me.
The tailwind pushed me almost all the way home and the cold temperatures gave me another bonus. I wasn’t sweaty at all. But how successful was I at meeting my goals?
I ended up getting the six tiles I was aiming for so eventually that 9 x 9 square I have should grow once I get a few gaps closed (including that pesky Markham road one!). Look at all the new roads I got! Over 15.5 km.
I also got 6 personal records and managed to average 21.8 km. Not fast for many people but quite a bit faster for me. Here are all the details for the curious:
Good Things in the World:
There are good things happening in the world too, check it out:
Imagine running almost an entire marathon only to find that within sight of the finish line your legs decide they’re done carrying you. Listen to the crowd when they see this happen to one athlete at the Boston Marathon and watch what another runner does.
If you’ve read this blog for a while you know I’m all about the value of even the small things. Like this one:
Another Dublin bus story – this one about kind passengers
I was riding the Dublin bus back home. A gentleman from Eastern Europe (based on the way he spoke) got on with a bunch of heavy bags. Three of them.
He had a 20 euro note and no coins. The driver didn’t have change. The fare was 1.5 euro to where he had to go.
He got off the bus and suddenly, a bunch of women asked the driver why he wasn’t allowed to board. The driver explained that the gentleman had no coins and so stepped off the bus.
Between a few of us, we gathered enough change to pay this person’s fare. We reloaded his bags as he paid and then we were on our way.
Human beings can be all sorts of wonderful.
When I was growing up, cigarettes were ubiquitous. Teachers could smoke in the staff room at school, there was always a crowd of kids at the edge of the parking lot smoking as well. In 1992 I worked for a biotech company outside of Boston – a company in the healthcare industry and they still allowed smoking in the coffee room. I remember walking in the mall in the mid 90s with Sage and having to stop for a minute or two because the people in front of us were smoking. And of course there were the restaurants with the smoking sections with tables right next to the non-smoking section. We’ve come a tremendous way.
In 1997 (after I went to school), 24.6% of all US students in Grade 12 were daily cigarette smokers. In 2023, the rate was 0.7%. There are more details in this article, including some details about vaping which is also going down after a surge in 2018/19.
Hope you have a wonderful week – with the kind of joy this father and child are experiencing:
The sound of the horn and train engine takes me back to childhood days. Happy memories.