Where yesterday I woke up 20 min before my alarm and was ready to go, today the alarm woke me up. Not only that I woke up with a nagging headache likely due to my cutting down on coffee. I made a cup of coffee and tried to see if it would help while internally debating: should I go out and ride with a headache or stay home. I’ll be honest, having to be accountable here and on social media made it harder than usual but I still had a big internal battle. In the end, Sage had the right idea: Go out for ten minutes and see how it goes. If the headache gets worse, turn back. If it doesn’t, keep going. And in the end it stayed about the same for the first half hour but after 30 minutes either the coffee started working or cycling magic worked and it improved. When I got home I had breakfast, ibuprofen and another coffee and by the time I got to work all was back to normal. Quite possibly the answer is always “If you’re well enough to wonder if you’re well enough to ride you’re well enough to ride.”
Today’s ride took me down to Downsview Park – what was once a Royal Canadian Air Force base but now is mostly parkland with a few businesses and one concert venue there. In the warmer months there are often loads of people there doing their morning walk but today there were only a few people to be seen. This was a particularly nice route too because much of it prohibits cars and the remainder of the route is low traffic. So it was quiet and peaceful.
The far point of the trip took me to a small pond. When I went looking for its name I learned that either it doesn’t have one or if it does, it’s very generic: The Lake.
I was surprised to see cormorants there. I don’t remember seeing them years ago but now seem to see them often. I think many don’t like them much as their droppings are very destructive to plants as they’re pretty acidic. I still think they’re pretty and I like how they move and dive in the water. Later in the day I was curious so I looked up their name – पनकौआ – pankauaa – “water crow”. There were also a number of geese there of course. I tried to catch a video of them taking off and flying low above the water but they kept doing it after I gave up trying.
Here’s today’s video:
Just the cormorant and the actual sound of the area (not music):
And here are the stats:
And a few more: It was -3 again when I started. Damper but less windy so it felt just about as cold as before. 16 cars passed me at an average speed of 40.4 km/hr and a max speed of 64.9. (Likely on a road with a bike lane as I have no recollection of anyone passing quickly). Want to see the details of who passed me where, how fast they were going and what they did (did they slow down as they approached me?) you can see that here.
