Rounding the Corner…final week

The weather has been stunning. And I’ve gotten my cycling energy body back.

I’ve been super speedy!!! Even beat The Farmer down to breakfast on Sunday in a stunning show of leg power! I’m even surprising myself!

I was looking at my distance stats for the past few months.

In the past 5 days..>150 km

The first 10 days of August…150 km.

All of July..140km

The extreme heat has broken. And it’s now kinda cool in the am. Adding extra layers and double checking wind direction because it seems like it’s headwinds no matter which way I go.

But it is perfect cycling weather. Absolutely no complaints.

I’m down to 78 km left or hit 500km and just a couple hundred dollars left to raise to hit $2500. I’m feeing pretty satisfied with this.

On Thursday I head up towards Orillia for a few days. I’m staying in a cabin, totally off grid, on a horse farm for three nights. And on Saturday it’s National Music Camp’s 60th anniversary reunion, so I’ll head them for the day.

I’m looking forward to riding some new roads on Friday and Sunday, knocking out the final kms…and seeing some old friends at camp.

Pretty lucky to be doing this.

And every ride, I think about how the $6million + raised so far will help support the research at Sick Kids and help the kids under their care.

Thanks again for your donations.

This photo is with Susanne, a friend who is also on Team West Elgin Rides. She’s been doing this for three years with me. Funny though…we haven’t been able to get together to ride yet this month!

Onwards!!! Forwards!

With thanks

And the weather has shifted 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Week 3 in the books and yay! The humidity has gone. And the high heat.

And the low heat too , earlier this week. It was even a little cool at the beginning of the week. Rain, clouds, cool breeze… Maybe just a little too much less heat!

The Farmer and I went to Rondeau on Wednesday night for a ride. It was cloudy and cool so it looked like it would be a nice, calm ride.

However, we drove through drizzle and rain and more drizzle and a little more rain - none of it was showing up on radar. We got gas and then carried on…

All things looked well and good for a decent ride at Rondeau .

As we sometimes do, we stopped for ice cream first. And sitting at the picnic bench, it felt damp and cold and unpleasant. The rain had stopped, the drizzle had stopped, but it just felt yucky.

We bailed. Or rather, I bailed and wimped out in the Farmer follow along. We drove home in hindsight part of me wishes we had stayed and ridden even just a bit. After all, we driven all the way out there. But we didn’t.

Yesterday, by late afternoon, was a beautiful day. You know those perfect late summer warm days where the bees are buzzing like crazy and the sky is blue and the sun is warm And it’s not too warm. Barely a breeze to reckon with.

We went to Rondeau. My goal was to clock out 15 K to make it less than 250 km to go; that is, halfway through the ride for the month.

Yes, we had our ice cream before the ride my current favourite this season has been white chocolate With two ripple ice cream. It’s white chocolate ice cream with a ripple of berry and a ripple of chocolate swirl through with little tart, berry bites and chocolate fudge here and there. pretty nice.

I could’ve stayed longer, but we had given ourselves about an hour and so 21 km done and ✅

The next week, this final week, looks to be pretty stunningly, gorgeous. I’m about to get dressed and head out, probably with some wet bike shorts.(note to self time to get a second pair.) no distance in mind, just a ride. No speed, occasional sprint, but today is just simply be in the ride.

Thanks for your support. We’re almost there.

Sharon

PS. If you look closely, you might be able to see a bit of a shadow of our bikes in the back of the car. Or not.

Thank you!

Good morning!

I’m heading out for a quick ride this morning while it’s still cool and the air is fresh and then onto my day, but I wanted to thank you for your donations to this point and to let you know that those who donated yesterday helped raise another $584 for Sick Kids Foundation

The photo is from our last weeks, full moon.

Many many thanks for your support. It’s good to know you’re out there.

One Week (and a bit) In

The sun is beating down; it’s constant and it’s exhausting. Like many places, the heat and humidity have been high for what seems like forever. I spend a lot of time on my porch.

Love the sun..but my goodness, I’ll be thrilled to feel a downpour. And there’s rain coming- I can see the storm on my weather tracker.

And, as happens more often than not, and not just this year, the rains stop at the border and dissipate. Not just keeping fentanyl out, are they.

The grass is still green, but things are starting to show the stress. And I know it’s not just here and it’s worse in many other places. Much worse, even, just an hour or so north of here.

So,I’m at 197km, and was hoping it be just that much past 200 by now. I’m getting short ~20km rides in pretty regularly. And I’m pretty good at doing my cycling -specific exercises. Without heading into my personal trainer twice a week, I have to be accountable to myself.

I’m figuring out a decent rhythm… I usually wake up around 4:30 or 5:00. If I do that, I can get on the road, fuelled and warmed up by 6 or 6:30. Which gives me 3 hours or so to ride.

I’m not a fan of heat exhaustion. Or heat stroke. Had the former. Avoiding the latter like crazy. I don’t ride much last 10 am and not again until after 6.

And then, if all works out, we can go to Rondeau Park and ride in the cool of the evening a few nights a week.

And get ice cream.

My current go-to is White Chocolate 2 River Ripple. Ripples of berry and fudge and little tangy berry and chocolate chunks. Just a small though.

When I started this 5 years ago, I planned for a 5-year run, and raising $10K. This is 5 years. I passed $12K (thank you) last year.

This will be my final year-at least for a couple of years. At least… that’s what I’m thinking at the moment. There are other things happening in August, other rides, etc and I think I may want to do some of those.

We’ll see.

It’s cleanse day today and tomorrow, so they’re also rest days.

I’ll be back at it on Wednesday, which is also Kick Cancer’s Butt Day…so donations on that day go further. The Gannon Family is offering $1.3 million in matching donations, and we tend to go way over that, so they’re also rest pro-rate it over all donations.

The heat is …a lot.

The cancer and treatments these kids are going through are a lot more tiring and draining.

Thanks for your support in helping fund pioneering research to help kids and their families enjoy childhood!