Training Log Archive: iansmith

I biked to Baldwin St for dinner with Katie's friends Amanda and Dan. It turns out Dan was at West Point in the early 0s and orienteered. Afterward, Katie and I walked around Nuit Blanche near city hall and were thoroughly confused.

Event: Corn Maze Adventure Run
 

After taking a GO bus to Hamilton (not advised; avoid the QEW at all costs), I biked from the bus stop to the Corn Maze. It turns out that Hamilton has a big hill which was right on my route. I didn't start my watch until a few km into the trip.

DGL Corn Maze race, the day race. I came in second, about 40s behind Patrick Saile. The maze itself was very much a runner's maze, with numerous large, perpendicular highways. There were a few legs where the best route was to run to the track along the perimeter along the edge and run hard on a navigationally trivial leg. That said, there were interesting legs, and the course setting made good use of the maze.

I made three errors:
1) On the very first control, I should have taken 5s to analyze the routes, as I missed the best route, an attack from the left through the "2018" and over the bridge. My route wasn't bad, but I lost 20s to Patrick on route choice alone. Given how long the leg was, it was reasonable to pause.

2) Despite the control circles having a red dot in the center like ski-O, I misread the position of control 6 and lost about 30s (arrived at control 6 at 8:20 in the track).

3) Leaving control 9, I didn't realize that there were small dotted trails on the map that were allowed and passable. I saw a path through the corn, but I didn't think it was legal, so I lost at least 30s running around.

Finally, my speed just wasn't there. On a course like this, the power to accelerate through the corn and speed down long, straight highways is paramount. Still, I'm thrilled it made it out to the races.

Night race about 30 minutes later. Patrick wasn't running, which reduced my motivation. I forgot my little headlamp, my big headlamp has a malfunctioning cable, so I only had a small hand light. I brought my bike light in a pocket in case of primary failure.

I had a minor disaster en route to control 3; I was executing my route fine, but I was a bit uncertain. I came to my intended path, which was very narrow, and as I wasn't positive of my location, I was worried about going out of bounds. I relocated and confirmed my position, but it cost about 60s. Control 3 and 6 were the same point just north of a bridge, and a decent fraction of the competitors seemed to think the corn was passable directly, when the map clearly indicated it was not. I ran around dutifully.

The rest of the course was largely uneventful; I did startle quite a few people by running past them even though they were moving in packs. A few friendly Canadians also chanted "USA" from my jersey as I passed.

I finished second, 90s behind Christian Mikelsen. Shout out to junior Tara Doherty, who had a great, clean race and finished about 90s behind me. As I had the fastest combined time (Patrick didn't run night, Christian had trouble during the day), I won a pie, but I was unable to carry it on my bike. My fitness is not good enough to defend any pretense at being king of the corn, but I did thoroughly enjoy myself.

The plan was to bike to the Aldershot train station about 15 km away. It was dark when I set out with a light drizzle. I had front and rear bike lights, reflectors on my ankle, and bright colors. The road that the maze is on had moderate traffic with a top speed of 80 km/h. I wasn't thrilled about the available bike options, but I saw no other recourse. I rode very defensively, but I tried to go fast to reduce the relative speed of the cars around me.

But then I collided with a car.

Unfortunately, an oncoming car making a left turn onto Sydenham did not see me. It was stopped in the left turn late and waited for a car perhaps 100m ahead of me to pass, then started accelerating into the turn. I was coming off a downhill and moving at over 45 km/h. As soon as I realized what this car was doing, I slammed on my brakes and starting yelling to try to get the driver's attention. Unfortunately, with my high speed and wet conditions, I wasn't able to brake fast enough; as I wasn't sure what the position of the cars behind me was, I didn't want to swerve only to be hit by one of them, so I stayed along the shoulder.

I crashed into the right door of the car as it was continuing its turn; I had lost most of my speed but was tossed out of my bike saddle. I don't remember exactly how I landed, but it was not on my head, nor do I have any abrasions. One car was waiting on Sydenham to turn onto highway 5, and two other cars (one from behind, one from ahead) immediately stopped to ask if I was ok. The driver of the car behind me pulled over and got out. I was stunned, and while I didn't seem to have sustained any damage, I paused for about 30s to regroup and take inventory.

The car I had collided with pulled over briefly, then quickly left the scene before I could get a license plate or talk to the driver. Oddly, my bike did not sustain any damage besides losing the chain off the front gears. Thankfully, the driver of the car behind me graciously offered to give me a ride to the train station, which I accepted. The biggest lasting consequence was that two toonies in an open pocket on my backpack seem to have been lost.

It may have been unwise to be biking on an 80 kph highway after dark, and certainly I should try to find better routes. I may also acquire a brighter head light to augment my front and rear bike lights. As I write this, 16 hours after the collision, neither my bike nor I appear to have any damage.

C • Eep! 9

Today, I finally converted my driver's license from Massachusetts to Ontario. Paperwork sucks. I also strongly encourage people who don't yet have a car to avoid getting one as long as practical; it is a logistical pain.

C • Car 2

C • Canaries 4

The forecast update today was more favorable, with intermittent drizzling late into the evening, and my body felt good, so I decided to attempt to bike back to Toronto from Geneva Park. Because I knew the route and would be biking alone, I figured this would be a good test of my biking fitness, stamina, and fortitude.

After breakfast at 8:30, there were two exit talks by graduating students. I packed up my luggage, handed it off to Petr, and set out at 11 AM. I was better prepared to negotiate Highway 11, and I rode on Old Barrie Road for longer. I made it to Barrie by 1:30 and stopped just south of it for lunch at Subway. After lunch, I rode south on County Road 54. The scenery was pastoral, with rolling hills, farms, and fields. The skies were overcast with an erratic mist, and the temperature was pleasant at 16-18 C. I was feeling ok, though the hills were starting to take their toll.

But then, disaster: 80 km into the 160 km journey, I heard a pop from my bike. The rear derailleur abruptly shifted into its highest gear, and the downshift lever was entirely unresponsive. My front derailleur was still working, but this left me with 2 gears - very high and highest, instead of 20 for negotiating the hills. I rode on for a bit, partly because forward was the only option. I stopped and tried to manually shift the derailleur, but it seemed frozen, and my mastery of the mechanism was poor. I was particularly concerned that I might break my chain with the extreme angle of the lowest front gear coupled to the highest rear gear, and rain was threatening. After some consideration, when I came to an intersection, I decided to abort to my contingency plan: a series of GO bus stations on Yonge street, which was 3 km to the east. The bus, which ran every hour, arrived about ten minutes after I got to the stop, and I rode it back to Yorkdale station in Toronto. I then biked the 6km gingerly to my bike store, where analysis revealed that my derailleur cable had snapped.

I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to complete the journey; I'm optimistic that I could have biked the 160 km in 6.5-7 hours of biking. I haven't ridden this far on my bike before, and I was quite pleased with how the bike handled (apart from the cable mishap) and how my body was able to endure. I need to improve my speed - surely 30 km/h is sustainable with the equipment and fitness I have available to me.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=7304393

C • cable 5

Swimming on the dock after frisbee.