Team Camp Weekend! F4LBR #5

Not gonna lie, there was a part of me hoped we would have to cancel. Friday week was supposed to be my big  “getting used to the road bike” ride, so getting hit by a taxi left me extra shook. But you know what they say about getting back on the horse. The horse and I really pushed our limits this week. 

My Bike Rally team, the Wheely Wonkas, decided to do a “practice” weekend to prepare—riding to a campsite and setting up our tents, just like we’ll be doing every day for a week in August. 

And just for extra challenge, our route began with a massive climb up the Niagara Escarpment!

To be honest, going downhill was scarier to me than uphill, just worried that I wouldn’t be able to maintain control, and how awful it would be to crash at speed. But I took the information I’ve learned from Steve—specifically about feathering your brakes, a little on the left, a little on the right—to help me through it. Just focusing on that really helped my nerves a lot.

Also, I am fortunate to have my own tent (some teammates had borrowed tents). My tent may not be great, in fact it’s a garage sale find, but I’ve put it up enough times I could probably do it in the dark if I had to.

Luckily, we had beautiful weather! I did catch a bit of sunburn, but I’d rather that than rain!

Learning! F4LBR #4

Going camping with my teammates this weekend—bike, camp, bike!

Meanwhile, earlier this week I did a Flat Fix clinic with a rally veteran, Steve. He did a Hill Climbing clinic last month, which was excellent, so I knew this would be a good one. 

One of the great things about this adventure is all the people I’m meeting along the way—it’s a real community! I feel like I really am going to end up with Friends For Life at the end of it.

Here are some great photos Steve took on Tuesday—love the one where I’m framed in the wheel!

Really learned a lot from this! I thought I knew how to change a flat, having done it soooo many times, but a few tips and tricks really make it all smoother. Having tire irons and a decent pump help a lot too—I love my floor pump, but it was great to give the portable a test run. Thanks Steve!

What a time it's been... F4LBR #3

Well I came back to look at past nutrition and realize it’s been a long time since I posted...

Continuing to work towards August’s bike rally, with my fundraising goal looming!

Training has been out of whack, with my kid being super sick for 3 weeks, and then getting into university, preparing for which has used a lot of time!

Then a week ago I was hit by a taxi while riding on a trail completely separate from cars. Fun times!

Right now, dealing with low blood pressure again. It’s been bothering me basically since the accident—stress response maybe? I don’t know. 

I do remember that there was a magical day that I got all my nutrients from food without consuming 5000 calories, so I want to repeat that experience... ferritin was 129 in March, so I’m assuming it’s not anemia. 

This weekend is a big training event—our team is going bike camping! Riding from Burlington GO Station to Valens Lake Conservation Area Saturday, and back Sunday. 

Excited to have a spiffy new (to me) jersey and matching bibs for the trip!

Too busy indeed!! F4LBR #2

It’s been a while!

Once again too busy to blog. There has been training. Indoor spins. One long-ish outdoor ride so far. Weather is getting in the way, but there you are. 

I’m struggling/panicking re fundraising (donate here!) as much as anything. I’ve done a bake sale, organizing a lunch to happen in June, asked office building management to sponsor (they said no), and bothered all of my friends. Need to start getting pushier, I hate it!

My birthday is this week, hoping that inspires some people!

But my teammates are awesome and it really does seem like this could be friends for life!

Fitness + craft: worlds collide!

So, with a 300km 3-day ride on the horizon, obviously I need more than one pair of shorts—I’m thinking I need 3, so I have a fresh clean chamois each day!

But shorts/bibs are not only crazy expensive, they also tend to not fit right. They don’t accommodate my hip-to-waist ratio, or my long torso. 

But then Discovery Fabrics was having a sale! And they have a sewing pattern for bike shorts! The only question remaining: where to get a chamois?

I emailed Discovery, and they said that while they don’t sell chamois, I should check their Facebook group, because someone there would have the answer. And they were right! I have a chamois order in at Aerotech, and meanwhile my fabric and pattern arrived from Discovery:

Because obviously if I’m making my own bibs, they’re not going to be basic black

So excited to get to work on these!

Food experiments

So, I have never been a believer in, or really understander of, macros. I eat what I like and make an effort to get all my vitamins and minerals from food, but the whole thing where you tweak the ratio of fat to carbs or whatever is just lost on me.

But I was reading a discussion about it somewhere, and a particular short-term muscle building plan someone was on, and their struggle to get enough protein without going wildly over in the other areas, so I googled “40-40-20 diet” because I couldn’t wrap my head around what that would actually look like:

“A five-foot-seven, 140-pound woman needs just under 2,000 calories per day to maintain her weight. If she follows the 40/40/20 protocol, she should consume 200 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbs, and 44 grams of fat per day.”

Whaaat 200g of protein per day? I rarely get as much as half that. I wondered, could it even be possible to eat that way? What would it look like? 

So, kidfree weekend and all, I thought I’d give it a shot: 

Not exactly right... would have helped if I had the idea first thing in the morning, before I ate a scone with butter and jam! was really difficult to force myself to eat this way. Did not want those chicken breasts at all, but felt I should eat something, as I had a massive deficit, and also got my second Shingrix jab yesterday, so didn’t want to skimp on nutrition. But as you can see, I failed on every measured nutrient except B2 (niacin) and my favourite, sodium.

I know this type of eating plan is only supposed to be a short term thing for people who do it, but yikes!

Too busy to blog—F4LBR #1

Wow another 5 months gone… time flies when you’re busy.

This year I have biked more, run more, walked more, and everything-else more. And now, I’ve signed up for my biggest challenge yet—the Friends for Life Bike Rally! I opted for the three-day version, but that’s still ~300km of riding. Toronto to Kingston. Kill me now. 

Actually the real killer is going to be raising the funds—I need to raise almost two thousand dollars, and so far I have $35 (that I donated myself). So please! Donate! It’s a good cause!

Also, in the interests of not dying on my big ol’ cruiser, I got a new (to me) bike—a little red road bike. Red means it goes fast. Here’s me on my first lil ride, trying and failing to take a selfie with the timer on my phone:

Me and Lil Red

A Bike Party friend helped me find it on Facebook marketplace, and is going to help me get it kitted up with toe clips, new grip wrap, etc. Will it get me all the way to Kingston? Camping along the way?! I sure hope so…