Happy Trails

Forgot to mention that my Dad, aka Gramps, turned the big 7-0 on May 22nd. Well done young fella! He and I share something in common - we were both alive when the Leafs last won the Cup. (although I was 1 at the time in 1967)

Whenever I fly I always grab a window seat. It's amazing the sights you see on a sunny day. Northern Ontario is quite beautiful from the air - lots of lakes and cool shorelines.

Cool cloud formation that resembled waves.

While up in Sault Ste Marie I went for a run. I headed out from downtown Sault along the Waterfront Trail. It was cool at 9C but sunny.

I did a tour of Bellevue Park - some nice trails and scenery. It was an out n back run that ended up to be 57min long. I followed that up with 1 hour on the bike in the hotel gym. The flight home was quite rough as we headed into a storm that was over Toronto. I flew on Porter Airlines. For those that don't know - flying into the Island airport means you land on a runway that's around 100m from the water. The pilot went out of his way to avoid the storm - so much so we went over Mount Hope Airport and my house! The plane "dropped" a couple of times and was fighting the winds - not fun when your a few 100m above the water. We hit the runway quite hard but all ended well. Departing the plane the skies opened up and it rained really freakin hard!! Good timing for getting back on the ground!

What a difference a week makes. Last weekend I did 21k of King's Forest Hills on Saturday and then 147k ride (Brian Smith Charity Ride) on Sunday. I felt brutal both days. I had to walk up a couple of steep hills during my run and I felt heavy for most of it. I felt a little better on Sunday and after 100k of riding I felt my legs coming back.

This past weekend I felt awesome! I ended up doing 26k of King's Forest/Eramosa Karst Conservation running and was steady throughout with no steep hill walk-ups. Where I leave is really a multisport playground. For riding I'm literally about 400m to country roads and farmland. For running we have those same country roads plus numerous trails. The pic above is the signpost at Albion Falls indicating the various trail options. We have hilly routes, flat routes all on hard packed surfaces. My 26k route is hill-filled - good prep for Placid.

Albion Falls - hard to see now that the vegetation is in full swing.

Lots of bridges zigzag back and forth over the creek that runs parallel to the trail. On the Sunday I was looking for a long ride with lots of rolling hills. I headed out and meandered through Caledonia, Ancaster, Dundas, Rockton and Flamborough before heading back home. I did get some quality hills in which I pleased about. It really heated up to as the temp got up to 27C - love it. I ended up getting 162k in - my first century of the year. So my weekend ended up with the following:

 

Friday - 3800m swim

Saturday - 26k run

Sunday - 162k bike

 

Good quality weekend in the books  - Cheers!