Collingwood

Went to Collingwood for the weekend.  It's a lovely city on Georgian Bay below some of the best ski hills in Southern Ontario.  In the summer that makes for some great biking!  I looked up recommended routes on the local club's website.  The route for the Centurion ride looked good.  It's 170 km with 5 climbs up the mountain. 

Hilly countryside

It's the biggest hill I've ever gotten to ride up.  I set out at 9:30, heavily loaded down with Clif Bars and Rice Krispie squares.  Plus two Kellog's cereal bars that I found at the back of the cupboard.  They were so old, that the filling had sogged the crust.  I worried that I had too much food.  The intention was to simulate race day, with what I intended to bring for the Ironman.  Not to worry, at three hours in, I was only a third of the way.  The day rounded out to nine hours of travelling.  It's a tough course.  

View downhill to Collingwood

I'm still terrified of the descents.  I pulled up to another rider chat, and asked about that, and he says yes of course he rolls down at full speed, topping out around 75 kph.  Yikes that's fast on a bike.  I hoped that the new pavement on Bower Hill in Woodstock would let me have a few runs at that kind of speed.  It's the only thing near where I live that has that kind of steepness and length.  Alas, I went there to find they have only paved half way, and will be the rest of the summer to finish it.

It was a great day on the road.  Sixth in a series of 180 km rides this summer.  I'm getting stronger, because by this time I didn't awaken screaming in the middle of the night from having my leg muscles seize up in uncontrollable spasms.