Saturday long ride

Friday night, I installed the XLAB Mini Wing that I got from Triboutique.ca a couple of weeks ago on my Kuota. Having only the capability to carry a single bottle on my bike was a bit of a roadblock on my road to longer ride. I'm not really an heavy drinker when exercising so I can do with 0.8l for a 4hrs ride (unless it's particularly warm) but since I'm hoping to do an unsupported 200km ride before the summer is out, I definitely needs to carry more liquid with me. Also, I probably should get into the habit of drinking more ... which I did the following morning by riding 133km with 2 bottles.

I didn't drink all, but alternated between both bottles at each of my feeding slots (every 30 minutes or so). In one bottle, I had my usual homemade energy drink (minus Maltodextrin since I'm out and need to get more at the store), and in the second one I put a bit of Agave Syrup with one tab of Nuun for electrolytes.

Between the energy bites, the drinks and a couple of dry apricots, I didn't feel low on energy but however, my legs started feeling heaving (and painful) at the 100km mark, so the last 33km were not super enjoyable.

I'm planning to extend the ride this coming Monday (which is an holiday in Canada) to make it over 160km. Assuming the weather collaborate since it's kind of looking wet this week :-(

Twin Peaks

Last Saturday (16th), I joined 4 other cyclists from the greater Vancouver area in a ride that is called among local roadies as the Twin Peaks. The ride is located in North Vancouver and consist of climbing Cypress and Seymour mountains, which are located on both side of the north shore:

As the ride was starting from Stanley Park, I rode from home to it as a way to get warmed-up for the ride, which bring my total odometer for the day to 153km (instead of riding back home, I rode to a Skytrain station to took a train back home). 

The ride is my longest one in time with just above 5 hours on the saddle. It was my first time climbing Seymour and my second time doing Cypress. IMHO, Seymour is a little harder than Cypress (Seymour climb is about 15km for an elevation of 955m, while Cypress is 11.17km long for 694m of elevation).

Thanks to my low weight-race, I was able to finish second on both climbs :) Since I don't do bunch ride much (if ever), I had some trouble staying with the group initially and dropped them a couple of time while riding up-front in aero position (I used my Kuota that day) :D

Nutrition wise, I carried my usual energy bites with 800ml of my energy drink. At the end of the ride all I had left was a single date (carried four for bonking emergency).

Running in Hawai'i!

We were on Oahu two weeks ago for vacation and since I couldn't bike, I decided to run more that I have been lately in order to maintain fitness. As, it get hot pretty quickly over there, I had to get-up and run around 5:30am ... which is early, but not that early for me, although I was on vacation. Oh well, maintaining fitness first, right?

We were staying in the Ko'Olina area (which have a bazillion fancy resort) which, while very nice (and fancy) doesn't really lend too well for running. Sure, there's a nice walk-way right in front of the resorts on which to run, but it's kinda short, so if you want to do anything longer than 5k, you either have to do that run several times or venture out onto the ... highway. I ended-up doing both.

In total, I ran 5 times during the week, finishing on our last day there by an 18km run, which I could have easily push to 21km. I regret not doing that as it will have been my first (unofficial) half-marathon in Hawai'i. Oh well, next time maybe?