Monday, July 17, 2006

Thursday’s work-outs, July 13/06

Coach Steve wrote:
Cycle 90" total with 9 x 4" hard strength effort at <70rpm (1" RI spin)
Strength and Power Class
To make an 8:15 doctor’s appointment, I zoomed out of the house at 6:25 a.m. I headed east (Fulton and Pape avenues, O’Connor Drive, St Clair Avenue, and Kingston Road). I did most of the work-out on Kingston Road, with the “hard-strength efforts” usually uninterrupted by traffic signals. I got as far east as Overture Road (basically around Guildwood Station) before I turned around.

My return was a bit different: Kingston Road, St Clair Avenue, O’Connor Drive, Donlands Avenue, the Leaside Bridge, Millwood Road, Southvale Drive, Moore and Lumley avenues, Heath Street, and Welland and St Clair avenues.

Torontonians may recall that O’Connor leading up to Don Mills Road is … peculiar. The right lane must exit at Don Mills; and Don Mills leads to the Don Valley Parkway; so the queue can grow very long even in the morning. I have to midline for several blocks, paying attention to motorists who have little idea of where they are, and might use their one-metre shy distance without looking.

The Leaside Bridge remains under construction, but the City’s Transportation Services Division has preserved the bike lanes.

Then the parade of stop signs through Leaside (no faster alternative), and I’m on Moore Avenue heading toward Mount Pleasant Road. Most, or perhaps many, motorists would like to continue east on St Clair Avenue (I should mention here that St Clair is interrupted by several kilometres of ravines). To prevent “cut-through” traffic along from Moore to Welland to St Clair avenue, turns are restricted from eastbound Moore to southbound Welland during the morning peak.

A few months ago, the placard on the turn restriction sign was updated to add bicycles to the list of permitted vehicles (taxis and buses), but I’ve never taken advantage of that privilege. Instead, I turn south on Lumley Avenue, and west on Heath Street. It’s connected across Mud Creek (also known as the Moore Park Ravine) by a bridge, which I took.

St Clair Avenue west of Avenue Road is under heavy reconstruction. I hopped the streetcar tracks, and got to my doctor’s office, where I now have permission to lock my bike.

The ride: 22.8 miles in 1 h 29 min. (I also did 3.2 miles commuting, but I don’t count that.)

Other stuff? Another painful hour of shiatsu.

And I was beat up and had a lot to carry home, so Mona drove downtown and drove me home.

1 Comments:

Blogger Monado said...

Hey, I thought you were going to update this with your triathlon workouts?

8:18 p.m.  

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