I’ve taken my friend Todd’s advice and kept mostly to the lower gears so I don’t tax my legs. Last night, I spent the evening lying in bed (Dodgers over Giants 1-0, 10 innings. Maddox had a wicked sinker) and popping Tylenols to keep the pain in my leg and on my wrist down. My leg was a little tight this morning but I thought maybe after I got on the road it should be ok. After breakfast with the group I headed out just before 9 a.m. and rode past some pretty nice-looking farmland. It did, however, remind me of the farm work I did when I was a teenager and that made me glad I don’t have to do that anymore.
I took a picture of some cows (unfortunately, I’m on the computer of the owner of the B&B I’m staying at so I don’t have time to post them). And yes, my leg felt much better after a half hour.
My first rest was in a park in Port Hope, about 40 km in. I had just finished a 17 km stretch that I wanted to see how long it would take to ride – it turnes out, it took 45 minutes, so I figure my average speed was around 20 km/hr.
Oh yeah, while in Port Hope I took a picture of the car dealership that Paul Quantrill owns. That officially makes me lame.
There was a difficult patch between Coburg and Grafton, where the road felt weird, a little like riding on sticky pebbles and the shoulders were a little shallow and with the trucks going by it did make me a little nervous.
My second stop was in Grafton, where, according to my map, you could stock up on supplies and continue to the park near the lake. I was hoping they sold sandwiches as I was getting tired of eating granola bars, but they didn’t so I bought a bag of chips and a pepperoni stick and packed it away to eat at the beach.
But I ended up hooking up with some other riders when the truck stopped for us a few km away and I filled up my water bottles and felt energized enough to keep going. But really, I should have stopped.
By the time I got to Brighton, just before 3 p.m. I was beat. And when I checked into my room, I had a shower and abruptly fell asleep for an hour and a half. I know tomorrow is going to be tough so I have to learn to take more breaks.
My body has really been craving calories so tonight I’m going to eat something gross.
Tomorrow: Kingston.