Machka 

Have you started your new year with exercise? Did you get out for a ride this weekend, or did you do some other exercise?


Friday - Walking, as usual ... about 3.5 km

Saturday - today Rowan and I did something we have never done before. We did a sort of triathlon.


This morning we loaded up the van with the canoe and drove to a spot 30 km up the river that flows past the town where we live. Then we paddled the 30 km down the river! It took us 7 hours to cover that distance ... we just cruised with the current some of the time, paddled other times, traversed rapids (nothing too dramatic), had one little bit of a scary moment when we were swept to the side and got caught in some trees, and generally enjoyed the day on the water.

But I must say by the end of it, my arms and shoulders were sore!




It was an adventure! We know the area quite well from the road, but we've only seen the river from bridges. So we didn't really know what to expect, and there were a couple points where we just let the current take us because we weren't quite sure which direction to go.

Some of it made me feel like an explorer ... and some of it, especially the deep, calm sections, reminded us of the canels in eastern France where we cycled in 2007.

The first kilometer or so on the river were calm and lovely ... easing us into the adventure. We saw lots of waterfowl and swallows circled us as we floated along. The the rapids began. We had a series of rapids, then calm spots, then rapids, etc., and at least one set of rapids was man-made to add a bit of excitement to the river. That set was the fastest with the biggest drop, and I got soaked from the splash. But it was a hot day so being wet was all right.

After a bit of that, the river calmed down, and was beautiful and quiet for several kilometres. It meandered back and forth ... we saw lots of cows along the bank, more waterfowl, more swallows, lots of dragonflies, and I kept finding small spiders walking around my area of the boat. I hadn't paddled in a couple minutes, just floating and resting, and when I went to start paddling again, a cobweb had been started. The water was a beautiful green colour, probably a reflection of the green trees that lined the bank.



As we got closer to about the midway point of the route, we started going through a series of shallow rapids, short calm sections, more shallow rapids, another short calm section and so on. This pattern went on for quite a while, and it did keep things interesting. We had to pick a route through the rapids and then paddle or not paddle as appropriate to get through without hitting rocks, getting snagged on falled trees, or running into the trees on the sides.

One of these was particularly fast flowing and before we knew it, we had run into the trees on the side and were in danger of tipping sideways and taking on water. It took a bit of tricky manouvering to get out of that one. Many of these were so shallow we were touching the rocks on the bottom of the river, and we ran aground on a few. Most of the time we were able to get the canoe going again, but on one Rowan had to step out and dislodge the canoe.

Partway through that section we pulled up on a low rocky area to take a break, stretch and get something to eat. It was nice to stand and walk around for a little bit.

The river became calm and deep again for the last few kilometres, and that's when I started noticing that my arms and shoulders were fatiguing. The longest canoe we've done had been probably about 3 km ... so a leap to 30 km, even flowing downstream, was a bit of a jump.

It was in this part of the river that I saw my first platypus! It is quite possible I even saw two of them. One dived in front of the canoe, and I'm pretty sure that was not a fish, and then another one was swimming upstream just a little ways away.

Just before we arrived back into familiar territory, the river threw us one more bit of rapids and a 3-way split ... we aimed for one side, couldn't make it all the way over there, were almost swept into the middle route, which we didn't want, and had to do some hard paddling to get back over to the first route. Little bit of challenge to end the ride!

When we arrived at our town, we docked, locked up the canoe, and then started stage 2 of the "triathlon" ... walking 3 km home, carrying all our things (life jackets, paddles, esky, etc.). That was a hot walk and I'm glad it wasn't any longer than 3 km.

When we got home, we made a quick clothing change (or I did anyway), and set off on the tandem for the 3rd stage of our adventure ... cycling to where the van was parked ... 23.6 km by road. The wind had picked up and was gusting to 45 km/h and swirling a bit, so we got it from all angles. A thunderstorm was starting to build over the mountains.

And to end the story ... we loaded the tandem into the van, drove back to our town, ordered pizza from the pizza place, drove home, dropped the tandem off, drove down to where we docked the canoe, picked it up, drove to the pizza place, picked up our pizza, drove home and unloaded the canoe ... and then sat down to pizza!!

One thing made us laugh a bit ... we have a very distinctive van in this town, and when we got back to town carrying the tandem in the back of the van, we drove past one of the pubs where a couple was having dinner outside. 15 minutes later we went past the same pub and couple, but this time we had a canoe hanging out the back of our van. The woman stared, our eyes met briefly, then she looked at the back of the van, her jaw dropped, and she half got out of her chair. We're not quite sure what prompted her reaction ... maybe she did see the tandem in the back of the van earlier ... maybe she saw us out on the river or riding the tandem ... but it struck us funny.

It was a good day ... nice to do something different from the usual cycling. All up, betwen all 3 legs of the journey (canoeing, walking, cycling), we covered about 57 km in about 9 hours!

Homebrew01

3 hour ride this morning. Just a few cars, a few slippery spots, but a nice ride.
Sometimes the chain woud skip after shifting until the slush wore off the cogs.


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Makel

Just woke up. I'm about ready to get ready to go out. Have to drink the coffee first.

Jandro 

Right there with ya, then it's off for a ride.

jamesdak 

29.2 miles in a tad over two hours on the winter mountain bike. Temps around 15 f. Nice ride, clear skies and mostly good roads.

caloso

First time on the River Ride in a while. Had low expectations -- really just wanted to not get dropped -- but had much better legs than expected. That's always nice. Also got a chance to chat with some new teammates. Only downside was that I never felt warm: 42F and 100% RH meant that it was just one of those damp chill days.

pmt

Instead of a freezing permanent in January with my riding buddies, I lit off to Florida to my cousin's house and did a brevet there. Wow, it was nice to ride a nice warm 200k in January! Back to the cold for Feb though.

faire_du_velo

It was around 48 degrees today but it felt colder because there was a lot of wind. I did two hours in zone 3(in the 5 zone system).

crazyarm07

I did my first ever century ride (solo/unsupported). It was easier than I thought it would be. 102.66 miles total, already up to 257 miles for 2011. Tomorrow will just be a short 3-ish mile run to stay loose for a PT test on Tuesday. I consider this weekend a victory.

Makel

39 miles, mid to low 40's, wind started at 9 and ended at 13 mph. Was fun!

Velo Gator

Friday was a recovery day for me, but ran 3 miles this evening.

HMF

105 miles today, in a little team time trial type ride that ended in a lot of blood for one of our riders. He's doing fine now.

That was my first "century." It wasn't that hard! I finished real strong, doing some long pulls at the end and pushing the pace. My longest ride prior to that was 67miles.

grwoolf

Nice 55 mile ride this morning, legs felt good. Weather was great, unless you count a few visible clouds of cedar/juniper pollen we rode through (Austin is the cedar pollen capital of the world I think). You could actually taste it in your mouth, nasty stuff.

Machka 

Sunday - 24 km ride up the road and back on our singles.

Yesterday's adventure took it out of me!! I was tired and sore today!!

Machka 

Anyone else riding (inside or out) this weekend?

10 Wheels

Saturday got in a windy 100 miles.

Wylde06

Half hour on the treadmill 1/8, and 40 minutes on the trainer today. Planned on an hour but my sugar started to drop so I had to get off the bike.

ZmanKC

One hour on the trainer due to snowy roads.

StephenH

I've been laid low with allergies the last couple of days, and yesterday, I got out riding again and really felt out of it, but good to be back on the bike. Did 20 miles with the bike shop ride.

This morning, it started raining around 5:00 AM or so, and then just before noon, that turned to snow, and we got our annual snowfall for the year. I got out this afternoon and got in another 20 miles and am feeling somewhat better now.