Resting Heart Rate

Living in Atlantic Canada does not allow us to cycle year ’round and we don’t really have a winter sport that we enjoy doing together (other than walking to the pub all bundled up) so we tend to spend the dead of winter in front of the roaring woodstove with a glass of wine in hand and a Netflix marathon on the TV. It’s not ideal… We gain a little weight, lose some muscle mass and notice a decline in our cardio fitness. We are not the kind to measured these things closely but our pants are a little tighter and we get a little more winded during our winter outings. That being said, my fitbit does provide this insight. A fairly steady improvement in resting heart rate between January and July. I feel good and my pants fit a little better.

Riding in Cap-Pele NB

Accepted an invitation to Cap-Pele again this summer. Our friends have a great cottage there on the Northumberland Straight. After a quick breakfast we hit the road. Our friends have been renovating their summer place and admitted they had been so busy that it was there first time on their bikes this summer. Yikes!

It’s always windy in Cap-Pele but the relatively flat terrain makes up for it. Our friends biked with us for about 20 km and bailed… we stretched it out to 34 km. After the ride, our friends took us to a sweet little restaurant and art gallery called Le Chat Bleu which is housed in a historic general store in nearby Baie Verte, N.B. We shared a few delicious plates…my favourite way to try a new restaurant!!

B.K. Ride

Getting back in the swing of things with a nice long ride on a sunny day. This is a route we’ve done many times. The first section (18 km)  is a hilly route through Bayside NB with no shoulder (nerve wracking!) then on to a rural road with a nice shoulder. A 30 km stop a Burger King in St Stephen, NB for a little energy break (1 cheeseburger) then on to the highway for a little stretch (not as bad as is sounds) taking us back through Bayside and back in to town. 66.5 km total ride..

 

missed my goal in 2018!

We had a busy year! I’m using that as an excuse for why I fell short of my cycling goal. We built a new house and had a lot of fun doing it but it was distracting. To compound matters we had a short autumn. The cold arrived very early which prevented us from enjoying those typical great fall cycling days. Yes… I’m a wimp. When the winter winds start to howl, I’m curled up inside with a hot toddy!

2018 Goal –  2,000 km
Cycled  – 1,485.47 km

There’s always next year. Stay tuned for another year of spinning the wheels in 2019…

Saint Andrews map

Spending 3 weeks at our new summer home in the historic resort town of Saint Andrews by-the-sea, New Brunswick (Atlantic Canada). What I’ve come to observe… there are hills here too! and the map of one our favourite 25 km cycling route looks like a rocket ship!

New year…new goals!

Happy Spring everyone! This blog has been sorely neglected but that is about to change. Weather is finally warming up and snow is melting.

2017 was the third year in a row that I fell short of my cycling goal. After we climbed Mount Katahdin in late August we started seriously talking about hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2022. We had a beautiful fall last year and we got the hiking bug so the bikes didn’t get used as much as usual. We still got plenty of exercise and fresh air just nothing I could track here!

I expect that this year is going to be similar. We are becoming obsessed with hiking plus we’re building a house this summer so, taking those two things in to consideration, I have revised by cycling goal to 2,000 km for 2018. Stay tuned for adventure and mileage updates coming soon!

40 km in New York City

Got up early one morning on our vacation and rented hybrids near Central Park. We headed straight towards the waterfront. The rush hour traffic was heavy while trying to navigate the New York streets but the worst part was the pedestrians… they were crossing against the lights, walking and/or standing in the bike lanes. It was brutal!  Once on the dedicated bikes lanes it was smooth sailing. Could have biked longer but had to meet up with our friends for lunch in Chinatown at the Deluxe Green Bo. Soup dumplings! Yum!

Cycling in London, UK

Took a quick trip over to London to join my husband on his business trip. Spent part of an afternoon cycling around the city on the Santander rental bikes popularly known by the locals as “Boris Bikes”.

We didn’t break any pace records but we got a cool map (below). Our 20+ km ride included some cycling along the Thames river on the bike path as well as on some bustling city streets dodging double decker buses and London cabs. Rides through Green and Hyde Parks were considerably less stressful! The entire exercise was not helped by the fact that we had to bike on the “wrong” side!

 

Cycling Montreal

Spent three days cycling in the fantastic city of Montreal. This city understands cycling infrastructure and does it right! The drivers are crazy and inconsiderate of each other but they seem to look out for cyclists and pay heed.

Day 1 – 60 km: Mostly along the canal bike path all the way to the bedroom community of Dorval. Our evening meal was wonderful Indian cuisine at Le Taj

Day 2 – 70 km:  An early morning ride through the McGill University campus followed by more cycling along the canal bike path with a stop at the Old Port of Montreal for lunch and on to a Mount Royal climb via Summit Olmsted Road (a wide road and gentle grade 6 – 7 km bicycle path that

Mayor’s Ride 2016

Our community has a brand new mayor. He’s young, energetic and he cycles! The local cycling club thought it would be a great idea to get area cyclists together for a ride with the mayor to discuss cycling infrastructure & safety and to show our new mayor that there is a growing culture of cycling in Saint John.

Here are video highlights from today’s ride. SOUNDTRACK: “Who We Are” by The Candles

Hammond River 40 km

A beautiful spring day for my first ride of the season. The wind was unforgiving at times but we used it our advantage on the second half of the ride. Our friend Dale took us on a new route along Hammond River which included this lovely covered bridge.  40 km on the odometer and an exciting summer of cycling ahead…

A case of road rage!

This happened to me today.

Went for a 100 km ride on the Kingston Peninsula. Was a spectacular day until we encountered a local red neck with road rage and a severe hate on for cyclists. He came up behind us (not another car in sight in either direction) and buzzed us close… clearly to send some kind of message. It startled me and I let out a little scream…Rob flipped him off. He immediately pulled over and rolled down his window and waited for us to approach. Rob asked why he didn’t give us more room and he started with his rant about how we should not be on those roads and that “you people will never learn”. We kept cycling. He roared past us again and stopped and got out of his car. I was freaking by then. He charged Rob. Rob got off his bike to get away from him and he picked up Rob’s bike and started to walk away with it. We eventually got it back. It was a total scene! We stopped at the RCMP in Hampton and gave a statement, we had his license plate #. The RCMP know the guy and there was a similar complaint against the same guy 2 days ago. He drives a rust coloured sporty car…like a Cavalier. Constable says he lives near the Gondola Point Ferry and is well know to the police. My advice is be careful and if something like this happens, keep your wits about you and take photos with your phone if you can.

Bonjour mon amie

65 km cycling around Montreal, Quebec.

Montreal is a great cycling city! Lots of dedicated trails and well marked cycling routes throughout the city. Observation…most cyclist in this urban area don’t wear helmets. Yikes!

Soundtrack: Bonjour Mon Amie by Josh Woodward (album Sunny Side of the Street)
Licensed under Creative Commons

 

Cyclist’s tan

I’ve heard of a farmer’s tan… but cyclist’s tan? This is ridiculous!

VIDEO: 61 km cycling around Manhattan

Bike rental $35 per day, Cerveza Negra Modelo at that little Mexican patio $7, day spent cycling around NYC… priceless!

Click on the image below to view a 3 1/2 minute video of day touring Manhattan.

Soundtrack: 20/20 by Josh Woodward. Licensed Under Creative Common

Finally!

The snow finally melted, the sun finally came out and so we FINALLY got in our first bike ride of 2015! 47.15 km on the books and many, many more to go…

60 km in 142 seconds

Sitting at my desk dreaming of warmer days like this one when we rode along the beautiful Kennebecasis River. Much of the footage is from the Kingston Peninsula but also takes you through Quispamsis, Rothesay and Saint John.

NOTE: This short video was complied using GoPro time lapse photos (every 30 seconds). I slowed down the shots where we are cycling at a slower pace or stopped.

 

That’s Goal Jerry, Goal!

Reached my annual goal of 3,000 km on October 19th this year almost a full month ahead of last year. Yay!

The way we reached it was very different from last year. Most of our riding this year was long (65-100 km) rides on the weekends versus more frequent shorter (20 km) and medium (50km) rides spread throughout the week. Also, the weather was on our side this cycling season with most weekends being rain free and not too hot. Will be interesting to see what our final tally is…

Lack of energy on “energy tour”

This is a follow up to Monday’s post. Although it was a fantastic day and a great ride I was not in top form. The climbs and the wind bothered me more than usual. I was recently diagnosed with low iron and I’m thinking that may have been a contributing factor to my fatigue. Since being diagnosed, I’ve been eating more iron rich foods such as hemp hearts, smoked mussels & oysters and red meat. I’m also taking an iron supplement at bedtime with a glass of apple juice (the vitamin C is said to aid significantly in iron absorption). Unfortunately, from what I’ve read, it can take up to 8 weeks for my new habits to have an impact on my iron levels. To make matters worse, physical activity has been found to reduce iron levels in women so my cycling could be compounding the problem.

If anyone has any ideas or advice for me…please drop me a note in the comment section below.

Tour of SJ Energy Infrastucture

On Thanksgiving Monday hubby and I set out to tour the city. It just happened that our route took us by (or at least very near) much of our area’s energy installations. Our 75 kilometre ride took us west to the Coleson Cove power generating station. Next we headed east across the causeway and by the East Saint John Marine Terminal. We then rode by the Irving Refinery on our way out to Red Head. We didn’t quite make it out to the Canaport Liquid Natural Gas Terminal before heading back home. It was a beautiful fall day!

Major milestone reached together

My husband and I have officially cycled 10,000 km together. This is the mileage we’ve registered since we started keeping track in 2010. When we started biking together we didn’t have the right equipment, the right clothing or the right gadgets for keeping track. It started with a bike ride around the neighbourhood after supper one night and slowly grew from there.

10,000 km translates into 400-500 hour. The bulk of those miles it was just the two of us. It’s safe to say that, individually, we would not be close to that number. When I’m feeling lazy he pushes me and vice versa. Cycling in the middle of nowhere with no distractions is when we talk about work, family, parenting, our health and our dreams. We also plan vacations (around cycling ) and our retirement…which we hope will include a lot more cycling! It’s been good for our relationship!

P.S. This is all the more remarkable when you realize that my husband lost close to a year when he was diagnosed with Leukemia (AML) in June 2011 and had a stem cell transplant in November 2011. The treatment nearly killed him and his recovery took time but cycling made him strong again!

Cartoon courtesy of www.bikeyface.com

Gopro caught him stealing a kiss!

I entered the BIKE FOR BREATH Facebook photo contest. My photo is called “Gopro caught him stealing a kiss”. If you’d like to vote for my pic and help me win a cool jersey that would be awesome!

• Step 1: click on this link >>>  https://www.facebook.com/bikeforbreath/app_451684954848385
• Step 2: “LIKE” the Bike For Breath Facebook page
• Step 3: Click on “VOTE”
• Step 4: Find our kissing photo and vote for it!

A great day to reach 2,000 km

It was a beautiful day in Saint John, NB. It also happened to be the day that Marathon-by-the-sea was taking place. We were a little worried setting out as our regular Sunday route intersected with the marathon route in several spots. We were afraid of hold ups and being re-routed. Our worries were all for naught. Not only was the marathon not an issue…it was an advantage! Our timing was perfect. We avoided the runners for the most part and the orange pylons set up all along the route ensured that vehicles gave us a wide berth.

We did our regular Sunday route twice (total of 90 km) to get me to 2,000 km YTD!

A Sappy Sackville Summer Saturday

The New Brunswick Day long weekend took us to Cap-Pele, N.B. to visit friends at their cottage on the shores of the Northumberland strait. The weather was ideal for a ride in to Sackville for lunch (44 km away). We arrived to find the main street of this quaint University town closed to vehicles and crawling with preppies and hipsters setting up booths for their 9th annual SappyFest. Live music from a nearby tent entertained us while we sat at an outdoor patio and enjoyed a brew and some good eats. Oh how easy it would have been to spend the entire afternoon people watching and taking in the events but, alas, the shore was calling to us. We stretched the ride home a little to get the total mileage over 100 km.

50% of goal acheived

With over 1,500 km cycled so far this year, we’ve surpassed the 50% mark towards our goal. Year-to-date we’ve clocked more hours in the saddle over this time last year so, provided the weather and our health co-operate, we should have no problem reaching 3,000 km before the cold weather sets in.