Mothers' Day Ride

Sunday, May 11th, 2014 - Mothers' Day Ride (well, I am a mother afterall!).

I had set the alarm for 5:00am with the intention of hitting the road by 6 but 5am is awful early when it arrives! I managed to slide out from under the covers by 5:30 and make it out the door around 6:50am. My goal was to ride at least 40km (so far my longest training ride this year) and be done by 9 as I had a 10am meeting planned. That would give me just over 2 hours riding and if I could keep a pace of 20km an hour, I would be good. I bundled up against the 34 degree F weather (1 C) and was off. Gear included bike shorts under long pants, long-sleeve dry top under short sleeve dry top with Bike Sleeves (I LOVE THEM!), all under fleece top, and gloves.

The sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. Nor were there any people in site! One of the interesting things about Spruce Grove is that early morning rides (on weekends) are like riding through an abandoned town. Everyone seems to sleep in. Not a bad thing, I love having the trails & roads to myself. I promptly headed through the forest and towards MFT (see if you can find it on the map above), opting to ride by MFT and explore one of the newest developments on the west end of the trail system. As I rode, I began formulating my ride plan. I tend to decide where to ride as I ride, heading wherever the Megrims take me.

After riding the new development I headed further west, into the area of the Tri-Leisure Center and then north west towards the Catholic High School. I tend to ride around in neighborhoods, finding my way from neighborhood to neighborhood when the Heritage Trail links them up or riding back out to Grove Drive to move on to the next neighborhood. Once I reached the high school, I decided I'd make my way to Jubilee park, on the far end of Grove Drive, and see if the mud was dried up and cleaned off of the roads in the Greenbury development. I enjoy riding the new developments as the roads are typically new and smooth and there is very little traffic on weekends. This is a photo of my bike's tire 2 weeks ago after riding through Greenbury:

No repeat this weekend, the roads were clean and dry! It was starting to warm up so I ditched the gloves, bike sleeves, and fleece as I enjoyed the sun on my face. A quick stop for a picture of the beautiful spring sky and I was on my way west again towards the Greystone Neighborhood. I've only ridden this area once before so it was "ride and see where you end up" for the next half hour or so.

As I was keeping a good pace between 19.5 - 20 km per hour, I decided I would push for 50 km - a 2.5 hour ride. I had not yet hit MFT or 50 km yet so back to the woods I went! Only 2 other people on the section of MFT though I did see 2 young rabbits and several red squirrels.

I'd brought along my Camelbak with some protein in it and although I'd had a tasty smoothie before heading out, I was feeling the tiredness in my legs from pushing for a longer ride. But I stuck with it and completed the 50 km. You can see the loop that connects start to finish in the map. That is where I was riding around waiting for the Map My Ride app to announce 50 km. :D The end of any goal ride is usually loops around my neighborhood until the selected kilometerage is reached.

Time to pack up and head out to visit a friend and then later into Edmonton for a ladies only bike ride in the city. Stay tuned for another story because yes, I am just crazy enough to take the bike out for a second ride in one day. :D