The Month-long Lull

Hey all, Coz here!

My crazy Jazz Festival week, going to bed late and humid heat have decided to catch up with me today; it's about 12h30 PM now and I still feel like I just woke up! Part of it is because my brain is still on vacation. One single week just isn't enough, especially when you fill it with a crazy schedule of shows and parties. And when you know that not even a month from now I'll have another 2 weeks of vacation but at least this one will not have a week-and-a-half festival of musical awesomeness. It will have two special events though. The first one is my birthday right at the start on July 30th so any excesses (like THAT never happens... LMAO!) will be done with quickly. And the second one is my bike trip to Mont-Tremblant which I intend to do with minimal budget and preparation; yes, I actually WANT to have it rough because this trip is supposed to be my first of many longer and harder trips which will require better preps but will still be rather spartan. Yeah, I'm crazy like that.

I've been preparing the physical and mental side in a few ways. Riding 5km to and from work every day isn't quite enough, so any time I get a chance I hop on the thing and ride pointlessly in one direction. The boring part is that I have to come back home all the time so I average around 30km per rides, and 50 on weekends. This will change soon as the second vacation is approaching. Of course I can't really ride on the weekends I have my kids, but on the next weekend I'm on my own I will do my first 100km round trip. I haven't planned the route yet but what I want to do is basically leave my place just before sunrise and ride all day, and arrive at the Montreal Brutopia meet at 7PM. The fun part: I want to do this whatever the weather is. It could be a cool and calm day, or hot and humid with a storm or two. Could be way fun, or way painful. But I just have to do it :)

Another way to prepare I have is walking insane distances. When's the last time you walked 15-20km? For me it was last weekend. And a few days before that. By walking you may not get anywhere fast but it sure builds up your character. And you can even see stuff you've never ever seen that are literally in your own backyard.

So are I am, not quite a month from my next vacation and every fiber of me wants to leave Montreal behind and travel this amazing bike path, dip my feet in the Rivière du Nord, and then dip 'em in the Rivière La Diable. Of course I'll have to celebrate with an awesome beer from Micro-brasserie La Diable :) This is my first bike adventure, and I can barely wait !!!

Ride long and far

o7