Category: cycling

Mount Desert Island.

~ Lkvy ~ 1 Comment

Hope everybody had a fantastic Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day! If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry: neither do I. I just know that it means I get a three-day weekend, and get paid for not working on Sunday. This year, I decided to distance myself from the francophone revellers by not just leaving the province of Québec, but the dang country too.

Yann and I spent 1100km riding under our bicycles while they were strapped to the roof of the car to get to Maine. There, we did 101km on our bikes.

“Does it still count as a century ride if it’s done in the USA, where they don’t use metric?” I asked Yann, who responded with a glare.

Continue reading “Mount Desert Island.” →

Prelude to Toulouse.

~ Lkvy ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know how we did it, but Yann and I have decided on a destination for our August vacation: Toulouse, France. As we will be taking our bicycles, we now need to decide on our sub-destinations.

Assuming we train hard for the next two months, remain injury-free, and in perfect health, we aim to cover between 800-1000km in the 12 days we’ll have to explore the Pyrénées.

Admittedly, this is ambitious. I haven’t been as fortunate as some when it comes to completing a trip in perfect health: I suffered a sunstroke in Beijing, China (2010), and caught a terrible cold at the end of my Japan trip (2014). Yann and I were even supposed to do our first overnight cycling trip on Friday but this was cancelled as I woke up feeling unwell.

My dodgy wellness has taught me to never expect trips to go according to plan. For our France trip, we’re going to have a plan B, as well as a plan C, D, E, E.1, E.2i, E.2ii, and so on.

We did have a plan B for the weekend, and this backup plan involved Ruth, and the hillbilly town of Grenville, QC.

Continue reading “Prelude to Toulouse.” →

Living for the weekend.

~ Lkvy ~ Leave a comment
20180608_163101.jpg
Summering like a boss.

All week, I make sure other people have a bike ready to enjoy on their weekend. All week, I think about riding one of my bikes. I also think about camping. I think about beer. I think about squirrels. I focus on planning my weekend while I am supposed to be concentrating on twisting the nipples on a mis-aligned wheel.

It was too late to make any camping plans/find someone to watch the cats, so on Thursday night Yann, Mélissa, and I attended a festival that promotes binge drinking: Mondial De La Biere.

Continue reading “Living for the weekend.” →

Vitamin D burns.

~ Lkvy ~ 1 Comment

How do you make your legs burn in two different ways? Do a century ride on a day with no visible clouds.

As someone with next to no melanin, and a LOT of expensive artwork that would get damaged from exposure to UV rays, I almost always have this with me:

20180603_194201.jpg

Whenever someone sees this thing, they’re always like, “LOL. Girl sunblock.” Then I proceed to get defensive and explain, “They were giving away free expired sunblock at work, and I took a bottle to use as a travel size spray. I promptly dumped out the girl sunblock and refilled it with proper unexpired lady sunscreen.”

I don’t know why I get so defensive about this, but I do. Besides, when it comes to the sun, being on the defense is a good thing! I had just purchased a saddle bag for my road bike so that I would be able to carry this mini spray bottle along with a tube of lip balm (defense against chapped lips), an energy bar (defense against hunger), and a spare tube (defense against flats). Essentially, I keep my emergency kit directly underneath my ass.

Continue reading “Vitamin D burns.” →

Le P’tit Train by nightfall.

~ Lkvy ~ 1 Comment

In Montréal, we like to ignore the transitional period that is springtime. While crocuses symbolize spring in Vancouver, it was the reappearance of Bixi (public bike sharing system) docking stations that made me realize that winter was finally over.

Within a week of the installation of these bike docks, Montréalais emerge from their goose down cocoons wearing shorts, even when it’s only 10 degrees out. Summer’s too short to not wear shorts.

Our refusal to recognize spring means many of us prematurely dive into summertime activities. Last week’s hike in Parc national du Mont-Tremblant was a cold-blooded reminder that in the mountains there’s still snow. Lots of it.

IMG_20180512_195942_946.jpg Continue reading “Le P’tit Train by nightfall.” →