Back in the groove...

I felt great today. I did a 7 hour ride, followed by a brick run, and it was "easy". I didn't even feel like I had worked out today.

I was even pushing it early on the bike . There was a large pack of decent riders in front of me and it took me about 15 minutes, but I finally caught and passed them. A couple of the guys stayed with me and we rode together for a bit.

Mark was one of the guys. He's a strong rider, a little bit older than me and lives nearby. I got his email and plan on dropping him a line when I go on some longer rides. It's always more fun riding and chatting with someone at a good pace. Mark also says he likes his beer, which could make it even more interesting.

Today was a good ride. It was supposed to rain and didn't. With humidex, it was around 29C and the wind was about 26 kph, gusting up to 33 kph. The wind made it a challenging ride. For the first 111 km, I averaged 32 kph and then the wind picked up and it slowed me down big time.

The highlight of the day wasn't my training, it was John Fortin's backyard party. Alice and I got there around 7 pm and it was cooking. They had a live band playing and the place was rocking with people. Great energy.

For the rest of the night, Alice and I hung out with Doru and Miha and as people left the party, the party moved to our table. It was a lot of fun with lots of laughs. It was the only party I've been to where people used the bathroom for more than peeing.

At one point, I had to stand outside of the bathroom door for near 10 minutes. When the door eventually opened, out came John with a big smile on his face saying "You don't want to go in there". It smelt like the worst crap, just took a crap.

I had no choice but to go in, I really had to go. I pulled my shirt up over my nose and proceeded with caution. John must have been eating "sponge" because there was one the size of a piece of corn still floating around that didn't make it down on the first flush. I made a water sport out of it by moving it around the toilet with my "pee stream".

Later on in the night I had to go again. This time it was disgusting. Someone took a massive crap and flushed, but they must have crapped out crayon because it looked like they used it to draw all over the bowl.

I tried to make a game out of it again and used my "pee stream" to clean off some of the markings. I managed to get the stuff above the water line done, but not all the stuff below. My tank was empty.

When I got back to the table, I told John about the gift one of his guest left for him and that he might want to get his pressure washer out of the garage and use it to clean the toilet. There is no question that John's a competitor, the minute I told him, he rushed to the bathroom and used his "internal pressure washer" to clean the rest. I was in disbelief and impressed with the psi John would have needed to do it.

Doru on the other hand, provided a good laugh when he walked into the screen door. He didn't see it and "wham", he bounced off. He hit is so hard with his face, it drew blood. I was shocked the door or his glasses didn't break. Screen door $50, beers $20, watching Doru walk into screen door, "priceless".

I also found out that the in Romanian, Doru means "Steve".

The party eventually moved downstairs to John's bar once it started raining. It was around 3 am and there was only about 6 of us left. It was fun, I've never seen John laugh so much when I announced, "Do you know what I like about me?!". I thought he was going to "pee himself". I knew first hand that's all he had left inside him.

I also negotiated a deal with John where I'll rent Reid out to him for $65 a day to pretend he's his son. Unfortunately John isn't able to have kids and rather than tell him that it's because he's "been putting it in the wrong hole", I figured I could make a few bucks off him instead.

Alyssa and Nazaire dropped us off and picked us up at sometime after 4 am. I must say, having kids is not easy, but having them chauffeur you around when your drunk makes it all worth while.

Long Bike - 7:01:59 / 213.57 km / 30.3 km avg / 140 avg hr / 3511 ft climbing

Brick Run - 30:03 / 6.05 km / 4:58 pace / 141 avg hr

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