Experience Report: @MEC_Ottawa Summer Century Ride 2016

Posted In: Fitness August 29th, 2016 divider No Comments »

Another weekend, another fat fasted session. And it was probably the last substantial “training” session for the upcoming Raid de la Gaspésie. Now I’m kinda looking forward to it and kinda scared still…

It turned out to be a very nice morning for a ride after calling all week for rain. It was humid all morning and it got quite warm near the end. But good thing we were almost done since we were out of water with no stores in sight.

My buddy Dion asked me to take part in the MEC Ottawa Summer Century Ride 2016 since he did it in the spring and enjoyed it. Who doesn’t like to ride and then come back to a catered lunch? The fact there were other riders and pit stops helped with the safety and the enjoyment of it all.

I almost wimped out due to some injuries sustained in Saturday’s softball tournament (knee contusion and pulled calf muscle) but my decision to test out the legs was a great one. The legs actually felt better after the ride then before. Good thing more doctors are prescribing exercise for injured folks as the blood flow really cures most things.

The nutrition was similar to my other recent sessions; A light fat-rich breakie followed by some ketones on the ride. I also took lots of water, some nuts, a nut bar and a pack of Nuun hydration. Energy was good until the end when the lack of water and the warm sun was getting to me.

My Basis said I burned about 3000 calories during the ride of just under 4 hours. We missed a turn so we apparently we did a bit more, about 105k. Not bad for a lazy Sunday morning… :)

Other than under-inflated tires (totally my fault), the ride was quite enjoyable and quite sweaty. All and all, a great morning spent outdoors on the (mostly) quiet roads of Ottawa. I recommend it, well run event!