I Can’t Find My Legs

With a tailwind helping me to Kenora yesterday, it wasn’t all that surprising that a headwind was in store for me today. That said, I think I have to give the headwind less credit (or blame) for my slow progress today. I was just sluggish. Maybe having two large bags of chips for dinner last night wasn’t such a good idea. Lesson learned (perhaps). I also can’t blame the trains last night. As mentioned in my previous update, the trains and the bright light of the pavilion had little impact on my sleep last night. I slept rather soundly all night.

I wasn’t quite as early as yesterday morning but, by the time I crawled out of my tent, it was still much earlier than my usual “schedule”. I packed up my gear, loaded up my bike and said my goodbyes to Rob, Michael, and Fred (they’re heading east, by the way) and was on my way. My way included a quick stop again at the chip wagon for a breakfast wrap and it was very good. I’m not sure it was $7.50 good, but it was very good. And convenient. Two qualities I like for early morning breakfast.

Today’s destination was Kenora. The last major stop before the Manitoba border and, according to the sign on the highway, it was only 88 km away. But let me just say that sometimes easy days are the hardest. When you know you’re facing 150 km day, or a big hilly day, or whatever, your mind prepares for it. But I have frequently discovered that my mind doesn’t always focus so well on the shorter days. And when the mind isn’t willing, it can take a lot of effort to get the legs to cooperate.

As a result, and not surprisingly, I found myself stopping regularly today. Not because I needed to but I just couldn’t get my legs to give me a full effort. Lazy legs and big hills are a bad combination. Fortunately, the hills weren’t too big but, based on the past two days, they were definitely bigger than I was anticipating.

Despite my lacklustre performance today, I still managed to pull into Kenora before 1:00 – the benefits of starting early strike again. And as an added bonus, I arrived just before the rain started. It was a short-lived rain but a rain through which I was glad I didn’t have to cycle. I was definitely glad to be done for the day. Well, there was the small matter of accommodation but I didn’t really deem that a problem. The big question was whether I’d be wild camping again or getting a motel.

I really didn’t want to splurge on a motel today – especially since the weather was cooperating. I figure if I’m going to drop money on a motel it might as well be when it’s pouring outside. However, I had some real editing work to do and the thought of doing that work while hunched over in my tent seemed more than a little unpleasant. Not to mention, there was no chance my battery would survive the edit session. Once again, my circumstances dictated the solution.

Other than the obvious perks that go with a motel room, it also allowed me to leave my stuff in a safe place while I went to do some shopping to stock up on supplies again. Today’s ride had pretty much emptied my coffers of fruit, CLIF Bars, and other such things. I’m happy to report that, if all goes well, I should have enough supplies to get me to Winnipeg in two days. Although, it’s still a bit of a mystery where I’ll be staying tomorrow night. Then again, it frequently is.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 100.17 km
Ride time: 5:14:36
Average speed: 19.10 km/h (I’m surprised it was this high!)
Maximum speed: 53.87 km/h

Oh, and yes, the title of this post is from a movie (sort of).