Saturday's RIde (40k in -10, Inaugural Ride Giant XTC)

Today was a good day to ride. The forecast was for -4 C (25 F). I decided to take my regular winter route, starting with the lakefront trail that is near my house. I continued along the Welland Canal, crossed town down Glendale Avenue and headed to Brock University. Part of the ride was the dreaded 'hydro hill' or aka 'heartbreak hill'.

Today was also my first real ride with the Giant XTC that I just bought. It was a sweet ride that allowed me to confirm that spending my hard earned coin on a bike was well worth it.

You have to appreciate that currently I have only been riding an upgraded 'department store' bike. I already love the SRAM thumb-thumb shifters, and have a feeling I will get rid of the Grip-Shifters on the old mud/winter beater, as I like to call it now.

The best part of the ride was going up hydro hill. Whereas usually I go to the lowest gear and am looking down searching for more gears that aren't there, today I instinctively went to the lowest gear only to realize, 'hey this is a a bit too low, I better gear up a bit'.

Definitely have to adjust the seat angle, as the family jewels were looking for some relief afterwords. I also noticed that my hands were numbing up. It looks like I have some adjusting to do.

The weather turned out to be colder that predicted, -10 C (14 F). At the end of the ride I was heading home for the last 5-10 km against the wind, wanting at that point just to get home. It was a rewarding 40 km (25 miles) though.

I weighed myself today, and have just realized more weight loss. I have now lost 32 pounds from my peak weight of 210. I have to credit the Canada Food Guide lately, in addition to my biking. Yahoo!

I'm going to add pictures later. My phone is not uploading pictures properly today.