From May, through the end of June, we were home only about 50% of the time.  Our adventures in Portugal, Strathcona Park, the Rockies, and the Broken Group were all awesome and we loved every minute of them.  But we decided we needed to stay home in August for two reasons:

1.  We love our home and wanted to enjoy summer at here.  That includes spending time with friends and family, and just enjoying the scenery and sunsets from our deck.  We are very spoiled and recognize how lucky we are to live here. The sunsets are happening earlier now, so we know that the time is marching on.

2.  We needed to train for our 100 km ride on August 20 (this Saturday) in the Tour de Victoria.  Even though we did some biking on our adventures away, no rides were that long, nor with the elevation gain that we will see on Saturday.

So we have been training, while having fun in the sun.

Biking

Over the last week we have done 297 km (let’s call it 300 km) and about 3000 m of elevation over 4 rides.  The wonderful thing about training around here is that you can do so many different rides, with wonderful scenery, all with significant elevation, so you don’t have to repeat a ride.  And you get to do it with riding buddies! 

The biggest ride we did just today: we rode to the ferry to Saltspring, did a long ride on the island, over many hills and then rode home.  It was a perfect day; sunny and not too warm, and the scenery on the island is beautiful. We did a total of 90+ km and about 1150 m elevation.  We think we are ready for Saturday.  We will take it easy until then!

Paddling

We did a great paddle on Lake Cowichan last week.  It was a real treat for us to paddle on freshwater, which means that we didn’t need to wash our gear afterwards!  I enjoyed the many water lillies on the channel out to the larger lake; something we saw a lot in Ontario, but we don’t see on the ocean! We also got to meet ome new people from the other paddling club we belong to.  Blue skies, hardly any wind, beautiful scenery, and good conversation.  A great way to enjoy summer.

Hiking

To help with cross training, we did a great hike on Bald Mountain.  We haven’t done this one since last December, when there was snow.  So doing it in the summer was quite a bit different.  Thankfully it was not that sunny (actually a bit cloudy) so we escaped the heat, but enjoyed the ‘easy’ 8 km hike up and down.  The views were not as expansive as on other days, but a day climbing, and with any views, is always a good day!

So we have been busy having fun in the summer sun, while training for our big ride, and enjoying being home!  We will do some paddling this week, but not much more riding until the big ride on Saturday.  Stay tuned!