The Crosstown Connector, Windsor Street's beautiful bike lane, has a bit of an upcoming expansion in the Dalhousie separated bike lane. From there, it's just a hop, skip and jump to the Hollis Street bike lane in downtown Halifax. It's getting to the point that if you live in the North End or West End, you could hop onto a bike lane which will take you all the way to the universities in the South End, or to work Downtown. Hospital workers that live on the peninsula can also crossover from Windsor Street to the bike lane on Bell Road to get to work at both the Halifax Infirmary, Emergency Department or the Victoria General Hospital sites. Though it's true both the Dal bike lane and the Hollis street bike lane have hit last minute speed-bumps, I'm pretty convinced that they'll be started in the spring, at the very latest.
As for myself, I'll continue biking during the winter in a commuter capacity and will try to keep up with this blog. I'll start likely begin reducing the distance I do per month leading up to November, when I start switching over the the indoor trainer --something that will be a little more tough to do with a smaller apartment.
But before all this comes to pass, I've been planning a season-topping ride from Sussex, NB back to the shores of Halifax, NS. A ride of nearly 400km over four days. Starting in Sussex early next week, I'll be staying at a friend's place in Moncton after the first day of riding, then switch over to B&B's in Lorneville, NS and Truro on days two and three before grinding the rest of the way home on day four.
Most of my summer feels like it's been leading up to this. After having some vacation-timing troubles this month, I've been lucky to line this up, leaving myself with time to increase the length of my rides. Right now I'm more than comfortable riding a 100km day going between 27-30kph. Helping me get to this point was my season opener tour of Chester-Windsor-Halifax (about 200km). Then a couple weeks ago I busted out another 180km trek to Middle Musquodoboit and back (out through Lawrencetown and back through Enfeild --See pics below). This Sussex-Halifax trip will be the largest I've done in such a short amount of time, so it's going to be a real challenge for me.
One of the largest challenges of the trip isn't really the distance at all, but controlling my pace. I'm usually a big fan of putting my head down and really pushing those pedals in order to go as fast as I can. On rural roads, I can reach and hold over 30kph. Hills are usually a pain, especially being a stately 200lbs, but I'm starting to tackle them with more gusto. The route I've mapped has a great amount of flat road, with a couple larger climbs sprinkled in each day --especially on the approach to Truro. Most of the time I'm following the shoreline along the Northumberland Straight, so the scenic aspect of this route should be super-enjoyable. I'll keep you guys posted and try to put up pictures as I go along.
So do you all have season-ending rides you'd like to share? Leave your notes in the comments below!
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