Oh What Things We Can Learn...

It would seem that yesterday was going to be a day about learning. I went to Sylvan Lake to bike the 1/2 IM course with some of the UCTC gals, Cynthia, Annabelle, Carol and Irene. In the few hours I was there I learned the following:

1. Everyone should have a cell phone with them, especially the fastest person because if they miss the turn you are to take, it's impossible to catch up to them to tell them!! (I won't say who this speedy person was...good biking though, haha!) Oh, and sorry for saying, 'Nah, you don't need it, most of us have our phones'. Oops!
2. I can stay in the small chain ring and maintain a high speed and cadence! (I decided to focus on technique yesterday as I was supposed to be on a recovery ride.)
3. There is some sort of plant that smells wonderfully sweet around the bike route - not sure what it is though. Was a nice break from the canola, which is brutal when you have a good Dutch honker with a strong sense of smell... such as I do!
4. Eckville is a very cute town , the roads are a little crumbly though.
5. Canola looks pretty, but smells nasty! It took me till the 80km mark of the ride to realize what it smelt like...someones really really bad breath. I mean the kind that makes you gag and almost dry heave when they breathe on you. Gack!
6. This is a hard bike route for a 1/2 IM, and the end is very, very hilly. This fact lead me to realize the next point...
7. I went out to hard in the beginnning, and was pooped by the hills (I can blame this on Stoney recovery, right?!) Now I understand what Greg means by slowly bringing up your speed and heart rate at the start!
8. My car is a heat score.
9. The Sylvan Lake RCMP are very kind, even when they take your heat score of a car.
10. The Sylvan Lake tow truck drivers think they deserve $180 for towing your car a couple of blocks. They aren't as kind as the RCMP.
11. Alberta Registries say sending out the notification that your car registration is about to expire, is a COURTESY and they don't really have to do it. It doesn't matter they've done it for the last 5 friggin years!!!
12. Cynthia and Annabelle are more calm in tense situations then I am, especially when I have just ridden 91 km, am hungry, and my car that has my food in it....is gone.

So about now you are likely sitting up and going, huh? What the heck are points 8-12 all about?? Well let me tell ya. Before we went out for a ride, we decided to move our cars from the Smugglers Inn parking lot to the road. Why? Because of all the signs in the lot stating if you were not a patron of Smugglers Inn, they'd TOW your car. Huh. Well then. We should park on the road so we don't get towed. Unfortunately, my car, the aforementioned heat score, still got towed. Why? Because my stupid registration expired....IN APRIL. Don't they send you reminders about this stuff??? How the heck am I supposed to remember??? I don't look at my license plate!! Okay, well I guess I do every time I wash my car and when I put the license plate holder on that boldly states I swim, bike and run. But hey, just because I look at it, doesn't mean I READ it. Ugh.

A few phone calls later, we found the impound lot so I could get my insurance and expired registration, found the registries to get the new registration, and found the RCMP office to beg for forgiveness. Thankfully the RCMP office took pity on the cylist who just rode 91km and who didn't know that the registry notification was a courtesy. This, I'm sure, was in large part due to Cynthia's friendly nature and kind begging. I owe her BIG time. So I didn't get fined for the registration stuff. This was huge because I did have to pay the tow truck company....and if I had to pay everyone, it would have cost me about $500. YIKES!!!

Thankfully, the drive from Sylvan back to Cochrane was uneventful. Although I did learn one more thing.....that the sign that says Hwy 11 West means I'm heading to Rocky Mountain House, not Hwy 2. Oh well, Hwy 22 South was a nice route to take home. Lots of beautiful scenery.

What a day!!