Today's Ride

the IMAX at the Old Port

Pilo and I teamed up once more, again, as usual, the usual route, usual meeting place, etc.
Destination, the usual, Old Port or Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

We had a two to three hour window before the rain started to fall once more. Actually the rain started to fall when we were heading back to the car.


in front of the Science Museum, Old Port of Montreal


brought my digital camera today, too bad we missed the sunset scenes


giant plasma screen by the IMAX cinema


runners, cyclists, inline skaters, and pedestrians share the road at the Old Port


busload of tourists at the Old Port of Montreal

Stroke Identification, get to a stroke victim within three hours

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within three hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke . . . totally. He said the trick was having a stroke recognized, diagnosed and then getting the patient medically cared for within three hours, which is tough.

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

My friend sent this to me and encouraged me to post it and spread the word, I agreed. If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks. Seriously . please read:

During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the afternoon. Ingrid's husband called later saying that his wife had been taken to the hospital and passed away. She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some stroke victims don't die, they end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.

It only takes a minute to read this...

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within three hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke . . . totally. He said the trick was having a stroke recognized, diagnosed and then getting the patient medically cared for within three hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE:

Thank God for the sense to remember the "3" steps.

Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S *Ask the individual to SMILE.

T *Ask the person to TALK, to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE. (Coherently) (i.e. It is sunny out today)

R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out their tongue . if the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

If he or she has trouble with any one of these tasks, call 911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to ten people, you can bet at least one life will be saved

Sunday afternoon with the family

All pictures courtesy of Tito Pilo's Nokia PhoneCam



Another great weekend weather for a bike ride, some wind (by now we have been used to the head wind that come our way, either going to or fro), but a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.

Paul, Trish and I met up with Tito, or should I say, Tito-nium Pilo at 55th Avenue in Lachine. Our mission was to ride together to the Old Port of Montreal and back.

By the time we got past Atwater our cycling foursome's destination was diverted to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. We rode together in perfect formation, like a fine tuned pace line indeed.

It was Trish's first long ride of the season and she finished well; she kept up with the rest of us.


Tito Lits, Trish, Pilo, and Paul


Proud dad with his two children who loves to ride with him. We'll get Tita Nil and Pam to ride with us, eventually, Lord willing. :-)


Closer and closer


Tito Pilo, Pauly on the phone, Trish


family conference under the shade

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The team: Tito Pilo, Tito Lits, Trish, and Paul - posing near the entrance to Rene Levesque Park in Lachine, Quebec.


Titanium Man - Tito (nium) Pilo


Windtalker - Tito Lits - Head winds? What head winds?


Grease Lightning meets Trish Lightning, so fast, zoom, zoom, zoom!!


Legs of steel - Pauly Boy Blue

Meanwhile in St. Anne De Bellevue

Meanwhile in the town of St. Anne's


The locks are back in operation in the town of St. Anne's


a lot of boaters passing through as well as docked along side doing their sightseeing or possibly lunch at one of the many fine restaurants in St. Anne's

It was a beautiful Saturday for a bike ride, PTL! We started around noon, Pilo and and I.

Earlier plan was for a ride through the Oka - Hudson - Pierrefonds round trip route.

Instead, we decided to go for a shorter ride, about 48km in all. We rode to St. Anne De Bellevue and back, taking Gouin Blvd through Senneville and finally, St. Anne's.

The road along Senneville was the worst along the way.

On the way back we opted to go via Chemin St. Marie, cutting through John Abbott College. This way took us through Kirkland and Dollard des Ormeaux.


stopped for a short break to look around, listen to live music, and just people watching


Tito Lits soaking up some sun


local handicrafts and food specialties on display


on the Salaberry bike path, just past Boul. St. Jean, in Dollard des Ormeaux

Bicycling Magazine - Lactate Threshold 101

Bicycling Magazine - Lactate Threshold 101

Lactate threshold is the glass ceiling of cycling performance-it's an invisible barrier that keeps you down. When you do crack through, the rewards are sweet.

"For the longest time, everyone focused his or her training around max heart rate,"says USA Cycling expert coach Margaret Kadlick. "Now we know lactate threshold is much more important. When you raise your LT, you can produce more power at a comfortable heart rate, and that makes you a better rider and racer in every situation." Here's everything you need to know about lactate threshold-including how to raise yours to be the best rider you can be.

What Is Lactate Threshold?

Lactate, your body's buffering agent, neutralizes the acid that builds up in your legs and makes them burn during heavy exertion. The harder you turn the cranks, the faster acid accumulates. Eventually, your muscles generate more acid than you can neutralize and your searing muscles force you to ease up. The point at which you begin to accumulate acid more quickly than you can dissipate it is your LT, or, in riding terms, the fastest pace you can maintain for 30 minutes without feeling like your legs are on fire.

for the rest of the article>>>

Solo bike ride to the Old Port of Montreal from Lachine

Bonsecour Market at the Old Port. Always something interesting to film or shoot in Old Montreal



Tourists at the Old Port taking a tour on the 'La Balade'


Tranquil moments- You can find peace and tranquility in such a crowded place as the Old Port.


a roller blader / in-line skater at the Old Port

The Scoop on Stress and Exercise

Women's Cycling: Health And Fitness Through Cycling

The Scoop on Stress and Exercise

Stress is defined as a response by your body to any demand made upon it and a 'demand' means a change.

Did you know different stress levels have names? For example “Neutral” stress is the amount of work it takes to maintain normal body function. If we give stress a scale of 1- 10 where Neutral stress would be 1. Lets take a look at Success and what it implies. Believe it or not success is a stressor, called “Eustress”, which stems from the word euphoria. We can give eustress a quantitative number like 5 because it is a high intensity feeling and brings many ramifications and changes.

Now we'll take a brief peak at failure. Failure means challenge, or worst of all defeat. So failure can generate what is called “Distress”, which, we’ll give a number of 5 because it’s implications for change are compound and also intense. I’m relinquishing the good and bad judgements on stressors and trying to quantify them based on the change from homeostasis-the norm perspective.

If our highest stress level is 10 this is when we experience all of the classic “fight and flight” signs of our body preparing for action. Hormones, like adrenaline, surge. 6 Your heartbeat and blood pressure soar. Your palms sweat. 7 Your short of breath. Your hair stands on end. 8 You’ve got a flock of geese flapping in your belly. Your blood sugar rises and your muscles tense. 9 Your mind is focused on fighting or flighting. If you get to 10 you’ll probably mess your knickers because your system has gone berserk from over stimulation and your body will surrender. Though the odors may stop your adversary from taking that first bite. These effects, up to 9.9 unchanged for thousands of years, helped prehistoric humans survive!

rest of article >>>>

more pictures from our last ride

These ones were taken with my Nokia Phone Cam, setting at Night Mode. I should set it back to Standard mode again I think.


bikes parked for a photo shoot at the Old Port of Montreal


Pilo and Paul


Pauly Boy - there's a freighter being pulled by a tugboat in the background


Cruise / Restaurant boats docked at the Old Port - lunch or dinner while you cruise on the St. Lawrence river


another view of the marina at the Old Port of Montreal

Soccer or sucker?

Beware of these soccer balls, don't get suckered into kicking them :-)


How did you hurt your foot?

Welcome to the newest member of our cycling family

Welcome to Baby Guru!! Proud father and rider of Baby Guru introduced this Titanium new kid in the block for the first time this afternoon. Present to witness the joyous occasion are proud ninongs or godparents, Tito Lits and Pauly Boy.


at home, waiting for the moment


at the Old Port with cousins


Tito Pilo with his new Titanium baby, there's Pauly Boy admiring from a distance


the proud godparents :-), Tito Lits and Pauly Boy


Swarms of flying bugs met us along the Lachine Canal Bike Path, as if to welcome Paul for his first ride along the route, yup, first ride this season on this route.

Mabuhay

From one of my old, old, web page, going back early 90s.

"Mabuhay" is a Pilipino verb in the form of a command: "Live!"

It is also a wish:

• "May you live!"
• Whosoever says it wishes upon you the great gift of a long and full life.
• It is both a blessing and a lusty cheer.
• "Mabuhay" (ma-boo-high) is such a large word that it lends itself to a wide number of secondary uses:
  welcome,
  congratulations,
  thanks,
  godspeed,
  hello,
  good luck,
  cheers,
  prosit,
  sante,
  viva,
  kambei,
  aloha,
  and many other expressions of goodwill.
• All these are a part of life; but it is the gift of life that makes them possible.
• "Mabuhay", in other words, is an invocation and a celebration of life itself.

MABUHAY!!

Riders in the storm

Rain for the rest of this week according to the weather forecast.

We had a couple of hours of riding window this afternoon, a lull in the rainy weather, so Uncle Pilo and I gladly took the opportunity to ride. What happened to the cliche- "April showers, May flowers"? I guess it's been extended one more month this season. :-)

Heading south east to the Old Port was a daunting task for the weak and uninitiated (bagsik ano). Strong head winds tried to push us back; each time we pedaled two strokes we were pushed back one.

Sige na nga- mahangin lang talaga :-)

Pilo was without his road bike which made the ride to the Old Port tougher than usual. He rode his good old Marco Polo hybrid bike. While I sprinted and kept up a good pace at around 30kph, pedaling against the wind, he fell behind quite a ways back.


Tito Lits, on the phone, at the Old Port of Montreal. That's Pilo's good old commuting bike, the Mikado Marco Polo sports hybrid, rear and front disc brakes pa man din.

But I am glad to be the bearer of good news. I'd like to announce to our riding buddies that Pilo's Guru super bike (ano ba yan) should be fitted, configured, and ready to ride by middle of next week.

Meanwhile, Pilo was complaining how hard it was to ride this old bike of his, how the seat's not comfortable, this and that, etc. how he can't feel his fingers anymore. This got us thinking, humming, singing the song "Love Is All Around".

I feel it in my fingers (I cannot feel my fingers)
I feel it in my toes (can't even feel my toes)
The love that's all around me (the wind is all around me)
And so the feeling grows (and so I am riding slow)
It's written on the wind (this freakin head wind bugs me)
It's everywhere I go (it's everywhere I go)
So if you really love me (so if you really love me)
Come on and let it show (come on let me ride slow)

Man, we had a blast as usual!!

See you on the bike path soon, y'all!!


Tito Lits, still on the phone. It's nice to be able to mix work and leisure- what a blessing!!

The Montreal Bike Fest: cycling activities & events

The Montreal Bike Fest: cycling activities & events



Tour de l'Île de Montréal
June 4, 2006

A special Sunday when the city celebrates, when the city cycles, when the city is all yours! Explore the banks of the St. Lawrence on a route full of fun and surprises!

Start: 9:15 a.m., Saint-Joseph Boulevard
Finish: Laurier Park

30 000 cyclists
48 km route


Tour De L'Ile of Montreal 2006 route map

Tuesday afternoon ride

We thought it would be a warm sunny afternoon. It got cooler and the wind was in front of us going south east to the Old Port (seems to be our usual, weekday route lately).

Busy at the Old Port. Must have been the premiere of an Imax movie showing. The Imax cinema is located in the Old Port, by the science center. There were special shuttle buses ferrying in the guests.

The ride back was much easier with the wind behind us.

Before heading back to our start point we took a detour into the Rene Levesque park. There were a few cyclists doing their training ride around the park's bike path.


Pilo


Sunset


Tito Lits

Photos taken with with my Nokia phonecam - we did not have our digital camera with us. Sunset scenes are quite beautiful from Rene Levesque Park.

bike ride update - flash

Here are the latest sightings of Uncle Pilo and Tito Lits. They were seen zooming, with a blistering tail wind pushing them, at twice the speed limit of the bike path, along the now famous Lachine Canal bike path :-)

Before going their separate ways at end of the bike ride, the cycling duo posed for the paparazzis.




Tito Lits


More to come....stayed tuned

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Uncle Pilo wearing his red Ninja jacket :-) . It was cooler late in the afternoon, particularly when the sun starts to set.





Until the next ride - catch you later!