My Most Recent Ride 2014 (Part VII in a series)

I finished my write up of the Silver Comet / Chief Ladiga Trail ride.



Click here to read story.

 

Nice! Thank you for that!

Terii

 

Blech. Two days of stewing in my own juices. If there was only less humidity so sweat didn't just lay on the skin.

I should have gone for the ride at 4 am, but I wanted to tend a few errands downtown on the ride, so lingered until 9 am before heading out.

Slow. That sums it up. So warm I didn't want to go very fast for worry about pushing Loke over into a heat stroke. As it was, he spent most of the time with his tongue nearly dragging the ground. Poor puppy. To his credit though, when I'd try to stop in a shady spot, offer water, he wanted to keep going.

I think his joints are bothering him a bit today.

I did between 6-7 miles I think. Can't say for sure since it appears my Garmin is failing due to a dying battery. The last time I gave it a full charge, it barely lasted 4 hours instead of the 12-14 it has always given before. A 2 hour charge this morning wasn't even enough to keep it going for 75 minutes. So, it died in the middle of the ride.

I guess I'll map the route on MapMyRide and see what it says!

Terii

 

This write up is nothing compared to your Blogs Terii!!! :notworthy:

 

Quick 20.1 mile loop ride at lunch today. After the 160 miles I rode this last week, I could tell I was stronger. Flew around the loop and passed all bicycle riders (all one of them).

 

Awwww. Flatterer. But truly, thank you for the compliment.

Went for a 5 mile ride this morn around 8 am. Mostly because I let Jens over sleep and he didn't have time to walk the dog. So off on the River Loop we went. Just something short so Loke would do his business, but not so long as to overwork him after the hot outing yesterday.

I needed it to be easy and short as well. Silly me went out yesterday after bringing Loke home. Just a faster River Loop then. It was too hot and I made myself sick. Spent the rest of the day pretty miserable.

Terii

 

After several days of hot, muggy, sweaty misery, the weather finally changed. Actually woke up UNDER the covers this morning, so I was looking forward to getting out for a ride in spite of distractions that didn't let me out the door until about 8 am.

Clear skies and calm, COOL air greet me as I stepped out to assembled the trike to take Loke for a run. I actually stopped to throw my arms out and turn my face up to the blue above in sheer gratitude of 68 F. It was perfect. That slight chill to nicely balance the warmth of my exertions once I started rolling.

Loke was pretty interested to go. Not crazed and yodelling or anything, but still didn't slack as we rolled out. The not warm temps had me all giggly as we rolled along on the River Loop.

By the time we arrived back at the apartment with 4.46 miles, I decided I was going to go out again for a solo exercise excursion.

Within 50 yards yards of turning out onto the cycle path from our parking lot, I hit 11 mph and zipped to the intersection where I had to stop for a light. Made the turn and continued spinning between 11 and 12 mph, trying for what felt like a cadence of 70+.

Any remotely flat stretch with minimal pedestrian traffic I could find, I managed to hold that speed, even pushing it a little higher when circumstances favoured me. Hills of course, slowed me significantly. As did traffic lights. I reached the area of my in-laws' apartment in about 16 minutes, less than half of the time when I made the trip with Loke. Of course that day was a warm one with lots of water stops as well as time for Loke's... business.

I did a bit wobbling to avoid a few unnecessary hills to spare my knees. Sadly, within 5 minutes of leaving the area of my in-laws' place, the wind started up as if someone had flipped the switch of a giant fan. It knocked me back to about 9 mph, though I still tried to keep up that cadence.

I'd planned to stop along the ride to chase down an elusive runestone, but was thwarted by a pony. As I made the turn into the 4H Club grounds where the stone lurks, I slammed my brakes before spooking a pony pulling a little buggy. Rather than stress the people or risk frightening the animal into a disaster, I very slowly backed up and continued on toward the mall.

Once I was heading east toward the 2 mile stretch back toward home, my speed shot through the roof. With good flat ground under a cycle path, I was spinning like mad at 15 mph. I would have tried for faster, but there were people walking around and intersections to be careful of. At one, I had to slam brakes again to avoid a car coming up to the turn.

On the other side of of the mall, I had a giggling plunge down a hill to whip, skidding, through a right turn. I had to slow to about 12 mph through there because a lot of people were out to enjoy this weather. I'm sure many Swedes are disappointed at 70-75 F temps after days of 85+ F. This American woman is tickled pink with the weather change.

I made it back home with 8.8 miles and legs that felt like they'd actually done something for a change. Not quite enough to have them turn to noodles, but more than a Loke River Loop does for them! I had a blast!

Terii

 

Today's 45 miles ride was wonderful other that high humidity. Today I have moved into 5th in the over club standing. But I have been off a week and rode most every day.

 

i didn't ride but i hiked 5 miles in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. What I found out is hiking leg muscles are different than recumbent leg muscles. I am sore today!!!

 

It's amazing how much bad clothing can screw with a ride. Admittedly, with 6 days in a row of vigorous exercise for an hour or more each day, my legs are feeling pretty weak muscle wise, whimpering for a recovery day. Hubby's been a brutal slave driver lately when it comes to exercise. If I've not been out for 2 hours or more on the trike without or without Loke, he's been dragging me through the city forest at a brisk (for me) pace. I think the main reason I haven't turned into a quivering mass of muscle that hasn't the strength for another step is because I was using my poles.

So, my favourite tights gave up on yesterday's walk. I found another pair and I remembered why I'd not been using them when I pulled them on. They have almost no give what-so-ever. They also don't seem to breathe very well. It's like I might as well be wearing too-tight blue jeans under rain pants made from trash bags. Every revolution of the crank arms feels like it takes more force against the tights to flex the knee than it does to turn the pedals.

But with the new Garmin charged and ready to go, I wanted to at least do a shortened River Loop with Loke to test it. My initial misgivings about it first thing this morning had tempered the more I fiddled with it, seeing that the settings aren't just for hardcore Tour de France champion wanna-bees. So, I was actually eager to try out the 'casual' setting I mocked up.

Mounting it was a Challenge and I deemed my first attempt a failure by the first 20 yards. It spent the ride either in my hand or tucked in my handlebar bag.

So, first impressions from the ride?

1) Absolutely LOVE the crisp, easy to read screen with the OpenStreetMap map. The streets are easier to see. Even in areas where the streets are tightly clustered, the names didn't obscure where the roads were (a HUGE problem with the Edge 705). Adore the fact that it's not just roads, but cycle paths are plotted out with easy to see blue dashed lines.

2) It tracked flawlessly! It drew my route to near perfection in spite of moderately dense cloud cover, occasional stretches with thick leaf canopy combined with rattling along in my handlebar bag.

3) Rather like the cadence sensor! It was easy to mount and gave me quite a shock. I figured that when riding with Loke, I tended to toodle along at about 60-65 RPM. I figured my spinning frenzy ride, I might have been in the 75-80 RPM if I was lucky. It actually appears that 73-80 RPM range is average for a Loke outing and most likely I was up around the 90's on the spin ride. I'm only hazarding a guess for that ride, admittedly, but I do know I was turning significantly faster than I do when Loke's with me.

So, I think I'm about to head out again for another test. Solo this time. Jens helped me figure out a way to mount it so I can still shift the gears and my pedalling knee won't knock it flying.

It's not going to be a fast ride though since I'll be in combat with these cursed tights and weak legs.

Terii

 

2nd and last test ride of the day. Tested the new mounting position and it's good. Out of the way of things like shifting and peddling and still close enough to see. For a bit I was wondering if I was going to have to fasten it in the area of my pedal boom. Would have needed binoculars to see it down there. The screen is bigger than most cycle GPSs, but not THAT much bigger.

I felt like utter crap on the ride though. I played around with cadence a little. I might have over estimated my guess for the 'spin' ride, but it was definitely over 80. I had a hard time getting even close to it today though. I did force myself to hit 110 just to see how it felt.

Gonna take a couple days rest to let my muscle fibers repair from the craziness of the past week. Then I'll have to try the 'loop' function. See if it will take me anywhere interesting I haven't thought of in the area.

Did about 8-9 miles for the day. I have to figure out how to off load my rides now!

Terii

 

You need to hike more then, if that is the case. Make sure all your leg muscles are fit in a variety of ways.

 

Made a blog post with photos! The pictures are from my June 15th ride when the gears gave up on me on my attempt to ride from Enköping to Uppsala. Finally got over the trauma of the day enough to write the post and tweak the photos.

If anyone's interested!

http://terii.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/the-other-things-that-broke/

Terii

 

4.13 miles this morning. Wanted to get it done before the temp got to 'drench in sweat just breathing' range. Took Loke of course.

This new Garmin with it's 'bells and whistles' might actually help me on the tedium of the River Loop and other overdone local rides.

We started out, Loke wanted to run somewhat, but I kept our speed down. Bored, I kept glancing at the cadence. It was around 70 RPM. I started playing with it within our speed limit. Seeing what 75 range felt like or even higher.

After about a mile, I spontaneously decided to work at keeping it above 75 RPM. By mile 2, I decided to try and minimise the pauses. That was more challenging than I thought. Loke was making difficult because he was being such a slug. It's HARD to spin at 75-80 RPM at 5-6 mph, trying not to drag a slower than usual Siberian Husky. Little/no resistance on the pedals gives it a sort of lurching feel. Maybe I just need more practice at fine control of my legs with a free-spinning chainring?

Still I worked at keeping those pedals turning. Hardly noticed the scenery and wasn't bored.

I have decided I'll be making 2 new ride categories though. 'Loke' and 'Solo'

Terii

Out for another ride, solo. Remembered my heart-rate monitor this time. Practically had to kill myself to get above 142 BPM. However, I did very well on the cadence front. My Avg Cadence last ride was about 73. This time it was 76. My speed was slower than it usually is without Loke, but I think that was because I was aiming so determinedly for spinning that I geared lower, particularly to compensate for the windy day. Unfortunately, my knees and hips feel rather unhappy with me.

Oh! And I finally found a runestone that's been eluding me for a few months.

 

It sound like hunting for Easter eggs!