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

Well if riding a trike I might have had a rider or bike in my lap the way all of that went down. Anyway, rode 26 miles yesterday having to wear an arm sleeve to keep bandage on elbow. It was a weak ride but was good. Enjoyed it and I had gotten over my being pissed at what happened.

I just wonder when will society return to concern for others instead of being inconvenienced by others?

 

Another beautiful day in East Tennessee. Rode 34.1 miles in the Smokies. This is what it looked like when I started.



On the way back stopped by U-Man Power and said hi to Keila. Great day!!!

 

Oooh! That is a nice photo. Can I get a copy?I suddenly have a brilliant idea.

 

Weather up here is perfect for a ride.

Rode 11 miles on a trail called the Mascoutin Valley Trail. West of a town called Ripon Wisconsin. While I was going through a marsh a bunch of Egrets started cirlcing over my head. Was a great ride, prefect weather.

 

Long time coming

Well it's been over 37 years since I've done one, 3 broken bone in my back, no cartilage in one knee and a fused ankle later but I finally did a metric century. In about 4-3/4 hours the odometer ticked off 62.3 miles. Rides are going to be few this week lol. Feels good but know there is a century somewhere out there with my name on it

 

Sure. I will put up a link so anyone can download a high resolution picture if they want.

Here is the link. Sorry not in hi res. if you need that let me know.

Redid link. This should work for full res picture!

http://rri.jdittrich.fastmail.fm/smokies.jpg

 

You go, Jim! All I have are bad knees and I've still not managed a century... metric or otherwise. Quite impressive!

And that's a lovely photo, Jon. Almost makes me long to go back to the States to cycle there. Almost....

Out for another ride. Snuck away while Jens was walking Loke. The fur ball is doing pretty good, no sign of limping, but until he's been 3 full days of limp free, the trike is off limits. So, maybe Wednesday.

We've been getting a fair amount of rain. A couple days ago we had INCHES dropped on us in less than an hour. The drain system around here can't handle the load and it started pouring back into our building's cellar where the storage spaces are. Had the entire building in a frenzy like a stomped anthill to get the important stuff moved out of reach of the water.

Thankfully, last night and this morning's rain wasn't quite so dramatic and it stopped around 7:30. I headed out a bit after 11 am to ride to my in-laws to drop some things off with them. The sky still looked quite threatening, but never made good on it. I'm glad of it since 62 F and Swedish rain is as likely to leave me covered in ice as not. No exaggeration. It's happened before.

7 miles and I didn't feel too bad. I think my cadence was up!

Terii

 

Good for you, getting out is nice, but a bit nicer without having to maintain a pace based on another critter. Probably felt a little freer eh?

 

Yeah, but admittedly, I don't laugh and smile as much...

Terii

 

Two days, two outings with Loke. Yesterday was a soggy 4.1 miles. It was about 58 and raining when I started and about 61 F and kinda sunny when I finished.

Loke did fine. His old self (as of 2012 any way).

Today, might have been too much for him, but Jens is away on business and I didn't feel capable of a decently long walk for him, let alone with laundry to follow it. He had a few questionable moments, very brief, but enough that I cut the ride to about 2.2 miles.

He was very bright and energetic when we got back into the apartment. I swear, the conflict between his high energy levels and his ageing joints are going to be the ruin of my sanity.

I'd love to get a few more miles in, but sadly, laundry will dominate the rest of my physical stamina for the day.

Terii

 

3.95 miles with a sluggish Loke. He moved a little odd in the hind end at first, but after about a mile, he smoothed out. Still barely went faster than 4.5 miles for the entire ride. Made it a fairly 'effortless' ride for me. I tried to do cadence, but without at least some decent resistance to the pedals, it just kills my knees. No clue why.

Just the River Loop of course, though at least had a couple interesting things turn up. One was a beautiful snake making it's way across the cycle path as we came out from under an overpass. Loke lunged for it of course, but I yanked us to a stop. I was worried the guy coming down the hill in the opposite direction was going to run over it right in front of me. You never know how people will respond to snakes, but he stopped and grinned until it wriggled back under cover.

The other incident was a 'little girl' moment. A family came out of a restaurant we were passing. She squealed when she saw Loke, which was enough warning for me to do a hard stop as she dashed in front of the trike to the right side. There, she promptly hugged on Loke's neck, asking his name. Her parents looked embarrassed and relieved that Loke merely stood there as she hugged the stuffing out of him.

With Loke so lackluster, it was only thanks to a frisky winds that I got any exercise on the outing at all. Mid-60's, partly sunny with only a few of the clouds threatening rain. A nice change from the previous few days which were skies of heavy clumpy gray just waiting to attack with a misty drizzle or torrential downpour. Granted, rain or not, the cooler temperatures are welcome over the broiling weather of a couple weeks ago.

Terii

 

Went out today. Jens dropped me off at a church just outside the city. I decided to ride TO Enköping, doing the failed ride in opposite.

It was forecasted to be about 68 F and mostly sunny. Nope. It was heavy gray and threatened us with a few drops while I was assembling the trike at the church and about 52 F. Jens asked me to take Loke for a while and promised to come get him promptly.

Off we went. Stopped to have a chat with a woman when her 'farm type' Norwegian Elkhound came out to yap at Loke and pose dominantly. She warned me to watch out for drivers, especially younger men who treat the country roads more like a race track than a two way road.

Loke ran good and strong, helping me up hills, but even so, it took us about 2 hours to do about 10 miles. We stopped near the river in a little town called Orsundbro (Örsundsbro?) for Jens to come get the fuzzy. He probably still could have gone on, but I didn't want to push him too much too soon after the mystery limp.

From there, I went on. The temp almost made it up to the mid-60's... just in time for a dark bank to clouds to come blowing through on a chill wind. A torrent of cold water replete with little bits of ice thrown in for good measure poured out of the heavens. Fortunately, it was brief. Got me quite chilled, I'll admit. No thermals, not even a jacket. I did have my winter mittens which helped a surprising amount.

Spent most of my time creeping up hills or battling wind so it was a SLOOOOOOW ride. One of the slowest for a solo ride. Definitely feeling every mile of it, but I made it to Enköping and had orange chicken while waiting for Jens to pick me up. Wasps stole my soda though.

Terii

 

Tonight's ride had a little excitement. I can only assume Saturday's blessing from the Church of the Holy Cross paid off





Andrew

 

Rambling blog post about Sunday's ride complete with photos. The day totalled up to about 23 slow, gruelling miles.

Enjoy!

http://terii.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/cold-cruel-lies/

Terii

 

Beautiful pictures!
Thanks for sharing the ride!