My Most Recent Ride 2015 (Part VIII in a series)

DEFINITELY.....!!!!!...

 

wow you people are so brave and determined - to be riding in weather like that. Here in Australia it can get too hot, but even then its still rideable. I could not imagine going out in snow. Well done.
Ive been sick the last week and didnt make my 1000 km [ 621 mi ] for the month, only 832 km [ 516 mi ] . Wish I could magically transport you all out here to do some rides with me. You would not want to go home until you find out how badly the country is run.
So keep up the good work, you are an inspiration to me.

 

My two criteria are dry pavement and it has to get over 40F during the ride. I'm hoping to get my Baron out in about a month. It got a new fork last month and I'm anxious to check out how it handles now.

 

Thwarted...

Got dress for a ride. Jens drove us to the garage and even worked on shovelling a path wide enough to push the trike up with less effort. While he was working on that, I checked the air in the tires.

Rudely discovered that the sidewall was tearing away from the bead on the back tire. Already had a gape of about 3 inches long.

So, scrapped the plan to ride in exchange for walking with husky and hubby in the city forest before heading to a cycle shop to buy a new studded rear tire. Tomorrow I'll work on making the swap and seeing if I feel up to the ride after that struggle.

Terii

 

Made it out the door today for a ride!

Got the tire swapped yesterday without too much issue. Not once did I feel like cursing and throwing the tires around. Took about 35 minutes. In spite of the fact it was a gorgeous, if chilly day, I didn't feel up to readying for a ride to test the gears.

Today turned out nearly as pretty, so off to the garage we went. Even with the studded tire, I had to push the trike up to the sidewalk to get any traction.

After that, it was a nice ride. Loke ran well, thrilled to be out and doing so. It turned out to be crazy warm today (42-47 F), so things are melting like mad. This made a lot of the ride a bit of a slog, though not so much as it would have been solo. Loke was very helpful.

I'd planned to do the 12+ mile Läby loop, but it turned out to be over-ambitious what with the knobby tires, slush, and my reduced fitness. At least it was my muscles tiring quickly, but normally rather than the bizarre, extreme pain my hypertension medication was inflicting. That only seems to hit me when walking, and not as often or as badly as before. That's something!

So, we wound up with roughly 5.25 miles. The gears worked fine and the new tire is still in one piece!

Terii

 

You are doing better than me right now!!! And I don't have the crazy winter weather you have!

 

Ahh, but you don't have a bored, bossy husky and nagging spouse to bully you out either. Or.... ?

Terii

 

8.44 miles.

My start was a bit later than planned. At 8 am, I went grocery shopping for more wild meat to hold Loke over until we can buy him reindeer tomorrow (hopefully). By the time the shopping was done and I contacted the apartment management company so they could call about the street light laying toppled on the side walk outside the apartment, off we went to the garage.

Got out quick and we headed on our way. I decided to ride to Jens' parents. They're moving soon and won't have a garage at the new place. So, they have some shelving that maybe we can use in our garage. It's always nice to have a goal other than 'a loop for miles/exercise', so off we went.

I thought yesterday's 5+ miles was a hard slog. Today was just like yesterday only warmer. Slush was everywhere to keep my speed down to 3 or 4 mph most of the time though I think my cadence was near 70 rpm.

I never used my gloves or hat and desperately wished (again) I'd used thinner wool on my legs. I stripped to the base layer on my top, but was still too warm. My Garmin said it was 53 which is much more believable than 37 my Weather Channel app insisted on. I thought it was supposed to be colder than it was yesterday, not much warmer.

Was so happy when we turned in to the parking lot again and I could wobble down to the garage, pushing the trike through the snow in front of me. Even better to get home and collapse. Tomorrow will be a rest day or my legs just may fall off.

Terii

 

6.7 miles.

Looked at my thermometer. It said 43 degrees. 40 is my minimum. Dressed up and rode. Froze my *** off. The older I get the less I like cold. So I only went 2 loops.

Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer so I hope to do better.

 

I had not considered the electric assist on a trike, but with hills, it sounds like a good option to have.

 

15.0 Miles (13.3 really)

Beautiful day. Sunny and 50s. Got out and rode at an easy pace still being careful not to stress my back.

Had a great ride at 13.3 miles. When I put my Strada on my car rack, a guy came over and started asking me questions about recumbent bikes. Of course I was more than happy to talk to him. We talked for about 10 minutes and I gave him a RRI card so he could come to our site and read about the different recumbents available on the market.

Took off my helmet, gloves, etc and hopped in the car. Started driving back to work and realized I left my GPS on. So I stopped the car and stopped the ride and transmitted the data to Garmin Connect. Ends up I drove 1.3 miles because my "official" mileage according to Garmin was 15.0 miles.

Now I know how to rack up miles without breaking a sweat!!! :lildevil: And my speed was amazing the last 1.3 miles!!!

 

I bet! Putting us all to shame...

 

Yeah, like when I rode the Corsa down Clinch Mt. in Bean Station, TN. Wind at my back in a nearly straight newly paved two miles that loses 900 vertical feet, on two treadless strips of rubber only 24mm wide. Chickened out/tapped brakes at 54mph. Avg. for the two miles over 40mph. Glad I did it; never again. Don't ask about the average speed for the up/down round trip 4 miles...

 

7 miles on the button.

Though it was murky gray about 7:30 am, it cleared beautifully by about 9 am. After 4 days with no riding as I was trying to give my legs a rest to let muscles built back up, I was looking forward to getting out. Since Jens was a sweetie and did all the Loke walkies yesterday as a Valentine's Day gift, I felt like my legs could turn the pedals more than 10 times.

I'd planned again to do the 12+ mile Läby loop, but as I got everything ready to push the trike out, I discovered I didn't have my foot warmer batteries. Of course, today was one of the colder days we've had in over a week. So, first off, Loke and pointed toward home and off we went.

Annoyingly, I didn't find the batteries. Jens was stressing me. 'Did you chain Loke up?' 'Should he really be out there by himself with the trike? You did at least set the brake, right?' over and over and over. It was driving me so batty, that after a quick sweep of the kitchen table, I told him it was going to be a shorter ride before bolting back out sans batteries.

The wind was a bit capricious. Mostly it came from the north, but it would whip around from random directions at times. Had a near miss with a Golden Retriever. It's a good thing it was after Loke because the woman ignored my warning bell and didn't notice her dog lunging at us until I screamed. She yanked him short of getting teeth into Loke which was in easy bite range of me.

We had another incident with a dog, but much nicer. A husky no less. He was a sweet beauty. Loke was obnoxious to him, but he forgave me for it and even gave me kisses. That made Loke a bit jealous in spite of the fact he's never been much of a kisser. Much to my surprise, he was the same age as Loke give or take a few months.

I didn't have any problems with cold toes until the last 1.5 - 2 miles when my direction put me in perfect alignment to have the wind whistle through the cleat holes in the bottom of my cycle shoes. Unpleasant, but not bad enough to ruin the rest of the ride.

Terii

 

Well, I found the foot warmer batteries almost immediately after coming home from the last ride so I had them for today.

Just a pokey 4.3 miles under gray skies and 25-29 F temps. The wind was gusty and therefore not much of a problem for most of the ride. Just the River Loop as I wasn't really feeling up to more than that. I was able to avoid riding on ice for most of it though the studded tires and gravel still offered a high rolling resistance.

Felt good to come home and burrow up under an electric blanket with a hot cup of tea. Loke seems to feel cheated though. While I was waiting for Jens to pick us up from the garage, he was woofing and even pawing at me as he circled around, stopping in the perfect spot to be clipped back to his running tether.

Terii