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

Beautiful! That is just goregeous...we had a very clear day today. The mountains were so pretty.

 

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Pretty pictures!

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Rested my knee... watched it rain and rain some more ... pedaled intervals
indoors and finally, today, rode 22 miles averaging 18.5mph.

What a nice day.

 

It’s a Green AND Gold Way!​

Been getting rides in. Mostly in the 4-8 mile range and bumping the miles toward the magical 1000. Need just 11 miles a week between now and December 31st to reach the goal helped by riding about 18.7 miles yesterday, following the trail for about 6-7 miles along the river clear through central Uppsala.

Also tested my new shoe covers I found at one of the bigger cycle shops in Stockholm on Saturday. Between them and the mini-faring, my toes and feet were toasty. Too toasty even. Wondering if I'll be able to skip the foot warmers for most of the winter.

Though it's quite late in the year, we're still technically in 'summer' from a meteorological standpoint. It's simply not been cold enough to have autumn temps. We have had a few frosts so far. Makes me wonder if we're gonna have a snow free winter. How uninspiring!

I'll be making my 1000 mile goal with some to spare. Next year, maybe finally break my 'best ever' for a new one!

Terii

 

I am back in Knoxville. No beach to ride next to.

Broke 1,300 miles while down there.

Autumn weather is here in Tennessee which means BEAUTIFUL riding weather. I'll be riding at lunch today!

 

I think it was Rocketman that asked me to write something about and take pictures on my last ride, so here goes I'm having trouble with posting pictures - again - can't remember how I got around the URL request in the past )

This last weekend I participated in the TOSRD (Tour Of the Sacramento River delta) held by the Valley Spokesmen. This was 60 miles from Brannan Island State Park to Sacramento on Saturday and a return on almost the same route on Sunday. The route is almost all level on the levee roads (sometimes on the heavily travelled State Highway 160) or across the farmland on the islands. We crossed the river a number of times, once by ferry. The only grades were getting on or off the levee. Many of the farm houses adjacent to the levee are mansions built before the First World War and well maintained. I was the only trike and the only recumbent. The first stop was when I saw a very large group of cyclists stopped at a lot in Isleton serving food to the cyclists. I shortly discovered that the ham and cheese sandwich I was eating was courtesy of the Sacramento Century (SC), another bike ride that day which began in Sacramento. I haven’t yet figured out a convenient place on my trike to have my cue sheet handy and so I followed the arrows painted on the pavement or other cyclists – often from the SC rather than the TOSRD. The funniest was when I crossed the finish line Saturday and found out that it was the SC finish! I took out the cue sheet and spent another half hour, with the cue sheet in hand, retracing my ride to where the cue sheet said I was on the proper route and then riding to the TOSRD finish. Even with that this 80 year old was not the last to finish. On Sunday I missed a turn or two – I know because I only logged 46 miles rather than 60 (although the magnet for my cyclometer sensor often twisted around) and approached the finish BBQ from the wrong direction (can’t be explained by the cyclometer malfunction). I wasn’t even stiff Monday!

 

I understand the "Administer" under your name - I think. And that is why I'm asking you this question.
Under the names of other posters there are terms like lurking, diety, evangelist. What do those terms mean?

 

21.5 miles yesterday. Probably one of the slowest 20-ish mile rides we've ever done. Part of it because I kept stopping for photos or the like, the other was from 1200+ feet of climbing which beat the previous record recorded on my Garmin Edge 1000 by almost double.

Jens was kind enough to drive Loke, I and the trike to where I stopped on the Mälardalsleden last time and I went on from there. Given how close we were to Stockholm, lots of Woods and nature and gravel trails. Loke and I both had a blast, though it was hard at times. Was out all day and it was wonderful.

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This morning though, Loke sent Jens and I off in a mad dash to get him to the University Animal Hospital. I was in a complete panic as he was streaming blood from beneath the base of his tail. Turns out a growth of some kind had ruptured. So, he's had to stay for biopsies and evaluation by surgeons to see what needs to be done.

I'd appreciate any healing thoughts or prayers for the fuzzy. He's not a young man any more...

Terii

 

OMG! As our local weatherman would say, "It's another AB day." AB stands for Absolutely Beautiful. And yes it is!!

65 degrees, sunny, light wind. Didn't have much time so only rode 10 miles which I combined with 7.8 miles on my stationary recumbent bike yesterday.

Going out of town for rest of week so no riding. Next week should be gorgeous here again. I am psyched!!!

This is PERFECT riding weather. Get out and ride and let us know how you are doing!!!

 

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A blog post of Sunday's ride with quite a few pictures of manor houses and scenery. Also an Iron Age grave yard, a runestone, and a lovely, round, 'fortress' church.

I also like the picture of the 1965 Triumph. Beautiful little car!

Since I use my blog more like a diary for all things I consider cycle related, I gave a rather detailed rundown of Monday's scary events with Loke's medical emergency. That starts a bit below the picture of a perky Loke at the end of Sunday's ride.

https://terii.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/another-hundred-sundays/

Terii

 

Today was the second ride since Loke's emergency surgery. So, managing at least 1 a week so far. That does give me enough mileage to make the 'minimum needed per week' to beat the 1000 mile goal and then some.

The ride last week was about 12 miles as I rolled through Uppsala.

The ride today was 9.45 miles which was a shorter roll through the town again, trying to beat the 4:01 pm sunset. Still, I'm glad Jens made it a home a bit early so I could go out while he was home with the furball.

About halfway Into The Ride, I noticed that one of my tires was doing a slight 'whump-whump-whump'. Thought it might have been the surface I was rolling over when it first came to my attention, but when it continued after made a turn, I realised it was the tire. Watching it, I thought there was a slight wobble to it.

I'd decided months ago that this would be the last year for those Marathon Racers. They _are_ the ones that came with the trike after all.

With studded tires nearly impossible to find (or even non-studded 20" ROAD tires), I thought it was a good time to swing by the awesome bike shop to see if they'd mind ordering what I needed. The owner was in and he said it was no problem though the tires wouldn't be in until next week at best.

He went out to check which size I had and he found that the tread was completely gone in one area. The rubber looked shredded right down to what I'm guessing is a kevlar lining. Amazing I'd not gotten a flat or a burst.

It got me home, but this means that no riding to run Loke over the weekend after he gets his stitches out tomorrow.

When tires do come in, I'll be dropping the trike off to get some work done and probably have them do the tire swap then. Not like I'll be riding on that tire between then and now.

Terii

 

Glad it didn’t pop! That’s the Kevlar layer beneath the rubber.​

Got the cycle worked on today.

The original plan was to get the work done with the tires I ordered came in since I wasn't going to be riding on shredded looking rubber. That was complicated by discovering that the place's workshop was going to be closed for the rest of the week as they move it to another section of the store.

It felt easier to get the work done while they were still open and before they had 5 days or more of backlog and just swap the tires myself when they came in. So, yesterday, I arranged it.

This morning, I limped the trike to the shop, tire wrapped with duck tape in the hopes that the rubber would hold together. It did! Awesome FIL picked me up from the shop and took me home.

I had them cross-wire the front brakes to help give me better control when wrestling with a crazed husky on icy roads. I'll be able to brake the right wheel while hanging on to his harness. Also had them put in cable oilers for when/if it gets cold and snowy. Been crazy warm for November.

A couple hours later, the mechanic called to say that my winter tires hard arrived. He wanted to know if he should put them on and hope for snow soon since the current tires were so bad. When I asked, 'Aren't you supposed to ride a few miles on paved surfaces to set the studs solid in the rubber?' He sounded surprised I knew that, so on went the tires.

That meant I could give Loke a bit more of a run than direct from shop to garage. That was good since he was so aggravated with the slow and short roll from garage to shop, his first outing since Oct 18th.

FIL gave me a ride back to the shop about 3:30 pm. Got rolling from the shop just as the SUN was setting. Had my lights so rode around the dark for 7.3 miles. Loke loved it. He was a little speed machine.

It was cold. I had no thermals on. It went from 44 F when I left the shop to 32 F. I've decided I'm not a fan of riding around Uppsala in the dark. If I'm riding at night, I want it to be out in the snow-blanketed countryside with a full moon. Had such a headache when I made it back to the garage.

I was surprised with how I felt. Since October 18th, I've only ridden 3 times. I felt surprisingly strong. Climbing the little hills around here felt almost easy which I did not expect with chunky studded tires.

It's good to get back into riding again. The past week has been rough as I've discovered that it's the frequent cycling that seems to be pushing back my post-stroke neuromuscular pain. The 2 or 3 months before Loke's surgery, I've been feeling pretty 'pre-stroke' normal. The past 2 weeks, I've been having episodes of the muscle pain with increasing frequency.

I feel a little better even just from the 8 miles today so, I'd better keep it up!

Terii

 

Terii,

Great news about your trike, Luke and you!

 

Was out of town all weekend for work so I took Wednesday off. Went for a ride in the Smoky Mountains. Had fog in the morning but burned off by 9:30.

23.5 miles

Leaves are just past peak. Took this attached picture from my ride. East Tennessee is a great place to ride!!!

 

Wow, nice photo. I didn't get to go in the mountains to see the leave peak. I was in Ky for a bit and got to see them peak there. Very nice.