My Most Recent Ride 2013 (Part VI in a series)

Ward,

You are a MACHINE!!!

 

Ward,

You are a MACHINE!!!
__________________
--Jon

I agree with you Jon, he is one of the athletes I spoke of in my earlier post! I'm glad there are bent riders out there who can excell like this.

 

Thanks guys, but It's just the greyhound brain. My legs are pretty strong early this year thanks to riding my singlespeed MTB. Riding dirt/mud/soft sand roads with climbs up to 11% grade and only one gear forces you to increase your power output or fall over

I look forward to getting the Cheetah out once it gets a bit warmer.

 

Made it out the door for another ride today. Jens had a morning meeting at the office, but came home around lunch time to take the rest of his phone meetings. That meant he was able to carry the trike out for me and spare my fragile knee the repeated running up and down the apartment stairs.

I've been a bit moody about the news of Loke's arthritis and when he started limping last night like his right shoulder was bothering him, made me a little more melancholy.

But as soon as we started rolling, he seemed fine. He was excited enough to yodel and sing at me to hurry up. His speed was still down from how he was before this whole toe thing, but still up from his first run post surgery. Not a sign of a limp.

A beautiful day. Utterly cloudless and barely any wind at all. Warm enough my gears didn't freeze! At least not until I was about 1 mile from home which I guess means the temperature must have taken a dip. I started out with my 200 g wool top and my soft-shell windbreaker, but had to take the windbreaker off. My toes were fine, snugged in my shoes under the covers and the Hotronics set on 1. Even after the gear cable froze, I was still comfortable.

The outing would have been near perfect except Loke went from clipping along with no sign of difficulty to suddenly on 3 legs. It didn't last long, but then he was slightly limping the rest of the .5 mile home.

The total outing was roughly 7.5 miles. Except for the abrupt limping, it seems to be a perfect (for now) distance for Loke. He was still perky enough to play with his squeaky toy for a while before curling up on his pillow.

I saw my first pheasant of the year along the river and if I'd been using my Go-Pro, I would have had an amusing shot of ducks being stubborn about getting out of my way. Apparently someone had scattered food of some kind on the path.

Terii

 

Got to ride last Friday (finally!)

Did 30 miles from Coulter Bridge to GSMNP and back. I was sore all weekend. I haven't been riding and I can tell!!!!

But it was great to get out and enjoy the weather. Our weather has been rainy (we are 7 inches ABOVE normal right now) and COLD (for us).

Spring is in the air so my bike schedule should be picking up. We'll see.....

 

I got out for a short, windy, & warm 23 miles last Saturday with Don Sullivan. We tooled around the Knoxville free ways & out to Island Home Airport. The big St. Patties Festival in Market Square was in full swing.

Then went out for a faster warmer ride on Sunday around Jefferson & Hamblen counties. About 35 miles. Spring is in the air!

 

I've been using freemaptools.com to calculate mileage, but that site is down today. Is there another site with the same function? The number I get on a paper map is approximately 12 miles, but that doesn't include the detours that are too small for the scale of the map.

 

Map my ride

How about? http://www.mapmyride.com/

Or: http://ridewithgps.com/about

 

I use MapMyRide. It has two settings for the follow road for cars and pedestrians. Pedestrian will let you set the route on cycle paths which are on the map but closed to cars as well as draw on the standard roads. You can also turn off the 'follow roads' function and 'free hand' as it were.

Terii

 

Got out and started doing hills. Wow. It really hit me. I can tell two months of very little riding really slows me down.

But the weather was beautiful. Low 60s temp. Great ride on my trusty V Rex doing a greenway. Spring is here!!! Stuff is starting to bloom.

 

On another note, all East Tennessee riders, we have a bike Dogwoods Festival that includes a lot of biking this year. If interested in more information, click here.

 

Ooh, that Dogwood festival thing sounds interesting! I think even Jens could get in on that since he likes mountain biking and flyfishing.

Loke and I got out today. 5.86 miles in 27.5 F temps. Mix of SUN and cloud. Windy which was down right unpleasant though it didn't stop me from enjoying the ride.

Loke did great! Even acted a bit more like himself and didn't hobble, limp or hitch at all, except as we were turning into the home parking lot. I think he stepped on something. Other than that he just went clipping along like a normal dog. He pulled more too. Still not up to his old speed though. Stride still seems a little shorter than it should be which, as I've said before, could be arthritis.

A great improvement all the same!

We also met the cutest little pitbull puppy. 14 weeks old. She was so excited at seeing us, I slowed so I wouldn't risk running over her as she yanked around on the leash. Taking full advantage of my slowing and the fact I'm on a 'bent trike, she jumped right up, wiggled and bounced around as she alternated between slobbering on me with puppy kisses and and doing the 'open mouth dueling' with Loke with a few boxing moves thrown in. Nothing like having a 15 lb brick bounce around on your chest and stomach. Pitbulls are dense and solid as velvet covered rock from birth, I swear. Too adorable for me to seriously complain though!

Definitely a good outing and now Loke is stretched out on his back and snoring. Goof.

Terii

 

Sounds like a good ride. With spring now here, I am going to try and get out some too.

 

You are Great

Thanks Terii, you are great.

Took the love of my ride out yesterday with the group and did 13 miles.
Not bad at all with the green Greenspeed and 81 gears. Twenty mile
an hour winds, but warm in the 50's.

Nice reports you give. Thanks

 

Awww. Thanks, Buddy!

I'm glad to see other people starting to get some miles in. I feeling a little lonely back in January.

Jens got back home from a business trip around midnight last night so there was no chance he was going to wake in time to walk the furball before going to work this morning.

So, out the door Loke and I went again today. I didn't expect much more than a 3 miler being unsure of how he'd be feeling after yesterday's great outing.

I waited until around noon to go, I wanted it to be a little warmer than 23 F. Admittedly, with the Hotronics, I think 23 F is within the 'acceptable' limits of a ride even if not 'desirable'. The past few rides and the number of layers I've been using for 25 F to 27 F really showcase how much body heat I was losing through my agonized, freezing toes.

It was roughly 25.5 and stunningly clear. The wind was bitter and cruel though. Loke was fairly sedate starting out. He only gave one brief howling yodel, otherwise waited patiently for me to get my gloves on. He pulled into a run for less than 100 yards and settled into a quick trot.

He kept that respectable clip for the majority of the way as well as keeping the tether tight for the better part of 3 miles.

Now that we've come into March, the sun is actually quite warm. Yesterday had roughly the same temps, but a high haze reducing the amount of sunlight getting through as well as thicker clouds drifting around. No melt water at all. Today, everything is melting like crazy.

The wind only got worse once I got out of the area of our apartment. Those 3-4 story buildings block quite a bit of wind. Houses and fields less so. A few times, my trike gave a high pitched whine with the wind whipping around the squared edges of my pannier rack. The mask became a necessity too though maybe it was because my cheeks were still a bit RAW from yesterday's ride.

Any way. Loke and I made it home with 6.95 miles, more than I expected. He didn't seem tired or sluggish though he did have a few limping steps along the way and tripped a few times. A nice ride.

I think tomorrow will be a rest day though.

Terii