This morning saw the temperature rise to just below zero. I rode out to do another snow-ride. Concentrating on incorporating a lot of little climbs and descends I made my way to Nethen and Pecrot for some extra heightmeters. The snow was still offering good grip, not too icy so I took some more technical tracks as well today. Obviously taking care not to fall. I encountered 4 bikers on a descent - for them, I was climbing - on the Blue Bloso. They went fast. I looped back to meet them again near the Savenel but I didn't see them. I hope that they did not go too fast. There were some nasty ruts on that downhill. After an hour and a half into the ride it started to snow. Gently at first but when I pointed the Moots into the direction of Mollendaalbos for a last series of climbs it was snowing moderately. A strong wind was howling though the trees as I neared the edge of the Meerdael Forest. Overlooking the plains towards Opvelp and Beauvechain it looked like a white-out situation. I saw 3 or 4 bikers struggling in the fields trying to make their way into the relative shelter of the forest. Perhaps they were the ones I encountered a while back, perhaps not. I did not wait for them , instead I rode towards the Brise-Tout forestry house to start the loop I did last monday. When I was riding from Bierbeek towards the forest I could hardly see where I was going due to the snow and the wind. Arriving home I had a good solid ride with lots of heightmeters. All while not exerting myself too much although my average heartrate was a rather hight 130bpm. Here are some pictures I took along the trails today.

My Polar S710 heartrate monitor is getting redundant. Unfortunately the only PC I was able to read out the exercise data with, went to silicon heaven yesterday. On my newer PC, sporting Windows Vista 32 bits, the USB interface sometimes works, but more often does not. Polar does not support the USB interface on Vista so it kinda "works as designed" . My PPC turns 64bits Vista and that doesn't work either. So I decided to get my a brand-new Polar RS800CX Multi . Sporting a GPS sensor I don't have to put a speed sensor on each of my bikes either. I just have to wear the GPS sensor. The IrDA interface will work flawlessly with the Windows Vista and I can incorporate almost 10 years of Polar Precision Performance workout data into the new Polar ProTrainer 5 software.

Ride Stats : 34K and 505/605 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h38mins

8648/93325

04-12-2010, 15:44 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf

Was about time I did a ride in the snow. Its early for this winter offensive but we might as well make the best of it. I rode out around 4pm with the sun already dropping down towards the western horizon. The snow quality was good , with my tires finding good grip. I even incorporated a couple of - no too - tricky descents where I had to be very careful not to slide or fall. Does wonders for ones' technical prowess. When I left the forest at dusk I saw a mist over the plains. When I entered it , it was icy cold. Temperature dropped to -5 degrees C and my instruments became unreadable with the moisture from the mist clinging to them and freezing. I leave you with a couple of pictures from this ride. The first ones still with the sun not completely gone. The picture of the mist was taken after dusk.

Ride Stats : 17K and 205/230 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 1h15mins

8614/92720

Some light snow falling as I rode out for a forest ride. The temperature was slightly below zero and it would remain there throughout the ride. I had an average of -3 degrees C. I wanted to do my Mollendaal loop a couple of times and while it was still light I did a good recon of the loop , remembering the tricky spots and laying a track in the fine layer of powdery snow. When darkness fell I knew where to ride.
I did the lap 5 times, netting 75 heightmeters more at each passage .  The trails were slightly frozen and I only had to take care on the cobbles when I descended into Bierbeek and coming at the end of the Weertsedreef. There are 2 climbs in this loop , the first one steep and short and the second one long and not too steep. I could keep my heartrate low at both climbs and when I returned home the snow was falling a little harder, drawing white stripes in the light of my Lupine Tesla 4. A good ride , I even would call it relaxing because my average heartrate was 116bpm with a max of 139bpm.

The picture was taken at the start of the ride, at the edge of the forest before descending into Bierbeek.

Ride Stats : 31K and 425/480 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 1h52mins

8597/92490

29-11-2010, 18:56 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf