Today I got a mail from Filip Sport concerning the build of my Moots Psychlo-X. The last parts are being sourced and he should receive the custom-length Sapim CX spokes any day now. He had to wait to order them because getting the 28-hole front DT Swiss Dt240S hub and RR465 rim took some time in getting delivered. But I should get the bike in time to start riding it next year. My hand is slowly healing and I feel the strength coming back and the pain slowly subsiding. This evening saw me on the Tacx Satori again. Dog-weather outside with heavy rain and gusty wind so I didn't feel like I missed much by cycling indoors. I kept the resistance on the first position and concentrated on spinning the pedals fast and supple.
I had a bit of a rough night because my stomach was playing up. Had to take an Imodium tablet to ease the moving bowels. When I got home from work I felt a lot better and I decided to get another Tacx Satori ride under my belt. Took it easy on the speed but decided to put the resistance in the second notch. This upped my heartrate and gave my legs a nice workout.
I played with the idea of inserting a resting day but in the end I decided I might as well get an easy ride in, getting on the Tacx Satori with my Kindle. I started 'Quick Fixes', another Repairman Jack novel. This one consists of several short stories, some of which featured in the longer novels in one for or another. Settling down for some music as well the hour passed quickly.
Another hour of Tacx Satori effort. I neared the 500K mark with this ride, for the 12th successive ride in as many days. I finished my Repairman Jack novel and continued with the last installment of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles. The e-book version of Stephen R.Donaldsons' "Against All Things Ending". Not as easy a read as F.Paul Wilsons' work but I need to get in the flow of this majestic epos again. Whilst I'm doing just that, the kilometers disappear behind me on the Tacx.
This evening saw me on the Tacx Satori again. I decided to turn up the resistance a notch and see how far my legs would go. As it turned out they went all the way. After an hour I dropped the resistance down to 1 and had a cooldown bringing my heartrate back to normal levels.
A dreary and wet sunday morning. Still feeling the exercises from yesterday I decide to settle for a Satori ride. A good hour long at a steady pace. Gradually the pain and stifness disappear from my legs and a good warm bath afterwards offers a very welcome relaxation.
Today saw me up bright and early for a refreshing Winter Forest Walk. Some 13.1K of it, taking me about 2h21 to finish. When I got home I changed into my cycling gear and got on the Tacx Satori for another hour of steady recovery training. The combination hurt a little at first but it got better when my legs absorbed the kilometers, staying on low resistance, concentrating on pushing the pedals in a smooth pattern.
The first real snow fell this morning, but not as much as forecast. Still I opted to stay home and work from there. After work and passing by Liesbeth, my friendly hairdresser, I got on my Hilset on the Tacx Satori for another hours' worth of pedalling and reading . Got a solid 40K in and was pleased with that and the way my legs felt. 9 days in a row now so I figure I will need a days' rest soon.
With a lot of snow forecast for the coming night and day I am glad I can keep indoors and cycle on the Tacx Satori. Speeding along at low resistance and reading chapter after chapter on my Kindle. Slowly trying to get into shape again, the hand keeps feeling stronger each day, but progress is slowly. Hope to be able to ride out again by the beginning of 2013.
Another day, another Satori ride. Not much to say unless that I still keep it low on the resistance, concentrating on an hours' fast pushing the pedals around. This yields nice average speeds :)
Got on the Tacx Satori again for another easy recovery ride. Easy in terms of resistance, still on the first notch. But the speed was way up there, on the biggest gear for 20 minutes I easy reached speeds over 41kph. This translated into a high average speed. Went over the 10000K mark this workout. Pity the heightmeters for 2012 will stay stuck at 84190. One of my yearly goals is to reach the 100000 mark but with the non-existent month of november and the fact that I still can not ride outside for a while more does not add up to them.
Windy, cold and wet outside but I couldn't care less because I was set for another indoor Tacx ride. I completed an hour and decided to add 15 more minutes. The ride went well, I left the resistance low but concentrated on pushing the biggest gear which made for a nice distance @ a super average speed. I was glad to see my average heartrate stay down at 119bpm, which is a definite improvement on last weeks' first couple of rides, indicating my body is adapting to the stress of the workouts.
The first snow of the winter fell this night and in the AM I decided to go out for a walk in Meerdael Forest. It turned out to be quite muddy but the views of the small layer of whiteness on the open spaces was beautiful. I did a loop of 10.2K and was very pleased with that. After seeing Sven Nys win his umpteenth Cyclocross World Cup I got on the Tacx Satori for an hours' worth of recovery riding. Setting a good pace with the resistance low . My legs felt fine and I could keep the speed up .
I'm trying to get a rhythm going. Another hour on the Tacx Satori. The legs felt tired but quickly settled in the rhythm of the movement. I kept the resistance on 1 throughout the entire ride, allowing for speeds to go up towards 40kph near the end, riding on my longest gear. Reading F.Paul Wilsons' Nightworld on the Kindle. The book that ends the Adversary and Repairman Jack series. It's a throatgrabber.
Another ride on the Tacx Satori. Finished one e-book and started another. Today I did a full hour. Legs felt fine and the ride went very swift. Only moderate resistance on the Tacx. Easy does it.
I felt elated when I got off the Satori . I had just my first cycle ride in over a month. Since I injured my hand and wrist I had suffered a long recovery and have yet to regain enough strenght to ride a bike in the outdoors. So I severed the knot and got a Tacx Satori which was delivered today. Having assembled it I put the Hilset on it and began cycling. My legs felt surprisingly good after the long lay-off and I could up the resistance whilst keeping my heartrate in the 125 bpm range. A great feeling to feel the blood pumping through the quadriceps and feel the tension on all my leg muscles.
4 weeks after my fall on that woorden bridge in the Doode Beemde it is time to evaluate how the healing process is coming along. The first week was spent in a cast. After the cast came off my hand was swollen and red but most of the swelling and coloring was rapidly disappearing and after 3 weeks all that was left was painful joints and some minor swelling. All the fingers are functioning well and making a fist is easy. But I am far from healed. The pain when I move my fingers to the side is still numbing. The swelling is still there and will be there for some time to come. Getting on a bike and cycling outside is a far dream.
Lucky that the weather is deteriorating towards winter but the will to cycle is great. So far I have been doing forest walks in the weekends, netting around 20-25K and that keeps me busy and with a feeling that I am at least doing something. Since cycling outside would cause too much pain - and the risk of falling again before everything is healed - I have decided to get on the rollers. My old rollerbank is worn and does not fit modern bikes. So I just ordered a TACX Satori from Chain Reaction Cycles . That way I can cycle without putting any unnecessary strain on my wrist and hand. Looking forward to receiving it and start to cycle !!
This evenings' ride turned out to be quite short. It had rained a bit an the forest trails were wet. I decided to ride to the Doode Beemde, a marsh near Sint Joris Weert but when I was riding through it on an elevated corduroy road, my front wheel slipped in a light turn and there I went. Bike fell into the water, me I fell on my left side, luxating tree fingers of my hand. After pulling the fingers back into place, I rode home, cleaned up and went to the Hospital. There they put me in a cast to help my hand recover. The good news being that nothing was broken.
Got a flu shot this morning and I left work around 2pm. Arriving home the weather was very inviting so I took the Big Bad Wolf out for a mixed ride. Starting out over Bierbeek and then riding towards Opvelp where I tried to ride straight through the fields towards Meldert . All went well until I came to a dead stop past the Remmelenbos. There was no way through, fields all around , only one option to the right. Following that I came back where I had been a while ago, so I effectively rode a loop around the Remmelenbos. Taking the tarmac towards Meldert and then riding into L'Ecluse . Past L'Ecluse and La Bruyere I came on the N240 where I took a right towards the N91 which I followed until just before Hamme Mille where I took a field road again down to Valduc. Up and down along the Naamsesteenweg and I was on my way to Blanden. The weather was fine with an average temperature of 21 degrees C.
25 degrees C when I was riding home from work. Hard to believe it is the 22nd of October and that we are in Belgium. When I got home I got a nice surprise package from the Assos Campionissimo team. A white Worksmannschaft jersey and matching socks. Had to try it out immediately and enjoy the fantastic fit those Assos garments offer. I decided to go out for a real mountainbike ride so I straddled the Litespeed Obed. I inflated the tyres to 2 bars and set out on the Green Meerdael Bloso route. The trails were moist but not wet. The warm temperatures felt good and I made good progress. I noticed the pressure in my Fox RLT80 could use a couple of psi more but decided to leave it that way to counter the pressure in the tyres. When I came to the Zoete Waters I took the Blue Bloso into the Kouterbos and finished my loop back to Blanden through the military compound. I went for an extra loop over Vaalbeek to cool down along the O.L.Vrouwstraat. The bike performed flawlessly with its new bottom bracket and I enjoyed the smooth shifting of the XTR equipment. When I arrived home the 25 degrees had already dropped to a more mundane 15 degrees C but still with no wind to speak the dropping temperatures did not bother me much.
