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| Tales from the Woods |
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| 05-03-2009 |
 Softly climbing |
Dry evening so I went out for a ride on the road. Started out over Egenhoven , Bertem and Leefdaal. There was a nasty northwester blowing and even though it was 8 degrees C it felt cold, especially on the plateaus. I was incorporating a bit of climbing into my long slow distance ride to spice things up a bit. Out of Leefdaal and then all the way to Duisburg and Eizer. I spotted an 18% climbing sign on my left so I had to check it out. Turned out to be a 20% climb so I had to dig deep with my 12-23 cassette in the back. This road led me towards a dirtroad which dropped me nicely into Huldenberg. Here I had to climb the inevitable Smeyberg - I chose the long climb, not the steep one - and then I could thunder down into Terlanen. Another long climb led me towards Ottenburg and from there I rode towards Pecrot where another couple of steeps climbs upped my heighmeter count considerably. In all I had a fine ride, with an average heartrate of 119 bpm which made it sound as if it was a breeze. Well, apart from the climbs it was. I did not force the issue during the climbing, concentrating on a supple rhythm except for the 20% thing where I had to switch into power mode just to make it.  Ride Stats : 55.5K and 535/570 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h29mins1415/11090
05-03-2009, 19:44 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 04-03-2009 |
| recovery |
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A very easy and relaxed ride to get rid of the tiredness in my legs. Felt better after the ride, which is always a sign it has done its work. Another chapter in my Templar book and Life singing its V album on my MP3 player. Outside there was a hint of rain and a lot of wind but otherwise not too cold, with temps of around 8-9 degrees C.
Ride Stats : 10.5K in 30mins
1359/10555
04-03-2009, 17:11 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 03-03-2009 |
| 3 Overijse Bloso's and something extra |
Another dry day, so I left early at work to be able to do my intended ride. Ride up to St Agatha Rode and pick in on the Overijse 2 Valleien Bloso routes. I usually do some extra climbing when I'm doing these, and today was no exception. For those who never rode the Overijse Bloso, I can really recommend them. A good mixture of hills, descents and flat sections. Some of the hills are pretty steep and there are a couple of descents where you better keep your eyes open, they are steep and with some nasty surprises in the form of ruts, gulleys or rooty steps. All the hills were perfectly ride-able today. The condition of the trails was perfect. I incorporated a couple of extra climbs around Ottenburg and finished off with a bit of fun in Sint Agatha Rode Bos. I lost my way - or should I say the trail, and had to descent through the forest. The steepness was 24% which is quite a lot in the loose rubble of leaves, branches and other roots. But I made it down to the trail and could continue for a couple of extra climbs on tarmac. The 27% Nieuwe Laan is only around 20% but I descended that one, having taken the parralel climb coming out of the forest from Tombeek. My legs felt good today and I had a good workout, arriving home after a last couple of trails in Meerdael Forest just when dusk was setting in. The bike was fine but the WTB Weirwolf tyres felt a bit over-inflated, especially on some of the cobbles sections. But I left them because I didn't want to risk a flat tyre with the night closing in. I even managed to make some pictures along the way. Pity the forecast for the next days seems to be calling for rain and colder temps. I already saw some Easter flowers pushing through in a secluded berm, basking in the sun and out of the wind. Ride Stats : 56K and 820/805 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 3h20mins1349/10555
03-03-2009, 20:33 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 01-03-2009 |
| 3 Bloso's Meerdael |
Another beautiful day and even though my legs were tired from yesterdays' ride I didn't want to stay indoors. So I chose to do the 3 Meerdael BLOSO's one more time. The forest roads were rather surprisingly dryer than I expected and I could make good speed. I circumvened 3 notorious mud holes (next to the E-40 , the singletrack leading down to the tunnel under the E-40 and the track on the Red that runs parallel to the Naamsesteenweg) but the rest of the trail was moist but not wet. Lots of heavy machinery at work in the Nethen area which made some of the downhills a bit trickier than usual. When I stopped next to the Savenel walls I saw some bikers who must have been following the organized ride starting in Archennes. In retrospect I might as well have done that one but I suspect that my legs would have suffered a lot more on the many uphills that ride offers. For now it was just enough with a bit more than 500 heightmeters. I also noticed - for the first time - how tall the Dikke Eik really is. Someone mentioned to me a while back you could see it standing out amidst its peers when you pass along the Hamme Mille fields, just before the Ferme des Biches. I took a picture of it and there is another one, taken during the summer, on this website. I had a good week, with 262K and 1725 heightmeters and - according to my Polar - 8000 burnt kilocalories.Ride Stats : 57K and 535/562 heightmeters in 3h1292/9735
01-03-2009, 18:25 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 28-02-2009 |
| 3 Forest Ride |
Felt like doing a big ride today. The weather forecast looked good - dry with a hint of sun , no wind and temps going over 10 degrees C. The Litespeed Obed was my chosen weapon for today. I started out through Meerdael Forest towards the Zoete Waters and further on to Korbeek Dyle. There I climbed up the ridge looking out over Bertem and made my way towards Leefdaal and Duisburg. In Duisburg I entered the Sonian Forest, and the next 15K or so would see me ride towards the Middenhut and the Zonienwoudlaan in Rode St Genesse. My first stop here to make a picture of the two wooden folk sitting on a bench. I would have liked to sit myself next to them but I couldn't find a suitable spot to put my camera to make that picture. Next time I must ask one of the passer-bys to make that picture. The weather was - as promised - very clement as I rode the Zonienwoudlaan towards Dworp. Here I made my way towards the outskirts of the Hallerbos. I entered this forest an made a big loop through it. But first time for a little snack at a hide-out and some more pics.
I now made my way towards the other side of the forest, coming back alongside Colipain. Then I rode out of the forest on the road parallel to it, to drop down over the cobbles from hell alongside the Zevenbronnen Castle wall. These cobbles must be ridden to believe how bad a road can be. Luckily in this direction its downhill but they still are dangerous enough to trip the unexpecting biker off of his bike. Care must be taken, especially where to touch the brakes. Next to the Sept Fontaines lakes and I was back on my way upwards towards Dworp and Sint Genesius Rode. On my way back I made an extra loop into the Sonian Forest - forever thanks to Moster Blonde who taught me all these little loops - towards the 3 Fontaines. There I chose to ride alongside the busy highway towards Jezus-Eik. Here I could enter the forest again, along the Kapucijnendreef where I had a second rest stop to have a little snack and, you guessed it, make a couple of pictures.
After Duisburg I made a little extra loop over Leefdaal - adding a climb - and then made my way back over the small tarmac roads towards Korbeek Dyle. I had a good ride and I felt very strong throughout the entire ride. The two snacks must have helped. I would have liked to do some more tracks in Hallerbos but the forest itself was still very wet, and there were a lot of forestry works with fallen timber and big gullies from the machines. The roads in the Sonian Forest were a lot more rideable, as usual, but not entirely dry yet. Still, dry enough for me.
When I arrived home I was very glad to have done my first 90k+, 4h+ ride of the year.Ride Stats : 93K and 775/785 heightmeters in 4h21mins
1236/9200
28-02-2009, 00:00 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 27-02-2009 |
| More recovery |
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Took a day off from work today but sadly the weather let me down. Light rain and drizzle, nothing much left but to haul my ass up the rollers and do a recovery ride. Read some more on the demise of the Templars and listened to Rammstein on the MP3 player. By the time I got off the rollers things looked like they were drying out. OK, so maybe tomorrow a long one. In any case todays' ride has not left me robbed of a lot of energy.
Ride Stats : 22K in 1h
1143/8425
27-02-2009, 14:59 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 25-02-2009 |
| Active Recovery |
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An hours ride on the rollers, warming up for 10K and then riding around 29kph for the rest of the hour. Legs felt a bit tired but the ride went fine nevertheless. Had a medley of Rammstein running on the MP3 player which got me through the hour rather nicely.
Ride Stats : 26K in 1h01mins
1121/8425
25-02-2009, 18:56 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 24-02-2009 |
| Smeysberg |
This evening I wanted to ride to the Smeysberg. Initially to see how fast I could ride on the downhill. At work we had a discussion about top speeds on a bike and I know that on a good day with no wind and with with fast tyres I could get 75-80kph on the 17% downhill into Huldenberg. So I set out to see how fast it would go today. Obviously since I was there I took advantage to make it a good climbing training. I rode up every side of the hill and then some other climbs in nearby Neerijse to put the icing on the cake. According to my Polar my top speed on the first of two downhills was 70.5kph, according to my Cateye the top speed was 73kph and according to the Garmin Edge 705 I got 67kph on the first pass and 68kph on the second downhill. I am inclined to believe the Garmin. The Garmin also indicated that the climb gradient of the road parallel to the Smeysberg is 17%, what I am inclined to believe as well. I then rode towards Neerijse where I added a couple of extra climbs before returning over SInt Joris Weert and Zoete Waters. I had my Lumicycle HID light again on the bike , light which has a new bulb and shines as bright as ever. I included a picture of the dreaded Smeysberg, seen from the Sint-Jan-Bergse Steenweg in Huldenberg. The fact that you see it lying in a straight line before you like that is enough to grab your chest tight if you have to tackle it by bike from this side. The steepest bit is a 17 degree angle and it climbs from 35 metres at the bottom towards 95 metres at the top in about 1 kilometer.
Ride Stats : 40K and 415/432 heightmeters in 1h47mins
1095/8425
24-02-2009, 20:10 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 22-02-2009 |
| recovery |
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Today I only felt like doing an easy recovery session on the rollers, flush out the legs so to speak. With Rainbow and Nightwish on my MPS3 player and a good book about the demise of the Templars in the 14th century time passed quickly. Outside it was raining.
Ride Stats : 15K in 41mins
1030/8010
22-02-2009, 17:58 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 21-02-2009 |
| Lasne and Céroux |
A dry day so I rode out for a long ride. I wanted to ride up to Céroux so I started out over Sint Joris Weert towards Terlanen and Tombeek. From there the Bergstraat took me upwards in the direction of Maleizen. From Maleizen it is only a short ride down towards Genval and its lake. Here the fun was about to begin. This area is very hilly with lots of small rivers that have eroded deep valleys. So to get from one town to another usually involves climbing out of one valley and descending into the next. Before long I was in Lasne and from there on I tried to find my way towards Céroux. Not a lot of indications - although in Lasne every street, ruelle and alley is named - but I figured riding into the Rue d'Ottigies would get me in the general direction I wanted to go. Whilst climbing out of Lasne towards Chapelle Saint Lambert I could spot the Waterloo Lion on its butte on the horizon. Up on the crest I rode towards Ottignies and had to conquer another valley before being able to see Ottignies and Wavre in the distance. I spotted a cycling road marked with Céroux and decided to follow that. And indeed, after an initially nice road I ended up on a bumpy cobble track spewing me out on the road from Ottignies to Céroux. The same road I followed yesterday when I rode towards the Team Presentation event. Riding into the centre, taking a couple of pictures and then turning back towards Ottignies and Wavre. I stumbled upon the Maleizen tour markings and followed those into Limal. I couldn't resist the very steep climb along the Rue de Marechaux - it says 20% but my GPS said 21% - and then dropped back down again to ride around the Walibi area and then climb towards Bierges. The climbs were beginning to make my legs hurt. After Bierges I rode towards Rosieres and entered Tombeek again. Here I left the Maleizen tour and made a loop over Ottenburg and Pecrot to reach Nethen and Hamme Mille. I had a good ride, very hilly but the weather, although overcast, was clement with 7 degrees C average and no wind to speak of. Ride Stats : 81.5K and 760/792 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 3h50mins1015/8010
21-02-2009, 17:47 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 20-02-2009 |
| RVCO Blancs Gilets Team Presentation |
This evening was the press presentation of our club, taking place this year in the Salle Jules Ginion in Céroux-Mousty, a quiet village just south of the language border. Our new club is a fusion of the Vélo Club Blancs Gilets of Grez-Doiceau, my club for 8 years now, and the Royal Vélo Club d'Ottignies, which is a more road-orientated club. This results in the Royal Vélo Club Ottignies Blancs Gilets - RVCOBG - the biggest club in Brabant Wallon, with 130 active competition riders. Me being one of them, I had to attend the presentation to receive my licence and also to have my picture taken - alone and with the group. My friend Roger accompanied me to the presentation and we had a good time, eating mussles in garlic sauce and enjoying the Teams' presentation. First the cadets and juniors were presented, then the Masters - me included - to finish off with the Elite Men and Women. The new club jersey has distinctive Swedish colors with Renault Group, Libert and KM10 being the head sponsors. The company was truly international because next to me was sat a Norske family, their little boy being the Norwegian champion. A nice touch was that the club had provided him with little Norway flags on his collar, the sign of the champion. Very friendly people who are in Belgium for 3 years and during that time their boy can continue racing bikes in our club. I made some pictures from the presentation - from the 10th row but still you can get a good feeling of what was going on.
I will post some pictures from the official presentation when they are published. I am very glad I attended this presentation, I had a good time and saw a lot of old acquaintances.
20-02-2009, 00:00 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 18-02-2009 |
| LF6 |
Took a day off from work to be able to do a long ride. This day promised to be the only dry day of the week so it was now or never. I decided to take it relatively easy and follow the LF6 , the Vlaanderen Stedenroute number 6. First I had to get to Hoegaarden and I looped over Hamme Mille and Tourinnes-la-Grosse towards Meldert and then further on to Hoegaarden. There I could follow the LF6 over Outgaarden, Laar and further on until I had about 2 hours and 43K on my counters. I took a 180 and rode back over the same quiet backroads towards Hoegaarden. There I took another way back home, bringing me to Meldert, Bierbeek and Haasrode. The average temperature was 4 degrees C but a nasty easterly wind made the ride a bit tough during the first part. But when I turned the sun came out and with the wind blowing in my back most of the time the ride back was relatively easy. Nevertheless I felt tired and satisfied when I arroved home, a good long slow distance ride in relatively good conditions.Ride Stats : 87K and 550/535 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 3h56mins933/7250
18-02-2009, 16:57 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 14-02-2009 |
| Haasrode Tour |
Today saw the return of the sun and with temps of around 0 degrees and a sharp northerly wind I set out for a ride along the tracé of the Haasrode Tour. This road ride loops over Haasrode, Willebringen, Hoksem, L'Ecluse, La Bruyere and Pietrebais and returns over Cocrou , Grez-Doiceau, Archennes, Pecrot and Nethen towards Sint Joris Weert and the Zoete Waters. In all a very nice ride along quiet roads. I took the opportunity to stop frequently and take some photographs with my new Sony DSC-W300. The size of the pictures is a whopping 4224x3168 pixels and around 4MB of data. Obviously this makes for a very good base on which to resize the pictures to a more portable format. I usually use 1280x960 but for this camera I will resize them to 1600x1200 whicj still yields a big picture but one which fits nicely onto any computer screen. I fiddled a bit with the various options and found the various Scene recognition modes very interesting to work with. The camera recognizes some predefined scenes - like landscape, counterlight or portrait - and adjusts shutterspeed and diafragma accordingly. I also chose the color rendition to be natural, a bit less saturated than the normal Sony color rendition. What I found so far is that the camera is pretty easy and straightforward to use, and also very fast to start up and acquire focus. Something that might come handy when speed is of the essence, like in capturing wildlife. Some pictures from todays' ride :
Ride Stats : 72k and 555/534 (Polar/Garmin) heightmeters in 3h16mins
846/6700
14-02-2009, 00:00 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 13-02-2009 |
| Sony DSC-W300 |
A wet, cold and dreary day, so I stayed indoors to have a nice recovery ride on the rollers. Rammstein and Guns and Roses to keep me company and a book about the demise of the Templars to waste the best part of a hour. My legs felt fine and fresh. I hope to be able to ride out tomorrow.I took possession of a new camera today, a nice and shiny Sony DSC-W300. The last year or so I have been making many pictures during my rides with my Sony-Ericsson K850i GSM and even though the 5MP pictures aren't bad they just didn't live up to the high standards I am used to. Obviously no pocket camera can touch my Nikon D2X but the 4MP Sony DSC-P9 still delivered better pictures by far than the K850i. It just is a bit too heavy and cumbersome to take along. Thats why - when I had to get a new GSM - I chose the K850i because it also sported a 5MP camera. But other than in very bright conditions I feel the K850i delivers pictures that are a bit flat and have also a lot of chromatic abberations. The lens is very tiny and just can't compete with dedicated pocket cameras like the DSC-P9 and the DSC-W300.
So I went looking for a new and better Sony , preferably lighter and smaller than the DSC-P9. When I came upon the titanium-covered DSC-W300 and checked out the reviews it got I was quickly convinced to order one . I also ordered a 4Gb memory card and a strong carrying pouch. The DSC-W300 is smaller and lighter than the DSC-P9 and with a whopping 13.6MP it even offer a higher resolution than my D2X. The Carl Zeiss lens should guarantee crisp pictures but obviously that remains to be seen. I will have to familiarize me with the myriad of functions - dismissing the superfluous, finding the necessary - and it will keep me company on rides to come. I took a little picture of it with my DSC-P9 so you get an idea of what it looks like. Ride Stats : 26K in 1h01mins774/6145
13-02-2009, 19:47 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 11-02-2009 |
| Cold and Wet |
The weather was dry with a cold wind blowing from the northwest when I rode out for a short road ride. Starting out through the Weertsedreef towards Sint Joris Weert and Nethen, then making my way towards Hamme Mille and Tourinnes-La-Grosse. It started raining, or at least it looked like rain, it might have been wet snow as well since it was cold and wet. When I came into Beauvechain I turned towards Opvelp. Over the high plain I could feel the wind getting stronger and it also started to rain/snow a bit more . In Opvelp, turning towards Bierbeek, I began to feel the full force of the wind and I understood the last 10K or so were going to be tough. The rain was now falling moderately hard, but the wind made it feel like a real sleet storm was blowing into my face. In Bierbeek I passed a girl on a bike without any lights. Stupid girl, she was hardly visible. If it wasn't for the rain I would have lingered a bit and ride next to her because there was nothing wrong with my illumination. Bright up front and sufficient in the back. But she couldn't follow my pace and I rode on towards Haasrode and Blanden. I was glad to be home, my bike - freshly cleaned- was again spattered with mud and salt. Oh well, its winter isn't it. But its still sad to see an hours worth of cleaning go down the drain in just a few minutes. At least it WAS clean before it got dirty.
Ride Stats : 32K and 200/208 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 1h28mins
748/6145
11-02-2009, 20:07 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 10-02-2009 |
| Another Tacx workout |
I downloaded another Tacx workout program to keep me busy indoors while outside rain and wind were making things too nasty for any biking plans I might have had. The program was a combination of strength and longer intervals, making it rather tough. I cut some of the intervals in half to make it more feasible. Still it gave me a very good workout. The program is still downloadable from the Tacx website through this link. I include the polar readout. The red dots mark the several sections of the training. As you can see the speed in general was pretty low, but the focus was on pushing a big gear with moderate rpm. Also the recovery sections are only 1 minute in length through the bulk of the program. Sections 6, 8 and 10 are the tough ones with section 12 being another heavy one with alternations of a 1 minute standing power sections and sitting down for a 1 minute recovery section. You can see this on the speed graph. Section 13 is a recovery section and section 14 is another tough one with 2 minute intervals on the big ring with a 50, 60 and 70 rpm 2 minute section. I was glad this one was over. After that, a 10 minute cooldown got my heartrate nicely down to 117bpm. Ride Stats: 29K in 1h25mins716/5945
10-02-2009, 19:31 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 07-02-2009 |
| Climb-it |
The weather was overcast with a chance of rain so I decided to ride out and have a bit of a climbing session. No offroad, the rain and snow from last week have left the fields and forest wet and difficult to ride. Instead I opted to follow more or less the trail of the 30K BLOSO route which starts in Heverlee and goes over Blanden, Sint Joris Weert, Sint Agatha Rode, Neerijse and Egenhoven. But obviously I had to add a bit of extra to that loop, focussing on climbing sections . A lot of extra as it turned out. I ended up with nearly 60K and more than 600 heightmeters. A fine succession of little climbs along smaller roads adding up to a nice workout . My bike, the Hilset custom Ti that has been my loyal companion on these road rides since May 2005, suffered another layer of muck and grime along these small tarmac roads often used by farmers to ride to their fields . But the bike can take it. It is quickly approching the 15000K mark In fact I would like to offer it a little hommage by posting some pictures I took somewhere along the ride today. Its built with fine components and the only thing I had to change in all these years were the bearings of the Tune titanium bracket and the LX front derailleur shifter that got stuck solid last year.
Ride Stats : 56K and 615/597 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h38mins653/5650
07-02-2009, 14:52 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 04-02-2009 |
| Dirty and wet |
A dry day today, but it was misty, cold and damp when I rode out into the dusk. There was still snow in the fields and the main roads were glistening with salt and very dirty. I set out for a long slow distance ride along Heverlee, Oud-Heverlee and Korbeek Dyle. From there I climbed into the snow-covered fields steaming with wisps of fog. Over Bertem and Leefdaal my path brought me towards Neerijse and further on into Sint Agatha Rode. Darkness had fallen completely now as I rode towards Pecrot and Nethen to finish off my loop riding into Hamme Mille and back through Meerdael forest. The average temperature was a frisky zero degrees C and the damp conditions made it feel colder than normal. Good thing I went out though because the rest of the week should see the return of rain before the temperatures should drop below zero again towards sunday. Ride Stats : 40K and 335/347 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 1h55mins597/5035
04-02-2009, 19:30 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn Gastenboek. /
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