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| Tales from the Woods |
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| 18-02-2007 |
 Maleizen 65K Tour |
Felt rather tired from yesterdays' ride so I decided not to risk another offroad adventure and instead opted for a long road ride. The Maleizen tour is just that. It starts in Maleizen and loops over Ottenburg, Grez Doiceau, Mont Saint Guibert, Corbais, Louvain la Neuve, Wavre and back to Maleizen. There are 3 distances ; 65K, 90K and 115K and they are marked by a yellow capital M with an arrow on top of it. I usually take the 65K version, since I got that memorized well which is a help because the arrowing on the streets begins to fade.
I managed to flatten again, this time I picked up a tiny pin which caused my rear tyre to slowly lose pressure. I couldn't find the hole this time, so I mounted a spare and moved on. Have to try and find the hole at home, otherwise the inner tyre is 'lost'.
Weather was not as warm as yesterday but I still averaged 9 degrees C so I'm not complaining.
Ride Stats : 76.5K and 695 heightmeters in 3h12mins
1537/10230
18-02-2007, 17:23 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 17-02-2007 |
| Foret de Soignes extraordinaire |
Wow, what a great ride I just had. The weather was awesome for this time of year; bordering around 12 degrees C or even more in the sun and out of the wind. It had been dry and warm-ish for a couple of days now and I had arranged to meet up with "Monster Blonde" (well , she IS a blonde but the Monster bit is not really true, on the contrary ! ) to do a ride in the Foret de Soignes.She hadn't been out with her bike this year - having done a lot of spinning classes and Gary Fisher powered Tacx Fortius roller rides - and for me it also was a while ago I had been in the FdS.
I really love to ride my bike over to this big forest just south of Brussels , do a loop or a combination of loops over there and then head back. This nets me at least a 3-hour ride and I love the forest no matter what time of year. At first, a few years back now, it was a bit of a maze to me, and because of its size, it is HUGE , I tended to get confused by all the trails , which all looked so alike. All the singletrails meandering from one place to the other all added to the confusion. But I have been out there with her many times before, and she DOES know this Forest inside out, having devized lots of loops for BigM , so I followed her , looked around and started to memorize the place, trying to form a picture (a map if you wish ) of it in my head and gradually feeling confident enough to venture out by myself, albeit with a real map in my back pocket, you never know when you DO get lost. There also is a great BLOSO trail out there, starting in Hoeilaart and always a good base track to fall back on.So, like I said, I rode to Tervuren and met up with her. She was eager to get out, and so was I. The trails were pretty much dry and the warm air and nice surroundings made the ride very enjoyable. The forest was pretty busy with walkers , bikers and horses. And of course a lot of loose dogs to watch out for. My companion was leading the way and at times I was surprised by her rushing off like a young fowl, leaving me to up a gear and trying to catch up with her. I also noticed she had gained a lot of strenght in the climbs, those indoor sessions are really paying off . I love to ride the trails with her, her pace is just right. She can go on for hours on end, and those long steady rides really suit me best. On top of that I think we both share the same respect and love of nature and a healthy curiosity to discover new stuff. Both just wanting to get 'out there' and follow the trails to wherever they may lead us. Some of these ventures have been almost magic.We took in quite a bit of hills, some swooping singletracks and also took the time to stop every now and then, having a sip of water/sportsdrink and enjoy the tranquility and the sheer beauty of the forest. Or watch a dog swimming playfully after a thrown stick in a pond near the Rouge Cloitre. Or look amazed as we notice there already are young canadian geese about at another pond. After 22K and just shy of 250 heightmeters we were back at our starting point. Lungs filled with the clean forest air and I'm sure both having enjoyed a very good ride. Thanks M.B. for this great ride !I still had to ride back towards Leuven, taking in a few trails on the way, even a little bit of the Green Meerdael loop before I got home.Ride Stats : 62K and 500 heightmeters in 3h06mins1460/9535
17-02-2007, 17:52 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 16-02-2007 |
| Power training |
Today needed me to do another power training on the rollers. With an outside temperature of nearly 15 degrees C it took a lot of inner pressure to keep me from getting on one of my bikes and ride outside. But I am giving my wrist one more day off, and training on the rollers lets you train and follow a set program with almost chirurgical precision. So I stayed in.
I got a Nikon SB800 flash delivered at home today (I ordered it yesterday at Digicamshop so these guys are lightning fast - my thanks to them)
I had been experimenting with an old SB24 I still have lying around from my F801S days but the results were not constant, the flash being unable to measure TTL with my much more recent Nikon D2X this left me with the only option to input all parameters manually. Lots of work and easy to make a mistake so why not unleash the full power of the D2X-SB800 combo ? So I got one and the first results were amazing. I feel much more confident now with regards to getting the pictures right at some upcoming mountainbike events.
The weather , wow, this almost feels like spring.. can't wait to do a long ride tomorrow where another warm day is forecast.
Ride Stats : 27k in 1h10mins
1398/9035
16-02-2007, 00:00 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 14-02-2007 |
| Good news and bad news |
Today I planned to do 2 hours on the rollers, the rain had been falling incessantly since this morning, and after taking half a day off at work I started my ride around 5pm.
2 hours is a long time to spend on the rollers and even though I was listening to some music from Ewa Sonnet, Hayumi Hamasaki and Anastacia (who I am just discovering and really like a lot - 'How come the world won't stop' really gives me shivers) and reading the last of my Conan novels and beginning with Sven Nys' autobiography, I still have a lot of time just to close my eyes and let my thoughts wander over the day.
Quickly my thoughts are invaded by a very good friend, who stands before a great task in life and today received some good news which will help her to gain confidence and security towards completing that task.
But I also link to another girl, who died last night in Malmö where she was found dead in her home at the age of 32. Tragic if you know that she also leaves behind a 4-year old daughter. The exact circumstances of her death are still uncertain.
Most of you won't know who Johanna Sällström, born Johanna Maria Berglund, is just by hearing the name.
But I think a bell will start ringing when I tell you she plays the role of Linda, the daughter of Kurt Wallander in the Swedish detective series "Wallander". I think about her for a long time, and in my minds' eye I see fragments of the series where she plays a woman amongst other things struggling with her feelings for a fellow policeman. Her character is being really delved out very deeply through the different films and is portrayed beautifully by this young actress who now has left us so abruptly .
I was shocked when I heard the news and I feel sad, both for her and for those she leaves behind. I commemorate her by inserting a little picture of her next to this text, which is linked to a bigger one taken when she was in Belgium for the Film Festival in Ghent last autumn.
Life is full of all these little facts that mean so much to some and so little to others , some good news, some bad news. Sherish the good news and deal with the bad news, that is perhaps the first lesson to learn when growing up.
At least in our minds we can stay children, just enough to be able to face it all.
Ride Stats : 50k in 2h04mins
1371/9035
14-02-2007, 00:00 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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