My most recent ride 2019 (part XII in the series)

Took the Lightfoot Quad out for an hour 1-7-19. Nice ride with the 26" X 4" wide tires at 10 psi, No shocks needed.

 

Yeah Buddy's Back!!! It is sooo nice to see you posting again and nice to know that you are still getting out and riding. Where have you been the past year??? Missed hearing of your adventures and rides and shenanigans...

 

Still riding every other day as weather permits ... 10 miles on Sunday, and another 6 this lunchtime, Although a pleasing mid-60F temperature, the wind today was very strong and gusty. Stopped and chatted today with several elderly couples who expressed interest in the thought of trike riding l A similar stop last week has resulted in the sale of my Trike-X to a retired lady Doctor from the Birchwood area, so now am riding just the Greenspeed X5 I acquired last Fall - a nippy li'l critter !

Tomorrow I have a long chat scheduled with a surgeon, so not sure how this will affect the riding schedule in the next month or two ... Sigh !

Fuzzy

 

I have never met Buddy but I did enjoy his postings. I am glad to see him back, too!

 

Fuzzy,
I hope your surgery goes well. Keep us posted.

 

Thanks Luv .... no date scheduled yet but looks like within the next couple of weeks ... fingers crossed ! Seems like I'm about to lose a few more body sections ... sigh !

Fuzzy

 

Hi all!

Yeah, I've been scarce. My rides have been few and far between. A lot of it has had to do with Loke. Feeling kinda like my plans are in abeyance until he... well, you know. He can't be left alone all day while I go pedalling around the countryside. Touring feels mostly out because I'm just leery that other people will be more relaxed with Loke's diet than I am and I'll get a call that he's back in the hospital and on the edge of death's door while I'm half a country away. Okay, so 'half a country away' doesn't have quite the same impact here in Sweden as in the US, but still.

A shame really. Since Christmas, I've lost over 10 LBS and my body has shifted shape thanks to all my time at the gym. The trike has gone from being an instrument of torment and agony with rides of more than 8 miles being rather like an eternity in hell, to being FUN. Nothing hurts except the occasion ache in the knee because I'm a bit too enthusiastic with my pedalling. No hip pain. No feet screaming. Feeling fairly strong and fitter than I've felt in ages. Oh, and the trike feels comfortable. Seriously, it feels like a well fitted glove rather than an ill-fitting one where I had the sensation of being kinda pushed out and perched on the edge of the seat no matter how I adjusted it.

I've squeezed in a couple rides in the past week or so which has been great. One of them was my old 14 mile Ulva Loop. It felt really good.

Hoping to get more rides in soon, but it will all depend on how much the hubby works from home during the week and whether I can convince Jens to spend at least one day of his weekend walking Loke so I can go for a long ride. And maybe, dare I hope, ride a rail-trail I found about an hour and a half west of here. It's only 14 miles long, but paved and somewhere I've not ridden before. An out-n-back would give me a good long ride with gentle grades.

Terii

 

Congrats on the weight loss. I could afford to lose a few pounds myself!

 

Well all .... had the surgery on Feb 6th ... quack removed a couple of cancerous tumours along with some 2 feet of my colon and a couple of dozen adjacent lymph nodes. Now slowly healing although they're keeping a couple of drain holes open in my belly to allow the inner incisions to heal first. On the bright side,(???), I've lost about 13# of weight albeit my calf muscles have shrunk to clothes-pin size - lol ! My oncologist tells me that I'll probably start on a course of tablet chemo-therapy within the next couple of weeks ... no word yet on when I can get back to trikeing ...

Fuzzy

 

If you're 6 weeks beyond surgery sounds like you're well down the road to recovery. No doubt a long way to go. We don't need all those pesky lymph nodes anyway. My wife had all but a foot of her colon removed several years ago (non-cancerous; it had just stopped working). She has coped with it quite well and is back to as normal as she should be under that condition. So we all hope for a great outcome for all youre recent slicing and dicing. Just pay attention to what doc tells you and don't do like I did and go off on my own & overdo it far too soon... (dang engineers; you can always tell them, but you can't tell them much).

 

Hi all!

The weather here has been a bit to and fro. One morning it was snow, then snow and sleet, then snow, sleet, and rain. A couple hours later, it was nearly 50 F and sunny. I guess winter is having a few hissy fits about going to bed until November or so.

Yesterday was chill in the morning and leaden gray, but enough above freezing I decided to pull on a couple layers and head out the door for a ride. I was hoping I wasn't going to regret not wearing my electric socks.

Loke did really good for a little bit and after 1.6 mile, I tucked him up back at home before darting out the door for a solo ride that would actually raise my heartrate a bit. I love the old furball, but riding with him is barely moving any more. At least, that's what my pulse tells me.

I sped off to drop something off with my in-laws and then zipped over to the mall to pop into Starbucks for some hot chocolate. A nice counter to the very slight chill I had. Not enough to be unpleasant or make me shiver, but just really appreciate that cocoa.

I had considered just going to the garage alone and walking back to the apartment, but Loke was going to have been alone for over 2 hours by that time, so I stopped off at the apartment to harness him back up and take him with me.

Poor old furry didn't do so well on the half mile between garage and home. Unstable, weak. Took it nice and and slow. He still had problems on the walk back home too. For about 100 yards at one point, I was gripping his harness like a suitcase handle and helping to hold him up as he staggered along. Naturally, as soon as we were back in the apartment, it was like he was 10 years old all over again. Bouncy and a pest.

In spite of Loke's difficulties and the fact it was on my deeply rutted hamster tracks, it was a nice ride. Nothing hurt and I felt pretty strong. All those gym hours are still paying off. It fills my head with dreams of 12 hour long rides through unfamiliar countryside and perhaps, dare I say it, TOURS.

Today would have been a PERFECT day for getting out on one of my longer countryside routes. Blue skies, temps pushing toward the mid-50's and not much wind. But nooooo, I had to go see the 'Outdoor Experience' expo. I was all jazzed up at the idea of exploring the many vendors with all sorts of camping gear and clothing and odds-n-ends that could have been added to my touring stuff. Displays of interesting places to visit all across Sweden and beyond. Still more vendors with piles of handmade wild sausages and meats, cheese and who knows what else.

What did I find? A handful of vendors, 7 at the absolute MOST, a bunch of photography displays, which were nice, but not what I went for, a few displays set up for trips to Africa, one for Svalbard, a couple zoos and the rest was really kinda vague exactly what they were trying to advertise or show off. It was NOT worth an drive of nearly an hour and a half, and I'd paid for 3 hours of parking which actually bumped into 'paid for 24 hours', convinced I was going to be in there a while, and the 190 kr entry fee on top of that. In under 30 minutes, I was doubling back to the ONE meat vendor for a lovely bit of reindeer 'ham' and some sausage crusted with chopped sundried tomatoes and Italian herbs, and to another woman selling her sister's A-MAZ-ING handmade marmalade, to walk out in search of the exit. I was back at the car before even an hour had passed from the opening time.

I wasn't the only one disgruntled. A man who'd been right in front of me to buy his ticket had an expression that clearly displayed bafflement, that turned to disbelief and annoyance as he stood near the entrance as if searching for a missing section.

Parking was beyond insane as I was leaving. I had about 200 yard walk through the parking garage and people in cars kept stopping to ask where was I parked, was I leaving? They wanted to be near the door though. Good luck with that, because the entire place was full to busting. As I came up to the parking meter, a pair of women walked up and I caught them before they paid, offering my parking stub which was good for another 23 hours. The mother wanted to give me money for it, but I told her I'd give them the ticket for free. It would only go to waste otherwise. The daughter went with me to the car to get the stub, thanking me profusely. As she went to put it in her car and I settled into the driver seat, the passenger door suddenly opened. The mother gave me a HUGE smile and thanked me again as she put a little potted plant in the seat, securing it with the seat belt. I didn't argue with that kind gesture.

I was still peeved as I drove home though. While the little bit of meats and marmalade I bought were very nice, I kept looking at the flawless blue skies and warm temps, thinking, 'I could have been looking for crocus on my 18 mile Börje Loop' *grumble*

Terii

 

Hi all!

I wish I could have shared this in photos with an awesome picture from the blog post of the detailed ride report, but WordPress has turned into a train wreck with the 'improvements' they've made and won't open nice sized 'attachment' pages when clicking on the photos any more.

It was an INCREDIBLE day. I left the apartment at 5:30 to drive to go ride a rail trail in Eskilstuna. Only about 13.5 miles long, but since it was an out and back, a great ride though I typically hate out-n-backs. Nice weather, had a blast and desperately needed the time away from the apartment and the hamster tracks around home.

Feel free to peruse photos and read about the ride!

https://terii.wordpress.com/2019/04/08/such-a-glorious-day/

Terii

 

"Oh we're back in the saddle again ... or so the song says !

Actually I've had a few trial "sits" and "get up agains" over the past week out in the barn just to be sure - lol ! This afternoon, the SUN being warm and the wind light, I climbed aboard the Greenspeed X5 ... (Climbed ? Down to 6" above ground level ?) ... and pedalled up and down the driveway from house to main barn and back several times in Low/Low gears for a total of 1/4 mile .... nothing exciting .... average speed 2.2mph and a max of 7.1 ... it's a start. Will have another test ride down on the Dayton track later.

Monday evening, 6pm, will be the first actual ride of the Chattanooga SPARC adaptive cycling group for any others interested ... meet at the Hubert Fry Centre on the Chattanooga River Walkway ... pre-registration is required. E-mail Debbie Hightower at - gotorunrunrun*yahoo.com for details.

Fuzzy