Terii’s Cycling Babble

Denmark Had No Miles

Pushing on for the other two days in Denmark in the Copenhagen area.

Tuesday, December 20th again no riding. I woke frequently through the night with back and knees screaming before coming to my final awakening still in much pain. It was also tipping down rain, though at least it was warmer than Monday, December 19th. A tropical 45 F or so. But. The. Rain.

I had mentally prepped to some extent to ride in miserable weather. But the misty sort where maybe I’d have a chance to get the trike unwrapped and Veltop canopy installed and only be a little damp. This was a pouring rain that would have me drenched to the bone in the time to unwrap. Riding while sopping wet at less than 45 F had absolutely no appeal. The weather app and Accuweather site insisted it wasn’t going to let up for hours.

With that in mind, Jens encouraged me to just not stress the riding and go DO something rather than sit in the hotel room, which wasn’t very comfortable for me, while staring at weather sites and out the window. He was right of course.

So, I did a quick look up of Kronborg Castle. If believed, it is the castle rumored to have inspired the setting for Hamlet. It was one of the few places that was still open for touring at this time of the year. I’m not sure why, but I kept looking around for others. I found Frederiksborg Castle. Something about it called me more strongly than Kronborg. Off I went.

It was fun, though quite hard. A lot of walking, of course, but about double for me compared to most people. The castle had a ‘tour route’ through it, marked with arrows and cordoned off with thin red ropes. The most efficient way through all the floors and confusing array of rooms. With my still aching knees, there was no way I would tackle the many twisty, narrow, spiral staircases to go from one floor to the next. So, every floor required me to wander through to explore and then go double back to return to the elevator. Thankfully, there were nice wooden benches by the windows in most rooms where I could sit and admire the space for a few minutes before continuing on.

The castle was not lit either, except for the daylight coming through the deep set windows and there was little of that thanks to the dense clouds. Still, was fun and enjoyed it.

As I came out though, my shoulders slumped with a deep sigh. At some point while I was in the castle, the rain forecasted to endure through most of the daylight hours had ceased. By then it was too late though. Returning to the hotel in Copenhagen, getting dressed, and driving to the start point of a ride would have left less less than 2 hours of day light. Chuck in unwrapping and getting the canopy on in case the rain returned before riding, I’d have been lucky to get an hour before it got too dark. Denmark maybe south of most of Sweden and a good 3 hours further south than Uppsala, but it still has short days in December.

Fast forward to December 21st.

It was our last day in Denmark. Jens’s convention thing was slated to wrap up at 3:30 pm and we’d dash straight off for home. Last chance to ride.

Aaaaannnnddd, it didn’t happen. Clearly this is known because of the post’s title. It was raining pretty good, at almost 50 F. Also foggy. Jens again encouraged me to not stress it. Maybe I should go to Kronborg castle?

By about 8:30 am, the rain actually stopped mostly, but FOG. Dense, fog. On these kinds of trips, I ride for scenery and exploration. Not walls of white. If I want that, I can ride on the trainer in the garage. Coming up on 10 am, the fog showed no signs of lifting and I surrendered. I changed to normal clothes and jumped in the car to drive to Roskilde for a visit of the Viking Ship Museum.

It was fun, but I kept thinking I need to go back in the summer. All the ships they have built patterned off the fragments they have in the museum were pulled up on the grass and snow, waiting for warmer weather. In the warm seasons, the ships are afloat for people to climb around on.

Inside the museum were the remains of the 5 ships scuttled in one of the ancient shipping channels of the ancient fjord to protect Roskilde which was the royal city of the time. I took the English speaking tour which was really quite neat. The museum is smaller than I expected. A film room for a little movie in several languages, the main hall where the ships and gift shop and ticket point stand, and another small room with partial mockups of Viking ships.

But the tour was fascinating, with a true scholar type talking about each ship and what they had come to believe from the archaeology.

It was still quite foggy as I wandered back to the car. To be fair though, I’d given up any idea of riding before I even stepped foot in the museum. Even before I left the hotel really. With us leaving for Sweden around 4 pm, the hassle of unwrapping the trike for a few hours, only to endure the aggravation of getting it wrapped back up while parked on a city street with Jens’ help was just… no. So, not worth it. Maybe a sunny day and long views could have encouraged me, though I have some doubts. Also, I would have had to change in like a McDonalds bathroom or something. Just… ick.

While I’d been on the tour, Jens had actually sent a link for the Copenhagen Aquarium. That sounded like a much better plan than the aggravation of getting ready for a ride. So, maybe find a fast food place to grab a quick meal and dash out of Roskilde to the Copenhagen aquarium which wasn’t far from the office Jens’s event was being held.

Hahahahahaha. Oh, man (or woman) makes plans and God laughs. Roskilde must be one of the worst places I’ve every tried to navigate. It hadn’t seemed that bad coming in. Only a bit of traffic, a few missed turns before I finally found the place.

Leaving the museum was a whole other matter. Poorly marked signs for poorly laid out intersections, insane amounts of traffic for how small the place otherwise feels, and you toss in a confused GPS. Oh, and a heaping help of an ambulance that panicked me in the already stressed time as I tried to untangle the way I needed to go. I was on the verge of a panic attack. Annoying as hell because I’d actually started to get semi-comfortable driving through the different traffic flows of Denmark, even through the heart of Copenhagen itself, and this completely undid that.

After about 40 minutes of that hell, just trying to get food, I decided I could just starve, wanting nothing more than escape. That still ate about another 20 minutes with missed turns and trying to find ways to safely double back.. and .. UGH. I can feel my stress levels and blood pressure shooting up just from the memory.

By then, it was past 1:30 with about 40 minutes or more drive through dense fog to get back to Copenhagen and me white knuckled gripping the steering wheel, trying to make sure signage and GPS agreed so I didn’t wind up in Germany or something. Just NOPE! Even if I’d felt there was time for more than an hour in the Aquarium, I was NOT going to drive in Denmark any more than I absolutely had to. So, I made it back to the area of Jens’ office, beating rush hour and the dark. Some miracle or divine kindness of the powers-that-be allowed me to find a free parking spot within sight of the building Jens would be emerging from. It was about 2:45.

Jens’s thing ran to a bit after 4 pm, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t moving. It was cost free parking and I just sat there, running up my phone bill with roaming charges as I tried to get my heart rate and stress levels down.

Then we drove home through most of the night. Jens drove us out Denmark and we stopped at the first place to eat. A KFC believe it or not. Then I took over as he’d been up to about 2 am the previous night during a celebration at the office, so little and poor sleep for him. I drove on until the car needed gas which was about 8:00 or 9 pm. Then we swapped again after filling up and Jens getting coffee. I sort of dozed off and on until he said he was so tired he was about to fall asleep with the car having warned him 3 times he was drowsy. So, I did the last haul of about an hour and a half to park us at home around 1:10 am. We crashed and burned into bed and it was so nice to sleep without stabs of pain through my back and knees.

When I woke up the next morning, I was in the strangest good mood. I felt downright bubbly, especially for me. Best I’d felt in months really. Practically humming as I puttered around the house to get things put away and do some chores. I would have gone for a ride, but Jens had a list of errands to run as long as his arm, so no go.

By the next morning, the weather had turned. Again. It was bitterly cold and my mood started to slide back into ‘holiday blues and anxiety’ After a few days of that, it was warm again, but pouring rain. Then a hurting knee. Then more bitter cold and me still with no suitable hand protection. Then rain. Oh, and rain. More rain!

Yesterday, December 30th, we finally had a day where it wasn’t in the single digits F and, believe it or not, no rain. No! Really! I promise! It was about 42 F and, in spite of lead gray skies, nothing that was truly rain. A few misty spits of the kind that doesn’t even really dampen clothes, but not rain.

So, Jens decided we’d do our Kungsängen walk/ride thing. I started to get ready.

It was hell. My body screamed as I gulped for air, staggering and pushing myself to unwrap the trike and get it all done. With the rain we’ve had to wash away snow and road salt, I was going to just slap the trike on the rack and let it go all nekkid. Jens helped, doing the rack and we got the somewhat wind tattered tarp folded. I struggled to get back into the house for the handlebar bag and my phone. I came out just in time to see Jens putting my flag and helmet in the car. Bless the man.

As I’d unwrapped the trike, the sheer amount of corrosion and road salt on the trike was disappointing. It wasn’t from poor wrapping. After I’d taken the trike to the cycle shop, with snowy/icy roads, for the tire swap, I had given it a quick rinse with water bucket and brush, but clearly it had been inadequate. Jens grabbed the bucket of cleaning supplies so maybe we could stop at a ‘do it yourself’ car wash to get the trike cleaner. Feeling so bad just loading the trike, I wasn’t sure I had it in me.

We got to Kungsängen pedestrian bridge, Jens deciding to do an out-n-back walk to spare me picking him up. I pulled the trike off the rack, put on the flat and handlebar bag, plopped in the seat, figuring to do the west bank/east bank loop like usual. Feet on pedals, twisted the parking brake lever, and pushed.

Nothing but tiny 4 inch roll forward with a squeak. I got up and found the parking brake was seized tight. I tumped the trike on its side and did some arguing with the brake. A good thing Jens packed the wash bucket. It had the oil in it. So, I argued with the brake, loosing the cable and applying oil to the moving parts to get the wheel free.

10 minutes for that, I didn’t feel I had enough time for my usual loop, so I decided to just ride up and down the old road between the bridge and the biofuel station. Off I went.

My physical state extended to my riding more than usual. Typically, I can feel like complete and utter death while walking around with errands, but put butt in the trike seat and I do pretty good. This was not one of those times. Much better than when I’d been loading the trike mind you, but still quite pitiful ride wise. The increased roll resistance of studded tires on gravel scattered asphalt slowed me even more. Finally though, I decided it was time for a higher gear. I twisted the grip a click and…. Right, you guessed it. Nothing. The derailleur was stuck in like gear 3.

Rather than turn around at that moment, I just toodled along at about 3 mph. Getting the muscles moving, my heart rate up a bit. My feet were unhappy. The lack of the gym was telling in the discomfort I had through the groin muscle in my right leg as I struggled to keep my right knee from canting out to the side.

Being that slow, it took me about 20 minutes for 1.3 mile. Slower than many people walk, though wildly faster than I could have walked it on that day. A bit bummed it was less than even 0.25% of the 680 mile total for the current Virtual Lord of the Rings challenge. But, in truth, it was better than nothing.

Shortly after we got home, Jens’ mom knocked on the door with mail for us. One of the items was a notice slip for a package waiting for me at one of the many pickup points for our address. That made me smile. It’s my new handlebar bag!

I ordered it some time ago. The Arkel web site didn’t have an obvious way to ship to Sweden so I sent an email query. Jens was itching for me to get the bag ASAP though. The company is Canadian and since one of my dearest and oldest friends (from 10th grade) moved to Canada years ago, I had it shipped to him to forward to me. Of course, it had to get through the Christmas rush, so took a while.

Now, I’ll be able to carry more camera gear on my adventure rides! Once I actually am able to do them again. But, one step at a time!

So, that’s me caught up.

Denmark was a disappointment, I admit, but even without riding and with the torment of the hotel, it wasn’t all horrible. It seemed to do my heart, mind, soul, and body a world of good too though I expected my walking around for 2 hours through the many, MANY halls of the castle and standing for an hour during the tour of ships would have destroyed me. It didn’t.

Jens thinks it was the change of environment. The ‘fresh’ things to see and do invigorated my mind. He’s probably right. It’s gotten me thinking that maybe, even if I don’t take the trike with me, perhaps I should plan little day trips to challenge my body and brain instead of just trying to muddle in my rut while arguing with my anxiety. Head over to this castle for a tour, or that museum. A zoo. An outdoor museum.

It would probably do me a world of good if the post Denmark days are any indication.

Chaos!

Okay! Finally got my computer hooked back up and working… AGAIN, but let’s not get too far ahead of myself. Let’s get stuff done in order!

Written Morning of December 19^th

Well, things got a bit hectic for a short while. The bitter cold and the fact my first idea for covering the trike with the tarp to get it ready for the long drive fell flat. One thing I’ve noticed of late is that I don’t adapt well on the fly. I think there’s always been a tendency toward that, but it seems to be getting worse and worse compounded with anxiety.

It’s like in a lot of ways, my brain has gotten so linear. I want a task to straight from A to B. Yet, if something pops up to get in the way of that, everything just flies out the door and I turn into an inactive lump. A worrying development really.

So, when my sister-in-law and I set out to do the tarp, I had the image of draping it over the rack so I could make the cuts for where the binding straps would come through to cinch the wheels, then wrap the trike up. Done and dusted I expected.

But the tarp was huge, but not big enough in certain orientations to envelope the trike. It was also bitterly cold. It was a nightmare to avoid stepping on the tarp which would have been very bad on snow. I still cringe when I think of how badly I wrenched my leg last January from accidentally stepping on a tarp on a frosty deck. Took me months to heal from that joyful event. My body was hurting, ice forming in my nose, hands stinging even with gloves. It was just too much and my brain was in shut down mode because it refused to adapt fast enough with new ideas.

So, the handling of the trike for the trip got put off until Saturday night (December 17^th). I had pretty much given up on the idea of wrapping the thing like a Christmas gift. The new plan was to just hack apart the tarp to cover the important bits. The pedal boom, the front wheels with the disc brakes, and the back wheel.

Jens wasn’t thrilled with that idea so he was determined to help me with getting it all wrapped up. That was frustrating because he wants things done efficient and my body just does not cooperate. I can’t move fast and it did not help that I was having bad foot pain because my neurological issues apparently decided to join the fun.

It got done somehow, though Jens and I both got a bit snappy with each other. We wrapped it in the garage first. It didn’t look as if it was going to work with the tarp we had. We either needed to go get a 2^nd tarp or take the seat off. Off came the seat. It went much better after that, though I am in no way looking forward to putting it back on.

Then we plopped it on the rack, but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of trying to get the holes cut in the tarp for fear of nicking brake lines or tires, but we got it done. Then I wrapped it with duck tape to reduce the flapping and it seemed we were good to go.

It was right at 32 F as we headed out. A nice change from like -8 F. As we drove, the temp did some dipping up and down. The forecast had indicated it should get warmer as we went south. Odd that, but it never really seemed to happen. It just kinda swung up and down between 30 and 35 F.

One stretch was in the throes of a major snow dump. We stopped for a rest break and there was a good 2-3 inches of fresh snow across the parking lot of the McDonald’s. Made for a very pretty landscape though.

My dad called while on the drive as we came up to the south west coast of Sweden. Jens parked after filling the car and when I finished the conversation with my parental unit, he said the tarp was kind of coming loose and flapping.

It was. A lot of the tape had come loose because of the wet and it hadn’t bound with the tarp thanks to the cold, so I pulled that all off. There were some bungie cords in the car, which I used to tuck things back together and tie down. It wasn’t as neat and tidy as when the trike had gone on the car, but I thought good enough to get the job done.

The tarp looks right a mess. Some of the edges are badly frayed from all the flapping and a few other spots in the middle where it moves over the studs of the tires. Pretty sure the important bits have still been secure from road salt.

There is still concern about the state of the trike as I type this. Did Jens puncture a tire while making a cut to get the ratchet strap through? When we were wrapping the back end of the trike, did I bump the derailleur and wind up getting it misaligned so it won’t shift properly? I’ll find that out later today.

Maybe.

I couldn’t remember much about the one night in this hotel from the trip here so long ago. I’d had an impulse to bring a blanket. It did not happen, but it should have. I had forgotten the duvets the hotel supplies are like child-sized. It is just big enough that if I lay perfectly flat on my back with my arms tucked hard against my side and my legs straight, then the edges will just reach the bed. If I shift out of that alignment even the least little bit, gaps for drafts appear as wide as barn doors. And that’s the only covers available.

I had also forgotten how BRUTAL the bed was on me and last night brought that all right back to the surface. My back screaming, my knees shrieking. The knees worry me the most. Painful knees will interfere with my riding!

I actually took the tiny duvet and folded it in half for tiny sliver of feather mattress on the floor, which is a wood patterned laminate, not carpet or even a scrap of rug. My hips were displeased with the surface as the duvet was not nearly enough cushion, but my back and knees were so much happier.

Kinda sad really. That a hard floor digging into one’s hips and barely any support from a pillow you can squeeze down into the size of a softball, was more comfortable than a bed.

But that’s almost always the way when we travel. I mean, my bed bothers my back and very rare occasions, my knees, but not every single time and it generally passes after I’ve been up for an hour or so. Yet, the pains are nearly always a guarantee to happen when traveling.

Being in this hotel though has brought back strong memories of Loke. I remembered nothing of the hotel lobby. As soon as I stepped in our room though, it all came flooding back. We might be 8 floors lower, but the room looks identical to the one the first time.

Some of the time I spent trying to find a position that would give me relief from pain for more than 10 minutes, I kept expecting to hear Loke shifting around. The click of his nails, or his sliding flop to the floor with a sigh. Been nearly 3 years since he passed and still some memories catch me like that. I guess it’s because I’ve not been exposed to this environment and associations before today. I mean the last trip was in July of 2013 so I’ve not spent time in rooms that look just like this one but lacking the presence of the furball.

I’m not sobbing with grief or anything, but it just has a surreal quality to it. More when I get to riding! Charge!

Written Morning of December 20th –

Well, the first day of the trip to Denmark 2022 turned out to be a complete bust.

The forecast the day before had promised temps around 33 F around the time I’d want to get moving and a high of about 37 to 40 F. There was fresh, if slushy snow on the ground outside the hotel this morning and it was about 30 F. Though there wasn’t much of it to tell from the hotel, there was also supposed to be high winds. 18 mph roughly with gusts of 25 mph or more.

I dutifully pulled on my layers, only to discover a bit of chaos when it came to using the map apps on my phone as I’d planned. That placed me about 40 minutes later than I’d planned to leave the hotel, but Jens fixed it mostly. I could only look at the Plot-a-Route maps on my laptop though. For some reason, it just refuses to let me log in on my phone ever after all the hoop jumping Jens so nicely did.

Still with the help of Google Maps, I found the church I was most itching to get included into a ride. As I drove off across the island of Zealand upon which Copenhagen sits, the temp only got colder.

By time I reached the church, a lovely round one made of brick built in the 1100’s, it was 25 F. I stepped out of the car and the winds just slammed right into me, cut right through the thick tights and the medium wool layer I had under. I also seem to have lost the beanie I thought for sure was in my side bags.

I walked around the church to get photos, but was sad to see it wasn’t open. Still, it was interesting to see the church yard. There was a distinct difference from those in Sweden. It had more of a ‘Zen Garden’ feel to it. In a Swedish burial yard, you have tall trees and a few low maintenance shrubs that perhaps require the rare clipping. A hedge here or there, again low maintenance.

The church yard at Bjernede had shaped trees and tiny little plantings around the plots, elaborately clipped shrubs.

By time I was done exploring and back at the car, I was shivering. As I stood there, staring at the tarp wrapped trike, I just imagined how hard it was going to be to unwrap it without the tarp sailing away. My hands were already numb in spite of the gloves I had and to get the seat back on, I’d need to take them off to fumble with the fasteners. Then there was the matter of the bare head.

I ducked out of the cold into the car to weigh my options. The thought of having come all this way from Uppsala and not ride just gutted me. So, once my teeth stopped chattering, I got out, convincing myself if I could just get the trike down and the canopy with its front windscreen on, then I could endure.

Didn’t happen. As I was pulling off the first of the bungie cords, shoulders hunched against the blasting winds, it started to rain.

Oh, and not just a misty drizzle. No, real rain, though it kindly refrained from coming down in a full on torrent. Nope! I felt cold enough I might have looked down right blue as I turned on the chair heat and put the heater on full blast.

I posted about it on FB and Jens saw it. He told me to just relax the riding and enjoy myself with a drive around. So, that’s kind of what I did. I wended around the countryside from place to place to pass the time. The sub-freezing rain meant I didn’t want to step out of the car for photos and the drops streaked and splattered over all the windows. I gave up at about 1 pm to turned back for Copenhagen, wanting to have the car parked before sunset and rush hour.

The forecast says more rain tomorrow, BUT temps in the 40’s. Maybe, just maybe, I can endure that even with wind.

I think if not, I’ll see about maybe visiting some castles on the island. Something to make this feel like a trip rather than living hell in an uncomfortable hotel room.

Written Evening of December 30th –

Okay. That’s a bit caught up at least. Brief blurbs for the other 1.5 days in Denmark, but I’m too tired to push through. I just didn’t want it to slip further away. So, another post coming in the next day or two. Sadly, no photos. The Denmark ones aren’t ride related, though I’ll babble some about it and I didn’t take any today since it was just the Kungsängen ride.

As I said though, more to come!

Denmark, Ho!

I mentioned in an earlier post that Jens’s Vegas trip was canceled due to a combination of Covid variants and the downturn and freak out of the world economy. Still, the company didn’t want to axe the whole ‘convention’ thing completely, so it’s just gone more regional. Areas will do their own convention. The Scandinavian section is meeting up in Denmark for 3 days and Jens thought it might be good to drive there instead of taking the train, so the trike can come with as I tag along.

He’ll be busy with the convention stuff, so I’ll be pretty much on my own for most of the 3 days and 3 nights.

Getting the trike prepped for the trip turning into a much bigger headache than I had planned. That was discussed in the last post though, so no need to rehash it. Jens is still determined the trike be wrapped. His plan is to wrap it up in a tarp while it’s on the ground and plop the whole package on the rack to beheld on with transport straps. I’m not wild about that idea as it seems the straps loosen. I have this image of my wrapped trike bouncing down the highway. That’s not even touching on the fact that the usual ways to lock the trike to the rack are thwarted by such wrapping.

Since my last ride, the weather took another severe turn. The temperature has been entrenched firmly in the negative catagory. We’re not talking Celcius. I mean like -7 F. One day did hit about 0 F, and perhaps even a couple degrees higher in the sun, but still the kind of cold that’s gonna make ice crystals in your nose.

It’s like I’ve managed to get most of the things for temperatures in the teens and maybe high single digits, and Nature keeps one-upping me. Still need to get bar mitts too.

Though, if the Danish forecast is to be believed, it’s not looking too bad for riding. It’s supposed to rain, so I’ll be taking my Veltop canopy. But it will be mid-40’s, so much easier to deal with.

Hopefully, the trike and I will hold together enough to do at least 2 of the 3 planned rides. I’m not sure I’ve got three 17 mile rides over 3 consecutive days in me. I really want to do the one that involves a round church and the other which will take me by the oldest runestone I’ve ever seen.

This will be the first time I’ve been out of the country in something like 5 years. Before Loke’s health took such a nose dive, we flitted off for trips several times a year. The year we went on our European road trip, we also did Bornholm (Danish island), and another trip to some remote part of Sweden.

But when Loke’s epilepsy got worse and the other stuff, we didn’t feel it was fair to stress him. Taking care of him with medications and dietary restrictions were too burdensome to inflict on a doggie sitter. Then as he passed, Covid shut the world down and so here we are.

Heh. This morning as I drowsed awake under a snuggly burden of blankets, before I could contemplate going back to sleep, I realized that using the internet on my phone won’t be ‘free’ in Denmark. I dragged myself up so I could take screens shots of parts of the maps of the rides to have them printed. Then, Jens told me not to worry and just ride and enjoy. All that work for naught.

It really does show how out of practice I am for such thing after so long.

So, I really need to get some things done for packing and wrapping the trike. Hopefully for Christmas, it will be a nice long post about the 3 rides with silly amounts of photos. Or maybe I’ll have the break the report into pieces. We’ll see.

Either way, I’m excited!

One Step At A Time

Or would that be ‘One pedal stroke at a time?’

Any way. Since I started typing that last post on the 29th and posted as of December 13th, things got annoying.

What happened is on one of the big Black Friday sales, Jens went to buy new drives for our computers as space is starting to become premium. The upgrades, particularly for my computer, turned out to be more complicated than anticipated, so the computer has been sitting on the kitchen table for 2 weeks as he waffled about how to deal with it. That’s why the radio silence.

At the end of the last post, I mentioned Jens had an appointment downtown and there was a plan in place for me to drop him off and then park at the stadium to do the Kungsängen Loop. This was on December 1st.

The weather was less than ideal. The forecast promised ‘rain and/or snow later’.

I dressed for it, paying special attention to getting my electric socks on. There was a bit of a hitch when my current shoes used for riding were too tight with the electric socks. The old boots were worse, so the best I could do on the fly was pull out the laces. It worked well enough to keep some circulation going at least.

Jens suggested that maybe instead of riding, I should look for winter riding shoes. I rejected the idea, desperate to confirm the trike was good and get even a tiny bit of progress on my virtual challenge.

The trike was fine. Me? A bit less so. Had trouble breathing and started coughing. Those chunky tires and studs dragged me down when I was already not so strong. I was SLOW, SO VERY SLOW.

In spite of the dreary, cheerless landscape and physical discomfort, it felt good to ride. A bit weird to do the loop with the stadium parking as the beginning and end. There was no rain and I was well dressed. My feet only needed the socks on after right about an hour. The socks have 10 settings. Started a 4, but quickly dropped to 1 and they were cozy.

The 3.8 miles took me over an hour with those tires, mushy wet gravel paths, and congested feeling. A moving average of a whopping 3.3 mph. Slightly more than half of my last moving average. But I got out in spite of holiday anxiety/depression and a gloomy day.

Oh, and I was in the car waiting for Jens to call for pickup when the rain started. Not much of a rain, but the temp had dropped to about 36 F, so I was glad to be out of it.

Things took a downward turn the next morning after the December 1st ride. I think it was a combination of dealing with the harder roll resistance of the winter tires, thrown in with me crawling around on the floor for an hour to unplug my computer for it’s move to the kitchen table and then me deep cleaning the space under my desk with my machine out of the way.

All I really know for sure is on December 2nd, I woke and my right knee felt a little funny. Still, the plan was to go to the gym, but by time I was dressed and heading out to the car, I couldn’t even flex my knee without pain stars popping across my vision. I spent the next 4 days sitting around with my trike languishing as I kept my leg as still and straight as possible with heat pads on it.

As it started to recover, I threw myself into looking for new winter riding boots. I wanted something cozy and warm feeling. Comfortable. Also, wide enough that it would fit with chunky wool or electric socks without squeezing the circulation in my feet to nothing.

The search was not going well. Most everything didn’t fit. If I could get my foot in it than the shoe was 2 inches or so too long. There were winter hiking boots too, which looked like they might have a reasonable fit, but ugh! They were not ‘cozy’ or snuggly. More like encasing one’s foot in cold iron and expecting the socks to do all the ‘cozy’ work. They were also very tight around the ankles, putting pressure in bad spots which could have led to sores after a while pedaling. I was not going to pay over 3000 kr for foot torture. That happens just fine on its own with no extra expense, thank you.

Finally, found a pair of snuggly boots. Are they a bit too long? Yes, but barely an inch, which actually works pretty good once I have my electric socks on. They’re lined with a lovely fleece, comfort. They’re kinda cute and for once have NO PINK on them. Plenty of width with no foot squeeze when I’m wearing things to keep my feet snuggly.

I think I got them on Saturday, December 10th.

In between the trike repair and the boot buy, we had a major temperature crash. Our highs were in the single digits for some days. Part of me really, and I mean REALLY wanted to ride on the 11th, but weather combined with anxiety and missing gear led to a melt down that completely derailed me. My thought process was something along the lines of, “Okay! So, I have boots. I should put on the electric socks and go for a ride! Oooh, but it’s 16 F out and I don’t really have any good gloves and the mice in the old garage chewed up my handlebar mitts.” So, I quickly looked on line, but no place had any in. They did have gloves or mittens. “Ooh, gloves? I can never find gloves that fit me. There’s always like 3 inches of too much fabric at the end of the fingers that makes the shifting hard and no matter how insulating they claim to be, I start feeling frost nip in my fingers. Mittens are like frost nip waiting to happen right away. It will hurt. And what about my knee? What if I’m like at the farthest point from the car and my knee starts to hurt too much to pedal and then I’ll be stuck with fingers that feel as if they’re being twisted off and have to limp back to the car with what would feel like a knife in my knee.”

So, yeah. That’s kind of the running narrative that can go on in my head when I’m wallowing in a sea of anxiety. Jealous?

Monday, December 12 though? 25 F degrees. Now that I was pretty sure I could manage even without the bar mitts.

I started to get dressed about time things got bright enough. We’d had a couple inches of snow on the 10th and it hadn’t gotten warm enough to melt, so it prettified the landscape.

It was a bit of a struggle to get dressed. Mostly those dratted socks. Before the old ones turned up, the new ones I was looking to replace them had 2 separate batteries that fit into the pocket on the leg of the sock and plugged in quick and easy. The current socks? Using them requires running a wire down the leg of the pants or tights to plug it in. A single, very large, honking battery that needs to be attached to the waist some how. Fortunately, I have a butt pack that’s perfect for it.

So, there I am, trying to get dressed for 25 F and it’s almost 70 F in the house, so by time I’m done, I’m about to heat stroke. Yet, I made it out the door still alive and got the rack on the car and trike on the rack.It went without a hitch. About 10:15, I headed out.

I was a bit irritated I hadn’t set up the tarp arrangement for transporting the trike yet, but I still hauled off to Kungsägen. The tossed up road ice with this’s heavy dose of salt was all clumped on the rear derailleur and the front chain ring. Hello rust!

At the east side parking of Kungsängen, I quickly got things on the ground. I settle into the trike and pushed off to do the usual loop.

As I came down the bridge, I was annoyed with myself for not checking the path on the east side. I had wanted to know if it was going to be churned snow coming back to the parking. I really didn’t want to cross back.

I was in no way fast though the surface didn’t feel bad. The gravel path had actually been plowed, but I expected that for the west side. Even at 3 mph, it felt good to be out and see the snow and how much it changed the landscape. I didn’t push for faster, preferring to creep along and coddle the knee.

It was a bit more breezy than I expected. It made it hard to keep my hands warm with the gloves I had and my legs started to get cold. After that, my feet started to feel the chill too, but that wasn’t from bad foot insulation. It was just my icy legs sucking the heat away. I turned the socks on the 2nd setting of 10 and my legs gobbled up the extra warmth from my sluggishly flowing blood.

It was an annoying discovery when I crossed the gray pedestrian bridge at the city park, to find the paved, city cycle path had not been plowed. So strange. “Yeah, plow the gravel path, but leave the bike way/sidewalk covered in the snow.” It was harder to ride on that than the gravel.

I was braced for the worst when I reached the east side Kungsängen path. And? It wasn’t that bad at all. The surface hadn’t been plowed, but over the 2 days since we got the 2 inches of snow, enough people and bikes had packed it into a good surface without turning it icy. Of course, with studded tires, ice would have been fine.

Just over an hour and I was back at the car with 3.3 miles. I would have liked more, but nature was screaming and NO WAY was I going into a public bathroom with wires and wool thermals to argue with under my tights.

All in all, a good ride and I was quite pleased with my new boots. The ride was even slower than the previous one at a whopping 3.0 mph moving average. The feeling of relief to get even 0.5% of the virtual ride total was worth it as was the exercise.

The chilled legs bothered me though. So, I popped on line and found a pair of those heavy, 400 gram weight, thermal legs I used to have in black. The ones I called ‘bullet’ proof because they were so very thick and chunky it felt like nothing could get through them. Took me a few years of winter riding, but I actually wore them out. The new ones, in mossy green to make easier to find in a sea of dark clothing, currently awaits pick up at a post office as the afternoon of December 13th.

Oh, and I did I mention I finally ordered a new handlebar bag to go on the opposite side of my trike seat? It’s hopefully making its way from Canada. Fingers crossed on that one.

Since the morning began with a howling storm of snow that had huge snow-devils whirling across the open portions of the landscape, and even a small one on the deck while I struggled to shovel it, I didn’t go for a ride on December 13th as hoped. As for the amount of snow we got from that delightful arctic blast, it’s hard to say really. 30 mph gales piled it up in some places, and scoured the ground bare in others. I’d say at least 6 inches though. Maybe a bit more.

The wind finally slacked off at about 1 pm or so. The temperature was heading steadily downward through the day. I abruptly decided that it was time to get my sister-in-law’s help to figure out how to do the trike up in a tarp for the Denmark trip. I had exactly in my head how it was going to go. Had to beat the other two storms marching our way.

My vision and the reality turned into a massive headache. The tarp was awkward and too short in one direction for proper coverage. Maneuvering it was a nightmare and we had to be extremely careful to not step on the edges that fell into the snow. I did that last year while the trike was on the deck before the garage was built and wound up wrenching my knee something terrible. I spent more than a week barely able to walk and still had pain in the leg months later. While lifting the rack in place, my knee complained. It hollered some more as I lifted the trike up and down.

By the end of it, we concluded my original plan wasn’t going to work and didn’t have what was needed to go through with other plans. Hot and sweaty even at 12 F out. I thanked ‘P’ for the help in the failed endeavor as I limped the trike back into the garage and left the rack for Jens to put away rather than risk my knee further.

Jens is determined that the trike have some kind of cover for the trip. I completely get that, but I just felt so defeated. My next best idea is just attack the tarp with scissors to make sections that cover parts individually. Like one to wrap the front boom, 2 more for the front wheels and another to tuck around the rear wheel to protect the rear derailleur and exposed chain. Possibly a 4th for the seat, but I’ve not really seen any indication that road muck gets thrown up on it. The front boom, all the wheels, and the rear derailleur on the other hand end up with this thick conglomeration of black, icy snow packed on them. Nice and cozy for road salt to get to work on the chain and metal parts as if bike oil wasn’t even present.

Don’t have much time to work it out either. Probably should have gotten it done earlier, but holiday blues and anxiety haven’t left me with much energy.

I just hope I’m strong enough for the rides I’ve planned outside of Copenhagen. All the outings I’ve planned are for the countryside. I’ve ridden the city once and while it was not unpleasant to ride there, I’ve little interest to do it again. The call of unseen burial mounds and ancient archaeology is much stronger than rambling around tourist points I’ve already visited. Also, a runestone which will be the oldest one I’ve ever ‘collected’.

So, that’s what’s been up since my computer was unplugged to getting it set back up again. Not much, but something better than nothing and all that. Hopefully next week will go better!

Isn’t That Always The Way?

Written Morning of November 29th –

So, the trike was dropped off at the cycle shop on Friday, November 25th. It felt so strange to not have it on hand. Weird to walk into the garage and see the empty space next to it’s fellow trike.

Monday, November 28th, about lunch time, I got the text that the trike was ready. It came a few minutes before I was due to leave for a dental appointment though. I thought about putting the rack on the car, but decided against it. The only place to park near the dentist is in a parking garage. Going in such a place with tightly packed and small parking slots with 3 extra feet hanging off the back of the car isn’t fun. Someone being careless and clipping it while backing around or me, forgetting it’s there as it has turned off the rear proximity sensor and back up. That’s just a ‘CRUNCH‘ waiting to happen if ever there was one.

I was aggravated with several things as I pondered things trike related. The Sprint 26 now had winter tires. Great! Right? Weeeeelllll. The snow is all but gone. Almost a foot and a half has just steadily disappeared under 34 F temps with the occasional rain. The roads are now all clear of snow and most of the ice.

The original plan, when I readied the old Trice Q for riding again, was that when the roads were snow and ice free in the winter, I would ride that. When Mother Nature remembered that the months between November to March are supposed to be actual WINTER, I’d ride my Sprint with its studded tires. I’m talking like there’s a problem there, aren’t I? Well, the other part of that plan was that I’d not be so heavy by time this winter came about. Hahahahahaha… oooh, that’s a good one. Isn’t it?

My Trice Q is like a dainty racehorse compared to my plowhorse Sprint 26. I exceed the weight limit by a fair margin. I wasn’t too sussed about it when just pedalling on the trainer mind you, but subjecting it to the vibrations and inevitable thumps and jarrings of riding on roads which have patches and potholes, or just a rough gravel surface, is another matter.

So, do I slog around on my studs, wearing them down on snow/ice free asphalt? Or risk riding my Trice?

I do need/want to ride though. I’ve been about to climb the walls of late.

Any way, went rambling on a side topic there for a moment. Since, I decided against picking it up while out for the dentist, Jens came up with the idea that he would have me drop him off at the gym as I went to get the trike. He’d have some time for a workout and I’d get that errand done. We like to double, or even triple up on our errands since we live far enough outside of town now.

Unfortunately, that meant heading in at about 4:30 pm. The traffic was horrendous! In normal circumstances, it’s maybe 15 minutes at worst to the cycle shop from where the gym is. Took me half an hour or more. One light alone took 4 cycles for me to eek through.

I walked in and asked Neil how it went. His expression as he shook his head said it all to which I answered, “Not liking that answer, Neil. Not one bit.” He grinned and said I owed them double muffins and I should go asked Pele how it went.

Well, according to Pele, all the joints were in a bad way though the outer right one was obviously the worst having taken the hit when the trike dropped in the hole. The others were just worn from 10 years of use and I am not very kind to my trikes. I admit it. I ride them hard over just about every surface that winds up in front of me. The problem came up when it appeared that 2 of the 4 new joints were the wrong size.

Also, when it came to lining up the wheels for the proper toe in, there’s more space between tire and frame on one side than the other. He didn’t see any obvious warping of the frame so maybe it was designed that way. I admitted it could still be warping whether from the hard slam of that wheel dropping in the hole or the time the trike and I went flying through the air for 6-10 feet when I hit a speedbump at about 27 mph. Or just 10 years of the trike slogging around my chunky rump.

But Pele thinks he got it down. He said the instructions from ICE were a bit confusing, but he’s pretty sure he got with the 2mm toe-in and he finagled the wrong-size joints to work. He said there seems to be some ‘terrain steering’ now if you take your hands off the sticks. Like if the pavement isn’t perfectly level, the trike with drift to the low side. I think that’s fine being just a combination of physics and having the fresh, more-freely-moving joints in the steering. While riding a standard bike with no hands, you can compensate for the terrain with shifts in balance. No such doing with the trike.

That means of course, the episode where I wound up with the wasp behind my glasses and took my hands off the steering to deal with it while zipping along at speed had a happy outcome because of stiff, aged joints in the steering. Good to know. In the foreseeable future, I’d probably wind up in a ditch.

Written Morning of December 1st –

I really need to get my rump in order and get moving on the trike. I wound up not riding on Tuesday, November 29th because it was cold, wet, and gray and I was worn out from emotionally wrestling with the weight of anxiety and holiday melancholy. Time on the challenge is inching by and me not riding is not good.

I’ve figured out a few things about the way my mind is working right now which is sabotaging myself. Never fun to look hard at oneself in such fashion, but necessary. I probably should at least chat with a therapist about it, but I have to get past the wall of anxiety to make the appointment to do that.

Wednesday, November 30th was grocery day. Finished the shopping fairly quick. Cycling didn’t occur to me right away because I wanted to whip up some muffins for the guys at the cycle shop as thanks for tackling something that is not their typical kind of bike work, especially when it turns into a pain in the butt. Wanna keep them happy. Also, the wild pig hams arrived and I was going to bake the glaze onto one and sit down with a nice plate of tasty wild boar meat and mashed potatoes and salad.

As I was elbow deep in muffins, it finally percolated through my anxious, tunnel-visioned brain, that it was sunny out. I don’t mean, the sun found a thin spot in the clouds that allowed a watery, pale stream of light on a patch of ground. The clouds were rolling back and the sky was becoming a vault of blue. The only thing robbing the sun of impact was the low winter angle this far north.

When I noticed this, I found myself staring helplessly out the window and the muffin form I was putting in the oven as well as the batter yet waiting to be baked. It was also almost 40 F. I wanted nothing more than to set everything aside to run out the door and ride. If it had been just the ham, I would have done it in a heart beat especially since maybe some sun would have been soothing to my anxiety and moodiness.

But muffins. I’ve tried before just letting the second half of the batter batch wait a few hours for one reason or another and the results weren’t pretty. The cooked muffins didn’t rise well and came out dense and almost ‘English pudding’ like which is semi-bready. It had been physically painful for me to make that batter as I was having a horrible day neurologically. By the time I finished that, my shoulders and hands were just screaming. Once the batter was done and I had the first half of it in the muffin form, everything hurt. I couldn’t waste that effort nor the food value of the ingredients.

I was supremely aggravated though. Today is back to gray, gray, and more gray with a sprinkling of rain/snow mix. *mournful sigh* It will at least get above zero though, so I might go ride at Kungsängen as Jens has an appointment downtown.