Why stay inside?
This week was chaotic with work. Not home any evening from Tuesday - Friday and no chance for training. So I rode hard Monday - Tuesday and capped that off with some legpresses in the gym. Maybe I overdid them a bit, because my knee hurt for a few days so it was quite convenient that I didn't have time to do any training.

The plan today, Saturday was a Monark session. But that was ridiculous considering the weather. So I waited for a gap in family proceedings and slunk out for 60 km. It can be summarised as TTTT followed by 4734 :-) That is a 30 minute time trial from Tungelsta - Tullinge then intervals with the above times in minutes, adapted to the road from Huddinge - Länna. It would prbably be more optimal right now to get some more distance than this, but I want to spend the weekend with the family. Hopefully I can fit a few brevets into my planning in the next month or so though...

After a few days rest I felt great and had a smile on my lips the whole ride. It was refreshing to train physically instead of mentally for a change. The fresh spring air helped to blow out the cobwebs from my brain. Hopefully more of the same tomorrow!

Thanks for today!

 

/Toni

Testing the legs

The first ride in spring, when you ride with someone else is always a bit nervous and exciting because you don't really have a clue how your form is. Will I make a total fool of myself? Just manage to keep up? Absolutely dominate the others?

Anyway, I had a rendezvous with Danne from happymtb.org and snäckan fame, to ride a few hours on Södertörn yesterday. I was a bit worried because he had just come back from eight days training on Gran Canaria. When I got up the view out the window wasn't very tempting.

Rain. 1 degree.

 

Incidently, the "snäckan" group isn't called that as an insinuation of their snail-like speed, but because of their meeting place in Huddinge.

 

Snäckan. "The Snail". And a Pearl. A real aquatic theme to go with the rain.

 

We ended up having a fantastic ride of just over 100 km and realised that we were on very equal levels so the 5 - 8 minute leads were even and fast. My legs felt good but not too cocky... Unfortunately we were riding too hard to think of taking photos; Danne's shaved calf muscles were defintely worth a photo, but I'm sure he didn't feel at all like photographing me.

 

Unfortunately we couldn't ride longer because I had to be home by 1 pm to help with grilling sausages by the lake. Sounds lovely, but after a ride like that this can actually be a surprisingly physical demand.

 

Matti's Place.

 

I was a bit jealous of Danne who could just throw himself in the sofa and watch Milan San Remo on TV, but it was really nice at the lake as well.

 

Ah, I forgot to mention that I'm enjoying being without a mobile phone so much that I still haven't sorted out a new one. But I did borrow Johanna's old Xperia (without sim card :-)) to take photos with. So to prove my botanical claims concerning the first blåsippor in the forest:

 

Look out wikipedia!

 

I rounded off the day taking Annika to a football game all evening and after a Duvel finally crashed blissfully in bed.

 

/Toni

 

Phoneless but fast

It's boring posting here without pictures. But I still haven't sorted out a new mobile phone so you'll have to bear with me a while longer. I actually think its nice without, but miss the camera, which I noticed especially this morning on a walk with our dog when I couldn't take pictures of the first (extremely early) blåsippor flowers in the forest. But they looked like this:

Some photos on Wikipedia are nearly as good as mine :-) And apparently they're called Hepatica nobilis, so there.

On a different note I visited my previous work at Karolinska Institute in Huddinge yesterday, which gave me the opportunity to ride home over Södertörn. So I packed my heavy backpack with my complete change of work clothes (jeans, leather shoes etc - not much fun to carry...) and headed for the Happy Rosenhill Challenge course. With a fair bit of help from a tailwind I rode the 16-ish, rolling, km in 26:07 minutes which I think is my second fastest time ever. That makes an average of about 37 km/h and my heart beat about 4423 times. It's a buzz to see that I have some sort of form already in March.



Guess which part was the fast bit. And yes, I will sort out how to embedd gps data here properly one day...

 

Tomorrow the weather should be pretty nice and I think I'll try and sneak out with the local "Snäckan" group from Huddinge for a bit of distance. Looking forward to it! 

/Toni

Blackout

Sorry guys, you'll have to survive without photos for a few days.

For no apparent reason except that I didn't quite know what to wear and which bike to take I decided to take the train instead of riding to work this morning. Sometimes its quite nice to just sit for a bit without the legs having to spin around. After work I took the tram to Stockholm Central and when I got there my mobile phone was gone from my jacket pocket. Just like that. Initially I think I was nearly more impressed that someone could do that than annoyed that it was gone.

The trip continued with about an hours delay for a train home to Skogås. Ended up getting home about 2 hours later than if I had ridden... I was well aware of the irony that my brilliant plan of not riding had had such consequences.

Unfortunately you all have to bear the brunt of this adventure: no more fantastic pictures here until I sort out a new phone! Hopefully a Samsung Galaxy again - I am very impressed.

I'm riding to work tomorrow.

/Toni

Spring


I got to work a bit at home today before a meeting in town and made the most of a beautiful Swedish spring morning by doing 4 x 4 @ 350W inside on the Monark...

One can't help but be happy and envigorated by such fresh air and flowering colour splashed through the garden!

 

The meeting at Karolinska Institute was very good for introducing possibilities of larger, international research grants which I have to get better at.

 

Spring had come to Solna as well! The new Aula really is an impressive building.

 

After work I went past Jan's at Norvelo and we discussed a few ways in which he can help me for Sverigetempot this year. We had some creative ideas about shoes and clothes and of course I'll keep you informed with any potential results. I ended up with a few too many treats from Norvelo in my backpack so it got really heavy. So I decided to skip the slightly longer ride home I had planned and just relished the weather on a nice relaxing normal ride home.

 

 

2014 premier in shorts. Scarily hairy, unmuscular and white legs! Nice bike though.

 

I like days like this. I think I'll celebrate with a Duvel.

 

/Toni 

150 sunny solo

What a magic day! Despite legs that were never really awake right from the start, I scraped together a bit more than 150 km on Södertörn on the racer. It was a beautiful, sunny day although pretty windy, with an annoying headwind the first half and alot of sidewind the second half.

After a couple of hours I needed an excuse for a break so I stopped to take a photo showing off the picturesque roads around Söderby and a blue sky.

 

Seeing I had quite a bit of time I decided to ride the whole way to Torö and some of the roads on that ride are my absolute favorites.

 

The compulsory photo of a bike and The Rock on the pier on Torö.

 

I somehow never really had control over my energy and fluid levels but luckily I was alone so nobody noticed the small stops I took to eat and buy food and drink. Of course a lunch in Rosenhill was also part of the plan.

 

The highlight of the day?

 

I shared Rosenhill with about 50 motorcyclists and quite a few cyclists as well, but I didn't recognise any of them so I could sit quietly by myself in a corner and enjoy. The semla must have been powerful because for the rest of the ride my pulse disappeared completely from the Garmin!

 

The last bit was actually quite pleasant and I flew along in the tailwind on the section I call Happy Rosenhill Challenge; I just wish I had had fresh legs as it would have been a perfect opportunity to break my record.

 

Once I was home I showered quickly, slunk into the sofa and found a livestream of the Strade Bianche race in Italy and could follow Cadel & co in the finish. He was strong, but missed the deciding break at the end, but with a strong final climb came in 7th. Well done mate!

 

The weather in Tuscany was nearly as nice as on Södertörn! I wasn't brave enough to ride in shorts though. (Although it could nearly have been ok actually...)

 

Now my family's coming home soon and I'm looking forward to cooking a nice BIG meal for them. Cheers!

 

/Toni







Friday

After a week with the family still buzzing with Italian skiing vibes and me feeling strong and happy at work, there's nothing that beats a Friday evening.

Blue Chimay in correct glass to keep nypan happy.

 

After the satisfying intervals after we came back last weekend, the week has continued with pretty good training rides to and from work, but nothing longer. Although I can't make the first CTT Vätternrundan training on Sunday, I'm lucky enough to have an understanding wife who will excuse me from family events so that I can ride all day tomorrow. Its supposed to be a few degrees and very windy, but nice and sunny so I'll try and get the legs to work for a couple of kms.

 

It's been so dry and "warm" the last few weeks that I even tested the Pearl for the first time this year to and from work today. It felt grrrhhh-bursting-at-the-seems fast and is right now standing in the corner staring at me with a forlorn look waiting for tomorrow!

 

Friday nights with riding anticipation are the best.

 

So here's to all of you!

 

 

/Toni

 

 



Long!

I just saw that Sverigetempot is the longest brevet in Europe for 2014: International brevet calender 2014 That makes it even more special to participate in this year! Peter Toner has managed to get it accepted as a homologating (qualification) ride for Paris - Brest - Paris 2015; good work Peter! There are at present 46 riders registered and I think that will increase considerably by the time we stand up in Riksgränsen on a chilly June morning.

In fact Sverigetempot is the only European brevet over 2000 km. But if you want, you can choose to ride 7058 km from Archangelsk across Russia if you have nothing better to do :-) Crazy!

Just thought I'd share that with you.

/Toni

"Sportlov"
OK - I know you've all been sitting there nervously and were about to call Interpol to search for me after a week's silence! The reason has been the brilliant Swedish system of having a week school holiday in February called "sportlov" with the intention of allowing children some time for wintersports.

I think we can survive this for a week

We made the most of this and spent a week in Molveno, Italy together with some friends. We skied in Andalo, Paganela and Madonna di Campiglio. I was a bit nervous as the whole family hadn't skied for a whole year, but was surprised and completely excited how well all the children skied. I could ski any slope, any forrest trails, any jumps at any speed I wanted and they all followed behind. Loved it!

I wish they had bigger beers...

 

bigger plates of pasta...

 

and better apres ski food in Italy though :-)

The many years snowplowing, carrying and holding onto children on flat Swedish slopes, sweating, forgetting how to ski myself finally paid off. This week was a perfect pay back for the investment made. The alp-atmosphere, weather, views and altitude made me realise how much I miss this. Hopefully we will have many more chances to repeat this sort of trip!

Some things have apparently changed in the 24 years since my Kitzbühel skiing days:

I'm pretty sure I used to have better control of arms, legs, bum, skis and poles when I was 21. But am proud to still land helicopters at 45.

 

I'm pretty sure I could never walk past these without buying one when I was 21. But am proud to say I managed at 45. 

It was an intense week of activity, travelling, eating and drinking nice Trentino wines. A non-intense week of cycling :-) Luckily we have no scales at home so I can't reveal how many kg I have gone up.

Arrivederci Madonna di Campiglio!

We were back for the weekend and I guess after pushing up my pulse with Monark training sessions both yesterday and today I am more or less back on track.

Its time for spring now. Time to get out on some longer, harder rides. Time to get the racer out.

/Toni