Le Snooze

Christmas party with work yesterday ended with me getting home at 0.30 last night. Was a bit optimistic and sat my alarm for 05.00 to do Le Peloton but when I woke of it I changed my mind. Way to early and changed the alarm for 07.00 to ride a bit before work at least.

Getting up at 7 was hard too but with my mind thinking I would have failed if I just rode to work made it possible. Less than an hour later I was out on my bike meeting all the people driving the cars towards the Stockholm city centre. The weather was grey, the roads wet and my speed was low. But getting some fresh air and time to just be was nice, great energy 🙂

Sometimes it’s just nice to get out on the small easy rides to recover and to set the life standard a bit higher. Happy I had some Specialized Dry-Tech fenders keeping my dry today but as it started to drip a bit before Älta and my windjacket got wet from above I found out I need a good simple rainjacket made for roadbiking, something a bit less bulky and heavy duty then my Poc rainjacket…

Map and stats: Strava

Lussespins

In Sweden we celebrate St Lucia the 13th of December, today so to speak and what suits better then to do it with a Morningspin around Djurgården ending with eating lussekatter at Vahallabageriet which they only bake this day.

Klas didn’t just arrange, fix glögg and took the picture here above, he also was the only one doing a proper instalap:

-6° C made it a slow story, for me even slower as I don’t seem to work as good in the cold… But we all got around 2 laps and got lussekatter. A great start as usual of a working day 😀

Map and stats: Strava

No PR’s in the dark

Got company by 3 fast friends at todays Morningspins. Starting to talk about to go easy, went easy in the first lap until the sprint… 1st lap Martin and Hagen was in front all the loop. 2nd loop my and Michael took the lead and Michael found his pace of ”too high for me”, after the bridge I got behind to survive and when thinking of taking the sprint I blew up already before the others started 😉 Got dropped by the guys riding with studs when I wasn’t, they were strong.

3rd lap went fast and we took the long lap to get closer to the fika :p I got dropped at the finishing straight like I usually does no matter bike or time of the year.

All in all a lovely morning with people I really like spending time and riding with 😀 and great natural efforts which even made the graph look good 😉

Map and stats: Strava

 

Sunshine rider

When it looks like this after you cancelled the first plan and slept 20min longer than the 2nd plan you don’t regret getting out. Around 0° C today but so beautiful and just perfect for riding a bike along the water. Rode out to Älgö and around before work and just enjoyed, not so fast and just me and my Diverge, and the sun 😀

I can really recommend getting out when the sun is out, and absorb all the d-vitamins when it’s mostly just dark.

Map and stats: Strava

Le Peloton #171

Yesterday I did some Le Peloton cxloop and Instatraining in the wet with Patrik and a couple of fast guys

Today was a new wet day:

And darker as Le Peloton starts at 6 o’clock. I tried to put some color on it. It started alright and kept on going alright. I tried to ride hard but didn’t have the turbo on and got followed by a guy almost the complete short loop. At Erstaviksvägen they became 2 as another guy didn’t know the route. 2 keeping my wheel and I just dreamt of dropping them 😉 but not in my shape…

My alrightride went at a lower effort and heart rate compared to last Wednesday but also shorter time. Faster and easier 😀

Map and stats: Strava

Celebrated with a nice breakfast with a perfect egg (thanks Kalle) and a selfie in the sun:

Did I mention my Diverge rules? And the feeling of going over roots, fast, on a wet gravelroad with 50mm high carbon wheels feels pretty cool too. 😀

The national style

Read a blogpost about cycling getting too hip with a lot of do’s and don’ts and with a big step to get into a closed group. Not so familiar if you aren’t correct and not consuming the right things. Things that differ as you sometime should have a clubkit to fit in and sometimes a clubkit is the last thing you should have…

I’ve learnt to appreciate style in different ways. I like when people care about how they dress and look. No matter which style. I like people being different and them selves rather than just following everyone else.

But there is always a certain style and people in different regions/countries dress in certain ways.

My point is I saw some pictures at Café du Cycliste and it really breathes France, not Sweden, not Italy, nor U.K. French style according to me is proper, clean and sometimes a bit old fashioned but straight lines and they aren’t afraid of using soft colors. Not bright screaming like Italy. But like this:

Who would dare to produce bibs in blue, green and purple with matching legwarmers? I like it but not sure if I could hold up a pair of purple bibs, or?

Morningspins!

An injury can end up with new feelings. Like this morning when I woke up by the alarm at 5.00 and was happy to go out and ride my bike in the darkness before everyone even thought of breakfast.

Hidden on the picture behing Klas in the red jacket, maybe you can see the green rear end of my helmet 😉

Got dropped pretty fast which I expected and tried to do a long lap as fast I could. Wasn’t fast but felt like I could push the small Watts all the way. Then the light came and while the others did 3 fast lap I did 2 slow:

Happy ending up at Valhallabageriet to celebrate the Cinnamon Roll day that we have in Sweden today 🙂

It ended up as the longest ride since 2nd August. Time to push limits and get my leg back to usual 😀

Map and stats: Strava

Sunday Funday

Going out feeling like Maud Kaptheijns today, fast from the start. Or something like that. Did an easy spin with lower tire pressure in to Le Mond and had a fika with Emil while waiting for Emile. Jimmie came and Kalle sat down too so felt like a usual Sunday. Except I rode 10km before instead of 110km 😉

After a long fika and talk about important stuff me and Emile headed to work for me to pick up my swimpants and then over to the forest. Emile turned home on his short ride and I rode the first half of the CX loop to Erstaviksvägen on my way home. Really beautiful with the autumn colors:

And while riding slow I had the chance to enjoy it even more. My 38mm Specialized Trigger gives great confidence and my Diverge is like a dream on the gravelroads 🙂

After Erstaviksvägen I got out on the asphalt and headed back to Duvnäs and towards home, beautiful afternoon:

Really looking forward to ride longer and enjoy this more 🙂 But first some rehab and tomorrow I’m back at work. 🙂

Todays ride: Strava

tbT

One of the downsides with being home from work too long is that you am checking everything you like on internet twice. And a throwback Tuesday I’m thinking of mtb like this one:

Racing in a speedsuit:

Every cyclist should have a mtb. No matter if you race or just want to get out in the nature. Just going out for an after work ride with friends without stress is so nice. No matter if you got a fast friend and pushing it or not so fast and just enjoying the trails it is something different compared to asphalt or gravel. In Stockholm you can have an average speed of 10km/h in Hellas as it’s pretty technical but it’s great training.

Keep it fun 😀

Making progress

Today was Velothon Stockholm. A race both for elite and amateurs on closed home roads outside Stockholm with a finish and start on Södermalm. Have done it twice before and it’s really cool to ride on closed roads where it’s always cars other days and be able to ride on the left side, right side or in the middle without any thoughts of a car.

As I couldn’t ride this year and it felt really boring to just sit home and see Strava and Instagram get filled by nice rides by a lot of friend annoyed me a bit, didn’t want to miss such an event.

So as I’m in the best team this year, Skoda Cycling Team I sent a text and I got a place in their car going behind the Skoda group.

Or in front at the maststart:

One got dropped, one dropped with illness but the rest rode really strong. They caught a big racegroup that started ahead and passed it, got a huge group hanging on for 110km or something like that.

A great morning even without riding 🙂 And seemed great with different groups as there was very few crashes today compared to last year. Awesome organisation 😀

So what about progress?

After being at Velothon, coming home watching the first big CX race of the season, watching the women’s race in Madrid and seeing that the men’s last Vuelta stage would take a lot of time. I got up on my Colnago a.k.a. trainerbike and pedaled a bit too, almost faster than the pro’s at the Vuelta but for a short time. Started with trainer yesterday and even that my left leg is a bit stiff it feels awesome to get some pedalstrokes and feels like a step forward. A step closer to ride outside with great friends and get back to the life I want to have. But still a bit to go as you can see on my Strava: progresstraining