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2004-06-19 19:05:30 Source: Web

I'm back from my cycling adventure and as I'm feeling very weak and feeble I'll save the details for later. My times are here. What I can tell you from that is that the first half went according to plan - despite the fact that it was cold and rainy all night.

Then after 220km my knees gave up! I had to fight all the way over the next 80km, my average speed dropped from over 26kph to around 20kph. I was very close to giving up more than once. Howevere thanks to some timely support from Lotta and her mum with around 60km to go, plus a visit to the massage tent and a radical change in my priorities (get round the course and survive rather than achieve a certain time) I managed to limp into goal after 14 hours and 21 minutes.

I heard lots of people saying that it was the worst conditions for the race ever, so I'm fairly proud that I got round, though of course I'm disappointed that I couldn't do better. I still had energy left, but keeping the pedals turning was too painful to exert any real force.

Quite and experience and I'm going to need some time to digest the race and how I feel about it. For now, I'm going to go and soak my aching legs in a nice warm bath.

2004-06-16 10:07:42 Source: Web

My big cycle race is drawing close - Vättern Runt is this weekend. My start time is 22:44 which means that I will be cycling all night. The race is 300km long which is 186.411358 miles according to the Google calculator.

I'm aiming for a time under 12 hours, though that will be highly dependent upon the weather and finding a group that travel at a comfortable speed around 26kph which gives me time for a few breaks as well. Based on my training rides I can probably maintain that speed on my own anyway as long as the wind isn't too aggressive and as long as I look after my nutrition and don't bonk.

Regarding training, I've logged 1707km of outside riding this year, which is not too shabby. May was my most intensive month with over 750km cycled! Though factoring in this weekend's ride I will be up over 500km this month. I have set a goal of putting in 3000km during the year, so I'll be over 2/3 of the way there this weekend.

If you're interested in seeing my times during the race it should be possible to follow my progress from the race site - my startnumber is 4957.

I'll of course be updating the site with information once I get back! Watch this space...

2004-06-13 21:38:41 Source: Web

It's been quite a week all in all! Wednesday was definitely memorable - my workmates threw a stag night for me! It all began at work. I had one of the worst afternoons that I've had for a long time. I had clients ringing left right and centre with bloody difficult requests - and everything seemed to need doing by the next morning. I was looking at a late evening of work, but to be honest I felt I had the situation under control and had a strategy for getting everything done. It didn't help then that my boss rang to say that one of the clients was bloody angry at the confusion I had shown on the phone! He called me into a meeting to explain what the hell was going on.

So I'm sat there explaining what I'd managed to understand of this client's garbled request when one of my co-workers came in and interrupted us to say that we had to look at some important information on a webpage. The page was a mocked-up copy of one of the Swedish tabloids front pages with my picture and the text "Steve Cook completely fooled.".

To be honest, I still didn't get it - I was mostly irritated that my time was being wasted looking at a prank page when there was so much important stuff to do! Then all my co-workers trooped in, laughing, cheering and filming my reactions. THEN it sunk in ;-)

So after going through the obligatory round of realising that what had been going on all afternoon was all staged for my benefit (and digging in to the first of many beers!) the stag-night kicked off properly! First I was given an outfit - blue tights, green y-fronts (to be worn outside the tights), a cookie-monster t-shirt (baby-doll style), flourescent wristbands and a Bjorn Borg style sweatband. I thanked my lucky stars that at least with all the training I've been doing I at least managed to carry the ensemble with some style!!!

I was then bundled into a car and driven to a laser-tag place where they had a special pentathlon! They had a bunch of different activities for us to compete in. First was rodeo bull riding (something I've always wanted to try), then that event from Gladiators where two people stand on podiums and bash each other with padded poles! That was followed by riding a bike with a front wheel that turned in the opposite direction to the handlebars (none of us could ride that thing!). Next was bungee-running (many of the events took place in inflated areas like bouncy castles to make them harmless - apart from skinned elbows!) and finally sumo-wrestling with giant sumo suits.

It was great fun, even if I performed miserably. But my excuse was that I had to do each event twice as we were an uneven group.

After that we showered and I was instructed that I could only pu back on the Y-fronts! I was left on my own in the changing room. I was nervous, but they'd assured me that I wouldn't be abandoned (and I managed to keep my phone with me). I was then met by the guy who ran the Laser-dome place who gave me some new clothes to change into. White tights and a bright pink ballerina dress! I was then led into a room where everyone sat (video cameras rolling) and music from Swan Lake was playing. Of course I knew exactly what was expected from me and danced (beatifully and gracefully of course!) to the music ;-) I am sure that the videos will be made available at some time in the future!

After my performance, I was driven to town. I should point out that the beer intake during the evening was sufficient for me to be feeling less embarassed by this point, but even so, walking into a crowded restaurant dressed like that was a little difficult. Fortunately people quickly understand that it's a stag do when they see someone being shown-up like that ;-)

We had a fantastic meal, generously paid for by my boss. What a great gesture! Apparently the high-point was me going round the table serving champagne to everyone and curtseying after every glass. After the meal we headed over the road to a trendy club - the sort of place I would normally not be seen dead in, but which funnily enough seemed just right given my clothing! I got a lot of attention all evening - and thankfully when we left, I also got a lift home so I didn't have to make my way through town alone dressed up like that.

So that was my stag-do! I must admit that I had a brilliant time and I'm completely chuffed by how much attention went into the planning. They completely fooled me with the events during the day - and my clients who joined in were excellent sports. It's definitely an event in my life that I will remember (apart from the memory-lapses later in the evening ;-)

I promise pictures (and possibly video) when they are released to me.

2004-06-07 21:09:26 Source: Web

Although I was still a bit sniffly this weekend I went for a fantastic 130km ride on Sunday. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the caterpillers were racing (saw a huge fluffy one giving it some serious welly to get over the road!) and it was all-in-all a great day to try out a route I've been planning to do for a while. It took me around a large and beautiful lake and over a LOT of hills. In fact it was the hilliest ride I've done, which makes it great training! My thihgs have actually been feeling a bit achey today ;-)

On top of that, the last week was marked by the fact that after 5+ years of prevaricating, I finally got my ass in a kajak! I've been promising myself since before I moved to Sweden that I would do some kajaking here and it's taken me this long to get it organised.

It was worth the wait though! I managed to collect up a group of friends from work and from my triathlon club, plus Lotta joined us as well. We had the most perfect weather one could ask for! Blue skies and just a hint of a breeze. As we were sea-kajaking it was nice to not have to worry about choppy conditions for our first time out.

I did a bit of kajaking when I was 16-17 - then it was river paddling I was doing. I have to say that the moment I was afloat I felt completely at home again! I doubt I would remember things like how to get back into a capsised kajak (and I'm definitely not going to be doing eskimo-rolls anytime soon). I'd also imagine that my paddle technique is pretty sucky, but I felt really at ease with being back in a kajak again.

We paddled with an instructor around some islands, went ashore after a while for a refreshment stop and then continued on back to base again. All-in-all around 1.5 hours of paddling. We didn't cover much distance, but everyone loved it and it was a great introduction. (If you're in Gothenburg, then I can definitely recommend trying out Escape Kajakcenter)

I'm sure that I will take the opportunity to go again a few times this summer and hopefully once I've got Vättern Runt out of the way I can take their beginners course which teaches some basic paddle technique, capsize drills, lifesaving techniques and all the basics one needs to be able to paddle safely. Then maybe next year I'll be able to save up for a kajak of my own!

I've uploaded some photos to the gallery from the trip. I doubt they'll be the last ;-)

2004-05-28 08:07:52 Source: Web

Yay - I have a cold for the 3rd (4th?) time this spring. Fucker!

I think it's a sign of overtraining it's a classic symptom of overtraining anyway. The real bugger is that each time it's come just in time for the weekend. What's with that eh?

So I guess I won't be riding my first imperial century this weekend as I'd hoped (100 miles / 162km). Instead I'll be focussing on resting and doing some of the web projects that are also demaning my time.

Bah!

2004-05-23 08:15:31 Source: Web

First - the broadband is back and they managed to not cock it up - bonus!

It's been an active kinda weekend. Thursday was a bank holiday here and I had my first cycle race of the season - Hisingen Runt. It was a windy day and I got off to a bad start when the toilet queue caused me to have to run to take my place in the right start group. As a result I hadn't checked whether my cycle computer was registering properly and had no speed feedback over the first 20km. I was with a good little group for those first 20km - but I lost them when I stopped for a red traffic light ;-)

The rest of the race was kind of spotty - I was with different groups for a while, but nothing really cohesive formed. The last half of the race I was mostly cycling alone - and with pretty nasty cross and head-winds.

I had hoped to complete the 110km course in under 4 hours, but in the end had to be content with 4:02. However given how much time I spent cycling alone, I'm not too unhappy with that. I was pretty spent after the race though and was a bit worried whether I would be recovered in time for the next race 2 days later!

Friday evening, Christer from my triathlon club and I travelled down to the south of Sweden for the CykelCity Gran Fondo. We had a room in a small guesthouse in a lovely little village a few km from the race. We went into town to get some pasta for our evening meal and were disappointed to be served a tiny amount of pasta swimming in a heavy cream sauce. There was more chicken in my plate than pasta! Feeling bloated (and in my case having to run to the toilet every few minutes) we had an early night.

Fortunately the next day my stomach had settled and we set off for the race. The start was better prepared for me - but this time Christer was caught short and had to run to make the start ;-) We got separated, but met up some way along the course. We didn't plan to ride together though, so Christer headed for a slightly faster group ahead.

This race was longer than Hisingen Runt, had some more intense hills and given that my legs were a little tired I was a little apprehensive. So I tried to bury myself in a large group who were moving at a comfortable pace. The plan worked very well and at the first major hill I took it nice and easy at the start. I fell back quite a bit as the group motored on, but after a km or so of climbing the slow-but-steady approach proved its worth and I crested the hill in the front of the bunch.

The rest of the race went fine - the group eventually split up a little (mostly at the rest stops where people seemed to need different recovery periods) and I met a cyclist from Gothenburg who I had seen out and about before. The two following hills were successively harder, with the steepest saved for lsat (of course!). The cyclist I had met and I were alone after the 2nd rest point and did a great job of time-trialling to catch up a group that were quite a bit ahead of us.

The weather during the day was beautifully sunny and although it was pretty windy, it was not as bad as Hisingen Runt had been. We even managed to have some longer stretches with a following wind! One particularly memorable moment was seeing a huge osprey which flew lazily overhead for a while, seemingly following our group through its territory. A fantastic sight!

The finish went fast and the small group I was in split up a little over the last few km. I was feeling strong though and was happy to motor in to the finish line amongst the first few. I felt great - I had definitely put in a good effort, but had also played a good tactical race, burying myself in a group and drawing in the wind only when really neccessary. My finishing time was 4:58 for the 137km - at least I finished on the right side of the hour this time ;-) My friend Christer had finished around 15 minutes before me and we were both feeling pretty good about the day. We were feeling even better when a couple of hours later (after a much needed shower and pasta meal) Christer won a great bike saddle in the post-race lottery! Bonus :-)

Result list from CykelCity Gran Fondo

I've uploaded some pics to the gallery, the photo below show us holding up our finishers pennants after the race.

2004-05-17 14:45:52 Source: Web

Our broadband is dead. *cries*

Y'see late last week our telephone stopped working. So we rang the telephone company who sent out an engineer to investigate. Apparently there was a problem with the equipment out broadband supplier had installed at the exchange, so the engineer just ripped it out and rang us to let us know we should report the fault to the broadband company. *sigh*

So we've reported it and expect the problem to be fixed within 3 working days.

Anyone care to counter a bet that the broadband engineer will just plug back in the faulty equipment thereby breaking our telephone again?

I'll keep you updated!

2004-05-09 21:14:41 Source: Web

Now that my cold has cleared up I managed to get some decent training in this weekend. In all I cycled 250km in the last week - 220 of them this weekend. I left work a little early on Friday to get a head-start and cycled a nice 100km route in the pleasant evening weather.

Perhaps going out clubbing Friday night wasn't the best way to follow up the training, but I managed to enjoy the evening OK anyway ;-)

Saturday was a pleasant relaxation day. We had the year's first BBQ at Lotta's parents' house and generally took it easy.

Today I've been out on the bike again. I got in another 120km but didn't really expect the sun to be as strong as it was. 25C+ in the middle of May in Sweden? Madness! So I now look like a lobster on my arms and legs (that classic cyclist tan in place already!). The ride today was slower that Friday's jaunt, but almost constant cross-winds and being tired from having already done a long ride in the last few days will do that to you. Still, I kept a speed of almost 25kph (as opposed to the almost 27kph on Friday) which is not too bad a showing.

I have my first two races of the year booked up as well - Hisingen Runt (110km) on Thursday the 20th(it's a bank holiday here) and Cykel City Gran Fondo (137km) on Sunday the 22nd. The second race is a few hours car drive away so I'm sharing the ride with a friend and we'll be staying at a very nice looking B&B I found. With the two races it should be a fun weekend and very good training of course!

In other news, Lotta and I actually *gasp* went to church *shock* today! It wasn't a service, it was a concert of wedding music at the church we are getting married at. We were looking for some inspiration as we frankly do not know much about church music. They did have a great choir - we'll have to see whether they are available to sing that day.

Also we've now booked our honeymoon. Two weeks on Malta at a 4-star hotel. I'm looking forward to it already ;-)

2004-05-01 09:19:40 Source: Web

Well this sucks!

It's a bank holiday weekend (kinda) we had Friday afternoon off anyway. I was planning to ride 100km on the Friday and 100km on the Sunday as part of my distance training. We also had tickets to see The Human League last night.

I have a stinking cold! Yup - all the cool stuff I was looking forward to is off and I'm sitting around being a useless, sniffling lump.

Thanks body. I realy needed this right now.

*sigh* Well, I guess on the bright side, better a cold now than the weekend I'm gonna cycle Vättern Runt. However I feel justified in feeling particularly miserable and pissed off.

2004-04-21 22:25:38 Source: Web

We did eventually get the wallpaper up by the way! Last weekend I started out well rested, having just completed a 100km cycle ride - a good start to any successful decorating project I would say!

The wallpaper we have is an "Easy-up" type, which means one should paste the wall and then hang the paper. 3 walls have paper with a uniform canvas design and once is an accent wall with a geometric pattern in the same style. The first potential disaster came when I discovered that hanging dry paper against a pasted wall and getting it to match up exactly against the last strip of paper with no overlaps was damn difficult. Possibly not helped by being somewhat tired!

We struggled through 4 strips and then gave up for the day reasoning that it "must get easier" and "we must be doing something ass-backwards".

Fortunately we were!

Day 2 saw us well-rested and we quickly discovered that if we rolled the paper strip up with the back outwards, we could just roll it down the wall and match up with the last strip as we went! Eureka! As the day progressed we got better and better and leaving the accent wall till last we decided at 18:30 that it was worth making an effort and finishing the job in one go. 2 hours later we were done and happy, though pretty tired out again ;-)

Since then we're completely happy with the result. We've moved some of the furniture back in (though not all as we're debating which bits of furniture to get rid of at the moment) and we're now preparing for a visit from my dad this coming weekend. We've not put back the skirting boards or door frames as we're intending to give those a lick of paint first.

All-in-all it's been a very successful project, even if to rub salt in the wounds my dad told me last night that in a moment of insanity he'd decided to strip the wallpaper in his living room. It apparently took about 4 hours!

Bastard! ;-)