Dark and cold

No outdoor cycling for me today, we had -26 C ( -14.8 F ) outside this morning!

But it's not all bad today, the good news is that from now on it will be more and more daylight for each day. These days before christmas is the shortest days during the year. Here in Falun the sun rises at 09:05 and sets at 14:46 today.

I hope we get some warmer weather soon, because I have planned on doing The Rapha Festive 500.

After my to long snowy rides last week I did two days of cross country skiing. On saturday I did a shorter 48 minute session and on sunday I did a little bit more than two hours on the Lugnet Riksskidstadion. I have had two rest days now after my Training Camp Light. So today it's time for some training again. If it gets any warmer I will go skiing tonight after work. If it stays this cold I will do a warm session on the Monark.

Two long rides in two snowy days

My wife took our children and went to her mothers place in Stockholm this wednesday so I'm having a training camp light while they are gone. They will be back on monday so I have three more days to focus on training. Yesterday we got 10-20 cm (4-8 inches) of snow, but that did not stop me. For the first two hours I was accompanied by Jens Westergren. He is a good friend and also a really good cyclist, with several medals from swedish championships in cross country, Mountainbike Marathon and cyclocross. After about two hours he had to go to work, so I continued by my self for another three hours and got home with five hours and nine minutes on my watch.

We have lots of small roads in the forests around Falun, so in this blog you will see plenty of trees.

This is Sundbornsån, or The Sundborn river. Sundborn is a village about 10 k from Falun.

A smaller dirt road covered in fresh snow.

Plenty of snow and trees in those pictures. Hope you don't mind. This is what I see during my training rides, and I really like it.

On this asphalt road there was enough snow on the road for me to place my bike in it and take a picture without the bike falling. 

And this is me during yesterdays ride.

Today I got to ride with four of my friends from Falun. They where out for about three hours and I kept on going until I had five hours and eleven minutes on my watch today. We hade some snow today as well but not as much as yesterday. I was a bit worried that they might be to strong for me but I managed to follow them all the way. Great feeling and I think that I am much stronger on my bike than last winter. My average heart rate today was 146 and my maximum heart rate was 186. After eating I took a nap in the bathtub for an hour! Temperature was about -2 C (28 F) today and about - 4 C (25 F) yesterday. Perfect temperatures for winter training in Sweden. Only took a few photos today, this is one of them:

Picture taken in Solarvet, a very small village on the top of a mountain about 25-30 k from Falun

Bike commuting to work a cold winter day

This week has been a week full of work and familystuff. So very little time for training this week. I realised that if I was going to get any training I had to ride my bike to work. That is better than no training and if done right, it can actually be really good training as well. Going to work I was in a bit of a hurry. The snow on the bike lanes, the studded tires and the lack of good shape made me a bit slow. I have about 25 k to work and it took me 75 minutes at an average heart rate of 170 ( 86.7% of my maximum heart rate ). On my way to work it was -15º C in Falun and -12º C in Borlänge where I work. On my way home after the 10 hour long work day it was -13º C in Borlänge and -16º C in Falun. A bit chilly... Not working this weekend, so I hope to get some more training done.

Over the hill and in to the sun

Snow on the bike lane was slowing me down

I am acutally enjoying the ride, although it does not look like it

Snow striped roads going to Borlänge

Frozen breath on my backpack

Only took one picture on the way home. Notice the frozen tears beside my eyes.

4 x 4

Did some training on the Monark this morning. And this was my view for 4 x 4 minutes.
You know, those intervals that was so popular a couple of years ago. I do not like them, I really don't. But once or twice every year I give them a chance. I will do some more 4 x 4 this winter to see if I can improve my 4 x 4-skillz.

And this is me after my last interval. Did all intervals at about 340-350 watts.

10 from 2010

I was looking through my training pictures from 2010 and picked out 10 of these to show you.

No training today, and since I'm at work between 11:30 and 20:00 tomorrow there will probably no training tomorrow either. My wife is at work right now and will be back about 9:30 in the morning so there is no time for training before going to work. After work I will probably just be to tired. I did do some cross country skiing yesterday so I have managed to get four training sessions this week, and that is OK. Not good, but OK. Now it's time to sleep, if my daughter allows me to get any sleep tonight...