Back on my bike again

After eight consecutive rest days I was finally back in the saddle today! I expected to be out of shape but it actually was a nice ride. When I got home I had been out for three hours and fifteen minutes with an average speed of 25 km/h and a average heart rate of 149. It was -10C at the start of the ride and -4C when I got home, but 30 kilometers north of Falun, where I live, it was as cold as -14.5C ( that is 5.9F ). We had to increase the intensity so that we wouldn't become ice scupltures and after a while we got to some climbes that lowered the speed and got our heart rates up a bit. When we got to the top it was only -10C and from then on it got warmer. Because of all the rest days I had planned to be wheel sucking all day long but after about an hour, when it got that cold, my legs where going numb so I had to go to the front to get that heart rate up.
If we ignore that it was so cold today, it actually was a beautiful day! I took some pictures for you:

I really love this proper Swedish winter, it's so beautiful. I feel really blessed to live in a place where we have  these seasons that differ so greatly.

I won the Rapha Festive 500!

Yesterday Rapha announced the winners of their Rapha Festive 500. I thought that I was going to be third, or at least top five due to the amounts of votes I had received. An incredible result! But as I kept on reading I couldn't find my name anywhere.. Until I got to the bottom of the page, I HAD WON THE CONTEST!
I really can't describe the feeling, I am so greatful for this.
I did the Rapha Festive 500 last year as well and the best thing with this challenge is that it motivates people to get out and ride their bikes. It was such a great feeling of making those 500 k. Next great feeling was when I saw that I was one of the 1000 people riding their 500k or more that made their top 10 shortlist. Then during the final when  I saw the support I received from my friends in the vote, I was truly touched. Such a great challenge and I'll be doing it again next year, I hope you do it to!

Rapha Festive 500: The Vote

The Vote started today, I'm one of the 28 who is in the final! You can vote for me by pressing "like" here.

This is me before going to work this morning:

This is me arriving to work:

-16 degrees C today, man that was cold!

Rapha Festive 500 - I made it into their shortlist!

With this photo Rapha is ranking me as #5 in their shortlist! Read more about it here. Next week you will be able to vote for your favorite, and the winner gets a Trek Madone 6.9!

Rapha 500 - black and white

Ever since the Rapha Festive 500 I have been feeling a bit under the weather. I cough, I have a sore throat and a headache. It's now the fourth day of 2012 and I've got 0 minutes of training so far. To break the blog-silence I have picked out a few photos from the Rapha 500 and turned them into black and white.