Week 14: Trailin' it up

(Monday, 20 August)
Off; biked up the coast with Henrik and back slightly inland. Saw a giant castle, Sweden, parachute surfers, had totally awesome icecream. It's a hard life. Rode pretty hard the first 30 minutes or so until I took over and chilled things down a few degrees. Felt pretty crappy about 20k to go but recovered by the time we hit Lyngby. Voice totally shot, throat still sore.

Dead things I saw on this ride: Seagull, black bird, squirrel (I think), about 100 slugs.

(Tuesday, 21 August)
Easy 8.5 around south perimeter of the park, then up to just north of Raavad. Weather very chilly and nice. I'm really tired today, legs a little dead but once I got warmed up I was good. Chased a large herd of female deer down the road at one point. Ran through a very empty and creepsy Bakken. Contemplating an extremely epic run around the perimeter of north and south ends of the park.

(Wednesday, 22 August)
Great weather today, even took my shirt off. Ended up going a little longer because the trail I was on didn't quite connect to where I thought it did, but no biggie. It's nice that the difference between 6 and 8 miles is like no sweat. Legs feeling a little tired still but I also got some fartleks going which felt awesome.

Nose super stuffed up and coughing up some crap, but otherwise feeling okay. Rode around with the top of the Miata down and felt like a rockstar. Gotta get caught up on my sleep.

(Thursday, 23 August)
Holy shit WTF I can't trust my judgment after 1.40 AT ALL. Ended up literally running in circles. So this run was slightly longer than I expected. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1254098
It would have been under control except I started feeling really good again after about 10 miles and picked it up, but then around 2.00 I was ready to get back, at which point I realized I had gone in a big circle and was pointing the wrong direction. At least I knew where I was in the park at that point. Also no water or snacks, except for at about 2.05. Laid on the floor for a while after I got back and drank some water. Totally covered in mud and snot.

Worried slightly about quads/impact on this one because I ended up doing a little more on pavement than I had planned, because I overshot the north end of the park and ended up in Vedbaek. Took some ibuprofen and am going to take a nap. Stretching also in the plan. Otherwise it felt good. This is probably the longest run I've done since the R&R marathon of 2004, when me and Gina and Sairyann was kicking el ass.

(Friday, 24 August)
Very slow recovery run around interior of Dyrehaven (south), some pavement to get the legs shakin'. A little dead feeling from yesterday but other than some tiredness, not sore. Rode with H up to Hillerod to see a castle that was even better than the one at Helsingor, but a little farther than I would have liked (90k). Pace was manageable though. Ate a shitton of candy and pasta. Snot rocket in Danish? Snot Raket. Got one all over my foot post ride and got laughed at so intensely I went to wipe it off on some grass, which caused me to really painfully tweak my previously-improved ankle. Fuckit.

(Saturday, 25 August)
Took it easy for a little less than an hour. My legs aren't super snappy, but they're not sore or anything. After warming up I felt much better. Saw some of the marathon on TV last night which was hella, hella awesome. It got me all pumped. Job for today: get bike box.

Flavors of poop I saw today: deer, horse, dog, slug, bird, human (suspected)

(Sunday, 26 August)
Final run in Denmark. Did a little over an hour mostly in the northern part of Dyrehaven, and the weather was beautiful. I felt like I could have run forever. Finished up with a few minutes of barefoot on the grass out back, I should have started that earlier in the trip but the thought hadn't occured to me. During the run I got almost attacked by a huge herd of young girls on horses in these sharp red jerseys. So cute I almost vomitted on my own lap.

Also rode 50k pretty hard with Klaus and Henrik. I'm so glad I brought my bike with me, it was so awesome to see the areas a little outside the beaten path, and to have *my* bike, and to have some freedom (even grocery stuff was nice, with the panniers.) I felt like it helped me see what it's really like to live there, because that's how most people get around (bike or bus, or train, not really cars as much).

PM went to Bakken with el surrogate family, which was pretty damn cute. Nice dinner, too. Then I packed up my bike (which took forever) and prepped to get up reeeeal early.

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total miles: 51.5
(goal miles: 50)