One of my (many) goals this summer was to cycle to Djupdalsvallen from home. I was going to do that last year, but I chickened out and drove to Bruksvallarna and then biked. No chickens today!
The weather forecast had promised sunshine but the clouds were stubborn and the sun still wasn’t out when I got to Djupdalsvallen. I had been planning to shoot Mittåkläppen from a spot I had scouted on earlier visits but without the light, it was pointless. So I just sat down to eat my waffle and the sun finally appeared when I was done. So then I rolled down to Viteggen (I mean it – rolling down. It’s all downhill to Viteggen from the Mittådalsvägen road!), got my shot but of course it was already noon so it wasn’t really worth the trouble… because then I had to pedal back up to Mittådalsvägen. Uphill, 126 m elevation difference to be exact. Perhaps not exactly what I needed, when this trip was the longest I had ever cycled even without the detour to Viteggen.
I was determined to do the whole trip without walking any bit of the way, unlike last year when I gave up on some hills. I actually managed it, but not without stopping though. Coming up from Viteggen, I had to stop three times to get my breath back, but I didn’t walk! So compared to how it was last year, I’ve definitely improved, both in strength and in endurance. Training pays off!
When I got home, I wasn’t actually completely dead. I learned a big lesson from the Skarsfjället tour last week, it turned out that I had been sloppy with pauses and drinking and my body went all kinds of funny as a consequence. So now I had some sports drink and Resorb with me, and I refilled my water bottle frequently. Plus then all those mini-stops in every big hill to make sure that I wasn’t over-exerting myself, and so far so good – but we’ll see what my body says tomorrow. I’m not planning to do anything heavy tomorrow, I’ve learned what my limits are and I don’t see any reason to push myself beyond them!
