November 2021 out of a combination of frustration with endless delays for medical treatment as well as exhausted with dealing with endlessly being told what can’t do. Which does wear on you mentally and can make your mental illness more annoyingly louder. And with the snow and trail conditions being all over the place haven’t been able to manage it much at all in the woods like the previous two winters.
Started to think of doing the Global Fat Viking despite not owning a true Fat Bike. Part of the reason started thinking it was in a way giving the Stone cold Steve Austin finger to everyone busy telling me what can't do and so on.
Challenge with this was knowing what had learned about rides above 29km needed to have breaks to work around injuries. And with it being winter would require a warm building to do so as unlike Summer and Fall one cannot sit around outside for long periods without some negative repercussions.
To work around the known issues would require a different approach with winter as well as other factors. So had to think of if there was a way to do this. Had an idea but would take some thinking to think how could work. Method would be simply breaking it down into a multi ride project over two and a half days. And this would be another exam type thing to see what would happen doing things in a different way to work around issues.
Using a dry erase board from the Dollarama to keep track of each part as knew wouldn't be able to leave the GPS unit running the whole weekend. But also to write down each little ride to keep track how long and such. Also to make it easier to note down when any issues started to come up. And the ride would be sidewalks and side streets as much as possible not far from home. And on January 28th at around 2 it began.
First 2 rides went well with no issues yet appearing and kept the pace down to pretty easy as the object was to simply ride and see how this works out. On ride three noted the first issue which was forearms for some reason starting to become tight. Now it seems insignificant but as have learned since was hit that the muscles and such are far more connected than we consider.
And have no idea if the temperatures or what ever helped it start. On ride 4 with lights noticed on top of the forearms noted that my left hand was starting to feel weird near the end. Fortunately this was the end of the day one so rested till the next day and see if that was it issues wise.
On Day 2 allowed myself to sleep in as thought that allowing for more rest might help with decreasing issues. After the protein shake was out for ride 1 of the day. Keeping the ride easy pace like day one. And ride one the learning continued. The left forearm resumed aching a bit and decided that day 2 was when it invited my left wrist to the party. As well both hands started to be a bit achy. With all that going on it triggered the start of anxiety and my overthinking.
So allowed myself more rest time before going for ride 2 of the day. And headed out for the second of the day. With the forearms continuing to act up and the hands joining in being sore. It was on ride two that my neck started to be a wee bit achy. So like the day started it was a continuing process of learning. After ride two was done again rested for a while and ate food of course.
After mounting the bar light it was time for ride three and went about the same as ride two of the day. With the legs feeling a wee bit tired. As well as feeling slightly light headed due to the increased riding time. While my anxiety about the injuries and such hadn't increased it hadn't decreased. It was sitting at this point at about volume setting 5.
After rest and mounting lights it was ride 4 And the last one of Day 2. At the end of ride 4 things had progressed where right shoulder was tight which was the one messed up when hit. And now the hands and forearms both hurt.
With what have learned about physical injuries and more importantly how parts of the muscle groups attach elsewhere in the body. Have no clue if it was the pain and such appearing there for whatever reason the body has decided or not. But I do know this is very new as haven't had things like this develop prior to March 2019.
On Day 3 woke up with mid back sore as well as neck and admit took a while to wake up and get moving. Headed out on ride one of the day and was feeling it now as was bit tired. Legs felt tired. On ride one Hands hurt now from the start as well as the forearms, the right shoulder was aching now, neck was achy, and lower back where injured was definitely achy now. So after finishing ride one of the day allowed for a longer break.
After eating more and just trying to relax headed out for ride two. And at this point van say was running on fumes. Tired and same issues as ride one of the day where still active. Though at about the half way point decided to add in rib cramps on the right side. Finished the second ride of the day. Feeling like crap as the various spots injured in 2019 where definitely achy and hurting. So had to do some math now and after some work with the calculator app on the cell phone while eating more Scotch Tea's and drinking Pepsi came up with the rough total of 104.10km.
So end result is was able to get in 104.10km in three days with multiple rides to try and work around the issues found previously. And while the Chromag Wideangle did it's duty with no fuss despite a bottom bracket bearing nearing mandatory retirement age. Four days later the bearing initiated job action demanding it's severance and sent to the bearing retirement home.
Reality is while mechanically went well physically and mentally not so much. Despite breaking it up as best could things started acting up by about the 55km point. Physical injuries like right shoulder and back where achy after. Hands and forearms as well to add to it as well as the achy neck. All the area either injured in 2019 or secondary issues as you know the body is interconnected. And the physical injuries acting up caused overthinking some things which of course after day one triggered the anxiety and kept it kind of going for the two days after. So while it wasn't technical singletrack nor warm. So no idea if the cold played a factor this time.
Maybe even if stop multiple times to break up the ride even on non technical terrain I cannot exceed 55km. No clue but this confirms that trying this distance again is not an option even broken down to multiple rides over multiple days. Now the only other wondering is because running standard straight type bar would it be a solution to go retro grouch and start using old school bar ends to work around some issues.
But that will have to look at later in the Spring maybe. So yes unofficially did a winter 100km ride and a challenge met but also another exam in attempts to learn more about the long term effects of 2019 will be. Unfortunately have learned this will be the last try at doing anything close to this in the future.
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