SpokEasy

September 2018

More Culinary Adventures

BACK ISSUES /

I\’ve been up to more culinary adventures. Every few weeks I get a hankering for macaroni and cheese; and here is what I like to do. I fill a 2-quart pot about halfway with water; and put it on the stove over a very low flame. The water heats while I get the other ingredients ready. I drain and flake the tuna.  I open the can of peas; drain it; and measure out 1/2 cup. I put the peas with the tuna until it\’s time to add them to the macaroni. The directions on the box say to use 4 tablespoons of margarine or butter; and 1/4 cup milk. I use 1 tablespoon of olive oil; and 1/4 cup plain, low-fat yogurt. I also prepare some freshly-ground white pepper and parsley flakes. When the \”mac\” is cooked to my liking, I remove the pot from the stove; but leave the burner on very low. I drain the macaroni in a colander and return it to the pot. Then I add the olive oil; pepper and parsley; the yogurt; and the contents of the cheese-powder packet. I return the pot to the stove, stir until the cheese powder is well mixed in, and stir in the peas and tuna. When I have olives on hand, I like to slice up about six of them and add them to the mix. Voila! A cheapskate version of Pasta with Smoked Salmon (The Feed Zone Cookbook, pg. 227). When I\’m hungry after a long Sunday ride, this makes a nice lunch; with enough left over for lunch (or breakfast!) the next day. And there are always more culinary adventures out there! Note: this isn\’t an endorsement of the brands shown here; it\’s what I have on hand at the moment.

More Culinary Adventures Read More »

YES!!

BACK ISSUES /

Oh, yes; it was good today. \”Ja\”, pronounced \”yah\”, is German for \”Yes\”. And today\’s ride got lucky. The sun almost came out at one point; but the overcast remained. The rain held off, however, which makes me happy. When it\’s overcast on a hot day, of course it keeps me cooler. I don\’t need quite as much water or electrolyte drink. The wind got as strong as 10 mph; and, wouldn\’t you know, was against me on the way back home. In spite of that, my average speed was slightly higher than that of last Sunday\’s long ride. When I got the headwind, I stayed on the small ring and used a high cadence. I think I need more such low gear/high cadence work. It makes me feel a bit short of breath; and it also makes my legs feel funny. I\’ve developed the habit of doing much of my riding on the big ring, and maybe my slow-twitch muscle fibers have gotten shortchanged. Mileage, 51.60! It was tiring when I had the headwind; but I\’m not exhausted. Things seem to bode well for Tour de Cure!

YES!! Read More »

Dark vs Light

BACK ISSUES /

                      Dark vs light? Which is better for riding? I ride in the dark is on a regular basis. During the work week, it\’s the best way for me to be sure I get to ride. In hot weather, when the afternoon heat index is over 100 degrees, I don\’t want to try to ride at 5:00 pm. There are advantages to riding so early in the day. During the Summer, it\’s cooler early in the morning. I\’ve seen many a beautiful moonset; and I don\’t need sunblock.  The drawbacks: come Winter, it\’s colder before the sun comes up. I also have to be much more attentive to where I\’m going than I do in the daytime; especially if it\’s foggy or raining. I must always be  sure my lights are properly charged. Riding in the daytime is a very different thing. I don\’t have to be nearly as concerned about other path users. They\’re far easier to see. Of course I can see much farther ahead than I can in the dark. It could be argued that I don\’t need to use lights in the daytime; but I do. Cars with no headlights are hard to spot in broad daylight; so how much harder it must be to spot a bicycle with no lights! The downsides: I need sunblock; and it needs to be reapplied every 80 minutes. Especially in Summer, I need to start early so that I can be home before the worst of the heat. That means no sleeping in; even on Sunday! Even if I start a 50-mile ride before 7:00 am, it\’s blasting hot before I finish. Dark vs light is analogous to the \”heat vs cold\” debate (see Archives, 05/07/18). Cycling is a balancing act in more ways than one.

Dark vs Light Read More »

Flip of the Coin

BACK ISSUES /

Another flip of the coin! We\’ve gotten another one of those \”50% chance of showers and thunderstorms\” forecasts; for both tomorrow and Sunday. One way to think of it is, \”is the glass half-full\”. Maybe it won\’t rain. There might be blazing sunshine all day. Then again, it might pour; and bring lightning with it! That makes me very uneasy; and I feel like a rolling lightning rod. Bicycling, like life in general, is a a gamble. When you go for a ride, you get what you get as far as weather is concerned. Forecasts aren\’t always accurate, as cyclists know only too well. The weather can change very rapidly, too; and a ride that began in the sunshine can end in the pouring rain. Hence the reference to flip of the coin!

Flip of the Coin Read More »

A Very Special Team

BACK ISSUES /

Well … not that kind of special. But every year, as Tour de Cure approaches, my thoughts turn to a very special team: Team Novo Nordisk. Those folks really are extra special. Living with either type of diabetes must be difficult enough. Imagine balancing the demands of monitoring Type 1 diabetes with the demands that pro cycling makes on the body. It\’s quite a fine line to walk, I imagine. Er, I mean, to ride. If I had diabetes, would I dare to ride at all? I can just see myself blacking out and crashing because I had run out of GU-Gels and my blood sugar has dropped too low. My desire to ride, however, would probably outweigh that concern in short order. Perhaps even against doctor\’s orders! Tour de Cure time is also time to applaud another very special team: the Red Riders. All riders in TdC are on Team Red, but the Red Riders are TdC participants who have diabetes. There are five weeks to go before the local Tour de Cure. Those weeks will zip by in no time. Soon I must get my road bike tuned up. I also must decide what I\’ll take along for ride food that day. There will be rest stops with snacks, so it won\’t be as critical as food for my long, Sunday rides. I want to be sure I don\’t bonk, though. We cyclists must keep the glycogen levels up!

A Very Special Team Read More »

The Nose Knows

BACK ISSUES /

The Nose Knows The nose knows, they say. Or does it? I’m not so sure. It seems to me that, if my nose knew what a nuisance it is, it would stop getting sniffly when I’m bicycling. I do have a few minor allergies to plants and mold; but it seems to me that that proboscis of mine is plain old perverse. My crazy nose gets sniffly even when I ride in hot weather. When it’s cold outside, especially when there’s a good wind, the sniffles are so bad that I’m forced to resort to “snot rockets”. Either that, or I’m constantly wiping my nose on my gloves. Both are disgusting; but I can’t just let my nose drip, right? Besides, I get tired of breathing through my mouth. For one thing, mouth breathing makes me get thirsty faster. Good reason to use a Camel-Bak even is the weather is freezing! Apparently I have exercise-induced rhinitis. Whatever the name, it drives me bonkers.  As a contributing factor, cold and wind make my eyes water. Sure, there are over-the-counter allergy remedies; but I don’t like taking them as a regular thing. There really doesn’t seem to be much I can do about those sniffles. If only I could find a way to make my nose, well, run some errands for me! It ought to know how because, you know, the nose knows.    

The Nose Knows Read More »

What\’s Up?

BACK ISSUES /

What\’s up with me? Am I doing something wrong on my weekly long rides? I seem to get tireder than I should on the way back home; and I have to make more rest stops that I really want to. Is my nutrition off-base? Do I need to eat more before starting out?  The catch is, if I\’m to get underway before it gets too hot, there\’s not time to eat a hearty breakfast and let it \”settle\” before I ride. Not, that is, unless I get up at 3 o\’clock in the morning. No, thank you! Am I doing something wrong when it comes to on-bike food? Do I need to eat more? Less? Are Clif Bars and Fiber One bars the wrong kind of food? Do I need to drink more water? More electrolyte drink? What about my distance? It\’s not as though I suddenly began shooting for 40-50 miles. I\’ve been working up to it; and trying to take it gradually. Am I pacing myself wrong? In my zeal to improve my pace before Tour de Cure, am I pushing too hard for too long? It\’s one thing for me to work for a faster speed during shorter rides; but when I\’m aiming for 40-50 miles, it might be better for me to slow down. That\’s easier said than done, unfortunately.   More FAQ It gets so hot before I can finish a long ride. I wear sunblock, of course; but maybe the sun is still sapping my energy. Is that the problem? Cooler weather is probably at least a few weeks away. I\’ve known us to get a cool front on October 6, though; so maybe relief is closer than I think. Temporary relief, anyway. After a cool front it gets hot again. Then there\’s the fact that, with a sleep disorder, I\’m always tired. I\’ve battled it for 31 years now; and don\’t remember what it\’s like to feel truly awake and energetic. And all that about the Sunday long ride! I wonder whether my weekday rides have been on the right track in my prep for Tour de Cure. If not, there\’s very little time left to try to correct the errors of my ways. I\’ve got these final few days of September; and then there are the first two weeks of October. I can still work during that time to improve my force. After that I\’d probably be wise to ditch the on-bike force exercises and just work on my pace. Then, during the final week before The Day, I\’ll need to taper — shorter rides (but at normal intensity), and just a few very short hard pushes to keep the muscles sharp. Those are the FAQs. What\’s up with me? Where are the answers?

What\’s Up? Read More »

Railroaded?

BACK ISSUES /

Sometimes I feel like I\’m getting railroaded. I hope young children can keep their fascination with \”choo-choos\” as long as possible; but I, for one, have no great liking for trains. This morning, when I was still about four blocks from home, there was a freight train coming along from the opposite direction. For some reason it was blaring its horn for a crossing that no longer exists. OUCH! My ears did not like that. Shortly I reached my usual crossing; and dismounted to wait for the train to clear. It was a very long one; and wouldn\’t you know? The dratted thing stopped. I waited a minute or two, and the train hadn\’t started up again. There was no telling how long it might sit there, so I headed for the next crossing, 0.3 miles away. That crossing, too, was blocked by the train. If it had only moved along the length of about three cars, the crossing would have been clear. The train was still immobile, too. The next crossing was another 0.7 miles away, which meant I had taken quite a detour by the time I finally reached home. By then, the train had gone. I probably would have done much better to wait for it to move. That drives me crazy. Last year or the year before, trains would sit and sit for several days! It might easily be 24 hours before a train blocking a crossing would finally be split so that the crossing was clear. I didn\’t know what was up with all that. One day, I saw large bundles of railroad ties at my crossing; and realized that they\’d been replacing ties. I hope they don\’t start that again for about another 20 years! I\’m tired of getting railroaded.

Railroaded? Read More »

Word Association

BACK ISSUES /

Word association makes odd things happen. This cyclocomputer of mine is a Garmin Edge 520; but I\’m always trying to call it a \”Garmin Sharp\”! I suppose I\’m comparing \”edge\” to the edge of a knife, which is — of course — sharp. Having it does seem to help me to sharpen up my training, so maybe \”Garmin Sharp\” isn\’t so far off. I can watch my cadence when I shift to a very hard gear, and then want to pedal at a higher rpm. Before I had that readout screen on my handlebars, maintaining the cadence (or any cadence!) was far harder; and, indeed, was little better than a guessing game. When I want to work to attain a specific speed, I can see whether I\’m really doing it. That\’s especially helpful when I want to push for 16-17 mph, instead of 15 mph. If I want to get faster, riding faster is part of training. I can watch my heart rate as well. If I start to feel too \”gaspy\”, I check my current bpm. If I\’m getting too close to my max, I\’ll know that I need reduce my efforts for a while and recover. The Garmin has many features that I haven\’t gotten around to using yet, such as setting a route. So far there\’s been no real need to set routes — but maybe someday! Then word association might trigger some more oddities, such as setting down roots.* *\”route\”: is sometimes pronounced like \”root\”

Word Association Read More »

Pairing Up

BACK ISSUES /

Want to try pairing up on wheels, like Daisy Bell? I\’ve been familiar with the song Daisy Bell since childhood. These aren\’t the exact words that my mother used to sing, but I guess it\’s like a lot of such songs; there are a lot of variations. How would it be to ride a bicycle built for two? So far I\’ve never tried riding a tandem. I would think that it must take some doing. From what I\’ve read, a tandem is good for two people of differing abilities who want to ride together. Each can pedal at his/her own strength. I guess the trickiest part would be starting and stopping. Both riders, it seems to me, must use the same foot to start, and put down the same foot when stopping. Do tandem riders ever swap positions? (The front rider is the captain, and the rear rider is the stoker). That way, both riders would learn how to ride both positions. I see a tandem-riding couple around here pretty regularly, but haven\’t had the chance to speak with them about these things. Oh, and what would it be like to crash on a tandem bicycle? I don\’t even like to think of it. If one rider goes down, both go down. It would not be pretty. I hope Daisy Bell never had that problem!  

Pairing Up Read More »