SpokEasy

October 2018

I\’m Not Purring

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I\’m not purring today. In fact, I feel quite disgruntled. This morning I discovered that the velcro strip on one of my Cat Ears had come off. Apparently the velcro was glued on, not sewn on; and after  I got caught in the rain a number of times, the glue melted. There wasn\’t time to try to repair it before hitting the bike path; but it was cool enough that I wanted to wear my skull cap. That cap helps to reduce wind noise, so having the Cat Ears was less crucial. Cooler weather means leg warmers and long sleeves; and that in turn means less sunblock. The main reason I\’m glad about that is, sunblock isn\’t exactly cheap. Today, for once, I had a tailwind most of the time on the way back home😃. I put in 50 miles; and averaged well over 13 mph overall. That seems to bode well for Tour de Cure next Saturday. The odd thing is, coming back home I kept feeling tired and slow! I\’m not purring about that! I wondered if possibly I had become a bit dehydrated; but my post-ride weight was two pounds over my pre-ride weight. Ergo I probably wasn\’t dehydrated. There were some Farmers\’ Markets open that aren\’t there on Sundays. I didn\’t have time to stop and explore them; but maybe another time I can go check out one of them. Meanwhile I must check to see whether I can hand-stitch that velcro strip back onto the Cat Ear.  

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Final Stretch!

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Here it is, the final stretch. One week from tomorrow is the Big Day! Tour de Cure 2018! I hope I\’m properly prepared. If I\’m not, it\’s certainly too late to do anything about it now. If I try to train big time at this point, I\’ll merely be going into TdC exhausted. A week ago I chose several Clif Bars and some Shot Blocks to use during the event; and I set them apart from other ride food that I keep around home, to be sure I don\’t absentmindedly use them. I know they\’ll keep for a few weeks. There will be rest stops along the way with snacks; but I\’ll take along my usual ride food. TdC won\’t be such a big jump up from my Sunday long rides, which means I probably won\’t need much more food. Unless it\’s a cold day, however, I\’m sure I\’ll welcome the chance to down a shot of dill pickle juice! Being in the final stretch also means that, from here onwards, I\’ll be keeping an anxious eye on the weather. Forecasts, as we all know, aren\’t always accurate; but if I see that calm winds; no rain; and temperatures between 68 and 75 all day are expected, I shall be delighted.

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Don\’t Lie to Me!

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Don\’t lie to me, wheel! Or, how to true a wheel. This is a skill that I have yet to learn. I don\’t have either a bike stand or a truing stand . Where would I put a bike stand anyway? Of course, I don\’t want to use one of my bicycles as a guinea pig. Once I did get a spare wheel so I could practice changing tubes; but then the cold weather set in. My skin gets very dry in cold weather; and  changing tubes means beating up my cuticles. They\’d have gotten all bloody as a result. Eventually, after done nothing with that wheel for a least a year, I got rid of it. It would be handy now to have it again! Getting back to the bike stand, I\’m not sure I\’m strong enough to lift my hybrid (probably close to 40 lbs including the rear rack) high enough to get it into a bike stand. I might not be able to lift the much-lighter road bike that high. Or could I fasten the bicycle into the stand while it\’s still on the floor, and then raise it up? Don\’t lie to me. I don\’t want to spend my money on a bicycle repair stand, and only then find out!

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Dressing to the Nines?

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Going for a ride doesn\’t necessarily mean dressing to the nines. I would guess, in fact, that not many of us have white-tie-and-tails or an evening dress hanging in the closet. Can you imagine riding a bicycle encumbered in such an outfit, anyway? Cummerbunds and cleats don\’t mix, I would say. I\’m sure there are many riders who don\’t own \”real\” cycling clothes. Admittedly such togs are not cheap, and if I hadn\’t developed an interest in long-distance riding I might not have any of them, myself. Cycling clothes don\’t have to be top-tier racing kit; but if you want to put in serious miles, especially on a road bike, cycling shorts are a wise investment. In a way they\’re a nuisance, because they need to be washed after each use. By all accounts, riding in dirty shorts is asking for trouble. Shorts, after a helmet, are the most important part of a cycling outfit. A jersey is nice to have, too, especially on a hot day. With Tour de Cure not two weeks away, I\’m giving a lot of thought to what I\’ll wear for the big ride. My best pair of shorts, for sure; and my favorite jersey. When I have the day\’s forecast I can complete my outfit. It might be hot and humid; or we might be getting a cold front! But whatever the temperature, at least I don\’t have to be dressing to the nines. I\’ll leave that for another time.

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Will This Last?

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Will this last? I fervently hope not! This morning\’s ride was not what I\’d call pleasant. It was drizzling; and chilly; and there were no pretty lights to relieve the gloom, either. The drizzle was heavy enough that I was wet through by the time I got back home. Fortunately the wind wasn\’t nearly as strong as it was day before yesterday, because my legs weren\’t quite \”there\”. They seemed tired and sluggish. It was about 69 degrees; not really cold, but cool enough for my fingers to feel rather chilly. I think I would have done better to have worn full-fingered gloves. Of course I got the headwind on the way home; and since I was wet, the wind felt all the colder. There\’s more rain in the forecast for the next two days, it\’s tempting to take off a day or two; all the more as I feel almost as though I\’m getting a cold. It could be over tiredness from having had several nights of very short sleep last week; and I hope that\’s what it is! I do not need to get sick now. Not with Tour de Cure almost on the doorstep. Riding-wise I\’m going into final preparations. No more of those \”force intervals\” until after TdC. It\’s too late now for them to effect further improvement before the big day. The main thing will be working to maintain my pace; and I ask myself, will this last? My pace had better last! And I hope for good weather on November 3!  

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Publish or Perish?

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Must I publish or perish? And, omigosh, when did I last see one of these? I first learned to type on a manual, and did that thing ever need some pounding! Seeing it reminds me of the saying about some career paths: \”Publish or Perish\”. It seems to be the same kind of thing with a blog. In order not to lose readers, you\’ve got to keep coming up with new stuff. That\’s not always so easy. It was particularly difficult before I got the idea of composing blogs over the weekend; and scheduling them to be published during the following week or two. Even composing blogs ahead of time wasn\’t always easy. Sometimes I simply can\’t thing up that many topics at once. Trying to come up with blog ideas day by day, after having worked all day at a regular job, makes me feel put on the spot. Of course that makes it even harder for me to come up with blog ideas; and I don\’t always have something ride-related to blog about. Browsing free-art sites for suitable pics only added to the stress; not to mention that the process took more time. On weekends I have more time; and thus I\’m more relaxed, which lets my mind works a little better. I can begin a blog, and save the draft if I can\’t think of enough to say (well, type) at the moment. There\’s more time to hunt for pics, too. Getting back to Publish or Perish, I saw a cartoon somewhere. It showed a tearful person standing beside a gravestone that read: \”Published, but Perished Anyway\”!

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Another Wild Dream

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Here is another wild dream of mine. In fact, we can all dream of riding off into the sunset, at the end of a 200-mile day! For me to daydream about that is probably just plain crazy. A double century is no joke. Training up for such a ride requires  more time than I can realistically fit in around my work schedule, especially at my current average speed. Maybe I could get in the required mileage if I did part in the morning and the rest in the evening, but I suspect that proper double-century training would give that the thumbs down. Probably I wouldn\’t be able to develop the necessary endurance at the necessary speed using such a method. Even if training that way would be adequate, it\’s too much heavy exercise too close to bed time, especially later in the program. If I were trying to train during the Summer, I would have another problem as well. The heat index can be over 100 degrees in the afternoons; sometimes as high as 117! I would need training partners so that I could learn how to draft. And become comfortable riding close to other riders at the pace a double-century rider needs to maintain in order to finish in time. I would need to do a lot more work to improve my force, and therefore my average pace. I can always put \”Ride Double Century\” on my bucket list, but I\’m not even sure if any doubles take place anywhere near to home. Eventually I might be able to go out and ride 200 miles in one day all on my own, but it wouldn\’t really be the same thing, would it? Oh, well. It might have to remain merely another wild dream.

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Cutting Up

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Cutting up doesn\’t only mean misbehavior. Needing to wear a cycling helmet on an almost daily basis brings me to the subject of how to manage hair. I myself like short hair. It needs less shampoo; it dries much faster after washing; when it\’s time to clap on that helmet I don\’t have to worry about tying up all that hair, and then perhaps having the helmet not fit over whatever style I\’ve chosen. I\’d have to waste time re-fixing my hair! Here\’s the catch about short hair. It need cutting every few months. Even at a low-cost establishment, a basic cut plus a tip easily comes to $20. There\’s usually a radio blaring away at a volume level too high for my comfort. On top of that, such places are full of the fumes of all kinds of \”stuff\”. In fact, there\’s something (perm fluid?) that smells to me like an open sewer! The only other way, then, to get a haircut is to tackle it myself. I have a pair of barber shears that I bought many years ago. I started trying to cut my own hair. Then for about 11 years my hands, arms, and wrists hurt too much (overuse at a computer at work) for me to hold them up while doing self-barbering. Then, a few years ago, I started at it again. The results often doesn\’t look too good, but hey — it will grow. Then after a few months I can try again. It\’s like — you guessed it — riding a bike. If you want to be able to do it, you have to get out there and do it! Cutting up is the name of the game in this case.

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NOT Burning Fat?

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Am I NOT burning fat, after all? Do I need to change my riding pace; or my intensity? Oh, the \”fat-burning zone\”! Wouldn\’t we all love to be there all day long? I know I would. According to this article, we actually are there, all the time. It seems we\’ve been conditioned to equate burning calories with hard (and even grueling!) physical activity. It\’s good to know that it isn\’t necessary to stay in a certain heart rate zone to \”burn fat\”.  And that any ride will burn fat, even if we\’re blazing along at 25 mph! So why plod along at 8 mph to burn fat, if we want to spin along at 15 mph? Ride Your Way Lean has a lot of information about cycling and weight loss; and includes several stories of people who lost triple-digit weight through cycling. Dietary habits matter, too, naturally — not that I should talk. I still eat way too much junk! Let\’s just ride, and stop fretting that we\’re \”not burning fat\”. Burning calories is the main thing; and the faster/longer we ride, the more calories we\’ll burn!

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More Ideas

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I\’ve got more ideas; and I guess that\’s good. I couldn\’t have thought of these things before I began to build the site! I guess it\’s like moving into a new home. Over time, you might  decide that your original arrangement of furniture isn\’t the most efficient. Or that the items on the front of a shelf need to be moved to the back, because you don\’t use them as often as you expected. A web site is comparable to a book, especially a non-fiction book. Over time, the information might need updating. Errors might be found that need correcting. New information might need to be added. In the case of a web site with slide shows, an occasional change of pictures will refresh the site. If l do another 100-mile ride, of course I\’ll want to add a page about it. In any case, constantly getting more ideas is a lot better than being unable to think of anything new.

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