SpokEasy

November 2018

Now Hear This!

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Now Hear This! Listen up, buddy! Now hear this: to wear headphones while riding, not? My opinion: I agree that “music to ride by” is best reserved for indoor cycling. No cars with possibly distracted drivers; and no worries about balancing, watching for road hazards, and so on. But if I want music while riding, I have to content myself with thinking the music in my head, whether I’m indoors or out. Such “listening” actually has its plus side: there’s no need to constantly adjust the volume, and I can stop/start it at will. Or even switch pieces in mid-measure! When you’re riding on the roads, I would think that motor traffic is loud enough to drown out what you’re trying to listen to —  even when using bone-conduction buds. Cranking up the volume so that you can hear it over the din of roaring cars, trucks, etc. is most emphatically not good for your hearing! Beethoven would weep if he knew the way so many people nowadays abuse that precious sense. Even if you’re riding away from traffic, on a nice country road, why drown out the sounds of Nature? Hear the breeze among the leaves. Listen for birds’ calls. If you’re riding in a group, enjoy some chit-chat. Or simply converse with your own thoughts. Think big! After all, Einstein allegedly said that he though of his Theory of Relativity while riding his bike. Oh … now hear this! What’s that? I think a cyclist is coming!

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Rosy?

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Rosy? Rosy? It might be pleasant to view the world through rose-colored lenses. However, when your skin turns rosy because you forgot to wear sunblock, it’s not such a good thing. About a week and a half ago, I didn’t go out riding until past 6 am. I put some sunblock on my face and ears; but I forgot that the sun would be climbing higher than I’d been used to before I got home. It was misty, too, which made sunblock seem unnecessary. Then, rather unexpectedly, there were some un-misty stretches. I began to wish I had put sunblock on my legs. After all, we hear all the time about the hazards of ultra-violet rays; and how we should avoid too much sun exposure. Luckily I got only a very slight tinge of pink on my skin. I’m old enough to remember when “a healthy tan” was quite the thing. Ladies of earlier times, who were so careful about wearing sunbonnets and gloves to keep from getting tanned, were held in contempt. Now it seems that they had the right idea, after all. I don’t think we have to be terrified of being out in the sun for a while; but if it’s going to be longer than a half-hour, I get out that sunblock.

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It Goes Fast

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It goes fast: Time; and money; and fitness. It\’s incredible how quickly I seem to get out of shape. This week I didn\’t ride much because of the weather. When it\’s blowing 20+ mph, and the chill factor is way down near freezing, I don\’t want to do anything but huddle in front of the heater. This morning it wasn\’t as cold as the past few days were; and there was almost no wind. I went for a rather short ride; and I was amazed at how sluggish my legs felt. But as I just said, it goes fast: time, and everything else. I have to get ready to go to work now.

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Hungry as a Bear?

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Cyclists are hungry as a bear! Or are they? I\’ve read about pro bicycle racing; and by all accounts, those riders burn thousands of calories. I\’ve also read about how difficult it can be for the riders consume the calories that they need. That\’s especially true during a stage race, such as the Tour de France. It reaches the point where the riders practically have to force-feed themselves if they don\’t want to bonk. That sounds hard to believe, doesn\’t it? Hard riding makes anybody as hungry as a bear, doesn\’t it? Even as hungry as a Spring bear! And isn\’t a rider ready to devour anything in sight at any point during a day-long ride? Not so. When I have to buck a headwind at 12-13 mph for two hours, eating while riding gets progressively harder; and my stomach starts crying Uncle long before the end. How much harder it must be for pro Tour riders, who are riding far faster than that; for at least twice as many hours; and doing it day after day for several weeks. Add to that the mountainous stages of a big race, and the need for serious calories becomes obvious. It\’s frustrating — and ironic — that long riding, which requires a steady supply of fuel, diminishes the desire to eat. There seems to be nothing we can do but grin and bear it — and practice eating while riding.

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SHOE-fly?

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Shoe-fly sounds rather like Mercury; but it also sounds like pie. I\’ve never had the chance to try shoo-fly pie. It sounds delicious, though. That\’s  my sweet tooth kicking in! But wouldn\’t it be great if just the right shoe would let any cyclist fly along at record-breaking speed? Of course it would; but how does one choose the best shoe? My cycling shoes are mountain-bike style. The ones I have at present have velcro closures, which I much prefer to laces. For safety, laces must be tucked into the shoes to prevent their getting snagged in the pedal or the chain; but there\’s always the chance that those laces will work their way loose. Having velcro closures does away with that concern; and it\’s one less thing to worry about while riding! I\’ve seen cycling shoes that have a dial-like mechanism used to fasten the shoes to the desired tightness. That, too, does away with the risk of flapping shoelaces. I like the fact that mountain-bike shoes are so much easier to walk in. Only once have I tried on road-bike style shoes; and it was unnerving. Those things are slick! It as like trying to walk on ice; and I had to walk on my heels to keep my feet from sliding out from under me, which feels very awkward. Road-bike shoe soles are also very rigid, which doesn\’t help attempts to walk in them. It comes down to personal choice, I\’d say. Not all feet are alike; and not everyone has the same riding style/needs. Let\’s get our shoes; go for a good ride; and hope for a shoe-fly day. Then, perhaps, we can relax with a slice of shoo-fly pie afterwards.  

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NINE and Counting!

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Nine, and counting what? The whole nine yards? What does that that have do do with cycling, you might ask? Today makes nine years and counting since I began my adult cycling life! It\’s hard to believe it\’s already been that long. Or that I\’ve covered so many miles: over 42K! Today I can look back, with a bit of surely forgivable pride, on some highlights: the tricycle century. There was one rare day of almost no wind, when I managed to push that rig 12 miles in just under one hour. Riding 100 miles on the hybrid (twice), and finally doing it on the road bike. My participation in six Tours de Cure; and one Bike MS. In June 2015, I was thrilled to see my total mileage meet the \’round the world distance of 24,901 miles. As a friend commented, now I can work on riding to the moon and back! Earth to moon is 238,900 miles; so I have only 196,532 miles to go to get there! I hope I can spare a moment to visit the Apollo landing sites while I\’m on Luna. Just give me about 49-50 years to work on it. Oh, and another 50 years to get back. With a timetable like that, I could use the longevity of that cat\’s nine lives!      

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DOMS

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Welcome to the world of DOMS. Did you ever notice that your legs feel more tired and sore the second day after a big ride, than on the first day after? It certainly happens to me. I recently rode Tour de Cure, which was 10 miles or so longer than my usual weekly long ride; and my legs didn\’t feel too bad the next day. Not first thing in the morning, anyhow; and I decided to made a trip to get groceries. That was almost 10 miles, round trip; and once I got going my legs were saying that they didn\’t like it too much. They began to feel tired and sore. Then, the day after that, it really started to catch up with me. On the way home from the grocery store I\’d had an unpleasant headwind; and the trailer to pull; and because it was drizzling I\’d been wearing a poncho. A flapping poncho creates a lot more wind resistance, and thus more work for the legs. It\’s a good thing that Day Two post-TdC was Monday, my usual off-bikes day. I was still on vacation, so I could let my legs rest a bit and, I hoped, get rid of that pesky DOMS.

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Handout?

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Looking for a handout? Or a hand out? Using hand signals is an important aspect of safety while cycling; and especially around motor traffic. It\’s not likely that drivers will hear us if we shout, \”Stopping!\”, or whatever it is we\’re about to do; and we can\’t expect them to read our minds.  The basic \”directionals\” are the most important for the majority of riders: right turn, left turn, and slowing/stopping. For a right turn, I use the old-school, right-angle-left-arm signal. I\’m still not comfortable riding one-handed with my left hand; especially if I need to signal while heading into a right turn that has a bit of a slope. Unfortunately a number of people don\’t seem to know that that right-angled arm is a turn signal, not waving Hi. I\’ve seen billboards showing cyclists\’ hand signals; and I hope they help to get the message across to the general public. Do you feel self-conscious using hand signals; or does it make you feel silly? You\’re not alone. I felt ridiculous at first. It takes some time and practice for using hand signals to become second nature. It\’s like just about anything else in life. Practice makes perfect. Then we can give ourselves a handout, I mean a big hand, for our accomplishment!  

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The Trouble with Wind

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The trouble with wind is that it\’s hard to ride against it. Yes, a good breeze makes Old Glory look proud. But it\’s not so much fun for the cyclist who must battle it for miles. As every cyclist knows, the trouble with wind, is that fighting it is hard work. Struggling agains the breeze sends my heart rate up; and makes me feel short of breath. My legs reach the point where they feel quivery and weak from rapid, low-gear spinning — especially as I\’m rather prone to lower-cadence, big-ring pedaling. A headwind slows me down, which is especially frustrating if I have to make a cut-off time. During a long ride, you can add to those woes the fact that all that hard work makes you feel like not eating. Remember what happens to your body\’s blood when your legs, heart, and lungs are working so hard? They have first dibs on that blood; and that leaves a lot less blood for digestion. Food becomes unappealing. Yet if you still have miles to go, it\’s necessary to keep eating. If you suddenly feel totally exhausted, you haven\’t eaten enough; and you\’ve bonked! Then you have to slow down drastically, or even stop for a while; and have something to eat. But not too much, or you risk adding indigestion to your troubles. Have a few bites of some kind of energy bar; or a gel; and some water. Then it\’s back to bucking that wind!

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Riding Cold

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The weather has me riding cold; and it makes me feel downright shivery to think of plunging into the water like those turtles. In fact, chilly weather makes me feel reptilian, i.e. cold-blooded and sluggish. Now that cooler temperatures have arrived, I\’ve started to record what I wore for each ride; and whether I still felt cold; got too warm; or felt \”just right\”, as Goldilocks would put it. Cycling shorts; socks; and cycling shoes go without saying. Recording them would be belaboring the obvious. But did I wear double socks; or thermal socks? If so, I write it down. Full-fingered gloves instead of half-fingered gloves? That gets recorded, too. Did I use leg warmers; and a cycling jacket? And a skull cap? Put it in the record. Today\’s outfit was just right, so I wasn\’t riding cold; except that I wore the skull cap, and my head started to feel a trifle over-warm during the last mile or so. I\’ll take that over my head being too cold, though. I began this morning\’s under mostly cloudy skies. In fact, I didn\’t even feel much like riding. After about 15 minutes the sun began to dodge in and out of the clouds; and having some sunlight made me feel a bit better. Have I got a touch of SAD? I made it rather short today; 40.5 miles. On the way home, I made a few brief efforts to ride 14 mph against the wind. I sure need more of that! Despite the fact that the sky seemed to be clearing, there was a light sprinkle about six miles before I got home. I\’m glad it didn\’t actually rain!

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