SpokEasy

January 2019

Volcanic?

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S Shall we go volcanic? Plyometrics has been described as \”explosive\” moves to develop muscles so that they can make sudden, hard efforts. That ability certainly comes into play when a cyclist must make a sprint to the finish line. But what about non-sprint, endurance riding? Would \”plyo\” help me to increase my cruising speed? I\’d have to do it regularly for at least several months, and possibly longer, before I found out. You know how, when you begin a new activity, it\’s fairly soon that you reach a plateau? Then it could be at least a few more weeks before any noticeable improvement; and meanwhile, you\’re in a sort of limbo. You aren\’t sure whether you\’re making progress or not. Plyo is one of the things that makes me wish I didn\’t live in a place with a raised floor. Any kind of jumping makes the whole place shake and rattle; but I suspect that performing such exercises would do my bones good because of the impactful nature of plyo. Query: would my bones get the same benefit from plyo if I used a crash mat; even if I got really volcanic about it? Even if not, using the crash mat might at least make the plyo sessions quieter. Since I don\’t have the space to store a crash mat, I might never find out.  At any rate, don\’t let your plyo sessions get as explosive as Vesuvius in 79 A.D.!

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Winter Training

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Winter training is a subject that, perhaps, I shouldn\’t talk about. Where I live, snow is a great rarity. We haven\’t had any since the December 2008 snowfall; and that didn\’t stick more than a few hours. Thus I have zero experience in riding through the snow. Winter, they say, is a good time to get in some cross-training; especially if conditions prohibit outdoor cycling. I usually walk to work at least once a week; a round trip of about two miles. But is that enough to count as cross-training? Last January we got a freak cold snap that froze pipes and knocked out the water supply for several days. My workplace was closed for a day or two because the weather was so frigid. It was so cold that I didn\’t want to go outside at all. In this uninsulated place, if  I wasn\’t right in front of the electric heater it was as cold indoors as it was outdoors. It was so cold that I didn\’t even want to set up the trainer and let my legs get a bit of a workout. Doing so, however, would have provided me with some cross-training. For instance, I could have practiced one-legged pedaling drills. And really, the activity would have warmed me up. Maybe one day I\’ll live where there\’s snow, and I can get in some snow-shoeing as cross-training; real Winter training, for a change. Until then, I\’ll keep riding year-round, as I\’ve always done.

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Recovery

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Recovery Recovery is stated time and time again as the most important aspect of any training program; and often the one that gets short shrift. I wish I could chill out like this kitty here; that would help my recovery! If you don’t allow yourself to recover properly, you won’t be able to go hard when the time to go hard arrives. Your risk of injury rises, and your energy/endurance wanes. During holidays and vacations I don’t have to get up by 4:45 am if I’m to ride; and after a few days I start to feel like I’ve got a little more energy. I usually get about 7 hours’ sleep per night, which theoretically is adequate. Unfortunately it isn’t. My sleep is too broken to be truly refreshing. Maybe that’s why I can’t go hard enough, often enough, to make real gains in my average speed. Being tired so much of the time doesn’t help me to maintain a proper diet. When I get home from work, of course I’m worn out; and I don’t want to go hustling around the kitchen. But it probably doesn’t do my energy levels much good when I don’t eat properly. All that said, there’s my recovery drink for post-Sunday long ride. Chocolate whey protein powder in skim milk! To me this is a rather pricey product, so I usually save it for after a really long ride; or a ride during which I did “force” work. I don’t use it every day. It sure tastes good, though; and if it helps my muscles, so much the better. Let’s all chill out now, and recover from that last hard ride!

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Long-Range Planning

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Long-range planning can be quite difficult at times. There\’s no way to know what conditions will be like when a months-away event finally arrives; and of course it doesn\’t matter whether it\’s a solo ride or an organized one. Bad weather is bad weather. Suppose I wanted to do a 100-mile ride in April. Will we have overnight lows of 80 degrees; or will it drop to the 40s? Will it be calm; or will I have to battle headwinds much of the day, as happened with the tricycle century? Will the weather be clear; or will it rain? I wish I had rain gear that could stand up to a heavy downpour. My cycling jacket quickly gets soaked even in light rain; and then I get cold. My poncho is oversized; and it flaps around like crazy in the wind. That creates extra resistance, and makes the bicycle harder to control. Ergo if the forecast were for cold, wind, and rain; or, alternatively, for extreme heat; might I be justified in postponing the ride? Nobody likes to be a wimp; but where\’s the line between wimpy and sensible? Incidentally, there\’s an advantage to a solo event: if the weather is terrible, you can wait until next week; and no harm done. If it\’s an organized event, you\’ve missed out until next year. How can I be sure I\’m preparing for a big ride as I should? Merely putting in the miles is only part of getting ready. How can I tell whether I\’m doing enough work to improve my force? Have I even allowed myself enough time to train up? Without a crystal ball, I can do only so much in regard to long-range planning. It\’s quite a gamble.    

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Pilates

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Pilates it seems, is a great supplement to any physical fitness regimen. For example, I\’ve read of dancers doing Pilates as part of their overall conditioning, aside from all their hard work in the dance studio. Cyclists can benefit from Pilates, too. I don\’t know how many of the off-bike exercises I do come from the Pilates studio; but I do include moves to help with core strength and stability. Some are from Get Fast! Others are from Kelly Cycle Coaching. I do only one session of each routine per week; and that means that my progress has been very, very slow. Usually I do off-bike work of some sort five or six days per week; and don\’t really feel the need for more.  I\’ve never tried to put in hour-long sessions. After all, I\’m not training to race; nor am I trying to go pro. I also am not body-building. In fact, they say that body-building can be counterproductive for cyclists. Yes, we need core strength and stability; and we need enough arm strength to be able to ride for miles and miles without having our arms feel like limp spaghetti. But too much muscular bulk in the upper body can add more weight than a cyclist wants. I guess it doesn\’t matter too much whether you get in a half-hour of off-bike per week; or an hour every day. As I\’ve seen, over time even small doses of core work help.  

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Is That a Hint?

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I wonder, is that a hint? To explain, today I had a bit of splurge; and went to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant for lunch. When you eat there, you automatically get a fortune cookie. Today mine said something like, \”As soon as you think you\’re too old to do something, do it. When I first began riding the tricycle, \”too old\” never even entered my head. For that matter, neither did \”too young\”! Adult tricycles aren\’t exclusively for those of advanced age, after all. I needed a way to get around; and discovered within less than one mile that I loved to ride. Naturally I\’m taking that fortune cookie\’s statement with a grain of salt. Or should I say, a drop of soy sauce? Maybe I\’m not too old to take up mountain bike racing, working my way up to being able to tear down highly technical courses. That might not be very wise, however, seeing as I have osteoporosis. On the merely practical side, I\’m many miles away from any mountains, or even hills; so it doesn\’t make much sense for me to buy a mountain bike. Am I too old for a bicycle tour? Not by a long shot, I\’m sure. The obstacles there are funding, and lack of time to train up adequately; especially when it comes to epic tours. If I want to do one of the really long ones, it will have to wait until after I\’ve retired. I can hardly take three months off from work. But getting back to that fortune cookie: is that a hint? Maybe I can make an epic tour a long-term goal!    

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Ai-yi-YOWCH!

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Ai-yi-YOWCH! None of us wants to have muscle cramps fit to make us do like this poor fellow here. But suppose a nasty cramp strikes during a ride? We could try these tips to prevent cramps from occurring in the first place. Preventing cramps ought to be easier in the long run than dealing with them when they happen. I, for one, am a long way from being sufficiently skilled to try a quad stretch while actually riding. It would be better for me to stop and rest for a while if I get a quad cramp that bad during a ride. At least one source I\’ve seen suggests this remedy when a cramp hits while riding: grab your upper lip and pinch it. I believe the theory is that the pinched lip does something to distract your brain from the kinking leg muscle. Of course, if you begin to get cramps, try to figure out why. Are you riding much faster than usual? You might need to slow it down for a few miles. Are you increasing your mileage too quickly? Dial back the distance for a day or two. Are you using a gear that\’s too hard for you? Shift to an easier gear. Is the day hot? Maybe your body is telling you to replenish the electrolytes; and especially sodium. Or, maybe it\’s simply time to pull off the road and take a break.  Let\’s do what we can to keep our muscles happy, because we sure don\’t want them to cramp our style! Let\’s keep the ai-yi-YOWCH away.  

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Hang Loose!

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Hang loose! Long rides can result in tight muscles as the miles wear on and on. Those muscles can feel even more tight and sore the next day. To help keep your hard-working quads, hamstrings, etc. from getting too tight, let\’s try some on-bike stretches. Naturally we can\’t stretch quite like this kitty while riding a bicycle (or at any rate, I can\’t); but it\’s possible to coast briefly while straightening one leg and stretching the heel downwards. Then repeat with the other leg. To prevent rigor mortis in the arms, sit up for a moment or two and straighten and stretch the arms. How about post-ride? The longer you wait after you get off the bike, the stiffer your muscles get. Not that it\’s easy to plunge into a stretching routine the minute you\’ve parked your bicycle. I know I\’m always eager to get out of my sweaty shorts; visit Mrs. Murphy (as people used to say); and down my recovery drink. This foam roller routine is one I could use more often. It really doesn\’t take long to do, unless you want to spend a long time at it. When you hit a spot that needs extra rolling out, you\’ll know! This stretching business is rather a nuisance at times, but hey — it helps you to hang loose!

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Creme de la Creme?

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What\’s creme de la creme? These cream puffs? They look delicious, despite the goodies overload of the holiday just past. Then there\’s the kind of \”creme\” that keeps your hands from getting chapped. As soon as the weather begins to turn cool in Fall, I turn to Better Basics for the Home. On page 76 is a recipe for Basic Waterless Wax Formula. It\’s actually meant for wood furniture; but the first time I whipped up a batch of this stuff and use it on a bookcase, I noticed how good the polish felt on my hands. It was far better than any commercial hand cream or lotion I had ever tried. Besides that, it didn\’t have either an overpowering \”fragrance\”; or the weird odor of \”unscented\” hand lotions that I had used. I make very small batches. Measured by weight (not volume): 2 oz olive oil; 1 oz jojoba oil; 1 oz natural beeswax beads; 1/4 oz bleached carnauba wax. I put it all in an 8 oz Pyrex® cup; and put the cup in a small pot with water up to about the 4 oz line on the cup. I set the pot over medium heat, stirring with a wooden chopstick until the wax is melted. Then I pour the hot mix into another container* and beat with a fork until it\’s cooled and emulsified. You can vary proportions of oils to wax, depending on how stiff a product you want. This makes enough for one Winter season, for one person. It\’s my creme de la creme! *If I don\’t do this, that Pyrex cup retains heat and it takes a wrist-exhausting eternity for the mix to cool down!

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Off with a Bang?

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Did I start the New Year off with a bang? Not so fast! Today\’s ride wasn\’t exactly a bang, although I rode past many patches of fireworks debris from last night\’s New Year\’s celebrations. It was more like a slosh. Last night the forecast said, overcast. Instead, it was raining this morning. By about 8:30 am it seemed to have stopped; so I went out for a ride. I discovered that there was still a fine drizzle; and several miles out I ran into rain. Riding in the rain is rather wearisome; so I turned back a mile or so earlier than planned. (Yeah, I know — shame, shame!) On the way home, I made two or three short, untimed \”surges\” at 17 mph. If there was a \”bang\” it came during the final mile, when I pushed for 20 mph. I made it to 20.75 mph; and I even got my heart rate up to its max. I\’m also delighted that I can now hold 20 mph for more than a split second. Un-fun though this ride was, I\’ve made a start towards my year\’s mileage goal; even if I didn\’t start off with a bang. Every little bit helps! Good luck with your bicycling goals this year!

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