SpokEasy

February 2019

Quandry

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Quandry What a quandry I’m in sometimes on my Sunday long rides. Was there ever a wind today! Stronger than the one blowing this Flag. I had it against me for most of the way out; and some of the time on the way back. You’d think that a stiff headwind (26 mph, with stronger gusts!) would be a great time to work at pushing into the wind in order to develop better strength. For flatland dwellers, it’s a good substitute for hill work. But should I, or shouldn’t I? There’s the long-ride quandry. My Sunday long ride is supposed to be about maintaining a steady pace. Then there’s the possibility that pushing too hard when I’m far from home will leave me so depleted that getting back home again will be a major struggle. For all my concerns in that area, when I got that wind behind me I couldn’t resist pushing the pace; trying to get up to 25 mph again, as I did last Sunday. I made it to almost 24 mph. Time was when it was hard for me to touch 15 mph even with a tailwind, so I guess I’ve gotten somewhere! Today I tried a new on-bike snack: FitCrunch. I found them in a store, on sale for 50 cents per bar. They’re pretty good, and are a nice change from Clif Bars!

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Aren\’t We Cranky?

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Aren\’t we cranky? Cranky? Cycling generates endorphins; and endorphins generally put a body in a good mood. So why be cranky? Or rather, crank-y? Well, we shouldn\’t ignore crankarm length entirely. I had no idea that crank length is involved in how easy or hard a particular gear feels. Not being an engineer or bicycle mechanic, I never though about it. That\’s why I ask, Aren\’t we cranky? But tell me, is crank length involved in mechanical advantage? My road bike\’s cranks seem to be the right length for me. At any rate, when I went for my professional fitting, the fitter didn\’t mention changing my cranks\’ length. Now I wonder whether changing my crank length might help me to improve my speed. Yeah, I know — I\’m looking for the lazy way! Crank length isn\’t always directly related to the bicycle. Do you do off-bike step-up exercises? I read somewhere that you should use a box that\’s twice as high as your crankarm is long. For me, that should be 14 inches. The only thing I have available is a 7-inch high aerobics stepper. Since it\’s all I have, that\’s what I use. Maybe someday I\’ll have something better. Until then, I\’ll have to hope that my riding generates enough endorphins to keep me from getting cranky.  

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It Worked Sorta

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It worked — sorta. The forecast for today looked quite dire. Then, yesterday, I found a four-leaf clover; and I wished on it for the weather to NOT be bad today. Up to a point, it worked. When I rode out to the salvage store this morning, it was overcast; but not raining. It was, however, windy. At 7 am, the weather site I checked said the wind was 13 mph. Happily, I had a tailwind much of the way home; but with about a mile and a half to go, it turned into a headwind. What\’s more, it seemed to be getting stronger. That wind was whipping up white caps on the river! After I got home, I checked the weather site again. Sure enough, the wind had increased to 18 mph; with gusts up to 30 mph! I had wanted to take the trailer today, and bring home a big haul. I\’m glad I decided not to! It was hard enough bucking that wind with the panniers. But I made it home; so wishing on a four-leaf clover wasn\’t futile. In fact, it worked, sorta! And the salvage store actually has some pretty good stuff, despite \”salvage\” sounding like inferior goods rescued from a shipwreck. Back to the lucky clover. It would be nice if its power extends through tomorrow. It\’s going to be sunny, but the wind: 10-20 mph. And from the North. That means a headwind much of the way home. If it\’s 10 mph, it will be a nuisance, but not too bad. But 20 mph? YIKES!!

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For All Intense Purposes

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For all intense purposes? Isn\’t it, \”for all intents and purposes\”? Not always! Intensity, so they say, is the component of training that cyclists most often get wrong. (See The Cyclist\’s Training Bible, p. 33) When they should be taking it easy, they ride a little too hard; and when it\’s time to go really hard, they\’re under-rested; and can\’t go hard enough.  Am I making that mistake? Is it why I\’m making so little progress towards improving my cruising pace? Brief but intense efforts are needed to improve force. They can also help to improve anaerobic endurance as well as muscular endurance. For me an intense, or \”force\”, workout looks something like this: 1) Ride easily for a mile or so, using the small ring and larger cogs. 2) Shift onto the large ring. Keep shifting to smaller cogs until it feels very hard to pedal and my cadence has slowed to about 50. 3) Work to push the cadence to 70 or so. I began with 10-second intervals; and at first it took most of the 10 seconds to get my cadence up to 70!  4) After the pre-determined amount of time (10 seconds, or whatever) shift to the small ring and bigger cogs, and ride easy for two minutes. 5) Repeat 2) through 4) twice. That\’s one set. 6) Ride easy for 10 minutes before doing another set. Sometimes I do two or three sets during a ride; sometimes only one. Usually my first hard effort goes the best, and I suspect that I don\’t ride easily enough between hard efforts.  What I have done does seem to have helped, but not as much as I would like. For all intense purposes, I guess I\’m not intense enough.      

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Oh to Retire!

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Oh to retire! No, not re-tire as in putting new tires on a bicycle. Retire as in leave the work force. I\’m not saying that I\’ll retire soon; but I\’m at the age to be planning for it. Just as a pro cyclist needs to have something after the racing career is over, I\’ll want something in retirement, too. Of course there\’s blogging; that\’s already in my plans. And, what else? Reading! Maybe more time for core/upper body work. More time to cook and get more into really healthful eating. For this, super-fresh veggies would be great. I think it would be nice to have a place that\’s all my own, with enough of a yard for a small garden. I could try out my green thumb. Supposing, that is, that my thumb is green! Some people have a \”black\” thumb; that is to say, they manage to kill even the \”easiest\” plants. And oh to retire and have more time to ride! Maybe even to train for some ultra-long rides, such as one of Adventure Cycling\’s tours. Probably I\’d go for one of the fully-supported tours. My budget doesn\’t have room for a touring bicycle. Not having to be at a job at 8:00 am would mean that I didn\’t have to get up so early to go riding. I might even be able, at long, long last, to catch up on sleep! Or do I daydream?  

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About More than Wheels

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It\’s about more than wheels. We hear all the time about the need for balance in our lives. Just as we have to balance on two wheels while riding a bicycle, we must strike a balance between cycling activities and everything else: job, family, and so on. Find out here how some people have managed to do it. They\’re way ahead of me! Training 15-20 hours a week in addition to a full-time job is more than I can do. Between the road bike and the hybrid, the most I\’m likely to get in is  10-11 hours a week; maybe twelve. Then there\’s balance within cyclist training: enough intense work to bring about improvement; but not going hard every day. All hard, all the time is the fast track to exhaustion; burnout; injury; and even loss of interest in cycling😢 At the same time, a cyclist who is serious about training must guard against falling into the \”sorta hard all the time\” trap. (Which is where I suspect I am!) Always riding at the same pace can get quite monotonous, and is likely to result in a rider becoming a so-called \”one-speed wonder\”. And what of cyclists who have chronic health problems? For them, it\’s about more than wheels in a big way: there\’s at least one pro team out there made up exclusively of riders who have diabetes! Imagine managing a serious condition like diabetes with the demands of pro cycling. That must be quite a balancing act!  

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Hang Tight!

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Hang tight! Or something. A nice, straight track like this is what I could not manage this morning. There was a pretty stiff wind, 17 mph, with gusts up to 23 mph. Outward-bound, I did fairly well. The wind was behind me; and I tried to hit 25 mph again, the way I did day before yesterday. Maybe I wasn\’t ready for another such effort; I got up to just over 22 mph. Coming back home was another story. The wind kept pushing me around, especially when I needed to ride one-handed while I got a drink of water. The gusts were unpredictable. Once I got so frustrated with it that I stopped when I needed to get out the water bottle. I\’m glad it wasn\’t raining. Precipitation with a wind like that makes for a miserable ride. When I wear a poncho on the road bike, it: one, flaps all over the place and creates a lot of wind resistance; two, makes bike control even more difficult; and three, causes visibility problems when I try to look behind me. That\’s when instinct makes me hang tight; but a death grip on the handlebars, so I\’ve read, can actually cause your track to be more erratic because of the tension; so I try to avoid it. But I wander from the point. What can I do so that I\’ll be able to hold my line better, even when the wind is trying to shove me around? More core training, maybe?  Even if I won\’t be able to ride like I were on a rail, I\’d like to be able to keep from wavering so much in the wind.

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Just Because!

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Just because! Ride because it\’s for a good cause, that is. \”Just because\” rides abound. There\’s Tour de Cure for diabetes, and Bike MS for multiple sclerosis. Those two are the only two I\’ve done, and they appear to be merely the tip of the iceberg. Many other fund-raising rides exist, such as ClimateRide. The Adriatic Ride must be beautiful.  Now if only I could be sure of getting in sufficient training so that I could handle any climbing! There appear to be a number of localized rides for autism. I don\’t see a nation-wide society under which they all fall. I\’m sure there are many fund-raising rides for the various types of cancer. I guess it\’s a matter of pick your cause; get out the bicycle; pump up those tires; and start training.  

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BioWall

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BioWall? What\’s that? I\’m not sure how much of a green thumb I have. Truth to tell, I\’ve never really tried much; but I wonder whether having a BioWall might help with my sensitivities. At work, where I really need it, having a BioWall installed would be a major undertaking; and not up to a single individual. I don\’t know how expensive it might be, nor how long constructing it would take. Even then there\’s the question of tending it, so that it doesn\’t wither and die. Whose job would that be? No, don\’t look at me. I\’d be sure to kill it in short order. I doubt that a plant at my desk do any good; and at any rate there isn\’t room for it. Filter masks don\’t help me much if anybody anywhere nearby is loaded with overpowering scent; and it happens much too often. Would a BioWall be helpful in a bicycle workshop? Could it filter out some of the inevitable fumes from lubricants, cleaners, and that new-tire smell (which can be irritating to the sinuses)? Anything to help reduce indoor air pollution is worth trying, I think. Healthy employees = quality work! Healthy cyclists = a happy peloton!

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ARE We Inferior?

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Are we inferior, really? Cycling alongside motor traffic can make us feel might small sometimes, especially when an 18-wheeler roars past; a bit like standing below the Eiffel Tower and looking up at it. But just because cyclists take up much less space than motorized vehicles; and aren\’t as fast; doesn\’t automatically make us inferior, does it? We hear about cyclists becoming the victims of road rage because they were \”in the way\”. Or, \”They\’re too slow\”. The effects of road rage upon cyclists range from \”You need to get on the sidewalk!\” (which I\’ve heard a few times — and I was in the BIKE LANE), to serious injury/maiming, to death. Apparently many non-cyclists don\’t realize that a bicycle is a vehicle, and has the right to use the roads. But are we inferior because they think that? I don\’t think so! John Forester\’s Effective Cycling is one of the earlier books about cycling that I read. Admittedly that was so long ago that I remember little of it! However, a glance through the Table of Contents makes it apparent that this is an in-depth book. Maybe I should read it again! I won\’t deny that riding with cars and trucks can be scary; and I\’m thankful that I can avoid riding alongside of traffic most of the time. When I can\’t avoid it, I try to go out early in the day, before traffic builds up. Is that merely common sense? Or do I have an inferiority complex?

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