SpokEasy

February 2019

Are We Crazy?

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Are we crazy? Does riding bicycles really make us weird? It seems that it might! #1. I don\’t have a car; but if I did, my desire to ride my bicycle might easily lead me to letting that car become a \”beater\”. And my bicycle didn\’t cost nearly $10,000! #2. Without a car anyway, the only chamois I have is the cycling-shorts kind. Cycling shorts, incidentally, are well worth the cost. They\’re much more comfortable on a long ride than regular shorts. #3. I don\’t carry much in my jersey pockets. Does that mean it\’s not a cargo jersey? On long rides I\’m wearing the Camel-Bak; and it covers up the pockets. #4. So far I don\’t race imaginary friends, but I do sometimes bypass home so I can get my weekly long-ride mileage up to the day\’s goal. #5. Especially when it\’s been hot for at least a few weeks, my cyclist tan starts to show. My arms are several shades darker than my hands, and I can see clear demarcation lines on my legs. #6. Luckily I haven\’t had such an accident yet; but if I ever do, I bet that\’s exactly what I\’d say! #7. T-rex? I wouldn\’t say that I look like one; but I do have naturally tiny arms. #8. Oh, leg warmers! This time of year I need them almost daily, and I wish I had some heavier ones! #9. Maybe I shouldn\’t get myself started on this. I\’m not the one to talk about weight control when I need to shed about 15 pounds! #10. I haven\’t reached this point yet, but maybe some night it will come. Are we crazy? Maybe so!

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A SUNday Ride?

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Was this a SUNday ride? Today is Sunday, but it wasn\’t exactly sunny. Now and then the sun peeked out; but for most of my ride, it was overcast. For about the last hour it looked more and more like rain; and I\’m glad it didn\’t rain! I forgot to be sure my Garmin was fully charged (yes, AGAIN — when will I learn to take my own advice?); and it gave me the Low Battery signal when I still had about nine miles to go. After about two more miles, I decided to shut it off. I could estimate my roll time and mileage well enough post-ride. That\’s better than risking losing what data I already have. On Sundays, when I do a long ride, I usually don\’t worry much about maintaining a set speed. When I\’ve got 20 miles to go against the breeze in order to get back home, it\’s better to work at maintaining a steady pace. Today l stayed on the small ring and worked on keeping a rapid cadence. Today the temperature was pretty good for riding: mid-50\’s when I started. For next Sunday, I hope for clear skies and no wind. That will be a SUNday ride!  

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DIScomfort Zone

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Not many of us enjoy our DIScomfort zone; but we have to go there sometimes to improve as cyclists. Who wants to get faster? I know I do! But how much do I really want it? My gains in speed have come very, very slowly; and I think it\’s because I don\’t push myself out of my comfort zone often enough. Back in November 2009, when I got my adult tricycle, I decided to let speed take care of itself. Up to a point, it did. Then, after a few more months, I realized that I would have to make deliberate efforts to ride faster if I wanted to get faster. The same holds true for any bicycle. With my road bike, I usually take one day a week to do on-bike work to try to improve my force. It\’s over a year since I began to do that, but gains have been modest. Shameful to state, I\’m still a coward when it comes to really grueling efforts. Maybe my \”force intervals\” are too short; maybe I need to do more of them. Or perhaps I need to push for a certain speed for a certain length of time, never mind about getting into a really hard gear and working for a high cadence. I get the impression that either one can help to improve average speed, but the latter won\’t necessarily build muscle strength, will it? The difficulty in getting faster is one reason I\’m considering giving Tour de Cure a miss this year. I guess a good game plan would be to work on force for a few more months, and see where I am. I know this much: it won\’t be comfortable. Welcome to the DIScomfort zone!

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Worth the Trouble

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Riding a bicycle to get groceries is worth the trouble: it can help you save money on food! This morning I rode to the salvage store again. It was overcast; and I had an 18 mph headwind on the way home. But I got a pretty good load for just under $28.00.  As my sister said when I told her about my first trip there, \”salvage\” sounds like a shipwreck; but I think the idea is that the things are being saved from the discard bin. Cans might be dented; or outer packaging might be damaged. It\’s not unusual to find items there that are a bit past their supposed expiration dates. Cereal bars, for example, might not be quite fresh. But they still taste pretty good; and I need such things for take-along food for my weekly long ride. I can take them to work, too; and then I don\’t have to buy snacks out of vending machines. I\’ve been trying to work up a price book, as described in The Complete Tightwad Gazette, page 33. My price book, alas, isn\’t well organized; and I forget to take the book along when I go shopping. If you want to work up a price book, see also \”CTG\”, page 558-559, for possible complications of this activity. It would be nice if there were such a store around here for bicycle parts and accessories. For cyclists who know how to replace a chain or derailer, that would be great! As long as it\’s in decent condition, there\’s nothing wrong with a used bicycle trunk. But I guess I\’ll have to do without a store like that. I can still \”bring home the bacon\”; and get my exercise to boot. It\’s worth the trouble.

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Escape the Un-Gym?

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To escape the un-gym now and then would be nice. Keeping up the off-bike exercises can get quite tedious. Sometimes I\’m very tired and don\’t have the energy. Other times I get so absorbed in something else that I run short of time for them. Of course there are days when I simply don\’t feel like doing them! After more than five years of doing the same exercises, a certain staleness seems to be setting in. I\’m starting to want something different. Perhaps a kettlebell? To begin workouts using a kettlebell weighing 8-12 kg seems like a bit much to me. That\’s 17-26 pounds! I\’d rather start with 10 pounds, maybe less. Here\’s the catch: as I got stronger, I\’d want heavier weights; but there comes a time when both finances and available storage space say, Stop. Doing more reps rather than getting a heavier weight has its limits. A body has only so much time. It also would be sensible to perform these exercises where you\’ve got plenty of space on all sides. Losing your grip while swinging that thing around could result in significant damage: smashed furniture, a dented bicycle, or even a broken window. I don\’t have to decide whether to get a kettlebell right now, but it\’s definitely something to keep in mind. Here\’s the catch: soon the kettlebell would seem as un-gym as my other off-bike exercises — and I\’d still wish I could escape the un-gym.

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Half Wheeling

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Why would anybody want to go half wheeling? What good is a HALF wheel? Yes, a bicycle has two whole wheels; but from what I\’ve read about it, half-wheeling is a no-no. For a verbal explanation, see here. It\’s a bit easier to understand, I think, that the written article. Have I ever done this? I don\’t know. It\’s about two years since I last did any group riding at all; and I don\’t think I\’d heard of half-wheeling back then. Or does this count: back in October 2013 I rode Bike MS. During the first day, another rider and I kept passing each other. First she\’d pass me; shortly afterwards I\’d pass her; and so on. About the third time this happened, my comment was, \”We just can\’t decide who\’s going to be in front, can we?\” It might be nice, sometimes, to be able to ride side-by-side with another cyclist and have a bit of a chat. On the path I use, that would be multi-tasking: talking while holding a straight line and staying alert for other cyclists coming up from behind!

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Are You Serious?!

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Are you serious?! Well — that depends on how you define it. Do you have to  check off every item on this list before you can \”join the club\”; or does it mean training like a pro, and regular racing? Does it mean a century ride every month? Wait a minute. Are you serious?! I\’m far from the fitness level required to tackle a century every thirty days. I\’ve carried out a total of four self-supported century rides. Am I in the club? Each time, I had to build up to the big ride over several months. First I did a century on the trike. What a long, hard, COLD day that was; and afterwards, I felt almost incredulous that I had actually done it! Looking back, it\’s still rather hard to believe it. The tricycle century was a February ride. Later that year, after I got reasonably well adjusted to two wheels, I did two more centuries; one in October and one in December. The following April I bought a road bike; and I did a century on that one, too. Does making attempts to improve one\’s force count as serious cycling? Over the past few weeks such efforts have often fallen by the wayside. Cold and windy weather make it hard for me to do much besides just trying to get in some miles. It makes me feel like a weakling. For a long time, vague thoughts of another 100-miler have been drifting around in my mind. Am I a non-serious cyclist for not doing more to act on those thoughts? And how about commuting to work by bicycle? Not that it really matters whether you\’re a serious cyclist or not — not in this blog. We\’re here because we love to ride, aren\’t we?      

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Negative Split

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In the cycling world, we have the term \”negative split\”. But a town square? What\’s that got to do with it? I found this pic via a search for \”split\” in a free art web site (actually, I was hoping to find a pic of a banana split!), and I suppose it\’s Split, in Croatia. Back to the \”negative split\” business. That means riding the second half of a long event, such as a century, faster than the first half. That\’s not the easiest thing when you\’re rarin\’ to go; and your legs like to move fast, anyway. Eating that banana split would be easier, don\’t you think; and more fun, too. The idea is to conserve energy early in the ride, so that you don\’t burn yourself out too soon. In a race it might be necessary to \”start with a bang\”; but not for a long recreational event. Going as hard as you can from the start could have you totally spent by the halfway mark. Then making it to the finish line is going to be a slow, miserable business; if, in fact, you can finish at all. My experience: a few years ago I took part in a local cycling club\’s annual century ride. The ride unfortunately wasn\’t right here in town; it was about 30 miles away in a hilly area. I tried to do a negative split; but unfortunately that had me going too slowly, even before adding in the difficulty of all that climbing. Ultimately I had to abandon the ride😞 If I try it again, I hope I can find a way to simulate the climbing I\’ll face on event day. I know I\’ll need plenty of it!

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Will o\’ the Wisp?

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Does cycling have a will o\’ the wisp? Perhaps an elusive championship; or even just a personal best that you can\’t seem to reach? The term for me has always meant an eerie light among the trees: one that vanishes when I approach it, only to reappear in another spot, farther away. Of late, however, that will o’ the wisp has begun to look like a power meter. Why a power meter? When headwinds that slow me down, I can\’t determine from my average speed during that ride whether I’m making progress towards increasing my cruising speed. A power meter, on the other hand, would let me know whether I’ve gotten stronger. X watts is X watts, whether you’re plodding at 10 mph against a 25 mph wind; or flying at 20 mph with that same wind at your back. Late in 2016 I had just about decided to buy a power meter; and the need for oral surgery arose. I had to forget about spending my cash on a power meter. Last December, when my finances had just about recovered, I had to have another oral surgery. Once again, the need to pay for it has put a power meter out of my financial reach. They say that, to really make the best use of a power meter, you need to do a FTP test. Otherwise a power meter is just an expensive toy. The test doesn’t sound like fun, and you might reasonably argue that there’s really no need for a recreational cyclist to bother with it. You may well be right, especially as far as “expensive toy” goes. So, at least for the foreseeable future, I’d better forget that will o\’ the wisp power meter in favor of something a bit more attainable.

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Coming Soon

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This feature is coming soon, I hope. For a long time I\’ve hoped to make my site accessible to those whose native language is not English. Today I installed a feature on my web site that would let blog posts, at least, be translated into several languages. Unfortunately I seem to have done something wrong. I set up four non-English languages; and then I couldn\’t figure out how to get a blog post to translate. Next I found that the pic had disappeared from my home page; and for no reason that I could see. I had to go into my web host\’s live chat feature to work on it; and the translator plugin-in that I had installed had to be disabled. My site\’s menu, however, still has two entries for Language Switcher. Where did they come from? Now I need to delete of one of them. But I dare not experiment with it right now. I\’m only too likely to create further havoc. There are ever so many things that I don\’t know about site-building. I can watch YouTubes about how-to-do-it all day; take notes to follow; and still have problems. That\’s frustrating to my independent streak. The trouble with learning how to do these installations is that they\’re likely to be one-time occurrences. I quickly forget how I did them; and even if I took notes during the process, I can still be at a loss. It\’s NOT like riding a bike! Thus ends today\’s effort. It\’s getting too late to try again tonight, but I hope to get things straightened out; then I can really say that it\’s coming soon. Until then, Auf Wiedersehen! Hasta la vista! And so on.

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