SpokEasy

April 2019

Day 12

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Love to Ride, Day 12! There was almost no wind this morning.🙂 But there were fog patches, and  some of them were pretty dense. I started out wearing eye protection, because it\’s warm enough that flying insects are a problem. Thanks to the fog, I had to take those glasses off so I could see! I tried anti-fog spray once, and the fumes burned my eyes; so I don\’t bother with it. The fog was also a problem in a different way. I wanted to do some force exercises; and those exercises can see me hit 22-23 mph. Foggy conditions aren’t the best for such work; and when it’s hard to see what’s ahead of me, I get nervous even when I’m riding at a more moderate pace. There\’s no telling who might be up ahead, dressed in dark clothing; with no lights; and minimal or no reflective material! Today, however, my legs weren’t quite up to scratch. Maybe I used too hard a gear; or maybe I still wasn’t sufficiently recovered from the hard efforts I made earlier this week. Maybe it’s just that it’s Friday; and by this point in the week I’m plain old tired. I hope to ride to the salvage store tomorrow; but tomorrow there will be wind! The forecast says it will strengthen from 13 mph at 7 am, to 18 mph by 10 am.  The wind will get even stronger; and there\’s a wind advisory in effect from late morning onwards. I\’m glad I can expect to be back home by 10 am! Day 12 brought fog; but maybe that\’s better than a stiff headwind!

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I Need a Mirror

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I need a mirror! Correct body position is important; but how can we know whether we\’re doing it if we can\’t see ourselves? Unfortunately I don\’t have a mirror on rides except the handle-bar variety; and it doesn\’t let me see myself. Even if it did, it won\’t help me if I don\’t know what to look for! One suggestion is to watch your shadow; but you have to have the right conditions at the right time of day to benefit from that. Even having a coach alongside would do only so much, I suspect. Developing good posture habits means that you need to be constantly aware of what your body is doing. On top of that, even if you have that awareness, how can you be sure that what you\’re doing is correct?  As to the lower back, I have rather a tendency to arch my lower back backwards. After a while it starts to ache, and I have to pay special attention to keeping it straight. My right hand has something of a tendency to go numb and tingling. I think that\’s from gripping too tightly, which can easily happen in wind conditions that make the bicycle hard to control. Holding correct posture is complicated when you\’ve got a loaded Camel-Bak on your, well, back. But I think I\’d rather be slouched than have dehydration problems. All the same, I need a mirror that lets me see myself as I ride!

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What\’s Afoot Now?

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What\’s afoot now? Today I visited my primary care physician about those crazy left-foot toes. The outcome: he believes I\’ve got tendonitis in that foot. So he\’s put me on a medication for the tendonitis for a month; plus a second med to keep the first one from tearing up my stomach. What a drag! In addition, the doctor wants me to have some physical therapy for my foot. That\’s an even bigger drag, because of course I have to work those sessions in around my job. At least I can continue to ride my bicycle. I think I\’d go bonkers if I couldn\’t! November 6 , 2020 addendum: The foot seems mostly OK, except for the bunion joint (I think that\’s what it\’s called). There\’s so much else going on that I don\’t want to bother about it. So what\’s afoot now? The COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-diabetes. We\’ve had a hyperactive hurricane season; and it\’s not over yet! Zeta came directly over New Orleans, and some folks still haven\’t gotten their electricity back. I was one of the lucky ones; mine was off only 27 hours.

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Day 11

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Today is Day 11 of Love to Ride! I had another good ride, with nice weather. It\’s slightly warmer than yesterday, and a bit windier; but still OK. Maybe I overdid the out-of-saddle work yesterday. Today my legs feel heavy and tired, so I did a short ride; not quite eight miles. I tried to pedal easily; and I stayed on the small ring. I don\’t think you could really say that this was a \”recovery\” ride. I was working a bit too hard for that; and homeward-bound, the wind was strong enough to keep me from staying in heart rate Zone 1 if I wasn\’t going to take too long to get back home. The wind kept picking up all day long; and as I type this, it\’s blowing at 21 mph. I\’m glad I\’m not trying to ride against it! Day 11 thinks it\’s going out like a lion; and this isn\’t March!

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Day 10

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Love to Ride, Day 10! I had wonderful riding weather this morning. The temperature was about 64; the sky was clear; and there was almost no wind. If only it could be like that every day! That would be cyclists’ paradise, as far as I’m concerned. I wasn’t trying to push the pace today; but on a whim, I tried some out-of-saddle pedaling. All of a sudden I felt stronger at it than I ever have before. Maybe my “force” exercises are paying off? I even tried riding over a pipe-hump or three while out of saddle; but unfortunately I don’t seem to be ready for that yet. I wavered all over the place. C’mon core, get with it! I\’m now turning an eye towards the forecast for the next four days. Tomorrow should be OK, at least for the morning ride; but as the day goes on, the wind is expected to strengthen. Friday there\’s a 20% chance of showers. Still not too bad. Saturday the chance of showers increases to 30%; and Sunday doesn\’t look good at all: 70% chance of showers and T-storms. But you never know. Sometimes a 10% chance of rain brings a furious downpour; and sometimes  a 70% (or more) chance of rain means not a drop. I\’m glad this is only Day 10 of Love to Ride. That means I still have plenty of time to get in those miles!

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More than Your Figure

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It\’s about more than your figure when you\’re a cycling enthusiast. Like the author of this article, I\’m hesitant about posting a blog on the subject the  \”plus-sized cyclist\”. I, myself, am about 15 pounds overweight; so who am I to talk? Cycling can help you to lose weight; particularly if it goes hand-in-hand (foot-to-foot?) with improved eating habits. But changing eating habits isn\’t the easiest thing to do; especially when you work all day; have to squeeze breakfast into the half-hour between the morning ride and heading off to work; and have little counter space for food preparation. If I don\’t prepare the day\’s lunch the evening before, I have even less time for breakfast. To complicate matters of  \”eating right\”, I\’m apt to get so caught up in meal planning that I end up doing little else. I can\’t give \”diet\” so much attention when I have other things that must be done; and it\’s no wonder that I tend to backslide after several months of it. As that article says, if you want to ride a bicycle, just do it; even if you don\’t have a figure like a pro tour rider. It\’s still possible to have lots of fun riding! Besides, who hasn\’t heard of \”skinny-obese\” these days? I\’d rather have those extra 15 pounds; some muscle; and some stamina, than have the figure of a prima ballerina; but be flabby and unable to ride for even five miles. It\’s about more than your figure!

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Is That Weird?

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Is that weird? No; not E-E-R-I-E. E-R-I-E. Follow the footsteps; I mean, the hoof prints, of the famous mule! A week or so ago I received a notice in the mail about Cycle the Erie Canal; and it sounds wonderful. Much of the trail is away from traffic. It\’s mostly flat, and that\’s great for a life-long flatlander like me. Eight days, 400 miles does sound rather daunting. I could manage 50 miles in one day, I\’m quite sure, but averaging that for eight days straight is another matter. The training plan sounds very similar to what I do as a regular thing, though; so maybe I\’d be OK! Unfortunately it\’s not likely I\’ll get to do this tour. Buffalo, NY is far, far away. The tour itself is not cheap; and getting up there, and back afterwards, would add to the cost. Preparation would mean putting the road bike aside for a while. I do most of my riding with the road bike; but a hybrid is recommended for this trip. Suddenly riding the hybrid all day, every day for over a week would be too much if I didn\’t do something to prepare for it. I\’d especially need to practice a lot of loaded riding, namely, full panniers in addition to the Camel-Bak. I don\’t know whether there are any ghosts along the Erie Canal; if I saw one, I\’d be saying, \”Is that weird, or what?\” It sure would make the Erie Canal eerie! But if you can make it to this ride, have a great time; and watch out for what my brother calls \”fresh mule muffins\”.  

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Day 9

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It was a blustery start to Day 9 of Love to Ride. This morning, while I was outward-bound, it seemed a bit as though the Big Bad Wolf were at work. The wind was blowing at 15-16 mph; but all the same, I made some efforts to push 15 mph into the it. I worked at one minute at a time of riding hard, for a total of six intervals. I didn\’t always reach 15 mph, but I did hit a peak speed well over 17 mph; so I guess you could say that my efforts were successful. For a change I had a TAILwind on the way back home! I did some 30-second efforts at getting up to 17-18 mph; and managed a peak velocity of 18.47 mph! On the one hand, my making those efforts is a good thing. I can see that I\’ve actually made some progress over the years. There was a time when hitting 15 mph even with a good tailwind was very hard. On the other hand, I’m too chicken. I suspect that I need to make those efforts more than 30-60 seconds long if I want to increase my cruising speed; and I probably need to do more of them. It was cloudy, but it didn\’t rain. And I saw a coyote today! Maybe it’s the same one I saw almost a week ago, because it was in pretty much the same place. It\’s been quite an interesting Day 9.

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Day 8

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Love to Ride \”rides\” on, into Day 8. Today, for a change, I got to work without getting rained on. It was, however, overcast; and I was rather nervous about the possibility of having the sky open up any moment. As the morning went on, there was some clearing; and the sun came out! As the day went on, the wind picked up; and by the time I rode home it was blowing quite strongly. I\’m glad it was a tailwind for the final mile. The Love to Ride challenge even has me wondering whether I could get in a 100-miler before the end of the month. According to this, I\’m probably not ready for a century at this point; especially if I have a strong wind on the day. Or is my having done 44 miles day before yesterday a sign that I could manage the miles, even if I plod along at 11 mph most of the day? On the other hand, during Tour de Cure last Fall, my arms felt sore and tired before the end; and I did the 50-mile route, not the 100-mile one. If I want to do a century, maybe I\’d better give myself more time to work up to it. Just because today is Day 8 is no reason to get overambitious!

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Set Your Heart

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You can always set your heart on that special, long ride: a century … or Tour de Cure … maybe Bike MS. For most of us, this will mean training up; and one way to train is by heart rate zone. How do we set the appropriate zones? First, we need to know what our maximum heat rate is. The old \”220 minus your age\” to determine what your maximum heart rate should be, has been called into question, and even called \”useless\”; but I\’ve done a VO2 max test with HIIT Lab. This test determines your maximum heart rate; and from there, you can work out your zones. I use a 5-zone system from Get Fast!. (See p. 231). The lowest, Zone 1, is easy/recovery; and for a long, casual ride, Zone 2 is aerobic endurance/cruising. Zone 3 is steady/tempo. Zone 4 is brisk; and Zone 5 is all-out, full-gas effort. Now that we\’ve determined our heart rate zones, how do we train for the big ride? For quite a while I\’ve had the idea of riding another 100-miler of my own teasing the edges of my brain; and I always wonder how best to get ready. Century training plans abound; but the problem with them is that, like this one, the mileages to be ridden during the week are more than I can manage. I can\’t ride fast enough to do them in the time that I have; and that makes it hard to prepare. Riding 100 miles in one day without adequate training is not a good idea! So don\’t set your heart on riding a century before you\’re properly prepared. It\’s a good thing I didn\’t set my heart on it, because I\’m for sure not ready!

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