SpokEasy

June 2019

Pacing

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Pacing is easy to forget when we\’re out on the bike. How tempting  it is to start out blazing fast! But if the ride is to be long, or if it\’s a race, taking off like a missile isn\’t necessarily wise. On the other hand, some days we feel sluggish;  slow as a snail; like molasses in January. We hope we won\’t feel like that on the day of an important event; but pacing in cycling events is very important. Cutting Edge Cycling includes a discussion of this (Chapter 6). To complicate matters, there\’s more than one manner of pacing. Even pacing the entire time? Negative split? And so on. As I understand the text, things to take into consideration are: How long will I be riding? Just a few minutes, or several hours? What distance will I be riding? What\’s the best warm-up for me for this type of event? What are the course conditions? And so on. I\’m certain that a lot of subtleties are involved, things that can be learned only through years of experience. Some of them, I\’ll bet, are the kind of thing that suddenly dawns on you, and you wonder why you never \”got it\” before. When I go on a weekend long ride, I try to keep to an even pace. It annoys me that I\’m still — STILL — not as fast as I\’d like to be, but when I want to get in 30, 40, or even 50 miles, it\’s not a good time for \”force\” intervals, or trying to jam it up to 20 mph. I don\’t need to \”blow up\” when I\’m far from home. Proper pacing will help to prevent such a disaster.    

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What\’s Up?

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I don\’t know what\’s up with me. I\’ve felt so tired all this past week. In fact, it seems to take a vacation for me to realize just how tired I am! I\’ve done considerably less riding than usual over the last seven days, so I decided to leave today\’s \”long\” ride at 32 miles. Where was my energy? On the way home, I had to make several extra stops to rest. I\’m lucky there wasn\’t a strong wind. I\’m sure I ate enough; in fact, I added up the morning\’s calories (pre-ride, ride, and post-ride drink). Far from finishing with a calorie deficit, I was nearly 280 calories over! (Then I devoured a Reese\’s Crunchy Cookie Cup, anyhow). I downed about three liters of water and 20 oz of electrolyte drink during my ride, so I think I can rule out dehydration. Could it be my sinuses? I\’m not anemic, am I? I know this, I need to get my weight back under control! Whatever it is that\’s going on, at least I saw some interesting wildlife today. I saw a big, dark bird high overhead. It was so far up that I wasn\’t quite sure, but it looked like it had a white head. That means only one thing: bald eagle! I also saw a great blue heron. Back to work tomorrow — blah. I hope to get back into my regular riding schedule over the coming week. I need to work on my pace. I\’m better at hitting higher max speeds, but my overall average speed doesn\’t seem to be improving. So what\’s up?      

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Time Is Running Out

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Time is running out. My vacation is almost over already. ALREADY!! Today I made a trip to the salvage store. When I get back from such an excursion, I often look up the prices for the stuff that I bought, to see how much I saved. Amazon seems the easiest \”store\” to use online, but I figure brick-and-mortar supermarket prices are similar. This morning I found canned Mac and Cheese, 15  oz cans, 3 for $1.00. That\’s considerably cheaper than buying it from a regular supermarket. It\’s actually pretty good, and you can dress it up however you like: add spices, or veggies, or tuna. When you want mac n cheese in a hurry, this is a big help. Because things at the salvage store usually cost less, I sometimes buy things that I usually would not. I can try things without worrying that I\’ll have wasted money if it turns out I don\’t like them. Vienna Sausages in Buffalo Sauce, for example. I had had the idea that buffalo sauce was very hot. The sauce in these sausages, at least, isn\’t especially peppery, and is more like sweet and sour sauce than anything. This is the time of year when I\’m stockpiling non-perishables in case of a hurricane. The salvage store is a good place to look for such stuff, so I think I\’ll be heading there again next Saturday. I\’m not going to wait until a storm is headed this way, and time is running out.

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Stronger?

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Have I gotten stronger, or not? No, I don\’t carry my bicycle around like this. I\’m not into cyclocross. I don\’t think my upper body strength is developed enough for it. In fact, I\’m quite sure it isn\’t. When it comes to just plain riding, I often wonder whether I\’m really improving. As they say, speed alone isn\’t necessarily a good indicator, as so many things can affect speed one way or another. Headwinds can slow you down drastically. Tailwinds let you go faster than you would otherwise be able to. Hills to climb? Another thing to slow you. Yesterday I was looking at my data from two Sunday rides:   Date                  Dist             Avg speed       Time  in HR Zones                                      Wind* 01/27/19          37.4 mi      13.52 mph       Z2, 0:00:37; Z3, 0:21:04; Z4, 2:24:23//NNE 6-8 06/23/19         37.5 mi       13.05 mph       Z2, 0:01:07; Z3, 1:43:03; Z4, 1:07:57//S 10-11 *mph This comparison seems to show that I am, indeed, a little stronger. On a day with a stronger wind, I was in my HR Zone 3 for much longer than I was five months earlier. (Even a southerly wind is against me a good bit of the time when I\’m heading back home; only a westerly wind is a real help.) Or am I imagining things? This is where a power meter would be a big help. Then I could really know: am I stronger?      

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Don\’t Be So Quick

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Don\’t be so quick to try out new things my own! I wanted to start a new Photo album where I could put the pics of the products I\’ve added to my Amazon Affiliates store. I have so many now! Bad move; I should have know better than to experiment. Too often that\’s landed me in a big mess. For a while I though I\’d lost my entire Photos application. I finally got it back, after I added several images to Photos. Apparently what I needed to look for was Imports. But now I have to look up how to move images from Photos to another album! My vacation is fast running out. I didn\’t do as much riding as I hoped I might. In fact, I\’ve been feeling worn out. Too much intense work on the web site, maybe? Today I went out on the bike only to run some errands. Vacations make me want to say, Don\’t Be So Quick! Tomorrow it\’s back to the usual routine. Already!  

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Cyclist Peeves

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Let\’s look into some cyclist peeves. You know how some things are plain old annoying? Every aspect of life has its aggravating side, and cycling is no exception. Even if you ride \”just\” for recreation: The weather forecast is dire, so you don\’t ride. \”Dire\” does not come to pass, and you realize you could have gone cycling, after all. Darn, I missed a good ride! You\’re out for a pre-dawn ride in hot weather, and encounter one swarm of insects after another. You hardly dare breathe through your mouth for fear of choking on a bug, yet exercise-induced rhinitis makes it difficult for you to inhale through your nose. Don\’t you get tired of having to do snot rockets? I have a similar problem with rides in cold weather. I get sniffly when the temperature gets down to about 75, and wind only makes it worse! There are people who ride bicycles in the dark without lights; wear minimal reflective material or none; and are wearing dark clothing. Do they want to get hit? Yet if you did run into them for not seeing them in time, they\’d be spitting nails. Dogs … maybe I needn\’t say any more. Commuting and running errands by bicycle has its own set of annoyances. Having to guard against getting \”doored\”. Cars that pass you too close for comfort. Traffic noise! Rainy days. Drivers who holler at you that you \”need to get on the sidewalk!\” They need to try riding a bicycle on the sidewalk themselves! Where I live there are plenty of sidewalks that are in appalling condition, and totally unsuited for cycling (they\’re not too good for walking, either). And what are your biggest cyclist peeves?  

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Letting Go

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Letting go is hard. I know what this article means. When the day came that I decided it was time to let my adult tricycle go, I certainly felt some pangs. I started riding with a trike because I had some balance/dizziness issues at the time. I didn\’t dare try to ride a bicycle for fear I\’d turn dizzy and fall right in front of a car. So, in November 2009 I got an adult trike. Fast-forward to Spring 2012. I had put thousands of miles on that tricycle, including a century. The dizziness wasn\’t giving me nearly as much trouble, and for all I know it was because of all that vigorous riding. I got up the gumption to buy a hybrid bicycle. It wasn\’t the easiest thing to adjust to two wheels; I wish I\’d known this when I started. I might even have been able to skip the \”glide biking\” part! But I did learn to ride a BI-cycle, and by early 2013 had my mind on road bikes. April 2013: I became a roadie! Months earlier, after a tune-up at the bike shop, the the shop personnel warned me that the trike was \”on its last legs\”. I kept it for grocery runs, but one day I finally tried a grocery run using the hybrid and my panniers. It went fine, and that was when I decided it was time to let the tricycle go. Long story short, I rode Valkyrie over to a shop that refurbished and sold second-hand bikes. While I was there, a man arrived who had been coming for a while looking for a trike, as his had been stolen. So Valkyrie got a new home! It made letting go a little bit easier.  

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Vacation Time!

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Ah-h-h, vacation time! I don\’t have a hammock to lounge around in, and I probably couldn\’t stay still for long enough to make a hammock worthwhile. I can\’t work on a laptop that way, or ride a bicycle. Alas, my week of vacation time is already half over! But I\’ve still got half a week left. Not having to get to work for 8:00 am makes it possible to be more leisurely about my morning ride, and going to feed my friends\’ cat afterwards. I can actually spend some time with the cat, instead of feeding him and rushing off to work. It\’s possible to do some things that normally are hard to fit in, such as riding over to Lowe\’s to drop off some dead CFL bulbs. I need to buy some more while I\’m at it. I can do more cooking when I\’m home all day. When I get home from work, I don\’t feel like doing a lot of food preparation. Now I have time for it, and for the dish- and pot-washing that is an inevitable part of making meals at home. This morning I tried the Clif Shot Energy Gel that I bought yesterday. It was a new flavor, Boston Cream Pie. Pretty good! I\’m starting to get hungry. Lunch time!    

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Up? Down?? SIDEWAYS???

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Shift UP? DOWN? Sideways? Does all this shift up/shift down confuse you? Have you ever wondered which gear set-up to use in the first place? All those gears can seem intimidating to someone new to multi-gear riding. When do I shift? (Perhaps even HOW do I shift?) Let\’s suppose we\’ve advanced beyond that stage in our cycling life, and want to do some really adventurous riding — through the Alps, let\’s say. Let\’s go back to one of the bicycle-gear basics — that for the front gears, bigger is harder to pedal, and for the rear gears, bigger is easier. With mountainous grades, even my road bike\’s  compact (50/34) crankset might be too big. I might well need a smaller one. Once you\’ve settled on your crankset and cassette, just what do people mean when they say, \”shift up\” or \”shift down\”? I\’ve long since developed the impression that different people mean different things when they use these expressions. To me, shifting up means shifting to a higher (aka harder) gear, as in driving a standard-transmission car. That means a smaller cog. To others, that\’s shifting down, as  down in size to a harder gear. No wonder my brain is screaming, \”Up, Down, Sideways\” — that last out of sheer frustration. Maybe it would be better to standardize the command to \”shift [to a] harder [gear]\”, or \”shift [to an] easier [gear]\”. Then we\’d all be on the same — shall I say cog?

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RE-Tool

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RE-Tool? Well, it\’s not spelled that way, but that\’s what it sounds like. RETÜL  is a  high-tech bike fitting program. Today I went for  re-fit. I thought it might be a good idea because of the tendonitis in my foot. I don\’t understand all the technology, but now I have a riser in my stem (I think it\’s called) so that I\’m a bit more erect. When the screen showed a rear view of me pedaling, I saw that my right hip was dipping downwards with every stroke. That explains the cramps I get in that hip when I come home from a Sunday long ride and stoop to remove my shoes. And the side view made me realize how shockingly fat I\’ve become! The technician made some adjustments to my saddle\’s  position, and  said something about my possibly needing a slightly wider one. I tend to sit rather far forward, so maybe I only need to scoot back a little. Trying that certainly will be cheaper than buying a new saddle! While I was pedaling, I asked whether I was ankling properly. The tech said, don\’t mess with ankling. Everybody\’s different, and everybody needs to do what\’s natural. That includes adjusting the bike to fit the rider; not forcing the rider to fit a bike that isn\’t right. Riding home, I noticed a slight difference in the way my bike feels. I should be adjusted to it after a few more rides. I\’m not going to go out riding now, though. It\’s about 2 pm,  and the heat index is 102 degrees! I don\’t know of a way to RE-Tool my bicycle to keep my rides air-conditioned.  

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