SpokEasy

July 2019

A Day for Yellow

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This is a day for yellow! Today is the Grand Depart. Of course, in honor of the big race, I\’m wearing yellow. Later we\’ll see pics of the peloton riding past vast fields of sunflowers. Or lavender. Lavender is supposed to be calming, but I\’m not really fond of the smell of lavender; so I\’m glad I don\’t have to pedal alongside it for who knows how many miles. Incidentally, is it possible that the route is deliberately sent past all that lavender to calm the racers? As I type this, the first stage is already over. Already there\’s been at least one crash! A Dutchman won the yellow jersey. A \”local favorite\” took the polka-dot jersey. Getting back down to the more mundane, I hitched up the trailer and rode to the salvage store. I brought home quite a load, too, including some things for taste-testing. A pile of 63 (yes, that\’s sixty-three!) snacks for eight bucks, or about 13 cents each. Some of them are a bit stale, but I don\’t care: some of those items normally cost over two bucks apiece. That load made the going feel very hard. I wonder if I was actually getting a tad dehydrated by the time I got home, even though I had water (two bottles) with me. But I made it, and soon I\’ll be browsing the online pics of Le Tour! As I said, it\’s a day for yellow.

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Parlez-vous Tour?

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Parlez-vous Tour? Yes, it\’s that time again: the Tour de France is underway! Any field has its own lingo, not excepting Le Tour. Want to hang on, or merely understand what they\’re talking about? Check out this list. Little old me versus a pro Tour rider? No comparison, that\’s certain. As followers of TdF know, it\’s not all glamor; not by a long shot. We see news footage and \”stills\” of the crashes that take place. Riders who crash wind up with torn clothing and skin that resembles raw meat; and sometimes broken bones, too. I remember seeing in a video several years ago how one rider involved in a multi-bicycle crash went somersaulting over and over (I think 3-4 times!), while his bike went whirling through the air behind him. I\’m amazed that he didn\’t break his neck. I don\’t envy the riders the cobblestone stages, or those hors categorie climbs. By one account after another, it\’s hard for TdF riders to eat enough. They burn so many calories that they have to eat just about all the time that they aren\’t asleep, and getting enough food down becomes a chore. I fact, they\’re likely to become catabolic towards the end of a multi-stage race. I think I\’ll skip it. I\’m looking forward to enjoying the online pics of the race. I don\’t have TV, so I won\’t be watching it in action. Probably there\’s a way to get it on my laptop, but I have other things to take care of. Parlez-vous Tour? Allez, allez, allez!  

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This Isn\’t Wichita Falls!

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This isn\’t Wichita Falls, but you don\’t have to be doing the Hotter\’N Hell 100 to have heat-related cycling problems. About a month ago, I did a long Sunday ride of 45 miles or so. An hour or so afterwards, big-time orthostatic hypotension set in; and it felt like my heart just wasn\’t slowing down. I didn\’t seem to be cooling off, either. My apartment is poorly insulated at best; and a hot, sunny day wasn\’t any help.   Sun sleeves are a big help. When I first put them on, they feel hot; but after I start riding, and begin to work up a bit of a sweat, the wind from my own motion keeps my arms a little cooler. Even better, sun sleeves eliminate the need for sunblock! Some cyclists include leg sleeves in their hot-weather riding gear. I haven\’t tried them, but I suspect that they\’re worth having. Getting back to my ride, did I need to drink more water? Should I have downed more electrolyte drink? Was I insufficiently acclimated for the pace I was trying to maintain, which wasn\’t really that fast? Was I tired to begin with? Here are some tips for hot-weather cycling. We began to get heat indices over 100 degrees before the end of June. Maybe I should aim to start those long rides at 6 am, not 7 am, so as to finish by 11 am at latest. I know this much, I\’d better get used to riding in the heat. We\’ve got about three more months of this! And this isn\’t Wichita Falls!  

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HAPPY FOURTH

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Happy Fourth of July! Oh, how nice it was to not have to get up until past 7:00! And to be able to take the time for a longer ride. Oddly, it felt like I had a headwind, even though the breeze was only about 3 mph. It\’s not as though I were blasting along at 20 mph, either. I don\’t know what was going on there. Back home, I mixed up a batch of hot dog tikka masala* and set it in the fridge to marinate. I\’ll have some for lunch. Yesterday morning I saw a weird sight. I\’ve gotten used to seeing the gleam of alligator eyes in my headlight\’s beam, but never before have I seen  a gator\’s eyes reflecting in the water as well as gleaming. That would have been great for a Hallowe\’en post, but Hallowe\’en is months away! If hot dogs are the standard Fourth of July fare, my Fourth of July musical fare of choice is Sousa marches. I especially love Hands across the Sea. Happy Fourth of July! *Hot Dog Tikka Masala (a variation on Chicken Tikka Masala, from The Feed Zone Cookbook) 1 cup plain, low-fat yogurt 1 cup tomato sauce 1 cup thinly sliced onion 12 oz hot dogs, thinly sliced crosswise 1 tsp salt 2 Tbsp curry powder Mix all ingredients well (adjust salt and curry powder to your liking). Marinate in fridge at least one hour. Bring to bubbling over medium heat, turn heat down to a simmer, and let cook until onions are tender, stirring occasionally. Good over toast or brown rice or potatoes — or just on its own. Enjoy!    

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Bikecentennial

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BIKEcentennial? The year, 1976. The United States was celebrating its Bicentennial. A group of cyclists rode across the country in celebration of this event, with some four thousand riders taking part. Bikecentennial eventually was renamed Adventure Cycling Association, and the rides continue!   The Greg Siple Award for Young Adult Bike Travel eventually grew out of this. Some of the participants in the original Bikecentennial are still members of Adventure Cycling; but \”AC\” wants to encourage more young people to travel by bicycle. After all, the riders from the first Bikecentennial are now in their 60s (or even beyond), and they want to see more young riders out there. The year 1976 also saw some special Baskin-Robbins flavors. I think there were as many as five or six of them. One involved chocolate (naturally!), and one was something crunch. One of them was Yankee Doodle something-or-other. My favorite was Red, White, and Blueberry. It was Neapolitan with blueberry replacing the chocolate part. Now that we\’ve enjoyed our ice cream, we can get back on our bikes and burn off a few of those calories. I\’ve pored over Adventure Cycling\’s \”ride catalogs\”, all but drooling. Three-week \”epic\” rides! \”Inn to Inn\” rides! Fully supported rides! For a newcomer to the bicycle touring scene, I guess a fully-supported trip would be the wisest choice. It certainly would be for me. It probably is better to \”learn the ropes\” when you aren\’t trying to haul a lot of gear! Happy riding! HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

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Let’s Head for Utah

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Let’s Head for Utah! This blog/page may contain affiliate links. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” Let’s head for Utah, and the Moab Rocks Mountain Bike Stage Race. The Moab event takes place in late March. I hope all the riding keeps the participants warm enough. Late March can still be pretty chilly even here at sea level. Don’t forget to pack along cold-weather riding togs; for example, a pair of lobster gloves. The city of Moab is 4,000 feet up, and the course tops out at over 10,500 feet. Merely thinking about that altitude leaves me gasping for breath.  If I couldn’t get my hands on a hypoxic training mask, I’d have a very hard time trying to ride the Moab course at all; never mind making a competition out of it. I’ll bet the scenery is exhilarating; but the course also looks scary. No guardrails; and precipitous drops. No sightseeing for pleasure, that’s for sure. Apparently it’s watch your every move, or go over the edge. The info I’ve read states that Moab Rocks is fully supported. Does that mean that riders who need to shed layers of clothing as they go can put those layers somewhere other than in their Camel-Baks’ pockets? I know that my Camel-Bak’s pockets have scant room for clothing once I’ve stuffed in cable lock, tube of Chamois Butt’r, and  roll of bathroom tissue.  For off-the-trails riding, you might even want to carry along a snake bite kit. If we think we can manage that high altitude, let’s grab our MTBs; and let’s head for Utah!

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A TIRE-ing Day

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This had been a TIRE-ing day. You know how it goes sometimes. You pump up your commuting bicycle\’s tires, and head off to work. Before you\’re halfway there, the bicycle suddenly seems awfully hard to pedal; your speed drop; and the bike doesn\’t seem to roll quite right. You stop; dismount; and find a flat tire. And wouldn\’t you know, it\’s the rear tire. I don\’t carry tools and spare tubes with me on the ride to work. It\’s not as though I have to ride 5 miles or more! This morning my bicycle trunk was stuffed with so many other things that it would have been hard to put in tools and a spare tube. So I walked the bicycle home; transferred my stuff from the bike trunk to my backpack; and walked to work. It\’s lucky I typically allow myself plenty of time for the ride to work, or I might have  been late. Actually I did get in a few minutes late, but it was easy to compensate for that by coming back from lunch break a little early. When I got home from work, I got busy on that flat tire. I quickly realized that I needed six hands! Between the rack and the fenders, and trying to hold the bicycle up, getting that wheel off seemed impossible. I finally walked the bike to the shop — and they couldn\’t find anything wrong with either the tube or the tire. So, WHAT HAPPENED?? I don\’t know; but this sure has been a TIRE-ing day.  

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Devil\’s Advocate?

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Some people enjoy playing devil\’s advocate: lining up on the \”con\” side of things. There\’s a lot to be said for taking up cycling: exercise; burning calories; increased metabolic rate; getting outdoors; making new friends; and plain old fun. What about the other side of the argument? Let\’s look at some of those points. #1: Don\’t like weird tan lines? You don\’t have to wear shorts off the bike, right? #2: Getting wet and muddy? Do you really have to ride when it\’s pouring? #3: Need to navigate? Get a bike compass. Basic mechanical skills? Find a bicycle mechanic for a riding partner. #4: Can\’t gain weight??? I should be so lucky… #5: Why is sock length important? Just so you\’ve got socks. #6: Does \”me time\” have to be for riding a bicycle? Read a book! #7: A large social group? Wait a second, what about that \”ME time\”? #8: I don\’t drive, so I have no comment on this one. #9: Worried about other people being \”awe-struck\”? Do you really have to tell them that you ride a bike? #10: Why feel that you must go all-out on the bicycle? #11: Confidence? Who wants to be a braggart… Oh, to heck with it. Even if your nearest and dearest insist upon playing devil\’s advocate, Like it says: go get on the bicycle anyway. Enjoy your ride!  

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Keirsey

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The Keirsey Temperament Sorter has been around for a long time.  Keirsey lists sixteen different personality types; and supposedly your four-letter type tells you what your basic personality is. My \”score\” usually comes up INTJ. Omigosh, I\’m a Rational Mastermind!  It takes all kinds, as the old saying goes; and cycling isn\’t immune. What type are you? I came up \”veteran\”; but if take that quiz four times, I\’ll probably come up with four different types. I\’m hardly a novice any more, but veteran? Well, I put in 45,000+ miles in less than ten years as a merely recreational rider; and if that means veteran, I\’m in the club. Besides, I did a self-supported century on an adult tricycle. I ought to get bonus points for that! I know I\’m not a Globetrotter. Or am I? My total long-term mileage does, after all, circumnavigate the globe; and a bit more besides. And I can always dream about riding across, say, Mongolia. Or I can try to be a Tour de France rider! No — wait a minute. Don\’t let me get too ambitious. As the quote says, \”Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.\” Wise words. I don\’t think I really need Keirsey to help me figure out what kind of cyclist I am. I know why I ride! So I\’ll forget about temperament sorters, and ride on.

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