SpokEasy

November 2020

One BIKE Open Sleigh?

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One BIKE Open Sleigh? A one bike open sleigh? I’m not sure whether I’d rather be the pedaler or the passenger! Now that it’s Christmas season, perhaps Santa would like to take that idea a step or eight farther; and have a sleigh pulled by eight cyclists instead of eight reindeer. Let me think about that one. How much training do eight cyclists need to be able to work together to pull a sleigh? Or, what about four tandems? Is that better than eight individual riders? The riders can live at home until time to get to the North Pole and hitch up; and after Santa has delivered all the toys and filled up all the stockings, they can go back home. Santa loves his reindeer, I’m sure; but let’s face it: don’t those reindeer have to be stabled; fed; groomed, etc. That’s a lot of work! Bicycles don’t need nearly as much care. The riders are able to provide for themselves; and these days not many of us must provide for eight people. Getting back to cyclists pulling that loaded sleigh: I guess they need a wide range of gears; and some have to be super-low gears. They have to get that sleigh up on the housetop, after all! If it snowed here, that one bike open sleigh would be great for my trips to the salvage store; or for rolling through the snow during my weekly long rides. Jingle Bells, anyone?

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Rain-Day

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It\’s rain-day today; not SUNday. I\’m glad I did my long ride yesterday! By 10 am it was raining quite hard; and if I had done the ride today, I would have had a long, wet slog to get back home. On top of that, the wind at 10 am was 13 mph — and from the East. Rain plus a headwind like that makes visibility a problem; and if the wind is gusty, bike control can be tricky. It\’s not fun reaching for a bottle on the down tube when the wind is shoving me around! I tried a new on-bike food yesterday: Supreme Protein Caramel Nut Chocolate bar. I found two of them in the grab-bag bins at the salvage store last Friday. The Supreme Protein bar is denser and heavier than most other ride foods that I\’ve tried. Than actually makes it a good choice for a long ride in the rain. It won\’t get soggy as fast as, say, Clif Bars. What can I do on a rainy day when I don\’t want to go outdoors? Of course I had to wash dishes. At times I wish I could use trenchers; after I eat my food, I eat the dishes! Today I needed to get my laundry done. I\’ve got my window unit on \”Fan\” to help it dry. I can watch YouTubes, or read. But no cooking projects today. My freezer is too full!

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Glad I Rode Today

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I\’m glad I rode today! A day or two ago the long-range forecast said that rain chances for today were 50%; and for tomorrow, 90%! I\’m not crazy about a flip-of-the-coin chance of rain; but it sure beats all-but-certain rain. So I set out this morning for my weekly long ride. Not two miles out, I tried to shift to the big ring; and the brifter wouldn\’t budge. I spent much of this ride on the small ring. I also spent a considerable amount of time uneasily ogling the sky! The clouds looked quite stormy, and I kept thinking about the 50% chance of rain. When I still had 14.5 miles to go, a few drops began to fall. Luckily it didn\’t get any worse; and I was happy to get home without getting soaked. Once home, I downed my recovery drink; and then I called the bike shop to ask how late they stayed open today. Until 3 pm, they said; so I walked that road bike over there. It\’s overdue for a tune-up; and besides, I\’ve got to find out why the front shifter is acting up. Maybe the cable is frayed and getting caught on something. Of course I had to leave the bicycle there. I\’m glad I have the hybrid to ride! I can still go to the store, ride to work, etc. The hourly forecast shows more rain and T-storms for the rest of today; tonight; and tomorrow; so I\’m glad I rode today!

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Post-Holiday

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Post-holiday, namely the day after Thanksgiving, has some folks thinking Black Friday. Not I! I can do without that madness; and with COVID-19 still running rampant, I don\’t want to be in crowds. Instead of hitting a big store, I hitched up the trailer and headed for the salvage store. First I rooted through the grab-bag bins, and filled a small bag (price: $3.00). I made some great finds! One was a large protein bar that still bore its original price sticker: $4.29. As I was able to fit 20 items into that grab bag, the savings on that one bar more than paid for the whole bag! 😃 I found a couple of Fit Crunch bars, too; and even an RXBar! I laid in another pile of canned beans: black beans, pintos, kidney beans. I keep buying more canned stuff while I\’m able to go out and about. All the reports about COVID-19 have me thinking, What if I have to self-quarantine? I\’d better be prepared! After I got my loot home and grabbed a snack, it was time for my latest culinary invention. Liltin\’ Limas has been on my mind for a long time, and having things nagging at my brain is tiresome. I figured I\’d better use up a few cans, too; all the more as I brought home a new load today! This post-holiday doesn\’t feel like Friday; it feels like Saturday. That\’s what going to the salvage store does to my brain! I decided to hit the store today so I can do my long ride tomorrow. Last night I checked the long-term forecast; and it looks like tomorrow will be better for cycling than Sunday. I\’ll take a 50% chance of rain over a 90% chance any day!

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Rampage

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Rampage A rampage is what my sweet tooth has been up to! Tuesday I fell off the wagon rather badly; and yesterday I went overboard BIG time with cookies and candy. I don’t know why this happens. Maybe I’m trying to be too stringent, and that can easily backfire. Possibly my body sensed the dropping barometric pressure — there was a severe T-storm warning during mid-afternoon — and reacted by craving sugar. I didn’t actually feel hungry; but I sure wanted to eat. Why didn’t that wait for today? It’s Thanksgiving, after all! This morning I went out on the hybrid to get a few groceries. The first store I went to is closed today; the second wasn’t open yet, and I didn’t want to stand around for 45 minutes. At the third store, I had better luck. Around 10 am I went out on the road bike. It’s warm enough for shorts today, but very humid; that’s no surprise after yesterday afternoon’s torrential downpour. Even at noon, it was still misty. I’m glad I didn’t have to ride at 5 am. But almost no wind at all! Hooray! Now I’m planning a rampage through the kitchen. That is, after I wash the dishes and pots that are already in the sink! I want to cook more stuff to freeze. What about Thanksgiving Dinner? No sweat. I opened a can of chicken white meat; and I mixed a can of pumpkin puree with sweetened condensed milk and some spices. Easy, crust-free pumpkin “pie”!

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In Clover!

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I\’m in clover! Or I was yesterday, at any rate. Yes, I found a four-leaf clover! Otherwise, I\’m not in clover. Nowhere near it. I\’m not poor, but I\’m definitely not well-off! If I were truly rich, would I ride the same old bicycle year after year? My road bike is over seven and a half years old; and I got the hybrid a year or more earlier. If money were no object, I don\’t think I\’d use a pair of cycling shoes for a year or more; and I\’m sure I wouldn\’t go about in sneakers that have holes worn in the uppers! Like Tevye, I sometimes wistfully think of how it would be if I were rich. But I wouldn\’t have a huge house, let alone one with a tin roof. I bet that would make indoor climate control a huge headache! I\’d want a house on the small side; but it would be great to have a big pantry, where I could store the big hauls of canned goods that I keep bringing home from the salvage store. I\’d love to have a kitchen with more counter space! A room just for setting up my trainer would be nice. Maybe I would even get up the courage to try rollers! The catch with having a larger place to live is this: it\’s too easy to fill up that space with more and more stuff! Then I feel as crowded as ever. As to a yard, I think I\’ll skip the poultry. I\’d rather be able to grow some of my own veggies! And learn home canning/freezing. If I were rich!

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Something Fishy?

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Something fishy is going on. Or is it? Yesterday morning I concocted a new snack. I wanted something different, and had some tempeh that I had to use up. I also have most of a box of hummus. See here for the recipe. I\’ve got to admit that there wasn\’t fish in it at all. In fact, I didn\’t even think about tuna until I was about to start eating the stuff several hours later. Then I looked at it and thought, Hey, that looks sort of like tuna salad! I\’d say that this snack isn\’t for every day when you\’re watching the carbs; especially not as a sandwich filling. Bread adds even more carbs! But if I were strictly vegetarian (or vegan), and wanted a substitute for tuna salad, this is definitely a possibility. Does it really taste like tuna? Not to any hard-core tuna lover, I\’m sure; and I\’m not trying to fool anyone. Does it save money over buying tuna fish? Unfortunately, no. Even so, I must remember this experiment. I can dig it up if I\’m out of tuna, but want something fishy! This new snack also perked up the back-to-work-after-vacation blahs. I was off last week; and Saturday was Tour de Cure!

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Flatten Those Hills

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Flatten those hills! Learn how to climb! I find this comparison interesting. Seven percent gradient, did he say? I wish I knew the gradient of those humps on the MRT. There are several about 17 miles from here, and they seem steep to me! Fortunately they\’re very short climbs. Getting back to the comparison in the video, do I fall into the \”beginner\” or \”amateur\” class? I won\’t even consider \”pro\”; I know I\’m not in those ranks! If climbing while seated means you\’re a beginner, I\’m still a beginner. On the other hand, since late April I\’ve found myself pulling on the handlebars and pushing harder on the pedals when faced with terrain that\’s not flat; and that lets me take my full weight off my rear. Maybe I\’m approaching the point of being able to climb out of the saddle? How close am I to the \”amateur\” class? Not very close, I fear. I\’ll bet I couldn\’t get up that hill as fast as Ollie did, in six minutes and forty seconds. I might not be able to do that climb even as fast as Freddie the Beginner, who took over 13 minutes. None of the climbs I have around here are 2.6 km/1.61 miles long, and it\’s a good thing. After a post-Tour de Cure break, I need to get back to on-bike \”force\” exercises to strengthen my legs; and climbing is about more than legs. My upper body strength needs plenty of work; and in fact it\’s declined recently. I got too busy with other stuff to give my off-bike work proper time and attention, and it\’s high time I got back to it. It will help me to flatten those hills — uh, I mean those humps in the MRT.

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Backfire?

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Did my training plans backfire on me? Yesterday I rode Tour de Cure 2020; the 62-mile route. Comparing my 2020 performance with that of two years ago, it looks like I\’ve backslid! The two routes are comparable in length, with this year\’s being only 0.6 miles longer; yet I was much slower this time! A shocking 2 mph slower, in fact. Why? I can think of several possible reasons: One, in the last two months I did too little riding. I felt persistently tired; possibly because of a recent change in diet. Trying to keep up with both blogging and food logs had me getting to bed too late, too often. Too many mornings I shut off the alarm clock and fell back asleep. My training really suffered because of it. Two, maybe I didn\’t do enough work to improve my force. The catch is, how much, and how often, is enough? How much is too much? The hardest workouts, they say, should be done only once a week. Older riders in particular need to be wary of overtraining. Three, am I using the wrong ride food? I\’ve switched from Clif Bars to RXBars in the last few months; the latter are lower in carbs and have more protein. DO I need more carbs while riding? More protein? About halfway through the ride yesterday, I began to crave something salty and crunchy. In fact, I wanted Combos. They aren\’t at all sustaining, but they sure are salty! Four, I wasn\’t trying to push the pace yesterday. Tour de Cure went virtual this year (I probably don\’t need to say why), and I wasn\’t worrying about a cut-off time. In fact, starting off too fast can easily backfire on me!

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What\’d I DO?

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What\’d I do in the last day or two prior to Tour de Cure? Was I carbo-loading, or not? For months now I\’ve been watching the carbs, working to limit them to 150-200 grams per day. The objective is to get my A1c levels back down below the pre-diabetes range. At the same time, I\’ve been watching the calorie intake. But there I was, with a 62-mile ride looming. Two days before the event, I went overboard with the \”bad\” carbs; the biggest offender being a large chunk of cake! On the other hand, my meals that day included quinoa, sweet potato, and cauliflower. Those are good carbs; and unless I miscounted somewhere, the day\’s total carb count was 192 grams. My carb count yesterday reached 212 grams; that\’s a lot! The banana and Bald Eagle were OK. Tempeh isn\’t bad for carbs; it\’s at least twice as dense in texture as firm tofu, so I\’m not surprised that it has about double the carb count. Unfortunately I ate bad carbs, too; will I never learn to tame my sweet tooth? Today I rode the 62-mile Tour de Cure, and did I ever chow down the carbs during those hours of pedaling! In total, 181.5 grams! But during long rides I need the quick fuel. I\’m drifting away from Clif Bars; they\’re very high in carbs, and just as low in protein. My nutritionist advised me to look for energy bars that have at least 8-12 grams of protein, and RXBars fit the bill quite well. What\’d I do? I took along four RX Bars, plus two other energy bars, as on-bike food today. I also ate three GU-Gels during the ride. THAT was some carbo-loading!

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