SpokEasy

August 2021

Detour

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Who likes a detour? I don\’t; and I had to detour twice on this morning\’s trip to and from the salvage store! On the way to the store, I had to ride about half a mile out of my way to reach the bike path because a train was sitting there. The lead locomotive was idling just short of the next crossing; and I hoped the train would be gone by the time I got back home. That was a vain hope. The train was still there; and even worse, it had edged forward just enough that the crossing was blocked! I didn\’t quite dare try walking my bike around the front of the locomotive; so I had to ride to the next crossing, a good seven-tenths of a mile away. It was quite hot by then, too; and that made me all the more anxious to get home. I was relieved that I had decided not to use the trailer today. Those detours were enough of a nuisance without the added drag of that trailer! Between the trunk and the panniers, I still brought home a decent load. Tomorrow OK, so I made it to and from the salvage store; and I also made a short trip to the drug store to bring home some sodas. But what about tomorrow\’s ride? Tomorrow will be as hot as today; and I have to adjust my ride plans accordingly. I want to put in the miles — say, 50 or even more — but what good does that do me when I get overheated? It might help if I could get cold fluid; but that\’s difficult or impossible. Even if I could get it, it won\’t stay cold for long! How about putting my electrolyte drink in an insulated bottle? I tried one; but it\’s a bit too long for my road bike\’s frame size. When I tried to pull it out of the bottle cage, the tip of the nozzle bumped into the head tube; and it was quite annoying. On top of that, the fluid inside didn\’t stay as cold as I wanted, for as long as I wanted. So for tomorrow, a shortish ride; and I hope I\’m not forced to detour by another train!

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Athlete\’s Guide to Diabetes

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The Athlete\’s Guide to Diabetes is a practical guide to staying active despite diabetes. It includes advice for numerous sports; and helps lessen the trial-and-error aspect of managing blood sugar levels around your activities. If you\’re a female athlete, there\’s also a bit about the hormonal cycle, and how it can affect blood sugar (see page 49). There\’s even the statement that you don\’t need to be an Olympian to be considered an athlete (see page 135). I like that one! I got this book when my A1c levels were pre-diabetic. Five months ago, my levels were back just below the pre-diabetes range; but I haven\’t been doing well with my diet the last month or so. Since I went back to full-time on-site work, managing my eating habits is a lot harder; and unfortunately I gained back several pounds. Yesterday evening I got take-out Chinese food for supper; and maybe that \”blow\” is what I needed to boost me back on the right track; and The Athlete\’s Guide to Diabetes can help, too.

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Athlete\’s Guide to Diabetes

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The Athlete\’s Guide to Diabetes is a practical guide to staying active despite diabetes. It includes advice for numerous sports; and helps lessen the trial-and-error aspect of managing blood sugar levels around your activities. If you\’re a female athlete, there\’s also a bit about the hormonal cycle, and how it can affect blood sugar (see page 49). There\’s even the statement that you don\’t need to be an Olympian to be considered an athlete (see page 135). I like that one! I got this book when my A1c levels were pre-diabetic. Five months ago, my levels were back just below the pre-diabetes range; but I haven\’t been doing well with my diet the last month or so. Since I went back to full-time on-site work, managing my eating habits is a lot harder; and unfortunately I gained back several pounds. Yesterday evening I got take-out Chinese food for supper; and maybe that \”blow\” is what I needed to boost me back on the right track; and The Athlete\’s Guide to Diabetes can help, too.

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Bare Arms

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Bare arms might be more comfortable in this hot weather. Long sleeves are certainly too hot; but on the other hand, arms unprotected by sleeves are more vulnerable in the event of a crash! News reports frequently emphasize the need for everyone eligible to get vaccinated for COVID-19; and that means bare arms, too. Now we hear about covid boosters, but you need to be eight months past your second covid shot to get one; and I have three months to go. That is, if those booster shots are ready in November; and I\’m able to get one. COVID-19 isn\’t the only thing out there. Don\’t forget about the flu! Today after work I went to the neighborhood drug store; and got my flu shot. Now it\’s out of the way, and off my mind; and I can plan the weekend\’s activities. My original idea was to skip grocery shopping tomorrow, and get that flu shot. But since I got it today, I can head for the salvage store tomorrow morning. This time I think I\’ll leave the trailer home, and travel a little lighter. It will be very hot again; and an excessive heat warning is in effect from 9:00 am tomorrow. Sunday There\’s also an excessive heat watch for Sunday; and I\’m considering my ride plans. I want to ride out early to see the full moon; and put in 12-14 miles. After I\’m home from that, I can have something more to eat; and then maybe I\’ll do another 30 miles. As a rule, I don\’t do any force work or pace-pushing on Sundays; but it looks like this is the time for an exception. I\’ll be riding fewer miles; so I can add more intensity. This will be a chance to practice on-bike eating while working harder; and I must remember to take along some olives. Maybe the heat is why I get so tired during those long Sunday rides; but possibly I need more salt. Munching olives is more agreeable to me than swallowing salt tablets; so let it be olives! Despite the heat, I\’ll skip the bare arms. Sun sleeves actually keep my arms cooler; and it\’s nice to be able to use less sunblock. I\’ll move on to bare arms when I get back home.

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Coup de Grace?

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We were spared the “coup de grace” from Tropical Storm Grace; that is, unless she unexpectedly and drastically changes course while over water. The Yucatan and Mexico aren’t so lucky. Grace is \”only\” a tropical storm at present; but hurricane conditions are predicted by tomorrow for eastern Mexico. It looks like Sunday’s long ride will get a coup de grace in the form of extreme heat. The forecast is for a high of 94 degrees; plus mostly sunny. That will mean a VERY hot ride; and a long slog on the way home. We were under a heat advisory today from 9:00 am; and another is already posted for tomorrow. An excessive heat watch is in effect for Saturday; and I won\’t be surprised if one is posted for Sunday, too. That\’s bad news for riding out 25 miles; and of course 25 miles back home. Maybe I can do a comparatively short ride; but work at pushing the pace. This afternoon it started to rain while I was unhitching my bicycle to ride home from work. On went the poncho; and I pulled the reflective vest over the poncho. If I don\’t do that, the poncho flares out so much that I can\’t see anything else in my hybrid\’s rearview mirror! The precipitation was spotty on the ride home. Sometimes it was just a light drizzle; and sometimes it came down pretty hard. Not far from home, it had poured a short time earlier; and the bike path was awash. All that over a distance of 2.25 miles! My poor bicycle now needs a good cleaning; and a good chain lube. I won\’t mind a few days now without rain; but I\’m ready for this heat to end!

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Thrown for a Loop?

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Do Tour de France riders ever feel like they\’ve been thrown for a loop? Maybe not; but I might feel that way if I rode even one étape. Riding 100 miles in one day is tough piece of work for me, and Tour de France stages are often longer than that; roughly 225 kilometers. That\’s almost 140 miles! If I do such a ride, it will be amazing, all right. Every time I finished a 100-mile day, part of me couldn\’t quite believe that I did it! After spending seven or eight hours pedaling, even if I don\’t do it non-stop, I\’m rather dazed. Fatigue really does get to me after a day-long ride; and I\’m rather spacey at the end. But the feeling of accomplishment is marvelous! Speaking of spacey, lightheadedness and orthostatic hypotension often set in four or five hours after a Sunday long ride. I\’m not sure why. I don\’t do a Sunday ride the way I do force intervals, after all! If I did, the ride would be quite short. For that matter, I did force intervals this morning; and several hours later noticed that pesky \”OS\”. If it was a reaction to those hard efforts, it doesn\’t take that much to trigger OS. I didn\’t even get into my maximum heart rate range, let alone stay there! Maybe I should carry salt tablets with me on those Sunday rides; and take one halfway through. I think I better try taking a salt tablet before a weekday morning ride first; because if salt tablets and riding don\’t mix well, I don\’t want to find out when I\’m 25 miles from home. In addition, taking salt might increase my need for hydration; and if I get dehydrated, I\’ll really be thrown for a loop!

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Bells and Whistles

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Some folks love to have all the bells and whistles; but much of such elaboration is wasted on me. That’s especially true where electronic devices are concerned! Just look at my Garmin It has many features that I never use: I don\’t much care about Personal Records; and I don\’t really need the Race mode, because I don\’t participate in races. I\’m not sure my Garmin includes GPS; but maybe my new cell phone has it. If I take a spill during a Sunday ride when I\’m miles from home; and am unable to get back on the bike and ride; I’ll need for somebody to be able to locate me. Otherwise I might be stranded for a long time. My bicycles do have some bells and whistles. Each one literally has a bell; and each bicycle has a handlebar computer. If nothing else, I want to track mileage and time; and I keep an eye on my average speed. No; I’m not getting faster any too fast🙄. This morning, incidentally, I simply felt too tired to work at pushing the pace. Even more important than bells and cycle computers are lights. It can be hard to see cars in bright sunshine if they don’t have their headlights on; so it must be much harder to spot an unlit bicycle! I added fenders to the hybrid the day I bought it, for (slightly) cleaner rides in messy weather; and I got a rear rack for it, so I can carry loads. Over the years I’ve accumulated trunk, panniers, and trailer. I have an under-saddle pack for the road bike. And I have toe clips on the hybrid’s pedals, and … it looks like I have a lot of bells and whistles, after all!

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Batten Down

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Must we batten down? It\’s hard to say at the moment. Fred has gone ashore; but we still have to watch Grace. As of yesterday evening she had been downgraded to a depression, but is expected to re-strengthen. She\’s heading for the Gulf; and who knows what will happen then. The current five-day cone shows the most likely path heading for the East coast of Mexico. All we can do is cross our fingers; and prepare to batten down if storm conditions threaten. As if the Delta-variant surge weren\’t enough, we have to worry about storms! I know that hurricanes are possible every Summer; and that\’s why I got a crank-powered flashlight. As long as my hands work, that flashlight should work; and I don\’t have to worry that I\’ll run out of batteries for it. I think I might have a hand-cranked weather radio around here, too; and I must hunt for it. Now is the time; not when a hurricane is on the doorstep! After the pandemic began, I used my frequent trips to the salvage store as a chance to stock up; because who knew when stringent stay-at-home orders might strike. I still have the feeling that it might happen! Of course this stocking up served a double purpose: it had me prepared in case a hurricane struck. What will I do if we get tropical storm conditions? I\’m not worried about food; and I have several jugs of drinking water. But how about exercise? Same old story: I\’ll have to \”ride\” in the trainer. But if one of those storm systems does head our way, I hope I get enough of a weather window to ride outdoors before it makes landfall.

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Segments

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Today I did my \”long\” ride in segments, you might say. I planned to do about 40 miles; but split it into segments. The first segment was a trip to the supermarket on the hybrid. I needed produce; and the salvage store, let it be admitted, isn\’t good for fresh fruits and vegetables. I didn\’t find hummus there yesterday, either. This trip gave me 5.74 miles; but it also put me way behind time for my jaunt on the road bike. I didn\’t get going until about 7:20 am; and it gets hot early! So I rode out about 18.5 miles; and then headed back home. Clouds were building up in the North and East; and now and then they covered the sun for a bit. That provided welcome relief from the relentless heat. Today I seemed unusually tired. I wasn\’t sure what was going on. Dehydration, perhaps? Wanting to coast is a sign of possible dehydration; but I had been drinking water and Zym all along. Did I need to eat more? I took a bite about every 15 minutes; and that\’s what I usually do. Maybe salt would have helped; but I forgot to bring along olives today. Especially on the way back home, I frequently felt out of breath. I had a bit of a headwind; but it wasn\’t any 20 mph. After I got home, I discovered what was probably a major factor: I forgot to take my low blood pressure medication this morning! Longer Rides For longer rides than today\’s, segments are even more important. Few of us can knock out 50 miles and more without breaks; and I, for one, don\’t really need to. Yes, I\’m striving to improve my endurance; but that requires time and patience. Take that century I\’m thinking of doing. A wise plan would be to break up the distance into segments 12-15 miles long; and not try to push the pace too hard. I wish I could do a 100-miler and average 15 mph or so; but at this point it doesn\’t look like happening. In fact, while trying to survive the slog back home today, I often thought: And I want to do a century?! As I\’ve said so many times, this heat is no help; and several times I had to make unplanned stops to catch my breath. My blood pressure was probably down; and that didn\’t help either. I think I need to play it by ear between now and the second half of September. If I can get a day of light (or no!) wind; and when it\’s not going to be 90 degrees by 9:00 am; I can go for it. Just remember: segments!

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HUSH!

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HUSH!!! That\’s too loud! I wish I could get everything to hush; or at least to tone it down considerably. Noise pollution is a serious problem these days; and we often don\’t realize how noisy our environment is. Once I sat down for about 20 minutes, and recorded every noise interruption as it occurred; and there was at least one such disturbance per minute! Humans weren\’t mean to live in such a din; but if we were, we\’d all be as deaf as snakes! Earplugs do only so much good; and some things are so horribly loud that earplugs aren\’t nearly enough protection for me. That\’s one reason why I avoid riding alongside traffic as much as I can. And I often wish I didn\’t live one block from the railroad tracks; with numerous crossings within a mile or so of here. Train horns are very loud! A few days ago I read something about Quiet Parks International. Those places sound wonderful; and I wish I could visit one. Even better would be living in one! I understand that Quiet Parks has a requirement of a maximum of one human-made sound — such as motor vehicles — per 15 minutes; and I suspect that few places can qualify. My own abode would fail that test! In this heat I need the air conditioner; and activities such as cooking generate a certain amount of noise. I don\’t have a blender; but of course I have a fridge; and refrigerator motors aren\’t the quietest things around. Even bicycles aren\’t completely quiet; and I wonder whether I\’d be allowed to ride one through a designated Quiet Park. \”Stop and smell the roses,\” they say. How about let\’s hush; give our ears a break; and listen to Nature!

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