SpokEasy

October 2021

Neither Fish Nor Fowl

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This weather at present is neither fish nor fowl; especially when I\’m indoors at home! In this place, which has no central climate control, it\’s chilly enough for me to want to use my electric heater (the \”fish\”). At the same time, it isn\’t cold enough for such a heater to keep running (the \”fowl\” — or should I say \”foul\”?) It drives me crazy. I don\’t want to use warming packs indoors, because I need to keep them for outdoor rides when it gets colder; and rest assured, it will get colder at some point. Even New Orleans gets freezing temperatures sometimes! Hot chocolate? The trouble with hot drinks is that they warm me up only briefly; and I\’ve got to be mindful of my A1c levels. Ergo I have to take it easy with chocolate; whether hot or cold. Of course physical activity helps to warm a body up; and it isn\’t good for me to sit with a laptop for prolonged periods. On the other hand, who wants the \”Phys Ed\” of housework all day? Cycling can get me warm; but I can\’t go full-tilt for hours on end. In a strong, cold headwind, it\’s hard to get warm at all; and my feet often stay cold, anyhow. At least the warming packs help keep my hands from getting too cold. That\’s outdoor cycling, though. How about indoor cycling? Pedaling while fastened in place sure makes me warm — too warm! It doesn\’t matter if it\’s literally freezing cold in here; I have to have the window unit and the ceiling fan blowing on me so I don\’t overheat; and the whole business is exercise, yet not exercise. Neither fish nor fowl, you could say. Nice Change Today\’s long ride was a nice change. It was cool; but not too cool. The sky was clear; and at least on the outward leg of my ride, the wind was calm. That\’s most unusual. By the time I turned around to head home, there was a bit of a breeze; but I\’m glad it wasn\’t a 14-mph wind. My average speed today was actually a little faster than last week\’s; and over the same route. For a short while I was moving at 15 mph! Have I gotten stronger at last? Another nice change was that I didn\’t need to take a bath in sunblock. It was cool enough for long sleeves and leg warmers; and I needed sunblock only on my face. On the way home, I twice passed tandem riders heading in the opposite direction. I\’ve never tried the \”Daisy Bell act\” myself; but it looks like a lot of fun! Now it\’s time for some lunch; and since I\’m talking neither fish nor fowl, I\’ll settle for Tardy Turtle.

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The Kitchen Sink

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Everything but the kitchen sink! I often feel like that\’s what I\’m taking along for a long ride. To begin with, I fill the Camel-Bak\’s reservoir with water. In addition to that, I cram a cable lock; tube of Chamois Butt\’r; and a roll of bathroom tissue into the Camel-Bak\’s largest pocket. Why the lock? I never know when I might have to make a stop where I need to secure the bicycle; so I put up with the extra weight on my back. I take my cell phone, too. In case of an emergency, I\’ll need it! I put the phone in the Camel-Bak, too, because I need room on my bike\’s top tube for my \”feed bag\”. More and more stuff; and I\’m not even ready to get on the bike yet! For long rides, of course I need to take on-bike food with me; and usually that means more than will fit in the top-tube pouch. My second bag of cut-up bars goes into the Camel-Bak\’s smallest pocket; and thanks to all the other stuff already packed, that can be a tight fit. For rides longer than 30 miles, especially in hot weather, I\’ll take along a spare tablet for electrolyte drink. I don\’t always use it; but if I need it, I\’ll have it. Which brings me to another point. I take a spare bottle of water in the cage on the seat tube. When the temperature is 80 degrees at 5:00 am, I need that extra water; and I can refill the bottle at my pit stop. This is starting to feel like everything but the kitchen sink! More Stuff I haven\’t even gotten to clothing yet. When the weather turns cold enough for layering, what can I do if I start to feel too warm? The obvious answer seems be: take off a layer and stuff it into the Camel-Bak. But the \”obvious\” isn\’t always practical. I\’ve already mentioned how crammed my Camel-Bak gets. It does have a large pocket for holding a helmet; but unfortunately this pocket doesn\’t zip closed. I don\’t need to have a rolled-up jacket work its way out of there as I\’m riding! Then there\’s the under-saddle pack. It, too, is quite crammed. I keep a tube of sunblock in there; along with a spare tube for the bike; CO2 cartridges; a small tool kit; and some GU-Gels. It\’s no wonder I feel like I\’m dragging along everything but the kitchen sink. Getting ready for that weekly long ride feels like preparing to go on safari.

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Bear Creek

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Bear Creek Creamy Potato Soup warms you up on chilly days. Quick to prepare in a microwave oven; and tastes \”just like Mom\’s!\” This is one of 15 delicious flavors available. Pack of six. I found a single serving of this in the salvage store once; and got it to try. I don\’t have a microwave; but it actually works fairly wave to cook it on the stovetop. I just poured the soup mix into some boiling water; and heated it for 4-5 minutes while I stirred it. I frankly get tired of seeing so many cook-in-microwave things in stores; and it\’s nice to find ways to get around it — as I did with Bear Creek.

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To a T

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Green tea was not to a T yesterday. Some things suit me to a T, as the saying goes; but my attempt to use green tea and not buy a Diet Coke didn’t go well. Maybe the tea has less caffeine than the cola. Whatever it was, I still felt tired and groggy, despite a mini-cola before I left for work; and got the 20-oz soda anyway. This has happened many a time; and as I’ve been telling myself for years, I’ve got to do better than that. I finally prodded myself into some price-checking. Two of those tea bags costs about $0.67; a 16-oz soda in most vending machines here costs $1.75! If I regularly drink the tea, and skip the soda, I save a bit over a dollar a day! Over the course of a year, that’s $300! Another Attempt Today I tried again; and it went better. I had a mini-Diet Coke before I left for work; but that was it for the day! I took green tea along with me; and managed to stick with it. I kept the soda bottle from yesterday, and rinsed it out. When it gets dry, I can put a penny into it to represent each soda that I did not buy out of machine! The savings will certainly suit me to a T; but I need to find some kind of incentive. Save towards some new bicycle gadgetry? Of course I can use the money to buy groceries; or even put it towards retirement! Wind conditions today definitely did not suit me to a T; or to any other letter, either. It was blowing strongly; and I decided to be wimpy yet again, and went to the park to ride. I also had to cut it short, because I got going some 15 minutes late. I still don\’t have my hybrid back; so forget going to the salvage store tomorrow. In fact, I think I\’ll order groceries online. It\’s more expensive than going to the store myself, but I need quite a few things; and some items don\’t do well when carried a long way in a backpack. This evening I finally got Internet back. That was a major relief, because I can\’t do anything without it! Sure, I can read books; but I can\’t blog; and that\’s maddening. Neither can I check the weather forecasts. This morning I had no idea what the temperature was; nor how strong the wind was. So I had to guess; and leg warmers; vest; jacket; and full-fingered gloves proved to be a good guess. Down to the low 50s tonight. It feels like Fall!

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Wimp Again!

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I was the wimp again Tuesday morning. Same old story, right? I intended to work at 4-minute intervals of pushing for at least 15 mph. Outward bound, I did OK, even though my legs felt rather sore; but coming back home, I could hardly do anything! For the first effort on that half of the ride, I couldn’t sustain it for a full 4 minutes; and after that I was reduced to intermittent efforts that lasted 30 seconds, at most. I had a headwind, and it seemed pretty strong. As I found out afterwards, the wind was not as strong as I thought. It felt like a 10-12 mph wind; and it was only 5-6 mph. Then yesterday we got some get some rough weather; including strong wind! In fact, I thought I might be the wimp again today and ride laps around the park. Gusts up to 30 mph are no joke when I’m up there on top of the levee! I often do my \”force\” workout on Thursday; but this week I switched it around. I knew that wind conditions today were likely to be really tough; and sometimes it doesn\’t do to be \”tough\”. Addendum Friday, October 29, 2021: well, I need to make an addendum here. I came home yesterday to an Internet outage; and was unable to complete this blog. I only got Internet back a few minutes ago (about 6:05 pm). Back to the wimp again subject. Yesterday morning the wind wasn\’t bad yet; but I rode in the park anyhow. When I got on the bike, my legs said, \”NO! We\’re not going up that access ramp!\” I decided to go to the park, and make it a recovery-type ride. It\’s surprisingly hard to stay in heart rate Zone 1; and getting a water bottle in and out of its cage sends my heart rate into Zone 2! By late morning a wind advisory went into effect; and when the wind is that strong, I\’m actually glad if I didn\’t ride to work!

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Crystal Ball

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I wish I had a crystal ball. Don’t we all? Especially when it comes to the timing of an important ride. It’s maddening to spend months working up to a century; and when the target date arrives, it’s pouring rain. Or there’s a strong wind that will sap  our energy. If our planned century is self-supported, we can wait and do it the next day; but if it\’s an organized ride, we\’re out of luck. We have to bite the bullet and do it that day; or miss out entirely. A crystal ball would have been useful today. Last night and this morning, the forecast predicted rain and T-storms this afternoon; but the weather kept me guessing. Was I going to need the poncho for the walk home, or not? When I went out on the road bike, it was overcast. By midmorning, the sun was coming out; but by late morning the wind had strengthened considerably. There was a report of a tornado at the Texas/Louisiana border; and I figured our bad weather was on the way. A tornado watch was issued early in the afternoon; and I kept an anxious eye on the sky for the next few hours. It got more and more overcast; and for a while it rained quite hard. I\’m glad it stopped raining by the time I left for home. I got home dry; and now I\’m waiting to see what\’s going to happen. I wish it would storm and get it over with! This waiting drives me crazy. It\’s a good thing I rode this morning! It isn\’t wise to ride with a severe weather threat; but if I had that crystal ball, I\’d know what\’s in store. Oh, wait … I hear thunder now!

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Patience

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Patience isn\’t always about endless waiting, and constantly checking your watch. \”All things come to him who waits,\” the old saying goes; but it often takes longer than we like! Improving as a cyclist certainly takes patience, as well as determined effort. It\’s taking me a very long time to improve my pace; and maybe it\’s because I don\’t work at it hard enough, often enough! I often remind myself that, after all, I\’m not training for racing; but if I want to do my long rides in less time, then of course I need to be faster! I must remember, though, that it won\’t happen overnight; a little at a time is the way to go. I also need more patience with myself when it comes to my diet. Prediabetes is looming again; and it\’s very hard to manage my eating. A major problem is eating enough without overshooting my carb count. Often I feel rather hollow; and I can\’t haul my kitchen along to work! If I get hungry at work; and have run out of what I brought from home; junk food is often the only option. Junk food means tons of simple carbs; and I don\’t need those. Then I get annoyed with myself for blowing my diet; and that\’s a big reason I wish I could retire. I could manage my diet much better when I was still on work-from-home. Cycling should help with the prediabetes; and it will also help me to get my weight back down. Again, that requires patience. Neither my weight nor my A1c levels will drop overnight; but I\’ve really got to work at getting both of them down. Waiting for Fall We\’ve got to have a bit of patience with the weather, too. We\’re still waiting for Fall! Thursday night it\’s supposed to drop to 57 degrees; and that\’s the first real Fall weather of the season. It seems to come later every year! Global warming, I guess. Temperatures in the 50s mean I need leg warmers; jacket; possibly the vest; and my skull cap. And riding in the cold means I lose patience with my nose! If I could run like that, I\’d be a champion marathoner! But before we get those Fall temperatures, we\’ll have a rough patch tomorrow. The forecast says, T-storms from late morning; and some might be severe. I hope I get to ride in the morning!

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Deliberation

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Deliberation sounds like a jury; but we cyclists engage in it all the time. When we\’re planning a ride, what do we do? We check the weather forecast; and decide how to dress for the ride. Is is warm enough for a short-sleeved jersey; or will we need to have our arms covered? If the weather is on the cool side, will riding keep us warm enough that we won\’t need a jacket? Will it rain? And what about wind? How strong is the wind; and when in our ride will it be against us? Prevailing winds where I live are easterly; and thanks to my location on the bike path I use, that means I almost always have a headwind on the way home. That certainly was the case yesterday; and I made a conscious effort not to push hard on the way out, when I had the tailwind. I knew I needed to save my energy for the ride against the headwind; and when I\’ve got 18+ miles to go, that\’s important. When I have that headwind, there\’s the deliberation of whether to push hard; or to ease up my efforts. Pushing into a headwind is a good way to develop better strength; but I don\’t want to \”blow up\” when I still have a long way to go. The Jury Is Out Another area of deliberation is fueling. When I\’ll be riding more than about 90 minutes, I need to take along on-bike food; but what to take? How much do I need to take with me? How much is sometimes easier to decide than what. I need roughly one energy bar per hour; but do I want FitCrunch bars? Or am I more in the mood for MetRx? On a long ride, I usually eat at least one GU-Gel, too. Now that my A1c levels have soared again, I wonder whether I need to hunt for energy bars that are more moderate in carbs. I know that cycling burns both fat and carbs; and that the greater the intensity, the more the body uses carbs as fuel. But even a low intensity, the body does\’t burn only fat; and besides, \”fat burns in a carbohydrate flame.\” In other words, we cyclists need carbs while riding! I think I need some more deliberation there: the jury is still out.

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Megalomania?

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Am I developing megalomania? It\’s not unusual for me to wish that I had a power meter for my road bike. If I could see how much wattage I can generate, I\’d have a better idea of whether I\’m making progress. For today\’s ride, I went out almost 18.5 miles; and then came back. The wind was from the East — a headwind on the way home — and before I got home, it had increased to 12 mph. There were some strong gusts here and there; and naturally that slowed my pace. On the one hand, an average speed of less than 13 mph seems slow; but on the other hand, I feel like I can work more strongly against the wind than I could several months ago. Am I really able to crank out more power now? Perception isn\’t necessarily reality; but a power meter will tell it like it is. Suppose I indulged my megalomania; and bought a power meter? That gadget won\’t help me much if I don\’t first determine my FTP; and the process doesn\’t sound like fun. The Cyclist\’s Training Bible describes several tests with power meters; and according to Joe Friel, power meters are merely \”expensive toys\” it you don\’t do this work before using them. Ergo it doesn\’t make sense for me to buy one, just to satisfy my curiosity! Sans Power So I continue to ride sans power. I can\’t let megalomania take over; I can\’t afford it! Today it\’s overcast; and that helped keep me from getting too hot. In fact, I almost wished I had worn long sleeves! Slightly cooler weather, and the lack of sunshine, kept my ride food from getting half-melted; and overcast skies of course meant no glare. That was a big relief! On the way home, I ran into light sprinkles here and there; and that also kept the heat at bay. I was still a good sixteen miles from home when the first drops fell; and all I could do was hope that it didn\’t pour! And hope that a T-storm wouldn\’t break out. I got lucky with the rain today; but I still have no idea of my power output!

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Brain Drain

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Doesn\’t brain drain drive you crazy? Sometimes I\’ll get a blog idea at a moment when I can\’t write it down. The next thing I know, I\’ve forgotten it; and I have to think up something else! Brain drain often strikes when I\’m out on a morning ride. I\’ve been working at three-minute intervals of pushing the pace up to 15-16 mph; with two minutes of easy riding between efforts. After I\’ve done two or three sets, I lose track. And don\’t we all know the frustration of arriving at the store; and discovering that we forgot the shopping list. More than once, when I did that, I forgot the item that I most wanted to get. Brain drain yet again! After I got back from the salvage store today, I rode the hybrid to the bike shop; and nearly forgot that I was going to the bike shop, and not to the drug store. I go to the latter much more often; and I guess muscle memory was trying to take over. Brain Work I did a bit of brain work after my trip to the bike shop: I finally got around to weighing the load I had brought home from the salvage store. Many times I wondered just how heavy a load I was hauling with that trailer. Today\’s loot weighed roughly 20 pounds. Add to that the weight of the trailer itself; and I had about 35 pounds to pull. I\’m planning a ride of 38-39 miles for tomorrow; but without deliberate efforts to go fast. Sunday rides are about a steady, moderate pace; and trying to keep track of \”three minutes hard; two minutes easy\” for hours is major brain drain! Or maybe I can try some fartlek. That gives a rider some variety; but without the mental work of keeping track of \”intervals\”. Now for some more brain work: what shall I take for ride food? Lemon Delight Think! bars are slightly tangy; and a nice change from most of the bars I take on long rides. Maybe some olives? The temperature will be in the mid-80s before I get back home; and the saltiness of olives tastes good on a long, hot ride. Maybe that means I need the sodium! By the way, is sodium good for brain drain?

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