SpokEasy

February 2022

Rain Suit

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This Bicycle Rain Suit is great for any outdoor activity, whether cycling; hiking; or just the walk to work. It\’s waterproof and windproof; and a built-in ventilation system helps to minimize stuffiness. The suit folds to small size for easy storage or carrying. Unisex design. Material is odorless. Size: large. I admit I\’ve never tried anything like the Rain Suit; but more than once I\’ve wished I had one when I have to ride through the rain. A poncho flaps around too much, if only from the wind generated by my own forward motion. The poncho also leaves my legs exposed to the wet; and in cold weather, when I\’m wearing slacks, those pants get soaked!

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Streaking

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Sometimes I feel like I\’m streaking. Twice in the past week, I forgot to wear my reflective vest when I went out on the bike; and when I realize that I don\’t have it, I feel naked! It\’s a good thing I\’m not. To begin with, it\’s too cold for such shenanigans; and at my age, I have more sense than to try it. Of course I\’ve often seen lightning streaking across the sky; but that\’s something different. Today I couldn\’t make a salvage store run, because the hybrid is still in the shop; so I went out on the road bike. It was in the mid-40s; and as usual, the wind was a bother. By the time I got back home, it was up to 14 mph. I feel so weak against the wind. Maybe I need more lunges and squats to improve leg strength; but the former have become a problem because of arthritis. The base joint of my left big toe is affected; and putting weight on it when my toes are flexed is painful. I\’m not sure how good it is to turn my foot so that my weight goes onto the smaller toes. That might mean I\’m trading one problem for another! It looks like wind might be a problem tomorrow, too. A wind from a southerly direction is more apt to give me headwinds both going out, and coming back home. But at least it isn\’t expected to be as strong as last Sunday\’s wind; and I want to get in the 42-mile ride that I meant to do then! I expect I\’ll still be rather slow. I can\’t cruise at 20 mph; but if I could, maybe you could say that I was streaking.

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Fighting Back

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Is my body fighting back? They say that, if you lose weight, your body has a tendency to try to get back to your pre-loss weight! A good bathroom scale can help you keep on track; and I, for one, need that. Over the past week or two, my weight is bouncing all over the place within a range of about four pounds. I\’ll drop to a certain weight level, but then I keep feeling like I need to eat; and before I know it, I\’ve gained back several pounds. So it looks like my body is fighting back. It\’s most aggravating! Cycling can help with weight control; and Ride Your Way Lean contains much advice for riders who want to lose weight. I don\’t follow the book\’s plans, but the important thing is to ride regularly; and include a mix of short, intense efforts and steady, moderately-paced rides. Along with riding, of course follow a good eating plan. I\’ve noticed in the last month that I can\’t seem to reach earlier levels of intensity during hard efforts. Did I lose too much weight; and some strength along with it? But I don\’t want to gain that weight back! I\’ve still got prediabetes hanging over my head; and now I have rheumatoid arthritis, too! Extra weight is not good for either condition. I need to keep fighting back at my body\’s tendency to regain weight. Fortunately I seem to get the weight back off fairly easily; and not everyone is so lucky. But it\’s easier in the long run to not gain the pounds to begin with. It makes me feel like a yo yo dieter; and I wish I could work from home again. It\’s easier to keep my diet under control when I do!

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Prophets of Doom?

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Weather forecasts often seem like prophets of doom. A forecast I checked yesterday predicted heavy fog for this morning; and then I didn’t see any fog. I’m not complaining about the absence of fog; but sometimes I don’t know what to prepare for when planning a ride! One weather site said 40% chance of showers; but it wasn’t an hour-by-hour prediction. I was afraid it might be pouring at ride time; and I also didn’t know when those 40 mph wind gusts might kick up. More than anything, it was the prospect of a powerful breeze that made me plan to ride in the park. Just before I went out, I checked NOAA; and it said the wind was 16 mph. That\’s a far cry from the 40 mph gusts that the forecast mentioned. But I wanted to ride rather easy today; and I didn’t feel like fighting that wind for 6 miles on the way home. The rain, luckily, hadn’t set in; and the temperature was downright balmy at 71 degrees. I wore leg warmers and my Baleaf jacket; and got almost too hot! Throughout the day, the wind and the appearance of the sky seemed like prophets of doom. I expected it to pour at any minute; and in fact it rained on and off. The wind gradually strengthened; and by the time I left work, I needed a windbreaker even though the temperature was near 80 degrees! While walking home, I kept an anxious eye on the sky. There were plenty of dark clouds in a westerly direction; and we know weather in the Northern hemisphere moves West to East! I was relieved to reach home without getting wet. We\’ll See We\’ll see what happens. There\’s still an 80%; chance of rain tonight; and then it\’s going to drop to about 45 degrees. Wind 10-15 mph tomorrow; but I hope that forecast is more prophets of doom. Sometimes it\’s not as bad as they seem to think it will be. Even so, I\’ll take along hand warmers when I ride!

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Disco

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This morning I felt like a rolling disco. My headlight began flickering; and it made me think of a disco scene that I saw on television many years ago. I was sure that I had charged that light; but maybe I forgot. I don\’t want to be one of those people who ride in the dark without lights; and I was nervous that the light would go out entirely before I got home. Fortunately, it didn\’t; and I took it straight to the charger! When I went out on the road bike, the temperature was in the mid-50s; and it was great to not have to wear slacks over my leg warmers. My legs had much more freedom of movement; and I didn\’t have to worry about the slacks\’ hems coming loose and getting snagged on something. I got my full moon fix; and the wind wasn’t too bad. Overall, it was a good ride. For two days, I\’ve had a welcome break from morning temperatures below 40; and that made it much easier to get awake and moving! The forecast for tomorrow morning isn\’t any too great. There\’s a chance of showers; and patchy fog as well. The wind will be quite strong; with gusts up to 40 mph! Thursday night it will get colder again; but but by then the rain ought to be over for a while. Tomorrow morning maybe I\’ll ride in the park instead of on the levee. Wherever I ride, I hope my headlight doesn\’t make me a rolling disco again!

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Falling Apart

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I’m falling apart at the seams! Or coming undone at the joints; or something. Last December, blood work showed a CCP level of 73, which can mean rheumatoid arthritis; and today I got a firm diagnosis. So now I have yet another condition to keep under control; and another prescription on my list. The rheumatologist is starting me on hydroxychloroquine. He says that this medication can actually nudge blood sugar levels down a bit; but all the same, I still can’t devour sweets with abandon. I thought I had tendonitis in my left thumb and wrist; but the doctor checked it and said I have a bone spur. That isn\’t going to go away; and that\’s unfortunate, because it often makes using my road bike\’s left-hand brifter uncomfortable. I\’m not the only one falling apart. My hybrid\’s rear gears aren\’t shifting normally. When I try to shift from the biggest cog to the next biggest one, there\’s often hesitation and clattering. Last Saturday I took the bike to the shop; and they advised me to bring it back during the week, so they\’ll have more time to check it out. Or course that meant adjusting my work hours today. I usually leave work at 4:30 pm; and the shop closes at 5:00! That meant I needed to get off at 3:30, so I could walk home; and then ride the bike to the shop. The shop says the work might take a week; and there goes Saturday\’s trip to the salvage store. But I have to have a bicycle that works properly! On the way home from the bike shop I picked up my new prescription; and got Chinese food for supper. I felt like I was falling apart; and wanted a big meal!

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Rotten Egg

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\”Last one in is the rotten egg!\” So went the shout when a group of kids was racing to see who could reach a goal first; and who would finish dead last. I recall the 2018 Tour de Cure, when I was the rotten egg. I averaged only 12.28 mph; and that\’s not any too fast. Somehow I can\’t seem to make substantial improvement in my pace; and I suppose I\’m too much of a sissy to make the hard efforts I need to get faster. I seem to have made some marginal gain in my speed, but not nearly as much as I would like; and I\’m still a long way from a casual cruising speed of 15 mph! I think part of the problem is that I go out so early on weekdays; and maybe I\’m not really awake enough for a hard workout. On top of that, even after 11+ years of cycling, I haven\’t rid myself of the concern that I\’ll wear myself out too much; and then arrive at work exhausted. They say that one way to get faster is to ride with cyclists who are a few mph faster than you are. I can see the logic in that; but how many riders go out at 5:15 am? The groups that I do see are WAY too fast for me! I\’m not planning any Tour de Cure ride at present. The pandemic is still on; and I\’ve always had trouble finding enough donors to raise my required fund quota. I end up having to cough up the cash myself; and if I do Tour de Cure again, I suppose I can count on being the rotten egg yet another time.

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Small Beer

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It\’s small beer at present — there\’s nothing important to report; and in fact I don\’t drink beer. The same old litany keeps reeling itself out: I\’m tired of the cold; and I\’m so tired of headwinds! Can\’t I come up with something new? I can\’t even think up a new Hoppin\’ John variation! The one I\’m preparing this weekend uses canned kidney beans; and there\’s nothing special about it. As often happens, I did the work in stages: I cooked the rice yesterday; and did the rest of the work today. Today\’s ride turned out to be very small beer, indeed. I wanted to shoot for 42 miles; and I rode only 16.3 miles! The wind was so bad that I decided it was better to cut the ride short. Most of the time it was either a headwind or sidewind; and this wind was aggravatingly gusty. It was blowing from the NNW, too; and that means headwind trouble both going out and coming back. In spite of thermal socks my feet were getting too cold; and that was another reason I turned back early. For today\’s on-bike menu, I started with a Deour bar; and took along a new bar to try as the \”second course\”. Thanks to the abbreviated mileage, I didn\’t quite finish the Detour bar; and I ate part of the Think! bar after I got home. I had to do a taste test!😉 Think! White Chocolate is pretty good, but I still prefer \”chocolate-chocolate\”. Actually, getting home earlier than usual gave me some extra time: to wash cycling clothes; and to cook; and of course I have to work on those pesky tax forms!

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Box Breathing

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I read this article a day or two ago; and it mentions box breathing. Huh? It sounds like packing up a pair of lungs for shipping! But of course it means something else. Box breathing can help ease tension and anxiety; you don\’t need any special equipment to do it — not even a box! — and you can do it anytime, anywhere. Come to think of it, I\’ve used box breathing without knowing it! Many years ago, I discovered that breathing in this manner is helpful in getting rid of the hiccups; and for some reason I\’m quite prone to the hiccups. Try box breathing for pre-race jitters; or before going to sleep; or any time you feel on edge. Maybe it would help me to brace myself before a ride on a cold, windy day! I\’m not into racing but for many years I played a musical instrument. It took a long time for me to realize that getting nervous before a performance is natural; and that it\’s nothing to be ashamed of. I\’m sure that pre-race nervousness is no different. Have a race (recital, etc.) approaching? It\’s important to acknowledge far in advance that, when the time comes, you\’ll be nervous. Accept the nervousness as normal; natural; and part of the game. In fact, don\’t \”try not to get nervous\”, because that only makes you more tense. When that shivery sensation creeps in, tell yourself: OK; so I\’m nervous. It\’s nothing to be ashamed about; and it doesn\’t mean that I\’m not any good. Remember, too, that you aren\’t alone; and that everybody gets nervous. So take a deep breath; forget the nerves; and focus on the task at hand. In fact, box breathing!

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Buffalo Soldiers

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I had heard of the Buffalo Soldiers; but I didn\’t really know who they were, or what they were all about. This article is very interesting; and it shows that RAAM wasn\’t exactly a novel idea. Those fellows were made of some tough stuff. Can you imagine riding a 59-pound bicycle all those distances? And on top of that, they didn\’t have the luxury of paved roads. Incidentally, how much does a loaded touring bicycle weigh? For touring you\’ll need a rack and panniers to carry food and clothing; and you\’ll be packing along camping equipment as well. That\’s quite a load! But I digress. Interestingly, the first Buffalo Soldiers were stationed at Missoula, Montana, where Adventure Cycling Association now has its headquarters. They rode from Missoula to St. Louis, to show that bicycles could be used in military operations; and I guess this was remembered later. Maybe you can say that the Buffalo Soldiers were the ancestors of today\’s off-road biking enthusiasts. There were few roads for them to use; and those roads were often in poor shape. Sometimes they had to resort to traveling along railroad tracks; and dual suspension MTBs didn\’t exist back then. It must have been a very bumpy ride! Lycra wasn\’t anywhere near the radar, either; and what I see them wearing in that picture looks very uncomfortable. I\’m glad I don\’t have to dress like that to ride! It\’s a shame Buffalo Soldiers\’ efforts came to naught. I\’ve read of other countries using bicycles in war; but not the USA. Maybe we should reconsider that?

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