SpokEasy

April 2022

Easter Dinner

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Easter Dinner Today I had Easter dinner, even though Easter is still a week away. I usually have holiday dinners the weekend before the actual holiday, because it’s less hectic. I rode the hybrid over to the local Chinese restaurant; and got the Mandarin Chicken combination plate. Combination plates let me have smaller amounts of several different foods; and to me that’s better than a large amount of just one food. The take-out box just fits in my bike trunk. That’s very handy, because I can ride home from the restaurant in about six minutes. Walking takes more like 15 minutes! Unfortunately today’s “long” ride wasn’t so long; and I’m sure it wasn’t enough to balance the calorie content of this Easter dinner! I still feel rather tired; and I rode only 29 miles, instead of 50 miles. The wind rose to 16 mph before I got back home; and when it blew from the river, it really felt chilly. I suppose it’s the snow-melt from farther upriver. At any rate, riding against that wind was very tiring! I hope I can make up some of the mileage as the week goes on; but the forecast is a rather stormy one. Again. At least it looks like rain and T-storm activity are more likely in the afternoons; and that makes me hopeful. As always, I can only wait and see what happens; but I hope I can get in a good, long ride next Sunday! Real Easter Since I had Easter dinner today, what will I do next Sunday, when it really is Easter? Of course there’s Easter candy; and for sure I’ll have some. I’ll think up something for dinner; and maybe I’ll invent an “exotic” new recipe! Whatever I do, I hope I don’t run down Peter Cottontail while I’m out riding!

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Nemesis

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Nemesis My old nemesis, the wind, is up to its old tricks. At 5 am yesterday, it was only 6 mph, and from the West; so for once I had a tailwind most of the way home. By 10:00 or so, it was up to 18 mph. We were under a Red Flag Warning for two or three days; and I don’t remember when we last had one of those. I’m glad I don’t live in or near a forested area! Yesterday I had a good headwind for part of the way home from work; and I was surprised that there wasn’t much wind this morning. It sure made the trip to the salvage store a lot easier I decided not to take the trailer today; and in fact, I almost didn’t go to the store. When I woke up, I was very tired; my arms and legs felt sore and heavy; and my head was stuffy, too. I don’t know why; but maybe it’s a side effect of COVID booster #2. So I rigged up the hybrid with my trunk and panniers; and rode to the salvage store. Interestingly, I felt better after I got in some miles on the bike! Today I brought home a rather small load; and I didn’t find the two items that I was especially looking for: peanut butter and rolled oats. I’ll keep looking; and someday I’ll probably find them. That old nemesis, the wind, held off; and I hope it continues through at least tomorrow. I’m planning another 50-mile ride; and I get so tired of headwinds!

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Flavor Fatigue

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I think flavor fatigue is setting in. For some weeks, my ride food has consisted largely of Gatorade Whey Protein bars. For weeks, the salvage store has had them for $1.11 apiece; and I’ve been buying them like crazy. Does that save me money? It depends on how you look at it. If I buy a box of a dozen of those bars online, I save perhaps 11 cents per bar. Over time, even that adds up; but Met-Rx bars at the drug store costs $2.99 apiece. It means $1.88 saved by each Gatorade bar; and that’s quite significant. By now I’m getting rather tired of the same flavor of bar week after week; and want a bit of a change. I hope I don’t end up needing Pepto Bismol! Maybe it’s time to haul out Feed Zone Portables again. Flavor fatigue sometimes haunts me when I’m away from the bike; and I get weary of having to haul so much along to work with me. I keep falling off the wagon with my diet; and badly need to get back on track. I’m due to get my A1c levels checked again; and I fear it won’t be good news. How I miss working from home! It made it so much easier if I wanted to make an early trip to the supermarket. Now that I’m working on-site, I have to get to the store; get the stuff that I want; take it home and put away perishables; and then get to work for 8:00 am! It makes me feel rushed; and I don’t like that. When I was home all day, it was easier to keep my diet in check; and avoiding flavor fatigue was easier. Those were the days!

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Hydra?

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Hydra Sometimes working on a web site feels like I’m fighting the Hydra; or some such monster.  When my material transferred from the old site to the new one, it skewed a lot of things. I have to edit almost everything to delete the old code that’s showing; and I have to re-insert pics all over the place. At least I can drag-and-drop pics from the old web site; and that’s much faster than having to hunt for them in my Photos app. I’m told I have this problem because my new site has a different theme from the old one; and I didn’t realize that the new site had gone live already! Please bear with the mess while I work to clean it up; and I’m afraid that might be a while. I have a day job; and can do only so much in the evenings. The weather sometimes seems like the Hydra. It doesn’t have seven heads; but it can be beastly, like the wind this morning. I tried to ride on the levee; but it felt like I was making no headway at all. After about half a mile, I turned tail and went to do laps around the park. Even that got cut short. During my second lap, I suddenly remembered something that I needed to take care of at home; and I was afraid I’d forget it if I kept riding. So I went home early. Strong wind is forecast for tomorrow, too. It’s blowing at 14 mph right now; and it looks like things won’t calm down much overnight. More Wind The weekend will be rather windy, too; but I want to get in my miles! I feel like I got cheated today; and I don’t want to lose more miles. I’m considering ride food for Sunday. Probably I’ll use those Gatorade Whey bars, since I have them; but I hope to find some good ride food at the salvage store. Incidentally, my hauls from that store are a bit of a Hydra, too. Every time I use up a few cans, I buy more!

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First Taste of Summer

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First Taste I got my first taste of Summer this morning. Some afternoons have given us temperatures of 80 degrees; but this is the first morning that it’s been warm enough for me to ride without leg warmers. At 74 degrees, it was still cool enough for long sleeves and my vest; and I wore my lightweight skull cap. I decided to go ride in the park. There’s a wind sock near where I get on the bike path; and one look told me that the wind was pretty strong. When that sock extends from its pole at a 90-degree angle, the wind is  a good 15 mph! It isn’t fun riding against a breeze like that for 6 or 7 miles. There was also uncertainty about the weather in general. It wasn’t raining, but it was overcast; and who could say when it might begin to pour? I began my ride a little earlier than usual; and was home earlier. I checked the weather online; and guess what? Tornado watch until 11:00 am! Luckily nothing happened today aside from some pretty strong wind. While I was riding Sunday, I saw a ship named, Asphalt Sailor. I almost forgot about it; then this morning it suddenly popped into my mind. The flag flying from the ship’s stern wasn’t stretched out enough for me to see it clearly; but I thought it looked like Sweden. Today I googled the ship’s name; and it’s registered with the Marshall Islands. H’m. I never thought of doing a bicycle tour there; but it looks like there are possibilities! Before I think about that, I have to keep the local weather in mind. We’ve had our first taste of Summer; but Friday night it’s supposed to drop to 50 degrees!

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Simple Arithmetic?

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It’s simple arithmetic to determine how much time you need to ride 100 miles — or is it? Yesterday I rode 50.7 miles; and my time in the saddle was 04:21:55. Theoretically, then, my roll time for 100 miles should be double that; but that’s supposing ideal conditions. A headwind at some point is all but certain; and that will slow me down, and tire me faster. Suddenly doubling mileage isn’t the best idea, anyhow. I can’t decide whether to push for that century ride this month; or put it off while I do more work that will (I hope!) improve my pace. If I opt for that route, I won’t be ready for about two months; and in June it can be very hot! I think I also need to get used to eating more on the bike than I’ve been doing. Yesterday’s on-bike menu was: two Gatorade Whey Protein bars; half an RXBar; and two GU-Gels. Simple arithmetic showed a calorie total of 985; but my bicycle computer’s ride data showed a calorie burn of 1545. That left me 560 calories “in debt”; and maybe it’s why I started to feel so tired towards the end. I might actually need to eat a little more before I begin a ride, too. I don’t want to eat a huge meal, though, because I don’t have several hours to let it “settle”. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I need to start my long ride early! There’s always the weather to consider. I don’t want to designate a day as Century Day; and then be forced to call off the ride for a T-storm.

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Fumble Fingers

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Fumble Fingers was me this morning. I set out, intending to ride 50 miles or so; and at 14.5 miles, I managed to press Save Ride. That wasn’t what I wanted; and I had no choice but to start a “new ” ride. Then I had to run constant mental arithmetic, always adding 14.5 to the mileage I saw on my Garmin’s screen. Today I didn’t start by doing laps around the park, as I did last Sunday; and I also started about an hour later. That wasn’t a good idea. Next Sunday, I’d better go back to last Sunday’s plan. I was a bit over-warm before I could complete my 50 miles; and the wind was a nuisance. It was up to 10 mph before the end, and that’s strong enough for me to feel it; especially when I’m getting tired. The latter part of today’s jaunt had me thinking that I’m not nearly ready for a century; yet part of my mind is saying, Just Go For It! Otherwise I might never do it. This won’t be my first century; but my last 100-mile ride was so long ago that it might as well be my first! Of course I know about keeping fueled and hydrated; and I know it’s better to take along ride-food that I’m used to. I do think I ought to delay trying a century until early mornings are warm enough for half-finger gloves. Fumble Fingers are worse when encased in full-finger gloves; and I don’t want to be dropping my much-needed food! Alternatives After this month it might be too hot for an all-day ride; and then I’d have to set my sights on an October century. That’s what I was shooting for last year; then Ida threw my plans into disarray. Post-Ida I thought, maybe I can do the Big Ride in December; but we got some very cold weather; and that discourages prolonged rides as far as I’m concerned. I’ll see how things go for the next few weeks. Love to Ride is in full swing; and I want to get in my miles! I hope for a non-windy day soon, when putting in mega-miles will be easier; and warmer weather helps prevent Fumble Fingers!

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Hello Bicycle?

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Hello Bicycle! This doormat livens the entrance to your home; and lets you show your love for cycling at the same time. Made of sturdy, natural coir; and weathers well. Dimensions: 30 x 17 in/76.2 x 43.18 cm. I got one of these last year; and on the whole, I’m pleased with it. The drawback is that it isn’t as non-skid as I would like; and when a strong wind is expected, I have to bring it indoors so it won’t blow away. Another problem: it’s almost too pretty for me to be wiping my wet, muddy shoes on it!

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Homework

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I feel like the kid in third grade who got loads of homework to do over the weekend. Somehow this dot net site is active; and it still has kinks that I need to work out! But that might have to wait for next week, because it involves know-how that I don’t have. Why do Pages appear with code showing? How did some products in the Shop get transferred in duplicate; and even in triplicate? I know this much; last night I got too tired to wrestle with it any more; and, as usual, there were dishes to wash! This morning I let homework go; and rode to the salvage store, even though I had some misgivings about the weather. The forecast predicted showers; and possible T-storms. At 7:30 am it was overcast; but not raining. I decided to risk it and head for the salvage store; and I packed along the poncho. I knew I might need it. As it turned out, I was right. So It Went As I rode, the sky got darker; but I got to the store without anything worse than a few brief sprinkles; and once I saw a bolt of lightning (far away, luckily). While I was waiting for the store to open, it began to rain harder. It’s a good thing the building’s entrance is sheltered; so I could stay dry. While I was in the store, I heard it pouring. There was more thunder, too; but the storm was moving pretty fast. When I got out of the store, the rain had almost stopped. Even so, I donned the poncho for the ride home; including putting the hood up. Halfway home, I had to stop and put that hood back down because I was getting too hot. I was glad not to be hauling the trailer, because I didn’t like what I saw in my rearview mirror. I saw a black sky; and now and then I heard rumbles of thunder. If it was going to storm, I wanted to beat it back home; and pulling that trailer slows me down. Weathering the Storm I still had over a mile to go when I saw a big bolt of lightning off to the right; and it wasn’t more than two miles away. Then I caught up to the rain that had passed over the salvage store! By then I had only a quarter-mile to go before I reached home; and I decided it wasn’t worth stopping to put the poncho’s hood back up. I could get home in the time it would take to do that; and I just kept going. Since I got home, there hasn’t been much more rain; and maybe I’ll ride to the closest grocery store later for bananas and grapes. As of 11:45 am, it was still overcast and drizzly; and I didn’t feel like getting wet again. Besides, there’s more homework for me: I want to cook something to use up the cauliflower in the fridge; of course there are dishes to be washed; I have to do laundry; and I have to plan tomorrow’s long ride. I get so tired of homework!

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Desertification?

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Are we undergoing desertification? The humidity is only 30%; and for us, that’s very dry. Night before last, we had some heavy rain; and such a low humidity reading surprises me. But I suppose it won’t be long before “the muggies” (as a local meteorologist used to say) return; and the Summer heat along with them! Mornings are still cool enough for leg warmers; jacket; and skull cap. And gloves, of course; but now I don’t need hand warmers. Those warming packs feel good on a frigid day; but I admit they make holding the handlebars more awkward. Since the onset of Daylight time, it’s still dark when I get back home from a morning ride; but soon I’ll need to wear sunblock on my face — for rides that begin in the dark! This morning I was out for a ride, and saw what I thought were alligator’s eyes reflected in my headlight. Then I noticed that there were two pairs of those amber-colored eyes; and they seemed to be bouncing around. I thought that was weird; and then I looked again and realized that it was a pair of raccoons. But back to desertification. I wouldn’t mind if our climate were a little less humid; but I sure don’t want it to turn into anything approximating Death Valley. If it were as hot and dry as that; and I wanted to do 50-mile rides; I’d need to be assured of plenty of “watering holes” where I could refill my Camel-Bak! There’s a 40% chance of rain tomorrow; so I guess I don’t have to worry about desertification just yet. Sunday looks to be clear; and not too warm; so my long ride ought to go OK.

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