SpokEasy

June 2022

Sit and Stay Fit

Uncategorized /

Sit and Stay Fit? Helpful for desk-bound folks who want some action. Is it possible to sit and stay fit? The FitDesk Folding Exercise Bike is a possible solution to this problem. FitDesk can hold your tablet; and can adjust to users from 4’10” to 6′ plus/147.3 cm to 182.9 cm and over.  The FitDesk weighs 45 lb/20.4 kg; and can accommodate users up to 300 lb/136.1 kg. Folds for easy storage. I’ve seen several co-workers use other under-desk pedaling devices; but I’m not sure I can pedal with any energy AND use a keyboard (or write manually!) at the same time. The action of my legs would take too much of my concentration; and honestly, I’d far rather be outdoors on a real bicycle! But today I didn’t ride. This past week has been very stressful; and I’m glad today is a holiday! I have much more leisure to work at editing stuff in my dot net web site; and I can spend more time indoors, trying to keep halfway cool. Today is another scorcher; and by 8 am it was already 87 degrees! The predicted high temperature is a blazing 95 degrees; and I expect the heat index will rise over 100. At 10:25 am, said heat index was already 98. Unfortunately staying indoors has me in “park mode”; and I can’t sit and stay fit at the same time!  I’m trying to weed out some of the stuff I’ve got in here; but tiring as it is, it really doesn’t burn off many calories. I hope I get to ride tomorrow morning!

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heat index

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, Uncategorized /

Heat Index Be careful when the heat index rises! At of  1:17 pm, yesterday, it was 95 degrees; our heat index was 103; and there was a heat advisory in effect. Today isn’t any cooler; and the lack of clouds doesn’t help. I  dragged myself out of bed at 4:10 am; went out at 5:00 am to ride some laps around the park; and then did about 29 miles on the levee. That let me finish by 9:00 am or so; and it was already brutally hot by that time! In heat like that, my ride food get half-melted; and my water and electrolyte drink don’t stay cool. I waited until I finished my ride to go feed the cat. He won’t starve if he gets his meal a few hours later. The poor thing is lonely, I know; but my friends return  tomorrow evening. They’ve been in England, where it’s cooler than it is here; and I hope the heat index doesn’t give them too much of a shock when they get back! In this heat and blazing sunshine, I’m using up a lot of sunblock. What a mess that stuff can make! It’s the payoff for not having to wear multiple layers. When it’s as hot as this, I wonder how Grand Tour riders manage to keep from collapsing. Well, tragically, sometimes they do collapse. How many years of acclimatization does it take to race like than in the heat?

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FOMO

BACK ISSUES, Uncategorized /

FOMO We hear a lot about FOMO these days; that is, Fear of Missing Out. I’m beginning to see what that means. To make a long story short, I’m looking around for another place to live. Not much is available in my price range; and to make matters worse, my old email stopped working! I wasn’t getting notices that I should have gotten about places for rent. I haven’t been able to enjoy my vacation because of this; and it’s causing a lot of upheaval in my life. It’s no wonder I’m developing FOMO! Finding a place to rent is only half the problem. I might have to move to a smaller place; and then I  have to be prepared to sell/give away quite a lot of things. Not to mention the stash of canned goods that I have! I couldn’t find out anything about what’s going to happen to this place: whether the buyer will want to keep renting to the tenants already here; or whether s/he wants to tear the place down and build something else. If I can only stay here one more year — or even just six months — it will make a huge difference. If I have to move, I might be far away from the levee bike path; and riding to work might be far longer and/or more difficult. There’s street construction going on all over the place; and some streets are nigh well impassible. If I must move, a delay of 6-12  months will let me use up my store of non-perishable foods; and I can sort through a lot of things and see what I need to keep; and what I can discard. Or could I even hold a garage sale?

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Precovery

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

PREcovery? Sometimes I “recover” before I ride. Recovery is a vital part of any exercise program; but  precovery? That’s right; sometimes I down my recovery drink before I go out riding! My usual pre-ride snack is a banana or a cupful of grapes; often with peanut butter. Sometimes I’m out of peanut butter; or I’m simply not in the mood for bananas. I don’t always have grapes on hand; and I don’t have time for a real meal. Going for a first-thing-in-the-morning ride on an empty stomach isn’t the best idea. At least, it isn’t for me. I’ve heard about fasted training; but I think I’ll skip it. Even with that pre-ride snack, I often get hungry before I’m back home; and my morning rides usually aren’t much over one hour long. I have to have something; so if that recovery drink is sitting in the fridge, I’ll grab it. Once in a while, in spite of a pre-ride snack, I get too hungry before I can get back home; and that’s why I carry a few GU-Gels with me. They’re my emergency rations, because I don’t need to bonk! Today I didn’t go out on the road bike. I had some errands to run; and the apartment search goes on. I also wanted to tune in to a webinar about Medicare that my employer is hosting today; that’s information that I’ll need in the not-so-distant future. Unfortunately my laptop couldn’t connect to the program. I guess it doesn’t have enough memory. I’m sure it was recorded, though; and maybe I can listen to it next week, when I’m back at work. When I ride anywhere now — even if it’s a short trip — I need something as precovery to cool me off before I go out. This morning it was in the low 80s before 7 am!  

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curveball

BACK ISSUES, equipment /

Curveball Life sometimes throws us a curveball, so they say. I sure got one a week or so ago. This place where I’ve been renting since before Katrina, is up for sale; and the manager has no info as to what the buyer will do with it. S/he might want to leave it as is, and keep renting the units out. On the other hand, the buyer might want to demolish the place; and build something new. I don’t quite dare wait to find out. It might be August before I an get definite info; and this is a  college town. By August, the students will be pouring back into town; and anything close to campus will quickly get snapped up. I need to stay close to here, where I am. The levee bike path is a stone’s throw away from my current front door; and that’s very important to me. I really need the exercise! My application for an apartment is under consideration; so we’ll see how that works out. If I do move, that trailer will come in handy! When I began stocking up like crazy because of possible COVID stay-at-home orders, I had no idea I might have to move. Now I have scads of canned goods, bath tissue, and so on. So, I really don’t want to move; but if I’m accepted for that apartment, I don’t quite dare refuse it. I just hope that, whatever I decide to do, it will be the best thing. I don’t need any more curveballs!

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more power to me

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

More Power to Me? Sometimes I wish I had a power meter. Does a power meter mean more power to me? Unfortunately, it doesn’t; but there are times when I wonder how much wattage I can generate while on the bike. Such a device can let you know how strong a lightbulb your efforts can light up! I suspect that my wattage is quite low. It’s been a while since I did much of anything by way of force development; and force is a component of power.  On top of that, I’ve been tired for the last few months; and when you’re low on energy isn’t the best time to push force work. Besides that, these devices are a bit beyond my budget. But if you can afford them, and wish to do serious training, the Favero is easily installed; and its rechargeable batteries last up to 50 hours. Speaking of tired, that’s how I felt on the bike this morning; and I’m on vacation! I didn’t have to get up at 4:30 am to ride; but that meant I missed seeing the full moon over the river.😔 I rode only 16 miles; and while I’m off work, I’d rather put in 18-20 miles per day. Well, we do what we can. I’m halfway to my Love to Ride mileage goal for 2022; so as far as that goes, more power to me!

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Fish Or Cut Bait

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Fish Or Cut Bait We can’t cut bait forever! Sooner or later, we’ve got to fish. I’ve been in a fish or cut bait situation for over three months. I was working hard to convert my old  spokeasy dot org to this dot net site; and I must confess, there’s still a good bit of editing to be done on Products. I thought at first that perhaps I should complete all the editing before launching dot net. But I can’t stay in that fish or cut bait mode forever; and if I did wait to finish all that editing, this dot net site might never get out! Cycling shorts make the ride more comfortable! Speaking of products, Pearl Izumi® shorts are a favorite of mine. When I first had the tricycle, I rode for some months before I bought my first pair of cycling shorts. They took a bit of getting used to. At first cycling shorts made me feel like I had nothing on below the waist; and I kept checking to be sure I was dressed! Now, I can hardly imagine more than a very short ride without them. This morning I put in 39 miles on the road bike; wearing cycling shorts, of course. I’m glad I was home by 11:00 am; because about an hour later, a heat advisory was posted. It felt hot enough while I was out there riding; and it isn’t even officially Summer yet! I need to go to the drug store; but it’s thundery. I don’t want to get caught in a T-storm!

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Thumbs Up

BACK ISSUES /

Thumbs Up! Sometimes it’s thumbs up! I guess it’s thumbs up today. This morning I saw the hand specialist; and surgery is on the sidelines for now. In fact, I may not need it.🙂 I do have a small bone spur; but I also have thumb CMC arthritis; and the doctor’s first recommendation was a splint to protect and immobilize the thumb for a while. I see him again in about six weeks; and we’ll take it from there. But I don’t give today’s weather the thumbs up. It was sprinkling on and off when I went out on the road bike; and it continued like that until late morning. That wasn’t bad; but then, around noon, it rained hard for a while. There was a flash flood warning in effect for several hours; and in fact, some areas had street flooding because it rained so hard. I’m very glad I’m not riding on the levee right now! The weather site I just checked said the wind is 25 mph; and wind like that makes the going very hard. More T-storms are possible overnight; so it’s a good thing I’m back home. It looks like conditions will be much better tomorrow morning; so I guess I can get to and from the store without getting wet. I plan to visit Whole Foods to look for sunblock; and I think I need to keep myself out of that salvage store for a week or two. I’ve got so much canned stuff it isn’t funny. One good thing about the current weather is that my place didn’t get too heated up. Most days it’s sweltering in here by the time I get home from work; and today it’s much more bearable. Thumbs up to that!  

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Heat Exhaustion

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Heat Exhaustion Heat exhaustion is an appropriate topic at present. Anyone engaged in outdoor activity needs to be mindful of it; and that, of course, includes cyclists. Ride early in the day if possible; and avoid going out in the noonday sun. I get off work at 4:30 pm; and the heat index this afternoon was 107! Fortunately I have only 2.5 miles to ride; and when it’s hot and sunny, that’s quite far enough. Before I went to feed my friends’ cat, I added some ice cubes to my water bottle. They didn’t stay frozen for long. Summer isn’t officially here yet; but it’s quite light by 6:15 am. Soon I’ll need to begin my Sunday long rides at 5:30 am; and even when I do, it’s very hot by the time I get home several hours later. I wish I could stop at several points to put both water and ice into my Camel-Bak; but that would mean going well out of my way. I already have some sun sleeves; Protect your arms from UV rays while keeping them cooler. and maybe I’ll get some leg sleeves, too. Another problem with heat is the effect it has on my ride food. Most ride foods that I use get very messy when it’s hot; and I end up smearing bar coatings on my shorts in an effort to get my fingers halfway clean. That’s another form of heat exhaustion: I’m tired of the heat making things more difficult!

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