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Silver Wheels

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Silver Wheels 🥈 I thought there might be an organization for older cyclists called Silver Wheels; something similar to Silver Sneakers, but for cycling. I did find a club called Silver Wheels; but it’s way up North in Cleveland, Ohio. That’s not exactly local. This ICAN Time Trial Wheelset won’t give me silver wheels; but if you’re chasing after aerodynamics, it can help. ICAN is great for time trialing; triathlons; and long, flat rides. Miles in the Bank 🏦 My long rides are still quite short compared to the distances put in by riders in serious training — say, for triathlon aspirants. But I’m pushing for longer and longer weekday rides. This week I’m trying to put some miles in the bank, because my sister and her husband are coming to visit next week. I might not get to ride much while they’re here; so I want ride now. It’s great to be able to push for 20-mile rides most weekdays; something that was impossible before I retired. I aim for a longer ride on Sundays; and I must remember to do one short, easy ride (or a day off) once a week. Taking time off can be hard, though, when you’re shooting for a specific mileage goal by a certain date. That makes miles in the bank even more important when you know you’ll have less riding time for a while! This blog/page may contain affiliate links. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” ABOUT ME I began this website primarily as a way to present the story of how I accomplished a century ride on an adult tricycle. Other riders of adult trikes might want to know whether it’s possible. It sure is; and I hope I can provide a bit of inspiration.   Along the way, I got into blogging; presenting my kitchen experiments; and even setting up a store. You can visit my Facebook page here; or check into my Twitter (aka X) page, Cyclo_Pathy. I live in New Orleans; and  retired in January 2023. More time for cycling! Website designed by Cecile Levert © This website is the property of its author. DISCLAIMER I am not a cycling coach; nor a health professional. This site is based on my own experiences, opinions, etc. If you need help, please consult the appropriate professional. FRESH FROM MY JOURNAL ✍🏻 Facebook Twitter Youtube Silver Wheels October 25, 2024 Surging? October 23, 2024 Rainy Day Ideas October 22, 2024 In versus Out October 21, 2024 Load More TRANSLATOR

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Cycle September 2019

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Love to Ride\’s Cycle September 2019 challenge begins today! I kicked off the month with a ride of 37.5 miles. Not with these time-trialing wheels, though! I\’m nowhere near fast enough to be thinking about time trialing. In fact, I tried to take my time (no pun intended) today. Today\’s mileage was actually quite a big jump up from what I\’ve been doing. Last Sunday I rode only 29 miles, and they say you shouldn\’t increase your mileage (or time) by more than 10% from week to week. At least today felt a bit cooler. It was overcast a good deal of the time. I wore my sun sleeves, which helps keep my arms from getting quite so hot. Much of the time I was riding the small ring. At one point, when I tried to shift onto the big ring, my chain got dropped! I didn\’t have any helpful YouTubes at hand, either. I need to watch this one about ten times, and then maybe I\’ll remember it next time. My road bike seems quite prone to chain drop lately, and I\’ll be getting it checked at the bike shop soon. In fact, that bike is about due for a complete tune-up. If it will take more than a day, I can ride the hybrid while the road bike is in the shop. But I hope the time without the road bike is minimal. Cycle September 2019 is on!

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Miles or Time?

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Should you train by miles, or by time? Which is the better way to train? Personally, I\’m a by-miles type. Supposedly that makes sense for road riding. For mountain biking, going by time is said to make more sense. Here\’s the reason: Maybe you\’ll ride an hour on a paved surface, using your road bike. You might cover 15 miles or more. Then the next day, you might ride an MTB for one hour on a difficult downhill track. You\’ll likely cover a considerably shorter distance, but the effort will be just as great; possibly greater. Thus the miles or time debate. If you measure both of those rides using miles, it will seem that the second ride was much less of a workout; even though you might have been working much harder. And you don\’t want to shortchange yourself, right? Incidentally, here\’s where a power meter can be useful. X amount of effort is X amount of effort, regardless of mileage. Even if you never ride a mountain bike, time could be a wiser way to train when your time available for riding is short; as it is for so many of us. Are shorter, harder rides what I need during the week? Would that help me to improve my cruising speed? Even though I\’m a good deal better at pushing it up to 15, 16, or even 17 mph, I can\’t sustain it for nearly as long as I\’d like. Keep trying, I guess. Maybe I need a time-management course?

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White Noise?

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We hear about using \”white noise\” to help create a soothing atmosphere for sleep. I don\’t know about anybody else, but conventional white noise drives me crazy! It\’s too high in frequency for me. Maybe we cyclists need a different kind of white noise. How about sounds of the peloton? The freewheel during coasting; the whir of time trial wheels; and the wind whooshing past a rider\’s ears. I wish I could get the dark and quiet that sleep hygienists say we need for sleep. But with other people living on the other side of a thin wall; a fridge not ten feet from my bed; and train tracks only one block away, quiet is rather rare. I\’m tired of wearing earplugs to bed every night; but what else can I do? On top of the earplugs, I need to run my standing fan as a \”bass white noise\” machine. Otherwise when the neighbors start to talk LOUDLY, I\’ll be wakened. Or won\’t be able to get to sleep in the first place. It\’s hard to get it really dark, too: usually I have bicycle lights plugged into their chargers overnight; I don\’t have blackout curtains; and so on. I\’d rather not wear one of those masks that cover your eyes. They say that your body needs to get the natural light as morning approaches. I\’ll have to stick with my \”bass white noise\” for now, and hope to have a nice, quiet home someday; one close to lots of good bicycling paths!

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Give It a Whirl

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Give It a Whirl Sometimes it’s good to give it a whirl. A new twist on things can be fun. It might be tweaking a favorite recipe; or using a new route to get in your usual mileage. But yesterday’s weather gave a different meaning to “give it a whirl”; namely, there were tornadoes! Our forecast was for possibly severe T-storms in the afternoon. Things didn’t look too bad during the morning; but from noon onwards, the sky got more and more gloomy; and the wind picked up. I was getting nervous about having to walk home through a storm; and finally left work at 2:00 pm, so as to beat the storms home. On the way, I heard a few grumbles of thunder. It wasn’t raining yet when I arrived at home; and I was glad I beat the rain. I sat down and watched a YouTube or two; then started some work on my website. My cell phone was right next to me; and a few minutes before 4:00 pm, it rang with a tornado warning. YIKES!! I donned my bicycle helmet; and went to sit next to my closet, ready to jump inside if things got wild. I remembered what I heard when the Feb 13, 2007 twister went by, and listened for that; but it didn’t happen. There was a lot of lightning for a while, though. Arabi was one of the unlucky locales this time; and a different twister a little West of here resulted in several deaths. It’s sad anytime such things happen; but just before Christmas makes it worse! And the weather is about to get colder, too. I’ll have to bundle up to ride again. Not my favorite thing; but I’ll just have to give it a whirl.

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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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Do You Hear?

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Do you hear music as you ride? I\’ve noticed enough riders who have an iPod (or whatever) blaring away. Last Saturday, during my long ride, bits of music starting drifting through my head. It took a few minutes for me to remember that it was Homage March. I couldn\’t remember how the piece began, and had to find a YouTube to listen to! Do you hear birdsong along the way? That\’s one of the things I enjoy most about long rides; and if I have music playing during my rides, I probably won\’t hear the birds. It\’s worth it to keep alert for that; you might learn some surprising things. I sure was astonished to discover that bald eagles sing! Even without a radio going, I often don\’t notice other riders coming up from behind. A bicycle with time-trial wheels is often easier to hear, because those wheels cause a whirring sound; but of course not every bicycle is thus equipped. Mine isn\’t! I like to hear my own thoughts as I ride. On-bike conversation would be hard, because I still can\’t maintain a 12-14 mph clip and talk. At any rate, it doesn\’t feel like I could! I rather envy riders who can pedal and chatter away at the same time. What about weather sounds? Riding causes wind noise; and lightning has to be too close for comfort before I can hear the thunder. It isn\’t a comfortable situation. Last Saturday I was rather worried about that. The sky looked quite stormy, but I was lucky and got only a few drops. What do you like to hear as you ride? Keep your ears open; you never know what you might hear!

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Sunset Limited

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Sunset Limited sounds like a passenger rail service. Today, it meant an evening ride for me. Yesterday my prescription refill finally came in. With my med I could sleep again; but I\’m not surprised that I was too tired and sleepy today to try a morning ride. I decided to ride after work. During the day the wind strengthened. At 5 am it was 5-6 mph. By 4:30 pm it was blowing at 12-13 mph; and of course it was a headwind on the way home! While I had the tailwind, I made one effort to see just how fast I could get. I hit a max speed of 23.92 mph! One day maybe I\’ll finally get up to 25 mph for a moment. And do you know what? I\’ll still feel slow! \”It never gets easier…\” I used my lights, as usual for any ride; day or night. I even wore my wrist blinkie, in case my game of Sunset Limited ran past sunset. I got home before dark, but it never hurts to be prepared. This morning I had another session with the nutritionist. She says I\’m doing well as far as meal planning goes; but we need to adjust my calorie intake — can you believe, UPwards? I\’ve lost weight, and I needed to; but I don\’t need to lose any more. Incidentally, I\’m glad I\’m not a pro cyclist who has to worry about making weight. That reminds me: last night I cooked up a new creation. It\’s good cold or warm. Oh, now I\’ve made myself hungry. Time for hummus and raw carrot!

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Lingo

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Yes, we have our lingo, including [GASP!!] four-letter words. But that isn\’t the extent of it. As with any field, cycling has its own lingo that might leave non-cyclists scratching their heads. It might even sound like a foreign language. Half-wheeling, for instance. It sounds sort of like somebody trying to ride with half a wheel. Puzzling, right? How can anybody ride a bicycle with only half wheels? Aero sounds like air travel. Bonking sounds like literally running into a wall. \”Big dog\” is a new one to me. What the largest chain ring has to do with canines, I don\’t know. Maybe it means madly pushing that big gear when some snarling mutt is chasing you? I\’d have to be frantically hungry to start chewing the handlebars. My appetite isn\’t that weird! 😉 Besides, I don\’t think it\’s wise to focus too hard on your Garmin, and forget to watch where you\’re going. I sure was grupetto when I rode the 2018 Tour de Cure. I was the last rider in, and made it with just two minutes to spare. Well — at least I did make it. Hubbard sounds like the old nursery rhyme. I hope I don\’t look like one. Noodle arms are what I had when I first graduated from the adult trike to the hybrid. I soon came to my senses and started doing off-bike exercises to improve my upper body/arm and core strength. Pile up is something I hope I never experience. Especially I wouldn\’t want to be on the bottom of the heap. Stomping sounds to me like a rider who is pedaling awkwardly, and mashing hard on the pedals. Looks like I\’m wrong there. Zig Zagging would be me on a steep climb! And lots more. Welcome to the conversation of cyclists!    

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What Goes Around

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What goes around, comes around, they always say; and when it comes to wheels, what goes around propels the bicycle forward. I\’ve never bought a wheelset separately from a bicycle. If I ever need to, I\’ve got everything to learn about it. And that article is only for road bike wheels! Here\’s more info. I\’ve learned this much from years of reading about cycling: a wheel is rotating weight. If your main interest is racing, the lighter your bicycle\’s wheels, the better; as long as you don\’t compromise durability. The general advice is to use heavier, sturdier wheels for the rigors of training; then switch to lighter-weight wheels for the event. I also know that those deep-rimmed wheels with few and wide spokes can be very difficult to control in a strong sidewind; and that if your intent is for rough, off-road riding, it\’s better to avoid wheels that have sparse spokes. You can get special wheels for time trialing. Some have a broad rim. Others are a full disc; another type of wheel that\’s hard to handle in a crosswind. Spokes can be round; or they can be flatter for better aerodynamics. Spokes must be properly tightened to keep wheels in true. My wheels had better stay true! They had better not take to spreading false rumors, because what goes around, comes around.

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