Once again, it\’s Memorial Day. Today we remember those fallen while serving in our Armed Forces. I personally have no connection with anyone who was killed in combat; at least, none that I ever heard of. For those of you who have, may they rest in peace and honor.
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?
Sometimes I wonder, am I chicken? As usual for a Sunday, today was long-ride day. It didn\’t go very well. For one thing, I felt tired; both generally and leg-wise. Much of the ride felt like a slog. I forgot to check for a detailed forecast last night, but I knew it would get hot. Next Sunday I hope I don\’t fall back asleep, so I can get started by 6 am or even earlier. Today I didn\’t get going until 7:30! Because I felt tired, I didn\’t do much of trying to push the pace. It wasn\’t only my legs that felt tired; I was also just plain tired. When that happens, I always wonder whether I\’m being wise; or, am I chicken? At about mile 31, I got some brief relief from the heat when a cloud moved over the sun. On a hot day some overcast is welcome, as long as it doesn\’t mean lightning. About then is when I got a sudden attack of post-nasal drip. I coughed and coughed, to the point where I nearly got queasy. Snot rocket after snot rocket didn\’t help much. I had to stop and get out my roll of tissue so I could blow my nose. Now it\’s hot enough that, at least once during a long ride, I need to empty my spare water bottle into the Camel-Bak. Then I refill the water bottle in case I need it. Today at my rest stop, I was chatting with another rider who was wearing sun sleeves. He says they\’re hot when you\’re standing still, but once you start riding and get up a little sweat, the feel much cooler. I think they\’re worth trying.
Do you feel like going wild when traveling on two wheels? Some bicycle tourists like to stick with \”civilization\”. They prefer not to stray too far from sources of water, food, and so on. I\’m quite sure that I\’m that sort. I like it \”tame\”. Others love the challenge of being self-supporting so much that they\’ll head off into the middle of nowhere; the farther from settled areas, the better. Deep forests. High mountains. Even the desert! If it\’s that last one, they might want to follow a railroad line. Or they might want to make the first tracks across the veldt. As far as I\’m concerned, a ride on a day of 20 mph wind is wild enough. A desert can have a terrible sort of beauty, but it\’s no place for the inexperienced. In a desert area, such as Phoenix, you need LOTS and LOTS of water, even if you aren\’t riding a bicycle. That\’s before you even venture out of the city. Head out into the desert and forget to bring a compass? You might be dead before you can regain your bearings, no matter how much water you\’ve brought with you. I haven\’t even gotten to the question of the bicycle yet. A road bike\’s narrow tires wouldn\’t be suited to a sandy surface. Maybe a mountain bike? Even a fat-tire bicycle? Going wild? I think I\’ll leave it to folks who are more adventurous than I am!
TTime to get ready! Preparing for the Sunday morning long ride can feel like getting ready for a major trek, especially in hot weather. I\’ll need electrolyte drink. I fix it the evening before, so it can be thoroughly chilled. It tastes better cold, but unfortunately it won\’t stay cold for long! I prep my recovery drink, too but usually I wait until morning to prep my ride food. Sadly, Sierra Trail Mix Clif Bars don\’t seem to exist any more. I have to turn to other varieties, such as White Chocolate Macadamia Nut; or I take along other things to eat. When I\’ll be out for much over one hour, I use the Camel-Bak. Even in cold weather, hydration is important. When it\’s hot, having enough fluid along is even more important. Perhaps you\’ve noticed that riding for three or four hours with a heavy hydration system on your back leaves you feeling like something is pressing on you between the shoulder blades; even long after you\’ve finished your ride and put the Camel-Bak away until next week. I used to have that problem. Exercises can help with that. An exercise similar to Prone Lateral Raise has strengthened those muscles enough that I can take that weight on my back much more comfortably. Part of the prep is checking the weather forecast. It will be clear tomorrow, but hot. I wish there were a ride prep I could do to keep the temperature down! All I can do is to get ready for a hot ride.
Enjoy while it\’s here! It\’s a three-day weekend! It would be nice if I could get away and ride through a landscape like this one! So far the weather is cooperating rather well. True, it\’s hot (85 degrees at 11:45 am), but it isn\’t raining and the wind isn\’t bad. In fact, the wind feels good if I\’m not trying to ride against it! As I was on the way home from the salvage store, I was working against the breeze. (So what else is new?) Six to eight mph doesn\’t sound like much of a wind, but I was hauling the trailer again. I\’m using it more than I did in the past because 1) those make-your-own-grab-bags are quite bulky; and 2) now that the weather is getting hot, I want a small cooler for such items as bologna. The only one I have is double-six-pack size, and it takes up most of the space in one of my panniers. Tomorrow it will get up to about 90 degrees; wind 5-10 mph. I\’d better get used to starting my Sunday long rides earlier, so I can be back home before the heat gets really bad. I\’m thinking about doing 40 miles or so tomorrow. I\’m also toying with the idea of getting a pair of sun sleeves. If they keep me a bit cooler and mean I need to use less sunblock, they\’ll be worth it. By Thursday we\’ll have a chance of showers and T-storms. We\’ve got good weather now, so let\’s enjoy while it\’s here.
Playing favorites in typically viewed with disdain. For instance, the advice goes that a parent shouldn\’t favor one child over another. When the Tour de France is on, it can be very difficult to keep from playing favorites. Who’s your favorite pro rider? If I actually have a favorite, it’s Nairo Quintana. He caught my attention the year he won the white jersey in the Tour de France, and was in second place overall. Gosh, was that 2015? To me it seems like year before last. I think I’m drawn to watching him because he, like me, is “little”. True, he has six inches over me when it comes to height, but he’s been described as “diminutive” often enough. Seeing how he can climb, though, I’ll bet his power-to-weight ratio is off the charts. While we\’re talking about \”favs\”, don\’t we all have a route that we\’d rather ride than any other that we know? Give me the local segment of the MRT. I don\’t have to ride alongside traffic! The drawback is that I\’m on top of the levee, and that can get tough when there\’s a strong wind. How about your favorite \”ride\” food? I\’m a bit undecided there. I\’ve tried a lot of different things, including rice cakes a la Feed Zone. Some things, while I like them, don\’t have enough \”oomph\” for long-ride snacks, so I know it\’s important to choose your on-bike food wisely. The list of favorites could go on indefinitely: favorite jersey, favorite chain lube — even a favorite pair of socks!
It\’s not the best idea to wear yourself out on the bike, is it? I was brought up with the \”Use it up, wear it out, make it do\” mantra. My mother lived through the Great Depression, and believed very much in that. I still will wear my blouses until they\’re threadbare. I often find it hard to throw things away, even when I don\’t have anywhere to keep them! When it comes to our bodies, however, we need to re-think such advice. For example, how many pedal strokes do we take during a long ride? Let\’s say I average 80 rpm during a ride that lasts 3:48:55. Round it up to three hours, forty-nine minutes, or 229 minutes. That\’s 18,320 pedal strokes. Double that for a hypothetical century, and we\’re talking about the knees doing a lot of repetitive motion. Nobody wants worn-out knees, or worn-out any body part. How can we prevent those dreaded overuse injuries? There\’s plenty of advice out there. Regarding the knees, exercises to strengthen the supporting muscles are helpful. When I first got going on two wheels, I\’d go sway-backed after 15-20 minutes of riding. Exercises to strengthen the core muscles got rid of that. It seems that every cycling book includes something about off-bike exercises: The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling; and Get Fast! are but two examples. Build up distance slowly; do those off-bike exercises to strengthen the \”supporting cast\”. Letting those muscles remain weak is not the best idea.
Choose your weapon! Keeping a bicycle in good working order does seem rather like a duel, doesn\’t it? A duel with the elements, that is. The frame gets splattered with gritty mud during a wet ride. The chain ends up a mess, too. After tires, they say, the bicycle\’s biggest maintenance problem is its chain. It needs to be cleaned and dried after a wet ride. It needs lube! So, choose your weapon! But there are so many different types of lube! Which one is best for my chain? Wet lube year-round would seem a good choice for me. Our average annual rainfall is 60 inches. On the other hand, we\’ll get long dry spells now and then; and during those times a dry lube would be better, I guess. I\’ve taken to using a self-cleaning lube. It\’s easier, and a little less messy. I\’m not splashing dirty, sudsy, oily water around. I also don\’t have to worry about proper disposal of that dirty water. As to getting excess lube off the chain, I\’m never sure I\’m doing it right. I think I\’m overly concerned that I\’ll get too much lube off the chain. If I have to handle the chain, such as if it comes off the small ring, my hands get black with oil. Yet a dry chain isn\’t the best idea, either. I\’ll keep dueling with it. Maybe one day I\’ll figure it out.
Am I progressing merely inch by inch? Or even as quickly as that? Often enough I\’ve complained that my overall pace doesn\’t seem to be improving any too fast. For years I\’ve had \”increase my pace to 15 mph\” as a goal; and haven\’t attained it yet. Well, let me stop and think a minute. Yes, I\’m still unable to cruise at 15 mph for several hours; but I\’m also better at going 15 mph for several miles. Time was when reaching 15 mph at all was very hard, even when I had a stiff tailwind! Last Saturday I rode home 14.5 miles against a wind of 13-15 mph. My average speed over those miles was 9.45 mph, which seems awfully slow. On second thought, such a wind used to push me back to a lower speed than that! Last Tuesday I decided to see whether I could get up to 20 mph. I didn\’t only get there; I sustained it for a full minute! I even hit a peak speed of 21+ mph. The flip side of increasing my pace, I suppose, is being able to go for a recovery ride and stay in heart rate Zone 1. It used to be very hard to stay in Zone 1; lately I\’ve been on easy rides and stayed below Zone 1! My Garmin lets me keep tabs on myself as I ride. Adding it all up, it looks like I might be getting somewhere, even if I\’m merely plodding along inch by inch.