SpokEasy

SpokEasy

Author name: CAL

Waxing Poetic

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Sometimes I find myself waxing poetic. Of course I\’ll never hold a candle to Longfellow, or Milton, or Poe. All the same, I occasionally get into the mood to try my hand, or rather my keyboard, at a bit of haiku. So here\’s a bicycle haiku: Bicycle wobbles Rider does not go bonkers Bicycle stays up Pretty corny, huh? Years ago, when I had my cats, I thought up a cat haiku: Today kitty purrs Yesterday she spat at me Kitty is fickle As long as you aren\’t focusing on a race, or trying to ride alongside traffic and stay in one piece, a nice, long bicycle ride seems like a good opportunity to reflect on life, your philosophy of cycling, nature, or whatever.  The genesis of a poem, or blog, or your next letter to a friend, might come up out of nowhere. Maybe you\’ll see something that will inspire you: a rabbit, a blue heron in flight, the moon setting over a river. Then you\’ll find yourself waxing poetic. Use all your senses Learn the beauty of nature Compose a haiku

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Raiding the Fridge

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Meal prep means raiding the fridge; and raiding the pantry, too. For once I took the time to fix a proper supper: a stir-fry. From the fridge, half a medium zucchini, thinly sliced; ditto one-quarter of a small red onion; and I minced a clove of garlic. Yesterday I cooked a pot of brown rice, and I got out some of that. There were peas in the freezer, and I used some of them, too. And I had ground ginger and soy sauce on hand. Now for the pantry. I opened a 5-oz can of chicken breast and used half of it.  Last time I made stir-fry I forgot the can of sliced water chestnuts, but today I remembered it. Again, I used half of it. The prep, as always, took longer than the cooking. I heated a teaspoon or two or coconut oil in my large skillet. First the onion went in; then the zucchini. Then, just before adding the rice/chicken/water chestnuts/peas, I put in the garlic. Be careful when you use garlic in anything sauteed or fried. It burns easily; and then the whole dish has a weird, bitter taste. After I had put in the rice mixture, I kept stirring it to heat it all well, and added the soy sauce. It sure was nice to have a REAL supper, even though it meant raiding the fridge!

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RAAM

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RAAM When I hear “RAAM”, a bighorn sheep is what I think of first.  Since the route goes through the Rockies, maybe the riders will glimpse one of these sheep. Merely qualifying to take part in RAAM in the first place is no mean feat, it seems. Be able to average 10.5 mph? Sure, I can ride at that pace; but not for hours every day, day after day. And I most certainly can’t climb that fast! The route crosses several mountain ranges; and I suspect there would be some killer grades. If I were to tackle RAAM, I might well want a lighter-weight bike. And one with a triple crankset, with chain rings smaller than the crankset I currently have on my road bike. Whoa, there!  I’m getting far, far ahead of  myself. I’ve never done a single race; and I’m envisioning myself doing the Race Across America? How does one prepare? Where would I find a crew? Spend $5000 to ride across the country? I haven’t got money like that. Ride up to twelve days on as little as 1.5 hours of sleep per night? RAAM has been called “a contest of sleep deprivation”; and that aspect of the race sounds like a real drag. But if I could stay awake, it might actually be fun to “ram” my way across the country.

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Sunday Ride

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Sunday Ride How about a Sunday ride to land’s end? I see a road; but what would the wind be like riding out to the end of this landspit? Or should I say, “cliff”? In this pic it looks like it’s a dead calm; but is it like that all the time? When I set out for my ride today, I thought the wind felt stronger than the 8 mph that I saw in the forecast last night. It isn’t the first time I’ve gotten that impression, and have been correct: after I got home, I found that the wind had been 15-16 mph! As so often happens after my long Sunday ride, I developed lightheadedness/orthostatic hypotension an hour or so after getting home. When I mentioned it to my primary care physician, he recommended hydration and compression socks. I didn’t wear the compression socks for the ride, but put them on shortly after the ride (and after washing off several layers of sunblock). After about an hour, I noticed that the same  old lightheadedness, etc. was creeping in, anyway. I decided to try a salt tablet, and took off the compression socks. I hydrate during any ride, especially the weekly long ride. Today I put in a little over 40 miles; and I drank about 2 liters of water, and 18-20 oz electrolyte drink. I don’t believe that was too little; I keep having to “visit Mrs. Murphy”. So I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe a shot of dill pickle juice will help.

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Cinco de Mayo

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Is there a special bicycle ride for Cinco de Mayo? Yes, there is! It\’s on the first Sunday of May. Maybe the riders fuel themselves with tacos and salsa instead of Clif Bars and GU-Gels? Today, Cinco de Mayo 2019, is Sunday, which is my long-ride day, anyhow. Unfortunately I don\’t have any taco shells on hand, so I\’ll have to skip the tacos. Pinatas aren\’t only for Christmas, it seems, so how about a piñata full of Clif Bars, GU-Gels, and bike repair kits? Tacos, let\’s admit, would be tricky to handle as on-bike food, which means Clif Bars and GU\’s, after all. (Sorry to disappoint). When we\’ve finished breaking the piñata, we can start rolling, with our Clif Bars and GU-Gels to keep us going; and in the event of problems, we\’ve got our brand-new repair kits at hand. We can wear the colors of the Mexican flag: green, white, and red. Maybe there\’s a way to fit a Mexican sombrero over a bicycle helmet? After the ride, how about a dinner of burritos or cheese enchiladas? Or we can at last get our hands on those tacos!      

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Pick Our Battles

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If we\’re to pick our battles, bicycle advocacy is a wonderful thing to choose. We cyclists need all the help we can get, after all. Our advocates work to raise awareness of cycling: to get more folks riding; to increase motorists\’ awareness of people riding bicycles; and to improve infrastructure so that there are more marked bicycle lanes on our roads. Naturally it\’s not always smooth sailing. I mean, it\’s not always an effortless ride with a good tailwind. There\’s still, apparently, a very long way to go. We hear too many reports of motorists behaving aggressively towards cyclists. Some drivers think that cyclists don\’t belong on the roads; and that roads are meant for cars only. Actually, I\’ve read that roads were first paved for cyclists! Thus it is cyclists who have \”paved the way\”. Then there\’s distracted driving, which has resulted in too many cyclists getting injured or killed. That certainly needs to be addressed; and I\’d also campaign against distracted cycling. Yes, you read that right; distracted cycling! I\’ve seen people riding along one-handed while texting with the other hand! Hang up and ride, people! You\’re inviting disaster! I myself don\’t belong to an advocacy group, and I\’m sure I don\’t appreciate their efforts as much as I should. Let\’s give them all a big thumbs up! ADDENDUM, 01/10/21 With all the COVID-19 mess, I want to avoid groups if at all possible; but we can still pick our battles.

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Jumping the Gun?

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I\’m jumping the gun today! It\’s not Cinco de Mayo yet, but I got in the mood for tacos. I figured that any Mexican restaurant will be crammed on the real Cinco de Mayo, so I decided to get my licks in now. Of course I\’m stuffed, all the more as I got root beer instead of water to drink. My neighborhood has been under a boil-water advisory since about 4:30 am; and when I get water in a restaurant, for all I know it\’s tap water. I didn\’t want to chance it. My hybrid is still in the shop, and it looks like the weather tomorrow won\’t be the greatest. I\’ll skip going grocery shopping; and depending on how the weather is, I might go for a short spin on the road bike later in the day. The Love to Ride challenge is over; so I\’m not worrying about keeping the ball rolling, so to speak. For the most part, we got lucky with the weather during April. Those two days early in the month, when it poured as I was riding to work, were sufficient for all 30 days of April. If it hadn\’t been for the Challenge, I would not have bicycled to work those two days! It certainly didn\’t have me jumping the gun.

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To Your Head

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\”Don\’t let it go to your head\” is an admonition that most of us have heard at one time or another. In this case, we do need to let it go to our heads. Head injury seems to be getting more and more attention these days, in all sports. We hear of pro football players who have permanent brain damage from repeated head trauma suffering during years on the playing field. Cyclists, of course, must guard against head injury. I cringe when I see people pedaling along without a helmet. It seems to me that they\’re taking unnecessary risks. For that matter, what little bicycle riding I did as a kid was without a helmet. It\’s shocking, now. How do you choose a helmet? First things first. Fit is the most important thing. Price, for most of us, is a close second. Color? A light/bright hue doesn\’t hurt. If you\’re like me, you\’ll put your headlight atop your helmet, and a red blinkie on the back of the helmet. I remember one time I set out on the road bike. Half a block from home I realized that I\’d forgotten to put on my helmet. I\’m serious enough about wearing a helmet that I got off the bike and walked back home to get that headpiece. I wasn\’t about to ride without it! And once, when I was using the tricycle, I managed to ride three miles before noticing that I didn\’t have my helmet on! I stopped, turned, and rode back home slowly and carefully. (This was when I was still using a handlebar-mounted light). It made me nervous to be riding without head protection! So yes; let it go to your head.

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When to Back Off

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Do we know when to back off? We all have days when we simply don\’t feel up to riding, whether we ride strictly for fun and exercise; or are in serious training. Especially if you fall into the second category, how do you tell whether it\’s a case of not being in the mood that day, or a genuine need to ease up for a day or two? The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling mentions some markers that indicate warnings of overtraining (see pg. 18): a morning (i.e. resting) pulse 10% or more higher than is usual; or weighing 3% or more below normal; or having gotten 10% less sleep than usual. If any two of these signs are present, keep your training short and easy until the numbers are back to normal. All three? Take a day off. Another way of looking at it is When Stop Does Not Mean Go, in this article. This list is good for \”amateur\” athletes, who might not be into pulse-taking. Even recreational athletes who don\’t do interval work need to be aware of when they\’ve been pushing too hard. Don\’t spoil the joy of riding by overreaching yourself. So learn now to tell when to back off. Listen to your body, as they say. It it\’s telling you something\’s wrong, it\’s time to take a step back.  

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May Day

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It\’s May Day! What?! It\’s already MAY? I don\’t know where the time goes; and like most cyclists, I wish I had more time to ride. Maybe I need The Time-Crunched Cyclist? It sounds as though following the \”crunched\” plan means short, very intense, rides several times a week. I\’m not sure I\’m fit enough for that; and intense riding isn\’t so easy when I\’m out on the bicycle as little as half an hour after dragging myself out of bed. Sometimes it\’s only 15 minutes after I get up! Six hours a week? I usually get 6-8 hours a week on the road bike; if I ride to work daily and go to the salvage store Saturday, I\’ll get in a few more hours on the hybrid. My weekly total hours are sometimes over eleven. I do intense (for me) work once, maybe twice, a week. The total time spent riding really hard usually isn\’t more than 5-6 minutes. Do I need more? Maybe, if I\’m ever to improve my regular cruising pace. On the other hand, I don\’t need to wind up crunched to exhaustion because I\’m trying too hard to compensate for being crunched for time. Oh, as to May Day — I should be thankful that it\’s not a mayday.

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