SpokEasy

SpokEasy

Author name: CAL

Get a Grip?

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Get a grip on it! Or a good handle, or something. What I refer to here is bicycle handling skills. Mine, I admit, are very basic, although they seem to be adequate for the type and amount of riding I do. Suppose, however, that I decide some day that I want to take up large-group riding? Or even take a crack at racing? I\’d have a tremendous amount of catching up to do! When I started to think about bicycle racing, I soon sensed that speed isn\’t the most important aspect of racing. Skill is! Your casual cruising speed might put any Tour de France maillot vert winner\’s top sprint speed in the shade; but if you haven\’t got the bike-handling skills to use and control such velocity properly, you\’re a disaster waiting to happen. So, what skills would I need? Yes, I would need to develop much greater speed; but I\’d also need to learn to make sudden, tight turns at high speed. And to ride almost shoulder-to-shoulder with other riders; and while inches away from the rear wheel of the rider in front of me. I\’d need to learn how to \”bump\” without losing control. I never learned how to ride no-hands; much less how to maneuver the bike while doing so. I lack the confidence to ride — fast! — down mountainsides, and still remain in control. All that is probably just the beginning! It\’s a tall order. I don\’t think I\’m up to it. Or am I? Truth to tell, I haven\’t tried it yet; so I haven\’t got a grip on it.  

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Goal in Sight

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My goal is in sight! I\’m drawing towards my goal of 5000 miles (road bike + hybrid) for the year. An average of just over 10.3 miles per day from now through December 31 will do it. I hope Nature cooperates. It isn\’t looking all that good for tomorrow\’s long ride. There\’s a chance of T-storms by 9 am; but all I can do is hope for the best. How about progress? Have I made any this year? During my weekday morning rides I sometimes average 15 mph for 6-7 miles, which is improvement. It used to be hard to touch 15 mph at all! On the other hand, I\’m still a long way from being able to average 15 mph for hours on end, never mind blazing along the bike path at 20 mph. Well, I can get up to 20 mph or so; but I can\’t sustain it for long. However, to be able to reach 20 mph and hold it for more than one second is in itself progress. Alas, progress is slower than I would like. But why? Am I stuck in the \”sorta hard\” trap? Have I reached my physiological capacity for improvement? Do I make my recovery rides too hard? Or am I plain old lazy?  Time to haul out Get Fast! again. Perhaps the best nugget in there is the statement on page xii: \”… getting fast means riding fast.\” Maybe I need to do more work at pushing the pace during my weekly long ride? It can\’t hurt to try! If I\’ve got the goal in sight, getting faster means I\’ll get there, well, faster.

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A Paul Revere Twist?

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How about a Paul Revere twist on cyclist training? Remember the Longfellow poem about Paul Revere\’s ride? The signal that British troops were approaching was to be made by lanterns: \”One if by land, and two if by sea\”. Maybe this training decision is analogous: to train by miles; or by time? One of my cycling books suggests that going by time is a better choice if you\’re riding a mountain bike. For example, you might ride 8 miles in one hour on a highly technical track. This can be equal in effort to riding 20 miles in an hour on the road. It also says, if you ride both MTB and road; train by time for rides on both bicycles. I do go by time when doing short, intense efforts. When making such efforts, I peek at my speed now and then to see how fast I\’m getting (have I hit 20 mph or more yet?); but I have to keep an eye on time elapsed. I also have to pay careful attention to where I\’m going if it\’s still dark! During the week, I often don\’t have much over an hour for my ride. Over time I\’m trying to go a bit farther and a bit farther. I need more \”force\” work so I can get faster and get in more miles! For the weekend long ride I go by miles; and I try to maintain a steady pace, even if I\’m not going as fast as I would like. I don\’t have to be in a frantic rush to warn of an invasion, so there\’s no need for a Paul Revere twist.

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PSI

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What PSI do your tires need? I can\’t speak from personal experience; so I have to rehash things I\’ve read. First, here are my own stats on this \”pressing\” issue. For the road bike, I run 100 psi in both tires; for the hybrid, I use 80. I don\’t remember what psi I used for the tricycle; but I think it was about 50-60. They say that slightly lower psi gives better traction when the roads are wet; because the tires have a bit more \”give\” and provide more contact area with the road surface. I myself never tested that. To inflate the tires, I use a floor pump. I like having the built-in pressure gauge, because trying to check tire pressure using a pencil-style gauge often lets out too much air! That wreaks havoc on the PSI. Fortunately the floor pump that I have can be used on either Shraeder or Presta valves; and I don\’t have to bother with  any kind of adapter. In case of a flat, I use an under-saddle pack to carry a spare tube; CO2 cartridges; and a nozzle for the cartridges. I haven\’t had flat in ages, thanks in no small part to tire liners; and I also use tough tires. It doesn\’t hurt to be prepared, though. The catch about tire liners is that I\’ve become too complacent; and don\’t pay enough attention to what I\’m riding over!

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UN-turkey Day?

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This is UN-turkey day. I hope you\’re all having a great Thanksgiving. I don\’t have a turkey, but don\’t fret, I\’ve got plenty to eat. Too much to eat, if the full truth be told! I didn\’t have to go to work, so I could sleep until eight o\’clock? That\’s a rare treat. If I want to be sure of getting my miles in during the work-week,  have to get up at 4:30 am; and, as I\’m sure you can imagine, that gets rather tedious. Of course I had to go out on my road bike. With no need to hurry home, I could go a little farther than usual. Today wasn\’t an interval day; but all the same I put in one attempt to get up to 20 mph. I made it; and I even sustained it for more than a second! After I got home and stowed the road bike, I rode the hybrid over to the neighborhood Walgreen\’s to get a pint of ice cream to add to my \”feast\”. I got Rocky Road today. I could have walked; but using the bicycle  got me a tad closer to my goal of 5000 miles for the year. Then home to fix my dressed-up version of boxed mac \’n\’ cheese (I added canned chicken breast and peas). I had some of the mac \’n\’ cheese, and whole-berry cranberry sauce. Then, the ice cream. It was enough of a feast for me. So that\’s how UN-Turkey Day goes. And how\’s yours?

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n + 1

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They say that \”n + 1\” is the formula for how many \”rides\” a cyclist should have: \”n\” being the number of bicycles currently owned; and \”+ 1\” being the next bicycle that the cyclist has an eye on. For me, n + 1 = 3. I have a road bike and a hybrid; so according to this formula I \”should\” want a — well, let me think. Mountain bike? Around here a mole hill would be considered mountainous. An MTB\’s knobby tires, they say, take a lot of extra effort when riding on pavement; and I hardly need that. Perhaps a cross bike? I prefer a bike that\’s in a good mood, thank you very much. I\’m not sure I\’d be in such a good mood myself after an event that leaves both me and my bike plastered with mud! Touring bike? Maybe I\’ll get one, some day; IF I manage to put aside enough funds to both buy a touring bicycle and take one of Adventure Cycling\’s epic tours; and these trips can last for up to three months. That would mean a LOT of training! Alas, one day we all reach the point where the budget and/or available storage room forces a halt to the \”+1\” part of the how-many-bicycles equation. My having \”only\” two bicycles would seem like bicycle poverty to the hardcore \”n+ 1\” camp. Two is my limit because I don\’t have room for any more. But maybe one day I\’ll jump on the \”+ 1\” bandwagon. One never knows!

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Everything at Once!

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Things seem to have a way of happing everything at once. For example, why do expenses tend to come in clusters? I just had a tune-up done for the hybrid. The road bike needed a new chain and a new rear derailer hanger. I have to have oral surgery; and it\’s almost time to pay the December rent. At least one pair of my cycling shorts needs replacing. Then, while I was riding this morning, the clear lenses fell out of my Tifosis®! I heard them hit the pavement; but who knows what happened to them after that. They may have bounced, and ended up in the grass alongside the path. I spent several minutes looking for them; but had to give up and head home. It was still dark (as usual); and I had to get ready to go to work. If I can\’t buy replacement lenses, I\’ll have to buy another pair of those glasses. Yet another bite out of the budget, not to mention it\’s time to be doing my Christmas shopping. Everything at once; and I hope all this doesn\’t break the bank!

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Just Imagine!

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Just imagine what you can do, if you put your mind to  it! When you have a major cycling event coming up, some coaches recommend visualization to help bring about the best performance. Visualization, they say, takes practice. It\’s hard, for example, for me to imagine myself riding at top speed against a strong wind. I know only too well that the reality is something very different! I guess visualization means imagining myself riding strongly against that wind, undeterred, be my speed what it may. See the difference? Visualization is a sort of \”booster shot\”; a psychological leg up. I admit that I\’ve done very little of it. Naturally I pictured myself finishing Tour de Cure still feeling as strong and energetic as when I rolled off at the start; but I was really quite tired by the end. But still elated? Just imagine yourself riding strongly, \”full of spit and vinegar\” as people once said, on a morning when it\’s dark and cold; blowing hard, and raining. HA! I don\’t want to think about it at all! If I ride on a day like that, I only want to finish the darned ride; get indoors where it\’s warm; and divest myself of sopping wet cycling gear. That\’s OK. Few people, I suspect, enjoy riding on such days, much less attempting exercises in visualization at the same time. Try again another day!

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Think 100?

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Is it realistic for me to think 100? I don\’t expect to be conquering mountains like this rider; but I\’ve not completely let go the thought of doing another 100-mile ride. But preparing for a century ride is not something to be undertaken lightly; and I always wonder whether I\’m really doing things right when it comes to working up to a long ride. My recent participation in Tour de Cure is an example. At least a year before the day, I started doing on-bike exercises to try to improve my force. I think those exercises helped; but in the long run I don\’t think they were enough. I barely made the cut-off time on the big day. Should I have done them twice a week, instead of once a week; or pushed myself to make those intervals longer, sooner? Am I too much of a wimp when it comes to long, intense efforts? TdC was 61.4 miles. So how long should I allow to prepare for a century? And how? So many training plans are out there that it makes my head spin! Now that the weather is turning cold, I don\’t like to think 100 for a certain day; only to find myself frustrated by strong wind; cold temperatures; and maybe even rain when that day arrives. If I were to follow an 8-week training plan, event day would be mid-January. Weather can be nasty at that time of year! It\’s easy to think that any ride on two wheels would be easier than my first century, almost seven years ago. In a sense, yes. At least my \”rig\” is much lighter, but headwinds are headwinds. There\’s no hurry, though. Maybe I can aim for April? Or maybe, just dream on.

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