SpokEasy

SpokEasy

Author name: CAL

Handout?

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Looking for a handout? Or a hand out? Using hand signals is an important aspect of safety while cycling; and especially around motor traffic. It\’s not likely that drivers will hear us if we shout, \”Stopping!\”, or whatever it is we\’re about to do; and we can\’t expect them to read our minds.  The basic \”directionals\” are the most important for the majority of riders: right turn, left turn, and slowing/stopping. For a right turn, I use the old-school, right-angle-left-arm signal. I\’m still not comfortable riding one-handed with my left hand; especially if I need to signal while heading into a right turn that has a bit of a slope. Unfortunately a number of people don\’t seem to know that that right-angled arm is a turn signal, not waving Hi. I\’ve seen billboards showing cyclists\’ hand signals; and I hope they help to get the message across to the general public. Do you feel self-conscious using hand signals; or does it make you feel silly? You\’re not alone. I felt ridiculous at first. It takes some time and practice for using hand signals to become second nature. It\’s like just about anything else in life. Practice makes perfect. Then we can give ourselves a handout, I mean a big hand, for our accomplishment!  

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The Trouble with Wind

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The trouble with wind is that it\’s hard to ride against it. Yes, a good breeze makes Old Glory look proud. But it\’s not so much fun for the cyclist who must battle it for miles. As every cyclist knows, the trouble with wind, is that fighting it is hard work. Struggling agains the breeze sends my heart rate up; and makes me feel short of breath. My legs reach the point where they feel quivery and weak from rapid, low-gear spinning — especially as I\’m rather prone to lower-cadence, big-ring pedaling. A headwind slows me down, which is especially frustrating if I have to make a cut-off time. During a long ride, you can add to those woes the fact that all that hard work makes you feel like not eating. Remember what happens to your body\’s blood when your legs, heart, and lungs are working so hard? They have first dibs on that blood; and that leaves a lot less blood for digestion. Food becomes unappealing. Yet if you still have miles to go, it\’s necessary to keep eating. If you suddenly feel totally exhausted, you haven\’t eaten enough; and you\’ve bonked! Then you have to slow down drastically, or even stop for a while; and have something to eat. But not too much, or you risk adding indigestion to your troubles. Have a few bites of some kind of energy bar; or a gel; and some water. Then it\’s back to bucking that wind!

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Riding Cold

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The weather has me riding cold; and it makes me feel downright shivery to think of plunging into the water like those turtles. In fact, chilly weather makes me feel reptilian, i.e. cold-blooded and sluggish. Now that cooler temperatures have arrived, I\’ve started to record what I wore for each ride; and whether I still felt cold; got too warm; or felt \”just right\”, as Goldilocks would put it. Cycling shorts; socks; and cycling shoes go without saying. Recording them would be belaboring the obvious. But did I wear double socks; or thermal socks? If so, I write it down. Full-fingered gloves instead of half-fingered gloves? That gets recorded, too. Did I use leg warmers; and a cycling jacket? And a skull cap? Put it in the record. Today\’s outfit was just right, so I wasn\’t riding cold; except that I wore the skull cap, and my head started to feel a trifle over-warm during the last mile or so. I\’ll take that over my head being too cold, though. I began this morning\’s under mostly cloudy skies. In fact, I didn\’t even feel much like riding. After about 15 minutes the sun began to dodge in and out of the clouds; and having some sunlight made me feel a bit better. Have I got a touch of SAD? I made it rather short today; 40.5 miles. On the way home, I made a few brief efforts to ride 14 mph against the wind. I sure need more of that! Despite the fact that the sky seemed to be clearing, there was a light sprinkle about six miles before I got home. I\’m glad it didn\’t actually rain!

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Brain Work

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Blogging needs brain work; and they had better let me think outside of the box. I don\’t think my brain would work any too well if I were shut up inside of a box! I\’m not claustrophobic; but all the same I don\’t enjoy being cooped up. What\’s outside of the box thinking? Here\’s one: I like to include a pic in each blog post; but sometimes I can\’t find a suitable one by searching the obvious term in a free-pic site. Then I have to think of related terms and synonyms. For example, if I want to write about sore muscles, of course I search muscle; but if that doesn\’t do the trick, I search leg; or ache; or hurt. I might illustrate a blog about post-ride fatigue with an exhausted-looking kitty. For a blog about top-notch cyclists, I chose a pic of a loaf of freshly baked bread! The best cyclists are upper crust, right?? More out-of-the-box thinking: if you don\’t a tool or an article of cycling clothing, what do you already have that can substitute? Can a pair of sweat pants do instead of leg warmers? Will duct tape work if you don\’t have tube patches? So do your brain work. Think on your feet. Think outside of the box!  Or, rather, think on your wheels.

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Feels Like Winter

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It sure feels like Winter today, Overnight the sky  cleared. It would have been great for riding — if not for the wind. The temperature is 50 degrees. That wouldn\’t be quite so bad as long as I were dressed in leg warmers, extra socks, vest and jacket, skull cap, and full-fingered gloves. Unfortunately it\’s still blowing at 17 mph, and the chill factor is 44. The wind is from the Northeast, too, which would mean a nasty headwind on the way back home. To me, this is cold weather. As usual, it\’s arrived quite suddenly. We had a few nights when it got down to about 73; but this abrupt switch from 73 to 20+ degrees cooler, plus a stiff wind, is a bit much. The high humidity of our climate is no help. Years ago I had a coworker who had previously lived somewhere up North; I think it may have been Ohio. She said that her first Winter in New Orleans was the coldest she\’d ever been in her life. The dampness makes the chill penetrate right down to your bones. Tomorrow won\’t be much different. Having months of being able to ride in shorts and short sleeves always spoils me. Adjusting to conditions like today\’s takes time. Not to mention that such weather makes my nose run like crazy, especially when I\’m exercising.  Oh, the joys of Winter!

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First Real Taste

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Here comes the first real taste of Fall. It\’s 6:30 pm, and the temperature is dropping. The wind is from the North at 25 mph; with gusts up to 32 mph. It\’s overcast; and there\’s a good chance of rain. It\’s not conducive to riding a bicycle; so I\’m glad I rode before work this morning. The wind will still be strong tomorrow, so I\’ll skip the grocery run. Even if it weren\’t for the weather, I\’ll be without the hybrid for a couple of days. I left it at the bike shop today for a tune-up and a new chain. I don\’t have central climate control; but how often I wish that I did! Already it\’s getting chilly in here; and I had to dig out my electric heater. I\’ll need it before long. I can hear the wind blowing outside, which makes it seem colder than it is. Weather like this makes me think of the folks of earlier times, who had no electric heaters; no indoor plumbing; and who had to build a fire to keep warm/cook/heat water. They were a lot tougher than I am, that\’s for sure. Merely thinking of riding in the cold and wind makes me feel tired. But this is only the beginning. I\’d better get used to the idea of riding in these conditions. We\’ve got several more months of it coming. This is merely the first real taste.

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Yet More Training

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You can call this yet more training! I have to cross railroad tracks to get to my preferred biking path, which of course makes me very aware of trains. Not to mention that I live one block from the tracks, and hear them blasting their horns at any hour of the day or night. I can\’t not be aware of them! Widely given advice about riding a bicycle across tracks is, cross them as close to perpendicular as possible.  The narrower your bicycle\’s tires are, the more important that is. You don\’t want to have your front tire slip down into the \”slot\” along the rail. Remember what happens if anything stops your front wheel while you\’re riding. POW! You\’re down before you know what\’s happening. Be especially careful when it\’s wet, and the rails are likely to be slippery. Naturally there\’s the train factor itself to be taken into account. It\’s actually hard not to notice an approaching train. Those horns are very loud (and some of them have an obnoxious timbre as well), and the engineer starts blowing it a block or more short of the crossing. Add to that the noise of the locomotive itself. Darkness doesn\’t hide a train; it has a bright headlight. The bottom line: just take sensible precautions. Look both ways before crossing. If you don\’t feel confident riding across tracks, there\’s nothing wrong with walking your bike across them. In fact, there\’s a crossing I use frequently where the \”slots\” alongside the rails have long since become chasms! I nearly always walk my bike across that one. There\’s always yet more training. It never ends, does it?

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Hot Foot

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\”Hot Foot\” might sound like burning up the track. For cyclists, hot foot is quite another thing. Thus far I\’ve had little in the way of foot trouble when riding. Recently I did have a bit of a problem with my left foot\’s toes cramping up when I took off my cycling shoes after a long ride. And when I walked, it felt like there was something sharp under the bases of the smaller toes. It turned out I needed new orthotics. Custom-made orthotics don\’t come cheap, unfortunately. Mine cost over $340. Ouch! I\’m glad they\’re meant to last 3-5 years. Maybe I\’m lucky to have avoided hot foot. Or maybe I don\’t do enough of the kind of riding that\’s so hard that I\’m more likely to have problems with the condition. I can\’t believe that I\’m so smart as to have avoided it by way of \”doing everything right\”. Articles about dealing with hot foot suggest moving the cleats rearward. Last November, when I had a bicycle re-fit, the fitter did just that. It felt rather odd at first; and it was at least a week before I really got used to it. I think he did it more so that I could get more out of my pedal stroke, than because of problems with my feet. We do what we can to make our feet comfortable, especially on long rides. We don\’t, after all, want to end in \”the agony of de feet\”.* *  The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling, p. 174.

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Think!

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Think? Okay, okay, I\’m thinking! Improving as a cyclist means a certain amount of thought and planning. I need to include some really hard on-bike intervals in my plans; namely, those exercises meant to improve my force (strength) so that my power and my cruising speed will improve. But how often should I do them? I need to think about that, too. For somebody my age, who is basically a recreational rider, once a week is probably often enough. And then, should I do such work every week? Everything I\’ve read about cyclist training says, back off every fourth week; or every third week for riders over 40. Well that\’s me. I need to plan days when I work at a steady pace, including the weekly long ride. That, actually, means most days of the week! And I need one day per week of riding very easily, in a low gear. I try to stay in heart rate Zone 1 during these rides, which is easier said than done. Maybe I spin too rapid a cadence during these rides; because riding one-handed while trying to get a water bottle out of its cage, and then back in, has me swerving all over the place! Let\’s not forget to plan for one day a week away from bicycles. There was a time when I rarely let a day go by without at least some riding, but that was before I got into long distance rides. Want to ride in a big event? Or prepare for a self-supported 100-miler? Or just want to make the most of what time you have to ride? Let\’s put our thinking caps on, and plan it all out! And perhaps we can model for Rodin while we\’re at it?

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Over Already!

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My vacation is over already! I\’d better enjoy what few hours I have left of it. Tomorrow it\’s back to the old grind. I hope I get to do a real ride tomorrow morning. Today I was about to start a ride when my headlight winked out. Yesterday the indicator light on top of the headlight looked like the light had finished charging; but obviously it hadn\’t. Luckily I have a spare light, but it won\’t go on top of my helmet; and its fastener can\’t fit around the road bike\’s handlebars. I had to settle for a ride on the hybrid. So — what did I get done during vacation? Tour de Cure was the biggest thing. I worked on my web site, and finished the revising. I even did a little bit of work on the blouse that I began making months ago. Sure, I ought to have done some serious cleaning (I\’m absolutely terrible about that). And more cooking, to make things to freeze for later. I did entirely too much sitting around doing nothing. On the other hand, isn\’t that what a vacation is for? To kick back and relax? If only vacations didn\’t speed by so fast! It\’s over already.  

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