SpokEasy

Author name: CAL

Steamy!

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It sure is steamy out there today! It was like a sauna, even before sunup.Sometimes we start getting weather like this as early as March; and it can persist well into November.  I often wish I lived where it weren\’t so humid; and where there were four well-defined seasons. Spring and Fall typically are fleeting here; and the Summer heat and humidity are liable to set in abruptly; and without much of a warm-up into it. Then it\’s steamy for what seems like forever. It makes me long for a cooling vest; especially on those afternoons when the heat index creeps over 100 degrees. Even the short ride home from work seems brutal on such days. Similarly, cold weather is likely to arrive without much of a cool-down. One day it will be close to 90 degrees; and overnight it drops to 45 degrees! During Spring and Fall we got a lot of such fluctuations; and people complain that you never know how to dress. If I want to ride in our sauna-season, however, I simply have to go out into the steam bath; and bide my time until cooler weather makes riding a little more pleasant. Unfortunately that won\’t be for at least two more months!

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Mix It Up

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I\’ve begun to mix it up now. About five years ago, I began to do off-bike exercises to develop some strength in my core; arms; and upper body. I gleaned a number of exercises from various sources; and after some experimentation, I grouped them into arm; upper body; leg; lower body; and core exercises. It wasn\’t long before I further divided the exercises into arm A and upper body A; arm B and upper body B; and so on. A few months ago I began to experiment with switching things around. They do say, don\’t keep the exact same routine all the time. It\’s supposed to help your body if you \”surprise\” it now and then. Thus I\’m starting to do arm A/upper body B, for example. I try to do some sort of off-bike work six days a week. They aren\’t long sessions; and many of the exercises I do during only one session a week. That\’s why, for instance, it took several years for me to be able to perform the \”crank plank\” reasonably well.  It\’s also a good idea to mix it up for your weekly ride schedule: don\’t always do a pace ride on Tuesday; and cadence drills on Wednesday, etc. But naturally sometimes a \”pace\” ride feels more like a \”force\” workout because I have to battle a headwind all the way back home. For some time I haven\’t gotten into my max heart rate rage much. I\’m sure I need more work on it, though. It\’s far from fun; and I can\’t last long at it; but I might need to do a lot of it when Tour de Cure time comes. If I haven\’t done much of it, my body will get all mixed up and not know what to do!

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Fast!

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Like so many cyclists, I want to ride fast. It feels great to fly along, feeling like your wheels aren\’t touching the ground. But getting there seems to take an eternity. This morning I rode 45.4 miles; and astonished myself by averaging 14.5 mph! I wasn\’t expecting that, because about five miles before I got back home I began to feel very tired; and had to slow down. For two consecutive \”laps\”, totaling 17.65 miles, I averaged over 15 mph! Apparently the \”force\” exercises I\’ve been doing have had some effect. I\’m glad I have the Garmin to let me know whether I\’m really getting faster. Otherwise I wouldn\’t know whether I\’m making any progress in my pace. I do not, however, have a power meter; and sometimes I wish I did. Speed can be affected by factors beyond a rider\’s control, such as a fierce headwind; and that can make it seem like I\’m not getting any faster. But X watts is X watts; and from what i\’ve read, improved wattage is what matters. Power meters are, alas, beyond my budget. There wasn\’t much wind today; and of course that helped a lot. It drives me crazy when I\’m trying to ride fast, but am thwarted by a stiff headwind. For most of today\’s ride it was overcast; but it didn\’t rain. The cloud cover also helped to keep the temperature down; and that was a great relief. If only all my long rides could be like today\’s!

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40/60

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It\’s the old 40/60 again. There\’s a 40% chance of T-storms tomorrow. That doesn\’t look so good for my long ride. Of course I don\’t like that; but on the other hand, that means that there\’s a 60% chance that there won\’t be a T-storm. This it\’s 40/60; and I have to try to focus on that 60%! We never know what the weather might do. I\’ve lived here my entire life; and I still can\’t tell. I wouldn\’t want to be in charge of weather forecasts. A lot of people would be mad at me all the time. It reminds me of a joke that I read many years ago: \”After a beautiful white Christmas, the local weatherman received a postcard reading, \”Dear Sir, I though you\’d be interested in knowing that I just cleared three feet of \”partly cloudy\” out of my driveway.\”\” Sometimes there\’s a 10% chance of rain, and we get a deluge; other times, there\’s a 90% chance of rain; and we don\’t get a drop. We might as well go about our activities. Just keep the rain gear handy.

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Buck Moon

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This morning I saw the July full moon, aka \”buck moon\”. I wondered where that name comes from; and I thought it might be because bucks, i.e. male deer, are in full antler by this time of year. I looked it up; and I was right! Yesterday morning there were some clouds near the horizon, preventing my seeing the moon at all; and I was afraid there might be a repeat today. I\’m so glad there wasn\’t! The moon was beautiful; and I wish the full moon phase weren\’t so fleeting. I don\’t care whether it\’s a buck moon, or a harvest moon; or whatever name; I look forward to seeing it. I love to see the moonlight on the river when the moon is full; and more than once I\’ve wished the electricity would go out just long enough for me to ride by moonlight! If I could ride Paris Brest Paris I\’d have a better chance of a moonlit ride; but of course, that\’s supposing that it doesn\’t rain during the event! Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that I\’ll even be able to qualify for PBP. The lunar eclipse wasn\’t visible in the USA; but there\’ll be another one eventually. Maybe I\’ll be luckier next time. Oh, and the Tour de France did a grid start for Stage 17. Bucking tradition, perhaps?

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Staying on Track

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Am I staying on track? As always, I wonder whether I\’m really doing the right things. In the last week or so, my Garmin\’s Recovery Check feature has read \”Fair\” three times.  Usually it says, \”Good\”. Too many late nights? I haven\’t been taking it too easy, have I? (Contradictory though it sounds). This month I\’ve been letting force development work go, and plan to start it again in the next week or two. I keep trying to hold a good pace, but often enough fall somewhat short of what I want. It feels like I\’m starting to get out of shape! I now have August, September, and maybe half of October to train up for Tour de Cure. In the last week or two before event day, I\’ll need to be careful about not overtraining. That, on the other hand, must be balanced with doing enough that I don\’t get out of shape. And getting adequate rest. So, can someone tell me whether I\’m staying on track?

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Spare Me!

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Spare me the flat tires, please. We hear it all the time. Take along at least one extra tube when you\’re going on a long ride. If you\’re heading out on a bicycle tour, make that two tubes; and probably an extra tire as well. I keep a spare tube in my road bike\’s under-saddle pack; but it\’s been in there for so long that I have to wonder whether it\’s still good. I remember airing it up with my floor pump a while back. It was all right then; I hope it still is! Spare me the agony of being stranded by a flat plus an unusable spare tube when home is miles away! Spare me the misery of bonking, too. Up until now I haven\’t really bonked; and I don\’t want to! That\’s why I have a top-tube pouch on my road bike. When I do my Sunday long ride, it\’s my \”nose bag\” where I carry cut-up bars that I  eat while rolling. One bite every 15 minutes seems to work well. If we want to avoid bonking, we want even more to avoid dehydration! For a ride longer than 15 miles I use my Camel-Bak; and take along electrolyte drink as well. The hotter the weather, the more important the latter is, because there comes a point where no amount of water slakes thirst; and why risk hyponatremia?

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Vocabulary

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Vocabulary! @%#*! Wait a second. WHAT did you say? Yes, folks, we cyclists have our own vocabulary of four-letter words. Arch: what I love to see at the end of Tour de Cure! I\’ll bet TdF riders are even more elated at seeing the Arc de Triomphe! Also, the bottom of your foot. Bike: a two-wheeled contraption with pedals. People use them to race, get to work, go shopping, etc. And to have fun, naturally. Bonk: what happens when you don\’t eat enough food. Don\’t try it on purpose. Cold: hard on this spoiled Southerner, for whom anything below 50 degrees Fahrenheit is cold. Bring out the leg warmers, etc. Endo: what might happen if you overdo application of the front brake. I don\’t intend to try it. Flat: a tire with no air. It seems to like to happen at the worst time, such as six miles into a century. Keep a spare tube handy. And tire levers, CO2 cartridges, etc. Hill: when the ground heads skyward. Going down is fine. Going up, it\’s a different story, unless you\’re a natural climber — which I am not. ​Lazy: what a wanna-be cyclist can\’t afford to be! Ouch: see Rash. Rain: GROAN! We can\’t all be Gene Kelly. But in Summer at least it can keep you cool. Just hope the lightning keeps its distance. Rash: what happens when you crash. Wind: moving air that only too often is moving the wrong way. Zzap: I can\’t think of any other 4-letter word for lightning. When it gets close, I feel like a mobile lightning rod. Not a comfortable feeling, I can assure you. And I\’m sure there are more, without my having to venture into unprintable territory. What more can you think of?  

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Hot as a Desert?

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It may feel as hot as a desert; but with our humidity, a desert it is not. Yesterday afternoon the heat index rose to 112 degrees! I’m glad I can ride in the morning, before I go to work. I’m also glad that, when I ride a bicycle to work, I have less than three miles to go. A co-worker of mine rides 6-7 miles each way every day. I don’t believe I’ve ever see him with a water bottle; and I don’t know how he manages that ride without water, especially when it’s hot as a desert. This heat and humidity make my weekend long rides tougher. Even when I start at 6:00 am, it’s broiling hot by the time I get home several hours later. It’s why I carry a load of water on my back, and wish for a shady path to ride. But at least I can be glad I’m not riding through the landscape shown above! If desert riding is your cup of tea, though, some rides let you test your mettle. Enchilada isn’t only a cheesy snack; and Moab sounds like it’s both high and dry.   

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Voila!

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Voila! There it is, at last! My apologies to anyone who\’s been trying to access this web site for the last 5-7 hours, and found it a confusing mess. I was doing a lot of tinkering. My pages were very long; and I was trying to rearrange them long into shorter ones. Not to go into tedious detail, that took quite a bit of doing. But it seems to be working now; hence the celebratory pyrotechnics! I\’ve got to keep my guard up, though, because there are sure to be some kinks still in it! In fact, there are bound to be more \”Voila moments\”, when those snags pop up out of nowhere. Now that I\’ve got the Pages settled — for the time being, anyway — I can give more attention to Blogs. Composing posts usually isn\’t hard as long as I can think of something to blog about; but there will be spells of writer\’s block, for sure. My day-by-day rides won\’t always invoke interesting ideas; and I don\’t always see anything exciting or unusual when I\’m out on the bike. I can write about various aspects or training/cycling/nutrition; but only to give what I\’ve learned from reading. I\’m not an expert. Oh, well. We\’ll see how it goes!    

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