SpokEasy

SpokEasy

Author name: CAL

Time Flies

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Time flies, all right. Today marked my 37th anniversary at my workplace. Where did all those years go? For that matter, it\’s hard to believe that I\’ve been cycling for over 11 years. Yet here I am, with 51,600+ miles under my tires. The day I decided to buy my adult tricycle, such feats of distance were far from my mind. I simply wanted a way to get places, and public transit can be a hassle. Bumming rides from friends means I\’m not on my own schedule. With the trike, I could just pump up the tires and go! I didn\’t anticipate that I\’d ride as much as I did. I sure fooled myself! From the very start, my legs loved it; and from there it snowballed. Time flies when I\’m out on a ride — sometimes. There are rides when everything is great; and there are rides when it seems that everything is going wrong. I might have to battle a stiff headwind mile after mile; and if it\’s a cold day, the wind seems worse. I\’ve gotten caught out in heavy rain when it\’s not only cold; but when the wind is both strong and capricious. Conditions like that make a ride seem endless. While I\’m talking about time, how long do I need to work up to a century; and how should I plan for it? Or do I truly want to do a century this year? Sometimes I like the idea of doing something more than I actually want to do it; and that\’s a very big difference!

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Would Have Kilt Me

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Would Have Kilt Me This blog may contain affiliate links. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” For a bit more of a challenge, try this loop from Kiltarlity. However, be prepared to do some climbing. This intermediate-level ride involves 1400 feet of it; and good fitness is required. But exactly what does “good fitness” mean? On top of that, what’s the gradient of these climbs? Thinking about them makes my legs ache! Do you want to stick with MTB adventures? Try the 73-mile Great Glen Way. This route includes some challenging climbs; and I think I’ll skip that one!  How about pedaling over to watch the Highland Games? They feature tests of strength and skill; and I’m certainly not strong enough. Me, try the caber toss? No way! That pole might weigh 150 pounds; and that’s more my own weight! While we’re in the Highlands, let’s take a trip to Loch Ness! Better take the rain gear, though. Warm clothing is another wise idea. So is a lot of physical conditioning! I’m not sure how I would have managed on that Loch Ness trip. In fact, it probably would have kilt me. ABOUT ME I began this website primarily as a way to present the story of how I accomplished a century ride on an adult tricycle. Other riders of adult trikes might want to know whether it’s possible. It sure is! You can read all about it in My Story. I live in New Orleans; and  retired in January 2023. More time for cycling! Website designed by Cecile Levert © This website is the property of its author. DISCLAIMER I am not a cycling coach; nor a health professional. This site is based on my own experiences, opinions, etc. If you need help, please consult the appropriate professional.   FRESH FROM MY JOURNAL Roadie Again! January 5, 2024 Pomp and Circumstance January 4, 2024 I Bee’d Lucky January 3, 2024 Sunblock Day January 2, 2024 Load More TRANSLATOR

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Back at It

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I\’m back at it. It\’s such a drag having to return to work. Naturally there are my concerns about COVID-19. Among the pains-in-the-neck about that is: hand washing. The water in the restrooms is cold! When things are operating normally, there are a lot more people in the building; the restrooms get used a lot more; and as the day goes on, the water starts to warm up. But for the better part of a year, we\’ve been at a much-reduced capacity. The water faucets don\’t get run as much, and thus the water doesn\’t warm up. The faucets are also the heat-sensor type, and shut off when you move your hands away. On top of that, it can be just plain cold in the building. I keep an old pair of half-fingered cycling gloves at my desk so that my hands can get a bit of relief from the chill; but I have to wear a heavy sweater and sometimes more! Sometimes I even have to wear a head covering. I know that some staff members keep small electric heaters at their desks; but in the past those heaters have caused short-outs that knock out computers. Without computers, there\’s not much we can do. Getting to work, either by walking or riding a bicycle, lets my body warm up somewhat; but that wears off quite quickly after I\’ve stopped moving. I can\’t keep warm by hopping around at my work station. My handwriting is bad enough without that! News reports about spikes in COVID cases have had me wondering since Hallowe\’en how soon my workplace might shut down. A closure wouldn\’t surprise me at all. I\’m back at it; but for how long?

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Culling

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Culling? No, I\’m not out in the wheat field. Culling my pantry a bit just seemed like a good New Year\’s project. Seriously, I\’ve become overloaded with pantry items. Since the prediabetes diagnosis last February, many things have sat there; and some of them had been around for months already. No food bank would want them, I\’m sure. Not when the Best By date was in 2019! Thus I chucked seven or eight boxes of mac and cheese. Because of my carb-watching, it looked like I\’d never use them. Besides that, I\’ve noticed that, when boxed macaroni has sat for too long, it tends to get weevily! I also got rid of several boxes of cereal bars that have been sitting around for many months. Once again, the Best By date was in 2019; and I don\’t think a food bank would take them. Another step in culling the pantry is to start using up what I already have. I worried for much of 2020 about, suppose a big shut-down comes? But I don\’t think I need to worry quite as much as I do. My apartment looks rather like a hoarder\’s den; and I need to leave myself room to move about. So use up the rice! Start making a dent (no pun intended) in the supply of canned foods! Eat what\’s already in the freezer before I make any more stuff to freeze! I also need to start using up all those dried legumes. Oh, as to the mac and cheese, I decided to have a last fling with it. On New Year\’s, I prepared a box of it; and mixed it with 10 oz of tuna; a half-cup of canned peas; and sliced, pimiento-stuffed olives. It wasn\’t bad; but it wasn\’t terrific, either. And now I must stop eating junk!

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Blueprints

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It\’s time to make blueprints for the 2021 cycling year! As always, I want to improve my cruising speed. I rather envy cyclists who can routinely blaze along at 20+ mph. One morning last October, with a good tailwind, I touched 23.73 mph: an all-time record! When I can get me and the road bike up to such a velocity, it feels almost like I\’m not on the ground any more! Just now I have no major ride plans for this year. Tour de Cure is tempting; but I always have great difficulty in finding enough donors to raise my minimum contribution. In fact, I have to put up most of it myself. Perhaps another century? If I decide to do that, I\’ve got my work cut out for me! What do the blueprints for century training look like? In the first place, when is a good time for a century ride? The trouble is, there isn\’t a \”good\” time. There\’s no telling what the weather will be months ahead of time. Will it rain on century day? Will I have to fight a horrific headwind all day? How soon will this year\’s heat and humidity set in? After I\’ve decided on the day; or at least an approximate date; start working at short (one to three minutes) of riding a lot faster than usual during my weekday morning rides. This doesn\’t have to be force-building intervals at first; that can wait until later. Increase the length of my weekly long ride by a mile or two per week. Experiment with ride food. Work at making parts of my long ride faster; don\’t worry so much about tiring myself out too far from home. Or maybe it\’s all a pipe dream. But I can work to improve as a cyclist; century plans or no.

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Hoping for Better

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Here\’s hoping for better in 2021! We\’re more than happy to have to bidden the year 2020 good riddance, in many ways. There were hurricanes. Let\’s hope for fewer of them this year! There were terrible wildfires. And of course, COVID-19. We all want an end to the pandemic. Some people are unfortunate enough to have the virus, and suffer lingering effects for months afterwards. That\’s what worries me most of all about catching it. Besides, I\’m at risk for serious complications should I catch COVID-19; and it will be great to finally get vaccinated and stop worrying so much. I don\’t dare hold my breath about it, though. I\’d suffocate! I want to keep working to improve my eating habits. Goodness knows, it\’s not easy. My sweet tooth keeps acting up, and it probably will always be a fight. But I don\’t want my prediabetes to progress to full-blown Type II. Yesterday, Silvesterabend, I munched and nibbled all day. Since Christmas Eve, there have been too many days like that! I didn\’t get much exercise yesterday, either. The possibility of bad, or severe, weather kept me indoors most of the time. I\’m hoping for better in cycling, too; both in riding itself, and in improving on-bike nutrition. The nutritionist I worked with advised me to look for bars that have at least 12 grams of protein. But what about carb content? Do I need to worry so much about carbs during a 40-mile ride? Incidentally, a New Year\’s Day ride typically means finding large patches of debris from fireworks all over the bike path. I wish people who decide to set off their pyrotechnics there would be dragged out of bed at 5 am to clean up their own messes!

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Sizing It Up

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I\’m sizing it up; or, at least, I\’m trying to. I really need a new cycling jacket. Monday night I was checking some online. I found one that I liked, but the size chart gave me pause. For that particular jacket, an EXTRA small is for height 5\’2\” to 5\’3\”. That right there is taller than I am! But the waist measurement given is several inches too small. I\’m aware that clothing size charts might give measurements that are smaller than the actual size of an item. But why risk buying a jacket \”sight unseen\” — and being unable to fasten it around my waist? That\’s why I like to see things and try them on before buying. Unfortunately my local bike shop is out of cold-weather gear. It\’s going to get chilly by week\’s end; and I hope the jacket that I finally did order is here by then. I\’m sizing it up for 2021, too. Who isn\’t? What are my cycling goals for the New Year? Is it enough to just keep riding; or is it wiser to keep working to increase my pace? What more can I do if I want to get faster? Longer efforts riding a few mph faster than is comfortable? Tabata intervals? Of course I want to keep my weight under control; and I have to maintain my efforts to get my A1c level down. Since February it seems to be stuck despite my efforts to lessen it. But what do I have to do to get it to budge? Looks like my diet needs more sizing up, too.

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Scratching out Tradition?

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I\’m scratching out tradition; or I thought I was. Yesterday I got my \”New Year\’s\” dinner: Chinese take-out in the form of General Tso\’s Chicken combination plate. There\’s an old saying that, if you want to move forward in the New Year, you should eat pork for New Year\’s. If you eat chicken, supposedly you\’ll go backwards all year. This stems from the foraging habits of pigs and chickens. The pig pushes forward when looking for food; but the chicken scratches backwards. I\’m not too concerned about that; and I prefer chicken to pork or ham, anyhow. Besides, we\’re neither going into the Year of the Pig; nor just leaving it. Come to think of it, the Chinese New Year 2021 falls on February 12 of the Western calendar. Ergo it\’s not New Year\’s yet! So my having had General Tso\’s Chicken for dinner doesn\’t count — right? Besides, today I saw that I\’m not scratching out tradition entirely. I rode to the salvage store this morning. I though I\’d get some hot dogs; and while looking at them, I found single-serve packets of thin-sliced ham. I got one so I can make a ham sandwich on January 1. I\’m glad I went to the store today. As tomorrow is New Year\’s Eve, it might be pretty crazy. They might well be closed for New Year\’s (I forgot to check for that); and Saturday it will be much colder than it was this morning. I sure got the wind on the way home today, though. It got as strong as 20 mph, with some much stronger gusts. I was thankful that I wasn\’t hauling the trailer! I would have had to granny-gear it all the way!

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Iran

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Mesopotamia This blog/page may contain affiliate links. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” This article shows that cycling in Iran isn’t so impossible as one — read, I — might imagine. On the contrary, a bicycle journey through Iran can be inexpensive; the people are hospitable; it apparently is a good deal safer than I thought; and, judging from the pics, it’s a beautiful country. Quite mountainous, though. So, with that out of the way, what routes are there for prospective cycle tourists? You might want to start by considering one of these; especially if you’re a mountain biking enthusiast. Do classic sites interest you? Visit Shiraz and other cities; and tour nine UNESCO cultural heritage sites. Or, pedal through Dasht-e Kavir. There are numerous oases and villages along the way; and you’ll follow parts of the Silk Road. But be sure you have your Camel-Bak! If you want something wetter, there’s the Persian Gulf Coast tour. You’ll have the chance to explore some historic ports; and some UNESCO sites as well. This nation sounds quite fascinating. If you want to head there for a cycling adventure, here are some tips.  Taking along your own bicycle? You’ll need a travel case for it. Be prepared to dress modestly, men and women alike; and keep this in mind for your travel wardrobe. Learn some ta’arof; and a bit of lingo; and, finally, salaam. ABOUT ME I began this website primarily as a way to present the story of how I accomplished a century ride on an adult tricycle. Other riders of adult trikes might want to know whether it’s possible. It sure is! You can read all about it in My Story. I live in New Orleans; and  retired in January 2023. More time for cycling! Website designed by Cecile Levert © This website is the property of its author. DISCLAIMER I am not a cycling coach; nor a health professional. This site is based on my own experiences, opinions, etc. If you need help, please consult the appropriate professional.   FRESH FROM MY JOURNAL I Traverse Afar? December 18, 2023 I Envy Time December 17, 2023 Holiday Food December 16, 2023 Glad I’m Home December 15, 2023 Load More TRANSLATOR

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Going Traditional

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I\’m going traditional today! For years, I did my laundry after work on Wednesdays. Since the pandemic began, that pattern has shifted. I got very tired by the end of the day on weekdays. Other things kept me busy: cooking; meal planning; and logging not only what I ate; but calories and carbs as well. Even when I worked from home all week, that was a bit much. It still is. I wound up doing laundry on Sunday afternoons! This time, I didn\’t even get to it on Sunday. Thus I\’m going traditional; and did my washing today, Monday. I\’ve been off of work for a whole week, and that meant less of a load; especially as cool-to-cold weather means I can use the same blouse for several days. The job took about an hour and a half. Partway through, I had to grab a half-ounce of mozzarella cheese to hold me over until I could finish; and then I fixed a salad: two cups of mixed salad greens (purchased at the salvage store); half an avocado, sliced; a half-cup of Bald Eagle; with a tablespoon of mild green taco sauce; a chopped scallion; and sliced, garlic-stuffed olives as topping. It was worth the effort. Now then, what shall I do this afternoon? Go for a ride? I already rode to the supermarket this morning; but that was only about seven miles; and the weather is great for a spin on the levee right now.

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