SpokEasy

SpokEasy

Author name: CAL

Foxy?

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, equipment, Outdoors /

Foxy? ? How do “foxy” and cycling come together? I, for one, have never seen a fox while out riding; although I’ve seen coyotes. “Foxy”, however, is the word that comes to mind when I think of Raynaud’s; “renard” being the French word for the animal. I’ve certainly got symptoms of Raynaud’s. My right-hand ring finger is especially susceptible. It can go entirely bloodless; and it can take five minutes for it to return to normal. They say the best thing to do for Raynaud’s is keep your hands and feet warm. That’s not so easy! On a cold day, even the heaviest gloves I own don’t keep my hands warm. Maybe I should ask Santa_Claus to bring me a pair of lobster gloves for Christmas! Incidentally, double socks often aren’t sufficient to keep my feet warm.   Trying to Keep Warm ♨️ I hope my symptoms aren’t indicative of an underlying vascular disorder. I’ve got problems enough already! This also had better not mean I’ll be forced to restrict myself to indoor riding in cold weather. Or move to a place I really can’t afford so I can have central heating. Trying to keep warm applies to indoors as well as outdoors! I thought that wearing my lightweight full-fingered gloves under heavy gloves might help. This morning I decided to try it; and it was another idea that didn’t quite pan out. First I put on the lightweight gloves; then I tried to pull the heavy “wombat” gloves over them. I was able to get the wombat glove onto my right hand, but then said hand was too clumsy to pull the other wombat glove onto my left hand. So I had to give up on the idea. I didn’t make me feel very foxy.  Fortunately there wasn’t a wind this morning, although it was very humid. That helped me to stay a bit warmer — including my hands. 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.” 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; and I hope I can provide a bit of inspiration.   Along the way, I got into blogging; presenting my kitchen experiments; and even setting up a store. You can visit my Facebook page here; or check into my Twitter (aka X) page, Cyclo_Pathy. 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 ✍? Facebook Twitter Youtube Take the Cake October 16, 2024 Easy 100? October 15, 2024 Fitness Freak? October 14, 2024 Smog? October 13, 2024 Load More TRANSLATOR

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To Mask or Not?

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To mask, or not to mask? If we\’ve paid any attention to the news reports about COVID-19, the answer to that one seems obvious: DO IT! In fact, for about the last ten years I\’ve needed to wear those things everywhere except at home and on the bike. I\’m SO tired of it! But now, nearly everybody wears the things. I feel rather like a trend-setter! What about using PPE while riding a bicycle? I don\’t like having my nose and mouth covered up while I\’m cycling. It feels too smothery. I\’ve always kept a mask in a pocket or my top-tube pouch, where I can grab it and don it quickly if needed. That\’s not so simple now that the weather is cold enough for full-fingered gloves. My helmet liner makes it more complicated, as of course it covers my ears. So: to mask, or not to mask? For cycling, I put on one of those face covers; fasten the helmet\’s chin strap; and move the face cover under my chin. If I need to, I can pull it up easily. What are the pros and cons of riding while wearing a mask? I\’ll start with cold-weather cycling; after all, it\’s December! On the upside, the covering keeps my face warmer. The downside? I have to move the \”veil\” in order to eat or drink. And does it keep my nose from getting sniffly? No, it does not! In hot weather, as I\’ve already said, covering up my face while riding makes me feel smothered; both as in gasping for breath, and smothered as in feeling too hot. Oh, well, I don\’t have to worry much about the \”too hot\” part for a while; that is, as long as it doesn\’t get up to 80-some degrees on December 25!

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Let It Rain

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Let it rain?! What right-minded cyclist says that? I don\’t suppose that many of us want to ride in the rain. Sure, in hot weather rainy rides are a bit cooler; but wet-weather riding has its hazards, as we know. Now that the Summer\’s heat is past, we don\’t want the added chill of wet-weather rides. A poncho keeps at least some of the rain off; and can also keep you a bit warmer. But there\’s a catch. I\’ve always found that a poncho is too likely to flare out to the sides. When I try to look behind me, all I can see is that poncho! Needless to say, a flapping poncho adds wind resistance; and can make a bicycle difficult to control. This morning I set out under gray skies. I knew that the chances of precipitation were expected to increase as the day went on, so all could do was ride and hope for the best. The road bike is still in the shop, so I rode the hybrid. That let me use the trunk. I packed my poncho, just in case. I no longer have a handlebar bag, so I had to pack my ride food in the trunk, too. Of course that meant stopping and getting off the bike whenever I needed a bite to eat! I rode out to my usual pit-stop place, then came back home. With two miles still to go, I felt the first few drops. The drops gradually became more frequent, and I hoped to reach home before it really began to rain. Fortunately I did. We still haven\’t gotten any real rain; but as long as I\’m home, I\’ll paraphrase the song: Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

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Pushing the Limit

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I\’m really pushing the limit when it comes to my stash of canned goods, especially after this morning\’s excursion to the salvage store. There are piles of cans all over the place; and if I don\’t get some control of myself, there won\’t be room in here for me to walk! Maybe I need Salvage Store Anonymous. Pushing the limit is also necessary for improvement as a cyclist, and something that I need to do more; and more often. At present the road bike is in the shop for a tune-up, so I\’m being quite lazy when it comes to riding. My rides this week have been short; too short, really. The hybrid seems very heavy; and the cold weather makes me feel tired and sluggish. It\’s chilly indoors as well as out. When all I want to do is huddle in one spot, trying to get warm, getting myself ready to go for a ride takes a lot of prodding. Then sometimes it feels warmer outdoors than indoors! What can I do to get myself to approach my limits? Intervals, obviously. For more than a year leading up to Tour de Cure 2020, I did weekly on-bike exercises to try to improve my force. I think it did help a little; but I don\’t think I worked enough at riding faster for longer distances. As a result, on TdC day I was a slow-poke! It looks like the weather tomorrow won\’t be very pleasant. Rain is quite likely, bringing up the old refrain: To ride, or not to ride? I\’ll see how conditions are tomorrow morning. But if I don\’t ride, I can work at compacting those piles of cans.

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Evening Doldrums?

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

I seem to have evening doldrums. After supper, I too often crave sweets. For a minute I thought that a post-work ride would help, even if it\’s only a mile or two. Then I remembered that I get these evening doldrums when I worked away from home all day; and rode my bicycle home afterwards! So what\’s going on here? Do I need more than 1500-2000 calories per day? It seems unlikely, except for those Sundays when I ride upwards of 30 miles. Maybe I need to eat more earlier in the day. I think that would be easier if I could go back to working remotely full time. When I have to go in to work on-site; and don\’t get home from my morning ride until about 6:30; I don\’t have time for a large, leisurely breakfast. That\’s all the more true if I haven\’t prepared a breakfast the evening before. Am I trying to restrict the sweets too much? We all know that trying to be too \”good\” can backfire. It might help if I ate a little more candy than a Hershey Kiss® or two during the day. Being chilly much of the time is no help. I\’ve been far too under-active this week; and lack of physical activity makes appetite regulation harder. Let\’s see whether a ride to the salvage store tomorrow helps! Getting back to sweets, I\’m thankful that I don\’t have Diabetes Type I. The Athlete\’s Guide to Diabetes makes it plain that the practice of athletics with Type I is no easy task. There are too many details to list here, so I\’ll just say that it sounds like a veritable minefield. I\’ve got it easy compared to them.

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Lagging

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I feel like I\’m lagging in every way this week. We\’ve gotten our first cold weather. My place is poorly insulated (if at all!); and I don\’t have central climate control. I don\’t dare leave my electric heater going all night. I set it to turn on an hour before my alarm goes off; but it\’s still plenty cold in here when it comes time to get up. That makes it hard for me to get up and get moving. Being cold always has made me feel physically tired and sluggish; and it makes me mentally sluggish as well. I haven\’t done much riding as a result. The road bike is in the shop for a tune-up, and the hybrid feels very slow and heavy by comparison; especially when there\’s a strong wind blowing! Most of my morning rides this week haven\’t been much over five miles. I\’m lagging when it comes to my diet, too. I keep going off my plan, and eating too much of the high-carb stuff that I need to limit. Paradoxically, I suspect that the lack of physical activity is a factor here. I need more veggies; and cauliflower was the plan for this evening\’s supper. Instead I made Carb-Lite SamMac. It\’s been on my mind for a while; and now that I\’ve cooked it up, there are two less cans sitting around! And now I have to stop being the laggard and go clean up the kitchen!

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Dry Up!

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Dry Up! is what I often feel like screaming at my nose. It gets sniffly when the weather turns at all cool. Let me start a ride, and I can\’t keep up with it. Does every cyclist have this problem? We\’ve just had our first wintry (for us) weather of the season and, true to form, my nose acted up. Monday morning the wind was frightful, which didn\’t help matters. In fact, my morning ride was only a bit over two miles. It felt like I was barely making any headway during the first mile. If I had kept riding, and gotten the wind behind me, the headwind on the way back home would have been terrible! The temperature took a nosedive over Monday night, and getting myself up and moving yesterday morning was difficult. As a result, I got started late, and did only a short ride. The wind had died down, but was I cold! I wore heavy gloves, but not the heaviest pair that I own. Bad move! My fingers were freezing before I had ridden a mile and a half. I wore slacks over my leg warmers; but was concerned about the possibility of the leg warmers sliding down and bunching around my knees if I rode for a long time. Who needs that? Especially when fixing it means taking off the gloves. A long sleeved blouse + jersey + vest + windbreaker kept my chest pretty warm, but my arms were cold. And I wore my heavy skull cap this morning. Did all that layering help my nose to behave? No. Once again, I wanted to tell it, Oh, dry up!

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Do You Hear?

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Do you hear music as you ride? I\’ve noticed enough riders who have an iPod (or whatever) blaring away. Last Saturday, during my long ride, bits of music starting drifting through my head. It took a few minutes for me to remember that it was Homage March. I couldn\’t remember how the piece began, and had to find a YouTube to listen to! Do you hear birdsong along the way? That\’s one of the things I enjoy most about long rides; and if I have music playing during my rides, I probably won\’t hear the birds. It\’s worth it to keep alert for that; you might learn some surprising things. I sure was astonished to discover that bald eagles sing! Even without a radio going, I often don\’t notice other riders coming up from behind. A bicycle with time-trial wheels is often easier to hear, because those wheels cause a whirring sound; but of course not every bicycle is thus equipped. Mine isn\’t! I like to hear my own thoughts as I ride. On-bike conversation would be hard, because I still can\’t maintain a 12-14 mph clip and talk. At any rate, it doesn\’t feel like I could! I rather envy riders who can pedal and chatter away at the same time. What about weather sounds? Riding causes wind noise; and lightning has to be too close for comfort before I can hear the thunder. It isn\’t a comfortable situation. Last Saturday I was rather worried about that. The sky looked quite stormy, but I was lucky and got only a few drops. What do you like to hear as you ride? Keep your ears open; you never know what you might hear!

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One BIKE Open Sleigh?

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

One BIKE Open Sleigh? A one bike open sleigh? I’m not sure whether I’d rather be the pedaler or the passenger! Now that it’s Christmas season, perhaps Santa would like to take that idea a step or eight farther; and have a sleigh pulled by eight cyclists instead of eight reindeer. Let me think about that one. How much training do eight cyclists need to be able to work together to pull a sleigh? Or, what about four tandems? Is that better than eight individual riders? The riders can live at home until time to get to the North Pole and hitch up; and after Santa has delivered all the toys and filled up all the stockings, they can go back home. Santa loves his reindeer, I’m sure; but let’s face it: don’t those reindeer have to be stabled; fed; groomed, etc. That’s a lot of work! Bicycles don’t need nearly as much care. The riders are able to provide for themselves; and these days not many of us must provide for eight people. Getting back to cyclists pulling that loaded sleigh: I guess they need a wide range of gears; and some have to be super-low gears. They have to get that sleigh up on the housetop, after all! If it snowed here, that one bike open sleigh would be great for my trips to the salvage store; or for rolling through the snow during my weekly long rides. Jingle Bells, anyone?

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Rain-Day

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It\’s rain-day today; not SUNday. I\’m glad I did my long ride yesterday! By 10 am it was raining quite hard; and if I had done the ride today, I would have had a long, wet slog to get back home. On top of that, the wind at 10 am was 13 mph — and from the East. Rain plus a headwind like that makes visibility a problem; and if the wind is gusty, bike control can be tricky. It\’s not fun reaching for a bottle on the down tube when the wind is shoving me around! I tried a new on-bike food yesterday: Supreme Protein Caramel Nut Chocolate bar. I found two of them in the grab-bag bins at the salvage store last Friday. The Supreme Protein bar is denser and heavier than most other ride foods that I\’ve tried. Than actually makes it a good choice for a long ride in the rain. It won\’t get soggy as fast as, say, Clif Bars. What can I do on a rainy day when I don\’t want to go outdoors? Of course I had to wash dishes. At times I wish I could use trenchers; after I eat my food, I eat the dishes! Today I needed to get my laundry done. I\’ve got my window unit on \”Fan\” to help it dry. I can watch YouTubes, or read. But no cooking projects today. My freezer is too full!

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