SpokEasy

SpokEasy

Author name: CAL

Puerto Rico

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Puerto Rico 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.” Puerto Rico is a great way to combine love of cycling with love of Nature. You can ride mile after mile along beautiful coastlines. Wildlife refuges and nature preserves offer scenic trails for every skill level. The folks in Puerto Rico are serious about cycling, so you should fit right in! If you’re keen to visit San Juan, the capital city, cycling is a wonderful way to get around. You’ll find many interesting things to see and do. Don’t care for the hustle and bustle of a city? Try the western coast of the island. The coastal boardwalk at Isabella focuses on natural beauty rather than hawking souvenirs and hot dogs. Sounds good to me! Cabo Rojo takes you past something unusual: red salt flats! Well, come to think of it, Himalayan salt is pink, right? So why not red salt? Cabo Rojo also features wildlife refuges. Head to Guanica for some MTB riding. This trail is a long one, so come prepared. Bring the sunblock, Camel-Bak, and so on. There are many other cycling tours available; including at least one for the newly popular electric bikes. These tours sounds like great getaways for someone whose cycling activities are frustrated by cold, snowy weather!

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Rhode Island

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Rhode Island How is the Ocean State of Rhode Island for cycling? It’s a very small state, to be sure, but cyclists have a number of choices. I think I’d like the Blackstone River Bike Path, as it runs along a river much of its length. Maybe I’d see some water birds other than the ones I see around here all the time. The Quonset Bike Path is 2.5 miles of entirely off-road riding; great for a family outing! I must admit, however, that 3.7 miles isn’t much more than a warm-up for me. The western two-thirds of Rhode Island are rough and hilly. That sounds like MTB territory! For riders who find flat trails much too tame, there are some mountain bike trails out there. Big River/Carr Pond has trails for all levels of riders, from beginners to experts. Burlingame State Park also has something for MTB enthusiasts of moderate ability. This Yellow Dot Trail sounds interesting. It’s open to hikers; and to snowshoeing and skiing in Winter. As always,  if you plan to be out more than an hour or so, use a Camel-Bak to be sure you have enough water. Pack along some ride food: protein bars, GU-Gels, and so on. You certainly don’t want don’t want to bonk! 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 © 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 INTERPRETER

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Yin/Yang?

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Yin/yang has been around since ancient times. This Chinese philosophy is about the balance between opposite forces in nature, humanity, and so on. You might say that cycling has its own yin and yang. Yin is associated with cold, dark, female, receptive. Yang is the opposite: bright, male, passion, growth. It feels like yin when little misadventures occur. I was getting a piece of Clif Bar out of the plastic bag in my top-tube pouch. Somehow my groping fingers got ahold of the bag, which I dropped, spilling four pieces of bar. I was able to retrieve the bag, but had to leave the Clif Bar bits for birds and ants to clean up. This is why it\’s a good idea to carry an extra snack; Combos today. Today I extended my Sunday ride to a bit over 29 miles. I was riding against a headwind much of the way home. That wind got up to 14 mph before I was finished. More yin! I\’m glad I didn\’t have a flat; that would have been big-time yin! Part of the yin/yang concept is that nothing is either all yin, or all yang. So, what was the yang today? It didn\’t rain. The temperature was comfortable. Even though my speed was sometimes below 9 mph, I can ride a little faster against the wind than I used to be able to. Now for the yang of cycling. A clear day! Calm winds. Feeling well-rested and strong, and knowing you can do whatever distance you want to ride. No flats; and not dropping your ride food! For those who enjoy group rides, it probably seems like big-time yin just now; all that social-distancing makes group rides rather harder. When COVID-19 has finally run its course, the yang of group rides can return.  

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Essential?

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So what\’s \”essential\”? We\’ve been hearing for weeks now to avoid \”non-essential\” trips. If I go to a grocery store for carrots and apples, is it non-essential because I haven\’t yet run out of carrots and apples? Replenishing my supply before I run out seems like common sense to me. After all, Murphy\’s Law would dictate that, if you wait to get more of something until you\’ve run out of it, there won\’t be any to be had, anywhere. Especially in these COVID-19 days. Finding store shelves empty of brown rice is what led me to order groceries online. It\’s very expensive, but I didn\’t know how soon those store shelves would be full again; and I\’ve been going through my brown rice supply rather quickly. Then there are canned goods. I certainly have enough to last for a while; why do I keep getting more? It\’s the same answer. I want to keep a supply going, in case things do get really drastic, and everybody is ordered to stay indoors at all times. It doesn\’t look like it will come to such measures, but you never know. As to the essential business of cooking, I need to take a break from making big batches of stuff. I need to cook a pot of brown rice to be used during the coming week. Otherwise, I\’ve simply got to eat up what is already in fridge and freezer. I\’m about out of room for more!

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Watched Pot

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The watched pot, as the old saying goes, doesn\’t boil. Or, as a list of \”familiar phrases\” that my sister once had put it: \”The aqueous contents of an unremittingly ogled amphora does not reach 100 degrees Celsius.\” And indeed, when you\’re waiting for the water to boil, it can seem to take an eternity. The UN-watched pot, on the other hand is liable to boil over! Last night I did my laundry. Contrary to my usual practice, I did some cooking afterwards. I had soaked, drained, and frozen some anasazi beans. I put them in a big pot with potato water and spinach \”juice\” to start heating while I hung socks, etc. on the drying rack. Then I started washing dishes, so I could have room on the kitchen counter for the cutting board. That pot was taking a long time to get boiling. At some point I went to check it, and found that it was boiling over. I don\’t know what made it foam up so. Maybe the starchiness of the potato water? And some beans foam up a lot during cooking. While I was waiting for the beans to cook soft, I got the other ingredients ready. Onion, for one. I had chunks of a yellow onion in a quart jar in the fridge. I was going to use them for the soup; but when I opened the jar and took a sniff, I discovered that the onions were too old. Not spoiled, but getting close to it. Luckily I also had part of a red onion in the fridge, and used some of that. The celery I have is getting pretty old, and needs to be used up. So I chopped up a stalk of celery. And some garlic, carrots, and potatoes. Soup is a great way to use up odds and ends; I had used parts of cans of corn and sweet peas, and put what I didn\’t use in the freezer. They went into the soup pot, along with some tomato sauce that was left over from another cooking project. Oh, and what was that about the beans? Soak-drain-freeze? I got that idea from The Complete Tightwad Gazette. Beans that have been \”pre-treated\” that way cook soft much faster. Then you can get away from watching the pot, and go for a nice bicycle ride.  

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Mittens?

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Mittens? A mitten is what I think of when I view a map of the USA; and look at Michigan. If I tried cycling in Michigan right now, I’d sure want mittens, or maybe even heated gloves; and a lot of other cold-weather gear as well. Summers look like a good time for a cycling tour in the Wolverine State. I guess you could do without the mittens then. The Michigander tour offers two- to eight-day tours, with beautiful views of Lake Michigan. Most of the routes are a mix of road and trail. SAG support; gourmet coffee; and more are included in the package. Then there’s ODRAM. How would you like to pedal roughly 150 miles in a single day? And 80 or so miles of it with “rolling hills”? I have a sneaking suspicion that I’d find said rolling hills some tough climbing! At least there’s usually a tailwind, which can provide a bit of a boost. Not feeling up to a cross-country ride? The Great Lake-to-Lake tour lets you have a taste of the wheel-dipping ceremony. Start at Lake Michigan; ride to Lake Huron on this 275-mile sightseeing jaunt of seven days. As usual, there are so many rides and cycling routes that I can’t begin to go into all of them; but the ones I’ve read about sure sound wonderful. Just don’t let me forget my mittens if I go there in Winter. 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 © 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 INTERPRETER

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Count Me In

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You can count me in for Tour de Cure this coming November! I\’m gunning for the 62-mile route. The distance doesn\’t worry me much. The pace, however, is a different story. If I remember correctly, the 50-mile riders in the 2018 TdC needed to maintain an average pace of 14 mph to make the cut-off time. After all these years, I still cannot manage 14 mph for long; yet for years I\’ve wanted to increase my cruising pace. Maybe I simply haven\’t wanted it badly enough! I\’m aware that being able to ride faster for longer doesn\’t have to be pie in the sky. Today I made a small beginning by trying to stay at 15 mph for several minutes at a time. Whenever I started a new effort, I pressed my Garmin\’s lap button. But really, how should I train? The Cyclist\’s Training Bible is aimed primarily at racing cyclists preparing for a season of competition. Non-racers can still find good advice in there; but do I truly need to create a periodized training plan for riding in Tour de Cure? Since I ride pretty much year-round, there\’s no need for me to worry about the Preparation part of a periodized training plan. How about the Base period? Maybe I need more work there, as in increasing the length of my weekly long ride. The Build segment is where I always seem to fall short. Do I try to build too gradually, and thus not do enough? Do I start it too soon, or too late? If this morning\’s ride is any indication, it\’s not a bit too soon for me to begin Build. The best I managed was 15.36 mph for 1.62 miles! The Peak period has to be carefully timed. Peak too soon, and you could very well burn out before event day. But you don\’t want to reach your peak after the event! I might be making it more complicated than necessary, but I\’ve got that big ride on the calendar; so count me in.

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Week Three

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As I enter week three of work-from-home, I am both ready for it to end; and wish I could keep it permanently. I want it to end because I miss the rides to and from work. At work I can easily get up and move around every 15-20 minutes; working from home has me parked on my rear far too much. I wish I could keep it because it would make flex time very easy. Let\’s say it\’s 5:15 am, and I\’m all set to go for a ride, but it\’s storming like crazy: torrential rain, strong wind, close lightning; the whole shebang. Under ordinary circumstances I\’d have to either skip riding; or go out and get soaked, not to mention the risk of getting struck by lightning. As long as I\’m working from home, I could clock in and work for several hours while I waited for the weather to settle down. Then I could clock out and go riding! My normal working day doesn\’t allow for that. Working from home means I don\’t have to pack a lunch. There are days when packing my bicycle trunk just to go to work makes me feel like I\’m preparing to go on safari. I don\’t need to wear a filter mask when I\’m working at home, and I\’m enjoying the respite from those pesky things. It\’s lucky I bought a supply of them well before COVID-19 became a household word. I donated some for medical workers, but I dare not give away too many. I\’ll need those masks when I go back to regular work, and for quite some time it might be impossible to buy them from any source. All this COVID-19 stay-at-home business makes me grateful that I\’ve never been a big socializer. Some people love and need a lot of company; they must be really feeling the isolation now. And for some, this is more than week three!  

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Going Hog Wild?

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I\’ve been going hog wild in the kitchen lately. Between prediabetes and being at home much more, I\’m eager to try out many an idea. Take the cauliflower potato cheddar mash on page 87 of the ADA Vegetarian Cookbook. The original recipe calls for russet potatoes; the so-called baking potatoes. I first made the recipe as given in the book. Then I began to experiment with it! My next effort was made with sweet potatoes. It\’s not bad. Last night I went at it again. My inspiration was a recipe I remember reading for something called colcannon. It was a sort of kale-potato mash. I don\’t have any kale on hand, but I did have two 10-oz packs of frozen spinach. So spinach it was. I put the spinach in a 2-quart pot over very low heat so it could thaw while I scrubbed and peeled the potatoes; red-skin potatoes in this case. I needed my 5-quart pot for the potatoes! While they were cooking, I squeezed the excess liquid (\”pot-likker\”) out of the spinach, and put the greens in a bowl. I saved the liquid to use in a soup or beanpot. I didn\’t want to discard the potato water, so I took the cooked potatoes out of the pot using a large, slotted spoon. I had to put that potato water somewhere, and the most practical vessel at hand was my 1-quart pot. So I had three pots to wash up! Anyway, I put the potatoes back into the 5-quart pot and used the back of the slotted spoon to mash them. In went a tablespoon of olive oil, plain yogurt, and some broccoli-cheese soup. Then I started mashing in the spinach. The result is quite good. Now, what shall I go hog wild with next?

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Pollen!

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The pollen is abundant today. I woke up with a very stuffy head, and I felt very tired. My legs had gotten some pretty hard work yesterday and the day before anyhow; so I did only a very short, very easy ride with the road bike. When I got back home, I looked up the pollen count online. Grass pollen is at a high level; and the oak trees are sending up great clouds of the stuff. Pollen seems to be bothering more than it used to, thus: I decided to go out on the hybrid to get a few things from Whole Foods. On the way home, I could feel something gritty stinging my eyes. It didn\’t help that, along the way, somebody was using a leaf blower. I had to ride through that cloud of dust! At the store, I found some organic beef hot dogs. I made hot dog tikka masala again, using tomato sauce and 1/4 cup of hoisin sauce; I need to finish it up. The result is OK, but not the best. No problem, though; I\’ll eat it up during the coming week. With my allergies acting up, it\’s just as well I\’m working from home for now. I\’m getting sniffly in addition to the stuffed-up head. But no sneezing; no coughing; no fever. So I take it, no COVID-19.

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