SpokEasy

SpokEasy

Author name: CAL

Souplesse

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Souplesse? Is it time for supper? Cycling sure has its fancy terms. “Souplesse”, for one. It sounds to me like something concocted by Julia Child, and served up in a sterling silver tureen set upon a fine tablecloth! I try my best to use a smooth pedal stroke, but I wonder how close my pedaling technique is to souplesse. One marvelously windless morning, during the final mile of my ride, I had a go at pushing it up to 20 mph. I made it, and even kept it up for a few seconds. My pedaling, however, was starting to feel on the jerky side. Compare that to pro tour riders who maintain smooth pedaling for hours, while flying along at 25 mph or more! Some pro riders are held up as fine examples of souplesse. Others, it is said, had big success despite a lack of it. So how much does it matter? Smooth, even pedaling is a more efficient use of your energy. If you have access to a WattBike, it shows you whether you\’re using your left and right legs evenly. I\’m not all that crazy about indoor riding, but it\’s interesting see exactly what your legs are doing. If you\’re really after high-grade souplesse, that WattBike might be helpful.

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Relief

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I could use some relief right now. That pulled hamstring is still bothering me. Maybe a cold pack like this would help? I can be relived that I wasn\’t working up to the local edition of Bike MS. It takes place this coming weekend, and it looks like my leg won\’t be ready for so much action by day after tomorrow. I did Bike MS in 2013, and the route is rather hilly!  It\’s also 150 miles in two days. I\’m not even sure I\’ll be up to a two-mile ride to meet some friends for lunch Saturday. This morning I tried a short, easy ride on the road bike. I had to go back home before I\’d ridden  half a mile! To complicate things, walking also bothers that leg. If I had a car, driving might bother it, too. At least I\’ll be on vacation/staycation the next two weeks. I\’ll have a chance to give the leg some rest. I hope to be back at riding before long, or I\’ll lose a lot of the conditioning that I finally seemed to have developed. Really, I\’d rather have fallen and scraped up both knees when I tripped last Thursday, than have this pulled hamstring. Skin seems to heal much more quickly than muscles, especially at my age. Speaking of cold packs, our weather is still hot. At 8 pm it\’s still 87 degrees! I think they expect a cold front next week. That will bring some relief from this heat.

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Over 40 ?

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OK, so I\’m over 40. Let\’s tackle these questions. If a birthday cake shaped like a bicycle wheel is what you want — why not? Celebrate the kid in you! A bicycle more expensive than a car? If that\’s what you want to do with your money, it\’s YOUR money. Why do they care how much your bicycle cost, anyway? You don\’t HAVE to stare at the rear of the cyclist right in front of you. In fact, all I\’ve read about drafting warns against staring at the wheel/rider right in front of you! So you think that\’s a spare tire under my jersey? Spare me the comments about my weight! What makes anybody think that my bicycle cost five thousand? And if I rode only once a month I would never have bought a road bike. I\’d have stuck with the hybrid for all riding. Your \”other\” doesn\’t want to take a cycling trip around the world? Maybe you can persuade him/her to join you. Or maybe go solo. A burger? Well, maybe. But I\’ll skip the pint. Why do you think I\’m not \”normal\” because I don\’t like beer? Besides, I need to ride sober. How much do the owners of those bargain-basement bikes ride? How long will those cheap bicycles last? I\’d probably wear one out in six months. I KNOW that every rider goes down sooner or later. And you don\’t fall OFF a bike; you fall WITH it. Especially when you ride clip-ins. Why would anyone think I spent that much on a jersey? And what\’s with the notion that muesli, Clif Bars, etc. taste like sawdust? Even if they did, we\’ve gotta keep fueled. Hey, I DO wash my cycling shorts after each use. If I want to wear a jersey for several rides before laundering it, so what? No, I DON\’T shave my legs every day, and what of it? We Over 40 folks need some sharp answers. And what other snappy comebacks can you think of?    

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Another One for Cycling!

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Another One for Cycling! You can chalk up over another one for cycling! Help for Heroes sounds fantastic. I hadn’t thought about cycling as a means of working through PTSD. Maybe part of it is the good old endorphins? And getting out into fresh air. Finding that, even if your legs won’t let you ride a bicycle, your arms can! Take the case of Paddy. Being told he’d never walk again. PTSD on top of it. Cycling, even if it’s hand-cycling, lets him get outdoors and be active. I’m sure it also gives him a much-needed sense of accomplishment. How many of us get in our miles by HAND power? Andy hasn’t had an easy time, either. A bum knee; infection following surgery; and developing Chron’s, too. Exercise can help to manage Chron’s, and is easy on the knees; so I hope Andy can keep at it. Jacko amazes me. I’m not sure I’d have the gumption to try to ride a bicycle if I were to lose an arm, even with such a prosthesis as he has. The braking and shifting systems for his bike sound ingenious. Even for those of us who haven’t suffered such trauma, riding a bicycle can work wonders. It can help with weight control. Ride to work; and if you’re feeling grouchy by the time you head back home, you can ride off those blues. You can bring home the groceries, using rack and panniers. If nothing else, riding a bicycle is just plain fun. I’m glad that those veterans don’t have to miss out. Kudos to them and their helpers. In the scoring of things, that’s another one for cycling!

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Vertically Challenged

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This view can make anybody feel vertically challenged. But what about we who are — well — short, and who ride bicycles? Toe overlap is the item on this list that really resonates with me. My hybrid has a 34 cm frame, and often enough a tight turn has had my front wheel touching my toes. I have to be very cautious about that. My road bike\’s frame is 47 cm, I believe, but I still have the toe overlap problem. Why, when the frame is bigger? I guess it has to do with the frame\’s geometry. I asked at the bike shop about the possibility of getting a smaller front wheel. They said that a smaller wheel would mean re-doing the front brake, so I decided to leave things as they were. I don\’t have  car; but if I did, and used a roof rack for my bicycles, I bet I would need a stool to stand on! I\’m not merely short at five-foot-zilch, I have short legs as well. Luckily I\’m not all that inflexible. I sure can\’t do the splits anymore, though. Borrow someone else\’s bike? My short legs might not be able to handle it. If they want to make fun of my bicycles\’ sizes, let \’em laugh. I can ride my bicycles, and that\’s what matters. I know almost nothing about \’cross, but barriers up to the knees would be a problem. I\’m sure I\’d have to almost stop and carefully step over, needing to raise my knees almost up to my chin! I don\’t even try to carry a pump on my road bike\’s frame. There simply isn\’t room. But, let\’s cheer up. Being vertically challenged isn\’t all bad. I\’m far less likely to hit my head against door frames than someone who is six-foot-seven.    

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Finis

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Yes, finis! Here it is, the final day of Cycle September. If you haven\’t logged any rides  yet, you\’ve still got a few hours, at least in the Central time zone. In a way I\’m thinking, It\’s over already? Yet it also seemed like a long month. I rode to work all but one or two work-days. Normally I take Mondays off from riding, and walk to work. After about three weeks of  skipping my off-bikes day, my legs were really feeling the extra work. (Extra work? The round trip between home and work is only about 5.25 miles!) In addition, I added a few extra miles to most of my Sunday long rides. I\’m pleased to see that I totaled 514 miles this month. I haven\’t been tracking monthly totals, but I believe that\’s my biggest monthly mileage total of the year so far. For supper I tried a new kind of soup-in-a-cup: Bear Creek Creamy Potato. It\’s meant to be cooked in the microwave, and I don\’t have one. Instead, I added boiling water to the cup\’s fill line; laid an oven mitt over the top; and let it sit five minutes. It came out quite lumpy, although it tastes good enough. Next time I\’ll bring the water to a boil in a pot; add the dry soup; bring it back to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer; and cook and stir until the soup is smooth. And now let me finish up this blog. The end. I mean, finis.  

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Gaia

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Gaia, also known as Mother Earth, has become a major concern. More and more, scientists are looking at our planet as a whole, and the outlook seems grim. For years the media have been full of reports about global warming and climate change. Among other problems, sea levels are rising. The planet\’s natural ozone layer has a big hole in it. They\’re saying that Earth has reached a critical point where global warming is concerned. That\’s a scary thought. How much longer do we have before this planet has become uninhabitable? There\’s no way we can all \”abandon ship\” and take a space flight to a colony on Mars; so what can we do? We cyclists are doing our bit, however small, to reduce CO2 emissions; one way of helping to Save the Earth. The more people start using bicycles instead of cars, the more it will help. It\’s been said many times. A bicycle doesn\’t produce the air pollution that an internal-combustion vehicle does. Bicycles are much easier on road surfaces. They require far less parking space. Not to mention that bicycles don\’t produce the noise pollution that motor vehicles do! Turning things around won\’t be easy, especially for us in the industrialized world. I have a sneaking suspicion that it won\’t happen in my lifetime. Remember the saying: \”We don\’t inherit the Earth from our parents; we borrow it from our children.\” I hope I can keep on using a bicycle for both fun and transportation. It\’s good for me; and good for Gaia.  

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Be-TWIX\’d and Between?

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You could definitely say that I\’m \”betwixt and between\” as a cyclist. I\’ve come a long way from being a beginner; but I\’m a long, long way from being a true expert. Thinking of that expression got me to thinking of Twix Bars — or was it the other way around? I enjoy Twix when off the bike. I\’ve never tried to take Twix bars along on a ride. I don\’t think they\’d be good ride food .The chocolate coating would get too melt-y and messy unless it were cold weather and overcast. In addition, I need ride food to have some substance to it; so I think I\’ll stick with Clif Bars. Many years ago Twix brought out three new flavors. In addition to the original Caramel, there were: Peanut Butter, Cookies \’n\’ Cream, and Chocolate Fudge. It\’s a long, long time since I\’ve seen those last two. I guess those three flavors were a marketing experiment, and except for Peanut Butter, they didn\’t \”take off\”. And for a fact, I wasn\’t too crazy about the Chocolate Fudge flavor. Now that I\’ve decided to leave the Twix Bars at home, I\’ll go out and ride; but I don\’t expect to escape the \”betwixt and between\” zone any time soon.  

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Legs

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Parts of the legs is all that\’s left now of this water tower. My old landmark is vanishing. My own legs are acting up. Because of Cycle September, I\’ve been riding more than usual. My hamstrings sure are feeling it, so I did a shorter ride than usual today. I\’m glad I did, because the wind coming back home felt pretty tough.  It was wearing me out. The clouds were building up, which meant occasional relief from the sun; it\’s still in the 80s! It might help my legs if I prodded myself into using the foam roller more often. I don\’t like to use it right after a long ride, when I have sunblock all over me. Yes, I could wash it off, but I\’m too lazy. Very likely I also need to do more stretching, more often. On the whole, I seem able to pedal harder lately; but now I also seem to be more \”squirrely\”. I waver from my line too much and too often. I guess I need to do more to strengthen my core, so my leg motion can brace itself better against said core. There\’s a lot  more to cycling than just legs.  

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Peeping Tom?

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You needn\’t be a  Peeping Tom to get a peek behind the scenes. Let\’s take a look now. To be honest, this pic here shows what it can feel like when I get busy working on this web site. The current project is revising the Book inventory in my Shop.  I\’m going down the list of books that I already included, and looking for kindle versions of those titles to add to the Shop. Then I\’m creating cross-references between print and kindle entries for each title. I can tell you, it gets quite head-splitting.  Five or six titles at one sitting is quite enough; after that, I can\’t focus properly any more. Thus it will take some time for me to get through the entire list of titles! Meanwhile, thank you for your patience. With over 400 products in the Shop, I decided that cross-references between related products would be a good idea. I watch for that when I add new products, and when mention of an old product crops up in a blog, I\’ll create any cross-references that are appropriate. Going through the whole Shop to create such links, however, would be a bit much. Or am I merely lazy? Bit by bit, over time, I might get them all. Of course I\’ll be adding new products as I think of them — which means more cross-references! In addition to the work on the Shop, I must keep the blogs coming. Is composing blogs posts fun? Much of the time I enjoy it, but like any author, I sometimes run \”dry\”. Then it\’s hard to think of new blog topics. It can leave me with the feeling that I\’m clutching at straws. On top of that, some blogs don\’t come easily. That\’s especially true when the topic is unfamiliar to me. As you can see, a peek behind the scenes can reveal some surprising things. Is being a Peeping Tom really worth it?  

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