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Ursa Major?

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I\’m pulling the Ursa Major act today; or sort of. The Big Dipper doesn\’t go into hibernation when cold weather comes. I\’m different; and I feel like I\’m hibernating today! We got that cold front. Shortly after 8:00 am I checked the NOAA site; and decided it would be wise not to go for a ride. The temperature was 40 degrees; and by itself that\’s not bad. But add in a 28 mph wind; a chill factor of 29 degrees; and overcast skies as well! That\’s a recipe for a miserable slog of a ride! When the wind is that strong, one-handed bike control is difficult; and that makes it hard to eat while riding. Add heavy gloves, which interfere with finger dexterity; and on-bike eating gets even more difficult. Would lobster gloves make things harder; or make no difference? I\’d like to get a few groceries today. But it\’s so cold out there! The store I want to visit is less than a mile away; but, I\’ll be frozen before I can ride there. If I walk there, I\’ll get even colder; so maybe I\’ll behave like an ursa major and stay indoors. Hot chocolate helps me to keep warm; but I can\’t drink it endlessly. The calorie and carb count are too much; and I\’d do better to guzzle plain green tea. Or even plain hot water! Tomorrow will be another cold day; but at least with considerably less wind. It will also be the full moon! My plan: get up early and go for a short ride to see the moonlight the river; then go back home and get ready for the long ride. Wait to start that ride until about 8:00 am; and hope it will be just a tad warmer by then.

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Watching and Waiting

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Now I\’m watching and waiting; and wondering when the rain might begin. I rode to the salvage store this morning; and the sky already looked rather threatening. When I came out of the store, I saw that there had already been a little rain. It was about 9:45 am when I got home; and now I\’m debating whether to do any more errands. It isn\’t raining yet, after all! This afternoon it\’s supposed to start getting cooler; and the wind is already up to 13 mph. I\’m watching and waiting on tomorrow\’s weather, because that\’s the biggie. Our low temperature tonight will be about 36 degrees; and from 6 pm this evening there\’s a wind advisory. I\’m debating whether to ride tomorrow; or to save the long ride for Monday. I know that the chill factor tomorrow will be nasty; nobody needs to tell me that! According to the forecast, the temperature at 8:00 am will be 40 degrees; and with a 21 mph wind. The chill factor, then, will be about 30 degrees. Do I really want to ride in such conditions? No matter how much I want to ride, is it wise to ride when, in effect, it\’s below freezing out there? I\’ll need to wear my heaviest gloves, with warming packs; and it\’s hard to manage on-bike eating when my hands are bundled up like that. Leg warmers alone won\’t be nearly enough to keep my legs warm; so I\’ll have to wear slacks over the leg warmers and cycling shorts. Slacks mean the added chore of finding a way to keep those slacks from getting tangled up in the drive train! More Cold Weather Woes Thermal socks alone likely won\’t keep my feet warm enough in sub-freezing temperatures. In the conditions I expect for tomorrow, a helmet liner doesn\’t keep my head warm enough! As if the clothing problem weren\’t enough, cold weather saps my energy; and makes the miles seem long and endless. So I\’m watching and waiting; and I can decide tomorrow morning. I have Monday off; so I can do my long ride on Monday if I can\’t ride tomorrow. If I do ride tomorrow, I\’ll have a tailwind for at least part of the time on the way back home. Usually it\’s the opposite!

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Bicycle Anatomy Shirt

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This Bicycle Anatomy Shirt is in classic tee style; and lets you show your love of cycling. Available in assorted colors. Machine washable on cold. I personally am not a big fan of tee shirts; but I know that many people like them. Bicycle Anatomy Shirt is lightweight and comfortable. On a cold day, a tee shirt makes a good over-the-blouse layer; on the bike or off.

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Cold Thoughts

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Cold Thoughts I get cold thoughts as soon as the temperature starts to edge below 70 degrees. It’s no wonder: I don’t have central climate control; and it gets chilly in here! I spend a lot of time parked in front of my electric heater. Unfortunately that hikes up my power bill! The chill makes me sluggish; and it seems to take much longer to get ready for a ride on such mornings. Perhaps it does! When it’s hot, I don’t have to pull on leg warmers, double socks, and so on. But if running in cold weather has its upside, so does cycling. If nothing else, I feel good that I rode when I get home after a frigid trip. Of course we cold-weather cyclists have to be mindful of layering; and don’t forget the individual cold-tolerance factor. What some people think “isn’t that cold” is too cold for me! If you’ll be riding for hours in freezing temperatures, some special gear is in order. You can get insulating covers for your Camel-Bak drinking tube; and if insulated bottles keep liquids cool longer on hot days, I expect they’d keep liquids warm for longer in the cold. Cold thoughts for me include those warming packs. How did I get along before I had them? Maybe I should tuck some of them into my socks, just above my shoes; then my feet might not get as cold. To give my arms extra warmth, I use the sleeve part of an old cycling jacket. (The zipper went bad, so the jacket itself was useless). No matter how I dress for a cold ride, though, nothing keeps my nose from running like crazy. Would a balaclava help? Or would it be a glorified handkerchief? I Felt the Chill I had more cold thoughts this morning when I went out to ride. It was slightly warmer than the previous few days; and I decided I didn’t need an additional layer over my leg warmers. Wrong decision. As soon as I got outside, my legs felt cold. They didn’t warm up until I had ridden 8 miles or so; and I was chilly in general. There was some fog here and there; and dampness doesn’t help to keep me warm. Maybe the reason I feel tired and sluggish this time of year is that it’s chilly indoors, too. I guess I’m cold-blooded!

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Tradeoff

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Tradeoff There’s a tradeoff involved if I want to visit the salvage store on Saturday; but still want to get fresh produce. It means I must make a weekday morning grocery run in lieu of my usual jaunt on the road bike. It’s rather a nuisance, because I have to be at work at 8:00 am; and thus must head for the store at 5:30 am! How much easier it was when work-from-home was in effect! Today I made the tradeoff. I didn’t get veggies, except for an onion; but I  wanted bananas and grapes. Bananas are quite a go-to food for cyclists; and I like to have one with peanut butter before a ride. Another pre-ride favorite is frozen grapes with peanut butter. Grapes are also good with – if you can believe it – hummus. So hummus was on my list this morning. I got some yogurt; and looked for kitchen matches. Apparently they’re very popular now, because the store was out of them. The employee whom I asked, said I was the third person who was looking for matches! I’m sure the store has some sports bars; but I didn’t have time to hunt for them. That’s the drawback to squeezing in a grocery-shopping ride before I go to work: it has to be a quick trip. I have to know exactly what I want; where to find it; and I can’t buy too many things. The more I buy, the longer I’ll be in the store; and I don’t want to be late for work. I got home about 6:40 am; and that was enough time to put away the groceries and get ready to ride to work. Alas for my diet, I didn’t get around to fixing a lunch last night; and this morning there wasn’t time. “Lunch” today was a Clif Builder’s Protein bar and pretzels! How’s that for good nutrition?

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Double Duty

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I like things that can do double duty; or even triple duty! Multi-use items mean that I have fewer things to clutter up my space; and I spend less, too. It sounds like a Multi Tool; and yes, I have something like this one in my road bike\’s under-saddle pack. Sometimes I find double duty when I least expect it. As an example, BBH includes a formula for waterless wax polish. Years ago I whipped up a batch, and tried it on a wooden bookcase; and I discovered that the stuff is great as hand cream. It\’s quite easy to make, too; and a small batch lasts all Winter, because a little goes a long way. I have no real drinking glasses; but I do have a mug. A mug works just as well as a glass; and it can tolerate hot drinks as well as cold ones. If I really want a drinking glass, I use a 12 ounce Mason jar. The jars have lids, so I can use them to store food, too. Double duty yet again! I often get more than one use out of things by repurposing them. I use an old peanut butter jar as my change-catcher; and I keep some old hand cream that I use to lube the trailer hitch. An old pair of half-fingered cycling gloves keeps my hands warm when it\’s chilly at work. My hybrid is multi-use, for sure. It\’s transportation with a built-in exercise machine; and at the same time, it can carry loads for me. I\’ve got a \”stuff\” problem; and I need to eke out double (or triple, quadruple, etc.) duty with as many items as possible!

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Warm Ups

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Warm ups sound like something you wear while you get your muscles prepared for ballet class; or to stretch before a strenuous bicycle ride. But warm ups can come after a ride, too! What I mean is hot chocolate. Our crazy weather seesaws back and forth between a high of 80 degrees one day; to temperatures down to 40 during the ensuing night. Sunday afternoon and night was just such an occasion. Then last night, it fell to the mid- 40s again; and the chill factor early this morning was 41 degrees. Of course that meant a chilly ride! I try to save the warming packs for times when the temperature is below 40; but a chill factor like today\’s warrants using them, too. When I get home after a ride in such conditions, of course I\’m cold; and a mug of hot chocolate is great as warm ups. The catch is, I don\’t have time for it when I have to eat quickly; and then leave for work. The first hot chocolate I found at the salvage store was actually Keurig pods, which I didn\’t notice until I was back home. I don\’t have a Keurig; but that didn\’t deter me. I just put the contents of a pod into a mug; added hot water; and let the chocolate dissolve. It worked fine! I\’m not sure a Keurig would make much sense for me, anyway. I\’m not a coffee drinker; and never was. I begged a taste of coffee when I was about six; and I was off of that beverage for life! Perhaps ironically, I love to smell roasting coffee beans and brewing coffee. I felt very sluggish this morning; and maybe I needed some warm ups after the ride!

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Skinny Obese?

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Am I skinny obese? Since September 2020 I\’ve lost about 23 pounds; and for me, that\’s a significant amount of weight. Even so, \”skinny obese\” began nagging at my mind after I watched this video. Cycling, and watching my diet, should do a lot to keep my weight in check; but it appears that weight and BMI aren\’t the whole picture. Now I wonder whether I actually am carrying around excessive body fat. For those who want to lose weight by cycling, there\’s this book: It includes several inspiring stories of people who lost weight in the triple digits by riding a bicycle. I\’m sure it wasn\’t easy for them; but they did it! Also included are some off-bike exercises to help tone and strengthen the upper body and core; and others to improve flexibility. There are several different cycling workout programs, according to how much weight a person wants to lose; and one for staying fit for life. Frame size, aka physical build, is discussed as well; and mention is made of the \”apple versus pear\” aspect of body fat. What can I do to reduce my body fat? I don\’t need to lose much more weight, if any; but maybe I need to push myself to ride harder for farther distances. I don\’t necessarily mean HIIT; but working for 16-17 mph, instead of 15 mph, might do me a lot of good. There\’s something in this book about the balanced plate; and eating \”active calories\” rather than \”couch potato calories\”. I need to work harder at avoiding the latter, because I don\’t want to be skinny obese!

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The Trouble With Forecasts

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The trouble with forecasts is, they\’re often too variable. I can check two different sites to see what the weather will be like; and one prediction often looks much more dire than the other. Last night, the NOAA site said that today\’s rain and T-storms were most likely in the afternoon. A second weather site predicted scattered T-storms from 6:00 onwards. I didn\’t know what to believe! It had me on tenterhooks, wondering whether I\’d get to ride today. I half-expected to wake to pouring rain and thunder. At 7:30 am the sun was dodging in and out, but it didn\’t look like it would rain soon; so I went out to ride. To my surprise, it was foggy! It wasn\’t cold; but temperatures in the low 70s are cool enough for me to want leg warmers and a lightweight skull cap. They say it\’s better to be slightly under-dressed than to dress too warmly; but I don\’t care. I\’d rather be a bit too warm! After a while the fog burned off; but the sun kept going behind the clouds. I decided it was probably better to shorten my ride; and I put in only 29 miles. That\’s far less than the 40 miles I had planned to do! The wind was pesky today; and there evidently were some spotty showers around. On the way home, I rode through several places where the bike path was wet. They weren\’t wet when I passed those areas on the way out! I got home about 10:15; and two hours later I was still waiting for it to start storming. That\’s the trouble with forecasts: they often provoke me to borrow trouble!

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The Old Groove

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I\’m getting back into the old groove. Wednesday I returned to work; and today I rode to the salvage store. I took along the trailer; and I was glad to find that the store had the mega-packs of bathroom tissue. I found six-packs of bottled Propel. It will do as electrolyte drink for my Sunday long rides; and I thought it might be cheaper than Nuun. It is; but only by a few pennies. Oh, well. \”A penny saved is a penny earned\”, as the saying goes. Today I didn\’t do well by the grab bag. For the last few months the grab-bag bins haven\’t offered much that\’s suitable for ride food; and I got only 12 items. It wasn\’t a total loss, though. One of the items had its old price sticker on it: $2.29; and I got it for a quarter! I like getting candy bars and other snacks on the cheap. It means I can eat one bite and not feel too bad about throwing out the rest. I\’m always going to have to keep my A1c in mind; and I shouldn\’t be bringing home sugary junk food at all! But eating small amounts regularly is probably better than denying myself for weeks or months; and then bingeing. Of course there was a headwind on the way home; and that\’s the old groove, for sure. I felt terribly slow; and a 15 mph wind is harder to deal with when I\’m on the hybrid and hauling the trailer! Tomorrow? It\’s been getting more and more cloudy, and the forecast says showers are likely tomorrow; possibly even T-storms. You may be sure that I\’m not happy with such a forecast; but worrying about the weather is certainly the old groove. Day before yesterday I had a small biopsy done on my lower back; and I have two stitches. I hope the Camel-Bak won\’t rub it too much! I don\’t want to skip riding entirely, because I set myself a goal of 5000 miles this year. That isn\’t impossible, I know, because I came pretty close to it last year. All I can do is see what tomorrow brings.

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