SpokEasy

SpokEasy

BACK ISSUES

Megalomania?

BACK ISSUES /

Am I developing megalomania? It\’s not unusual for me to wish that I had a power meter for my road bike. If I could see how much wattage I can generate, I\’d have a better idea of whether I\’m making progress. For today\’s ride, I went out almost 18.5 miles; and then came back. The wind was from the East — a headwind on the way home — and before I got home, it had increased to 12 mph. There were some strong gusts here and there; and naturally that slowed my pace. On the one hand, an average speed of less than 13 mph seems slow; but on the other hand, I feel like I can work more strongly against the wind than I could several months ago. Am I really able to crank out more power now? Perception isn\’t necessarily reality; but a power meter will tell it like it is. Suppose I indulged my megalomania; and bought a power meter? That gadget won\’t help me much if I don\’t first determine my FTP; and the process doesn\’t sound like fun. The Cyclist\’s Training Bible describes several tests with power meters; and according to Joe Friel, power meters are merely \”expensive toys\” it you don\’t do this work before using them. Ergo it doesn\’t make sense for me to buy one, just to satisfy my curiosity! Sans Power So I continue to ride sans power. I can\’t let megalomania take over; I can\’t afford it! Today it\’s overcast; and that helped keep me from getting too hot. In fact, I almost wished I had worn long sleeves! Slightly cooler weather, and the lack of sunshine, kept my ride food from getting half-melted; and overcast skies of course meant no glare. That was a big relief! On the way home, I ran into light sprinkles here and there; and that also kept the heat at bay. I was still a good sixteen miles from home when the first drops fell; and all I could do was hope that it didn\’t pour! And hope that a T-storm wouldn\’t break out. I got lucky with the rain today; but I still have no idea of my power output!

Megalomania? Read More »

Brain Drain

BACK ISSUES /

Doesn\’t brain drain drive you crazy? Sometimes I\’ll get a blog idea at a moment when I can\’t write it down. The next thing I know, I\’ve forgotten it; and I have to think up something else! Brain drain often strikes when I\’m out on a morning ride. I\’ve been working at three-minute intervals of pushing the pace up to 15-16 mph; with two minutes of easy riding between efforts. After I\’ve done two or three sets, I lose track. And don\’t we all know the frustration of arriving at the store; and discovering that we forgot the shopping list. More than once, when I did that, I forgot the item that I most wanted to get. Brain drain yet again! After I got back from the salvage store today, I rode the hybrid to the bike shop; and nearly forgot that I was going to the bike shop, and not to the drug store. I go to the latter much more often; and I guess muscle memory was trying to take over. Brain Work I did a bit of brain work after my trip to the bike shop: I finally got around to weighing the load I had brought home from the salvage store. Many times I wondered just how heavy a load I was hauling with that trailer. Today\’s loot weighed roughly 20 pounds. Add to that the weight of the trailer itself; and I had about 35 pounds to pull. I\’m planning a ride of 38-39 miles for tomorrow; but without deliberate efforts to go fast. Sunday rides are about a steady, moderate pace; and trying to keep track of \”three minutes hard; two minutes easy\” for hours is major brain drain! Or maybe I can try some fartlek. That gives a rider some variety; but without the mental work of keeping track of \”intervals\”. Now for some more brain work: what shall I take for ride food? Lemon Delight Think! bars are slightly tangy; and a nice change from most of the bars I take on long rides. Maybe some olives? The temperature will be in the mid-80s before I get back home; and the saltiness of olives tastes good on a long, hot ride. Maybe that means I need the sodium! By the way, is sodium good for brain drain?

Brain Drain Read More »

Baseball Cap

BACK ISSUES /

Baseball Cap Quick Dry Mesh is for the sports fan; or for anybody who likes to spend time outdoors. Breathable mesh construction plus wicking properties let your head stay comfortable; and the large bill shades your eyes. I\’m not a baseball fan; but I keep a baseball cap to use outdoors in warm weather, when I\’m not riding. Put me on a bicycle, and I\’ve GOT to have a helmet! I need to have something to shade my eyes, because my sunglasses don\’t keep the sunlight from getting in from above the lenses; and that really bothers my eyes. This cap is washable; and dries quickly. Available in various colors and sizes. Peanuts and crackerjack, anyone?

Baseball Cap Read More »

Carb Cycling

BACK ISSUES /

Sorry; carb cycling doesn\’t mean eating these round muffins! It\’s a shame, too; they look delicious! I\’m not sure that carb cycling would work for me. It sounds like it means eating low carb except on days when you expect to engage in strenuous activity; but I ride five or six days a week. And it\’s quite usual for me to spend a large chunk of my ride time in my \”brisk\” heart rate zone. When prediabetes first reared its ugly head, I worked with a nutritionist. Based on the amount of riding I do, she classed me as \”very active\”; and advised me to aim for 200-230 grams of carbs most days. That sounds like I have a lot of leeway, but carb grams add up fast; especially when you rely on non-meat sources for most of your protein. I found this on a web site while looking for info about A1c and cycling: \”When researchers had people with type 2 diabetes do four to six 30-second cycling sprints followed by four-minute recoveries, they had better glucose metabolism in their muscles than those who just biked at a moderate intensity for 40 to 60 minutes, according to a study published March 2017 in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.\” What Should I Do? So riding ought to help with blood sugar and A1c; but do I need more of the intense efforts? However, the nutritionist did say that exercise can make A1c levels rise; and how long does it take for this spike to diminish? Might Sunday\’s long ride explain Monday\’s high A1c levels? Last year I read this book: It\’s rather technical; but among other subjects it discusses managing glucose levels with exercise. This seems to be especially vital to people who have Type I diabetes. It sounds like a lot of hard work; but it\’s doable. Just look at Team Novo Nordisk! As for me, it\’s back to restricting things such as FitCrunch bars to Sunday long rides! Can I calI that carb cycling?? I had gotten too much into the habit of munching on those bars anytime; and that didn\’t help my A1c, I\’m sure.

Carb Cycling Read More »

Coverup

BACK ISSUES /

Maybe it\’s time for a coverup, in the form of a bicycle cover. For years I used a U-lock to secure my bicycle\’s front wheel to the bicycle rack at work. It used to work fine; but about a year and a half ago, somebody began messing with my bike! Four or five times I came out at the end of the day; and found my bicycle not only pulled away from the rack; but dumped onto the ground! And onto its right side. too. That smacks of deliberate action, especially as it\’s happened more than once. It\’s not only annoying; but somebody\’s behavior could result in ME having to pay to have that bike\’s rear derailer hanger replaced. Not only that; such repairs would mean no hybrid for several weeks, because the bike shop is very backed up. After the problems with my bike began, I started taking the cable lock to work; so I can attach the entire frame to the bicycle rack. I also use the U-lock to fasten the front wheel to the frame. But within the past week, SOMEBODY is messing with the rearview mirror! Several times I\’ve come out to my bicycle; and found the mirror out of position. If it happened only once, I could believe that someone accidentally bumped it. But several times in a week? That\’s too much. And that mirror-stem will take only so much fiddling before it wears out. Am I going to have to buy a new mirror? Is a complete coverup the answer? What Can I Do? What can I do about this? I don\’t know who has been doing it; and I wish that that somebody would get caught in the act. As a matter fact, I do have my suspicions of a certain person; but unfortunately I have zero evidence. I wish I could watch my parked-at-work bicycle all day for a week — coverup, of course — with a camera at the ready; but then I won\’t get any work done. And I shouldn\’t have to give up riding to work because of someone\’s bratty behavior. Maybe that someone thinks they\’ve got a good coverup; but that sort of shenanigans has a way of catching up with the perpetrator. I hope it does before my bicycle is ruined.

Coverup Read More »

Wake Up Call

BACK ISSUES /

I sure got a wake up call day before yesterday, even though it wasn\’t somebody screaming in my ear. It was time to get my A1c levels checked again; and they\’ve shot up to 6.6! That\’s even higher than they were in early 2020. It’s true that I’ve been badly off a proper diet for about three months; and that includes my demolishing a pint of ice cream this past Saturday. I think I relaxed too much after last April, when my A1c had fallen below prediabetes levels. I was rather burned out after over a year of constantly watching everything that I ate; or planned to eat. The disruption caused by Ida of course didn’t help; and too often I got too busy on the web site evenings and weekends. Well, I suppose I needed this wake up call! So here I go again with my meal planning and food logging. I need to get more vegetables into my diet; and here’s where I really miss the word-from-home schedule. I could ride to the supermarket; get fresh produce; and easily be home in time to log on to my work laptop. Now that I have to work on-site every day, a pre-work run to the supermarket is really pushing it time-wise. But I guess I’ll try it once to see how it goes. My primary care physician seems to think that I need resistance training to get those blood sugar levels down. But the doctor didn’t mention plain old vigorous physical activity. I’ve been seeing this same doctor for some years; and no doubt I’ve mention my cycling. During the last Monday-Sunday riding week, I put in nearly 102 miles; and that certainly ought to count! So What Now? OK, so what now? I need to get my weight back down; and I had already begun working on that. In fact, since Saturday I’ve dropped more than a pound. It’s probably water weight; but I also have begun to be more careful about what I eat. Yesterday’s long ride might have helped, with that bit of weight loss, too. The doctor also opines that I need to move my diet to meat and veggies; and leave out rice, pasta, potatoes, and bread. I said, I’m not a big meat-eater; and I don’t think I really HAVE to be! After all, I got my A1c down on a diet that included a considerable amount of legumes and brown rice. I’ve seldom eaten pasta in the last 18 months; but I did not cut out bread completely; and with my activity level, I DO need carbs! I don’t think I truly need to go keto; and I don’t want to! Now that I\’ve had a wake up call, I know I have to be much more careful of what I eat. That\’s another thing I miss about not working from home: when I did work from home; and got a hollow spot inside; I could stop a minute to cut up an apple; or grab a raw carrot. When I\’m at work, and have eaten everything that I brought from home, there are very few option besides junk food if I get hungry again!

Wake Up Call Read More »

TOO Fit?

BACK ISSUES /

I never thought about being too fit. Merely keeping decent fitness going is quite enough for me! So far my ticker seems to be doing all right; and as long as I\’m not trying to train for racing, maybe I don\’t need to worry. My Garmin readout shows that my heart rate recovers pretty quickly after efforts that push me into Zone 5; and I guess that\’s a good sign. It seems from this video that the \”too fit\” problem often occurred when the riders were doping; and it sounds like it was a big nuisance. Can you imagine having to disrupt your sleep, just to get your heart rate UP enough that you won\’t die? To me, that\’s not fitness! I\’m not sure what my resting heart rate is. When my alarm clock goes off, the \”startle factor\” usually sets my heart racing. That\’s no \”resting\” heart rate! A while back, I bought a new blood pressure monitor; but getting the cuff properly wrapped around my arm is tricky. And then, while waiting for my heart to settle back down, I\’m likely to fall asleep again; and then I\’ll miss my ride! It probably doesn\’t matter much what my resting heart rate is; and my Garmin\’s \”Recovery Check\” screen lets me know whether going hard is OK; or whether I should make it a more leisurely ride. At any rate, I doubt that I\’m \”too fit\”.

TOO Fit? Read More »

Stretch It Out

BACK ISSUES /

I probably should stretch it out before my bicycle rides. Typically I ride my first mile easily, to let my muscles warm up; but is that enough? Often my legs start to gripe, \”We don\’t wanna do this!\” after ten minutes or so; and maybe they wouldn\’t if did some quadriceps stretches before I get on the bike. But how much of this stretching do I need? On weekday mornings, my time for cycling is limited; and stretching falls by the wayside. Probably I should stretch it out after a ride, too; but again, I don\’t have much time between completion of a weekday morning ride; and having to leave for work. When I get home from a salvage store run, I\’m thinking about figuring out how much money I saved over the regular store; and after the Sunday long ride, I\’ve got blogging on my mind! Yesterday, at least, I thought about on-bike stretching while pedaling home against a headwind. All that rapid, low-gear spinning was tiring my legs; so I coasted a bit while I stretched one leg; and then the other. It probably wasn\’t enough; but it gave me a mini-break from pedaling! Prior to Ida, my Sunday long rides had reached about 50 miles. Now I\’m working to stretch it out, so to speak; getting back up to 50 miles. But how about riding those miles faster? Yesterday I was quite poky, because I had to fight a headwind of 13-14 mph most of the way home. It puts me to shame when I\’m plodding along like that; and other riders whiz past me like I\’m backing up. How do they do it? If only I could stretch the day, as well as my muscles; and have more time to work up to it!

Stretch It Out Read More »

Compensation

BACK ISSUES /

I guess I\’m getting into self-compensation. As a result of Ida, I had to toss a fair amount of food. Among the gone-bad stuff was a concoction that I called, Taco Black. It was a mixture of canned black beans; chopped onion and red bell pepper; and a can of Taco Complete. This was a new dish; and I was rather disgruntled that I didn\’t get to eat it. Yesterday I cooked up a new batch; and put it in the freezer. Of course I ate a small sample; but I have other things that I need to use first. I just hope there\’s not a prolonged power outage anytime soon! I skipped the salvage store yesterday; and that meant less mileage than I normally get on Saturday. I thought of going for a short ride on the road bike, as compensation; but by early afternoon the wind was pretty strong. I decided I didn\’t want to fight it; and stayed home. Late in the afternoon, I noticed that my right quad felt sore and strained. DOMS, perhaps? I did force work on Thursday; and maybe it was catching up with me. Taste of Winter? Today I rode 35.5 miles; and I had to battle a headwind most of the way home. The wind was 13-14 mph; and gusts were as high as 23 mph! It was some compensation that I finally had a good tailwind for the final mile; but my overall average speed was still only 11.53 mph. It seemed to take forever to get back home; and I feel like such a slowpoke! It was cool enough for arm warmers and leg warmers. I thought it might get a bit too warm for a jacket; so I wore a jersey with the arm warmers, plus my vest. I figured I could pull off the arm warmers if I needed to; and I can always unzip the vest. Today\’s workout is a taste of Winter: chilly wind; a nose that won\’t stop running; and trying to juggle dressing warmly enough with not overdressing, and thus getting overheated during the ride. I don\’t like having to stuff articles of clothing into my Camel-Bak pockets, because I have other things stowed there; so the only alternative is to keep the jacket (or whatever) on. When I get back home after a prolonged tussle against the wind, my compensation is my recovery drink. Then I can be lazy for a while; but Sunday also means that I have to get ready for the upcoming work week. Where\’s my compensation for that?

Compensation Read More »

Break from Routine

BACK ISSUES /

Break from Routine I’m taking a break from routine today; but it isn’t a coffee break. That’s because I don’t drink coffee! For a change, I decided to skip the salvage store in favor of Whole Foods. I needed to buy a back-up jug of laundry detergent; and I can’t count on finding fragrance-free detergent at the salvage store. Ditto for dishwashing liquid; and I also wanted to see whether my favorite sunblock was on sale. I needed some fresh produce, too; and I wanted yogurt. As it turned out, the sunblock wasn’t on sale; but I bought some, anyway. I might not get back to Whole Foods for some time; and I don’t want to run out of sunblock. I really need it during those long Sunday excursions. With cooling temperatures, however, I’ll soon need leg warmers and hence less sunblock; so the three tubes that I now have should last quite a while! I took the trailer to Whole Foods, because a large jug of detergent is a bit much for a pannier. When I started to load up the trailer to go home, there were both panniers in the trailer! That’s where I store them when I’m not using them, and I forgot to take them out before I went to Whole Foods; but actually it was good to have them. Delicate things such as bananas don’t seem to get as much battering when they “ride” in a bag. Taking It Easy After I got home from Whole Foods and put that haul away, I rode to Walgreen’s; and again I took the trailer. I wanted to stock up on paper goods, but I wasn’t sure the panniers were big enough for that bulky stuff; and large packs of paper towels and bathroom tissue can get pretty heavy when I have to carry them for over half a mile. I’m trying to get back on a proper diet; but got a pint of ice cream anyhow. That was also a break from routine; and another reason not to walk to the store! Of course I didn’t want that ice cream to get too soft; and the faster I could get it home, the better. Last night the forecast predicted North winds of at least 15 mph; and I didn’t feel like fighting such a breeze all the way home on top of the levee. The wind felt strong enough even down here at ground level; and by 10:30 am, the temperature had dropped from 74 to 68 degrees. That’s sure a break from routine! For months, it’s been much warmer than that. Not riding to the salvage store meant I have a bit more time at home to take it easy; and after a while, I’ll do some cooking and wash the dishes. Always dishes! There’s never a break from that.

Break from Routine Read More »