SpokEasy

SpokEasy

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Something Fishy?

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Something fishy is going on. Or is it? Yesterday morning I concocted a new snack. I wanted something different, and had some tempeh that I had to use up. I also have most of a box of hummus. See here for the recipe. I\’ve got to admit that there wasn\’t fish in it at all. In fact, I didn\’t even think about tuna until I was about to start eating the stuff several hours later. Then I looked at it and thought, Hey, that looks sort of like tuna salad! I\’d say that this snack isn\’t for every day when you\’re watching the carbs; especially not as a sandwich filling. Bread adds even more carbs! But if I were strictly vegetarian (or vegan), and wanted a substitute for tuna salad, this is definitely a possibility. Does it really taste like tuna? Not to any hard-core tuna lover, I\’m sure; and I\’m not trying to fool anyone. Does it save money over buying tuna fish? Unfortunately, no. Even so, I must remember this experiment. I can dig it up if I\’m out of tuna, but want something fishy! This new snack also perked up the back-to-work-after-vacation blahs. I was off last week; and Saturday was Tour de Cure!

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Flatten Those Hills

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Flatten those hills! Learn how to climb! I find this comparison interesting. Seven percent gradient, did he say? I wish I knew the gradient of those humps on the MRT. There are several about 17 miles from here, and they seem steep to me! Fortunately they\’re very short climbs. Getting back to the comparison in the video, do I fall into the \”beginner\” or \”amateur\” class? I won\’t even consider \”pro\”; I know I\’m not in those ranks! If climbing while seated means you\’re a beginner, I\’m still a beginner. On the other hand, since late April I\’ve found myself pulling on the handlebars and pushing harder on the pedals when faced with terrain that\’s not flat; and that lets me take my full weight off my rear. Maybe I\’m approaching the point of being able to climb out of the saddle? How close am I to the \”amateur\” class? Not very close, I fear. I\’ll bet I couldn\’t get up that hill as fast as Ollie did, in six minutes and forty seconds. I might not be able to do that climb even as fast as Freddie the Beginner, who took over 13 minutes. None of the climbs I have around here are 2.6 km/1.61 miles long, and it\’s a good thing. After a post-Tour de Cure break, I need to get back to on-bike \”force\” exercises to strengthen my legs; and climbing is about more than legs. My upper body strength needs plenty of work; and in fact it\’s declined recently. I got too busy with other stuff to give my off-bike work proper time and attention, and it\’s high time I got back to it. It will help me to flatten those hills — uh, I mean those humps in the MRT.

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Backfire?

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Did my training plans backfire on me? Yesterday I rode Tour de Cure 2020; the 62-mile route. Comparing my 2020 performance with that of two years ago, it looks like I\’ve backslid! The two routes are comparable in length, with this year\’s being only 0.6 miles longer; yet I was much slower this time! A shocking 2 mph slower, in fact. Why? I can think of several possible reasons: One, in the last two months I did too little riding. I felt persistently tired; possibly because of a recent change in diet. Trying to keep up with both blogging and food logs had me getting to bed too late, too often. Too many mornings I shut off the alarm clock and fell back asleep. My training really suffered because of it. Two, maybe I didn\’t do enough work to improve my force. The catch is, how much, and how often, is enough? How much is too much? The hardest workouts, they say, should be done only once a week. Older riders in particular need to be wary of overtraining. Three, am I using the wrong ride food? I\’ve switched from Clif Bars to RXBars in the last few months; the latter are lower in carbs and have more protein. DO I need more carbs while riding? More protein? About halfway through the ride yesterday, I began to crave something salty and crunchy. In fact, I wanted Combos. They aren\’t at all sustaining, but they sure are salty! Four, I wasn\’t trying to push the pace yesterday. Tour de Cure went virtual this year (I probably don\’t need to say why), and I wasn\’t worrying about a cut-off time. In fact, starting off too fast can easily backfire on me!

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What\’d I DO?

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What\’d I do in the last day or two prior to Tour de Cure? Was I carbo-loading, or not? For months now I\’ve been watching the carbs, working to limit them to 150-200 grams per day. The objective is to get my A1c levels back down below the pre-diabetes range. At the same time, I\’ve been watching the calorie intake. But there I was, with a 62-mile ride looming. Two days before the event, I went overboard with the \”bad\” carbs; the biggest offender being a large chunk of cake! On the other hand, my meals that day included quinoa, sweet potato, and cauliflower. Those are good carbs; and unless I miscounted somewhere, the day\’s total carb count was 192 grams. My carb count yesterday reached 212 grams; that\’s a lot! The banana and Bald Eagle were OK. Tempeh isn\’t bad for carbs; it\’s at least twice as dense in texture as firm tofu, so I\’m not surprised that it has about double the carb count. Unfortunately I ate bad carbs, too; will I never learn to tame my sweet tooth? Today I rode the 62-mile Tour de Cure, and did I ever chow down the carbs during those hours of pedaling! In total, 181.5 grams! But during long rides I need the quick fuel. I\’m drifting away from Clif Bars; they\’re very high in carbs, and just as low in protein. My nutritionist advised me to look for energy bars that have at least 8-12 grams of protein, and RXBars fit the bill quite well. What\’d I do? I took along four RX Bars, plus two other energy bars, as on-bike food today. I also ate three GU-Gels during the ride. THAT was some carbo-loading!

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Mañana

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Mañana is good enough for me, as the old song goes. In this case, I don\’t have any choice. Tour de Cure is tomorrow, so mañana will have to be good enough for me! As always when an important event is on the threshold, I don\’t feel ready. Do pro cyclists feel like that on the eve of the Grand Depart? For at least a month, my riding has suffered because I\’ve been tired; and too often I\’ve overslept in the morning. Well, I\’ll just have to make do. I keep reminding myself that this isn\’t a race. I\’m even thinking of stopping for breaks every ten miles or so. During my Sunday long rides I usually aim to take as few breaks as possible; I\’m trying to improve my endurance, after all. Since TdC is virtual this year, I\’m sure I don\’t have to worry about a cut-off time. I can choose my own route, which means I\’ll be riding in familiar territory. That\’s a big plus; I\’ll know what to expect as far as terrain goes. In order to complete my mileage, I\’ll need to do some doubling back; but that\’s OK. It will be a bit chilly in the morning, but will warm up into the mid-70s. I hope I can shed the leg warmers about halfway through. Those things have been driving me crazy by slipping downwards while the legs of my shorts creep upwards. That\’s especially the case when I\’m pedaling rapidly in a low gear; as in bucking a headwind. No rain in the forecast! I\’m sure glad of that. So I\’ll get out there and ride; and let it go as it will.

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Latest Additions

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The latest additions to my web site\’s Shop are: four flavors of RXBar! In Whole Foods this morning, I checked out the sports bars section, as usual. I was delighted to see RXBar Maple Sea Salt, because I love maple; and I got some of the bars to use as ride food during Tour de Cure tomorrow. I must admit, putting these latest additions into the store was rather time-consuming. It\’s also not the easiest thing on my eyes; but I\’m trying to share info and ideas with other riders. I wanted to get tofu; but the store was out of it. I brought home tempeh to try, instead. Tempeh seems strange to me. It\’s like tofu in having little flavor; but the texture is much denser. In fact, it took quite a bit of chewing. I guess tempeh would be better in stir-fry than tofu; it won\’t fall apart as easily. Today I hitched the trailer to the hybrid for the trip to the store, so I could bring home an economy-sized jug of laundry detergent. I noticed that the bike seemed very hard to pedal. Was the trailer adding that much drag? After I got back home, I discovered that the brake pad is dragging on both tire and wheel rim. I just got that fixed! Does carrying loads have something to do with it? That bicycle isn\’t wearing out, is it? Back to the bike shop. Maybe I\’ll wait to take it in until tomorrow afternoon. TdC is tomorrow; and I need to rest up for it. Meanwhile, it\’s time I had some lunch. My stomach is growling, and I need to be well-nourished as well as well-rested for tomorrow\’s big ride!

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Roughshod?

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If \”roughshod\” means your shoes are badly battered, I went around roughshod for as much as a year! I don\’t mean cycling shoes; I mean my walking shoes. The uppers had holes rubbed in them by the time the footwear was about six months old. The toe clips on the hybrid\’s pedals caused a lot of chafing. A few days ago I finally bought new shoes. The uppers on my old sneakers looked like they were pulling away from the soles; and I decided that new shoes would cost a lot less than the medical bills that might result if those beat-up things caused me to trip and fall. My cycling shoes need attention as well. I think both pairs are due for new cleats. Something isn\’t right when I suddenly come unclipped while pedaling! If I think I have problems with my shoes, I should be glad I\’m not a dancer! I don\’t have to sew ribbons and elastics onto my cycling shoes; and I\’m so lazy that I let the bike shop put the cleats on. The main thing there is being sure the bolts on the cleats are properly tightened, and I\’m not sure I can manage it. I also don\’t need to replace my cycling shoes — or my sneakers — as often as three times in one day. If I did, I would have to give up cycling; or at least, riding clipped in. Otherwise I\’d go bankrupt!

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Chip Away at It

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To chip away at it is often the best way to tackle a big job; whether it\’s working up to a major ride, or re-doing a web site. As so often happens, my vacation is turning into a working vacation. This time, the big thing is adjusting my web site to be more mobile-friendly. I had to chip away at it, too, in order to shed some excess weight. Just not by eating potato chips! And I\’ll have to keep it going if I want to keep that weight off, even though it sounds like quite a drag to have to keep an eye on carb consumption indefinitely. I had no idea how spoiled I was before this began! However, I would rather do all that carb-watching and calorie counting than have to go on medication for diabetes; and I certainly want to avoid having to take insulin! Cycling should be a big help here. It burns calories; and I enjoy it. I\’m amazed at the athletes on Team Novo Nordisk. They must learn how their blood sugar reacts to what level of effort; and what length of effort. This book goes into some detail on the subject. I admit that it\’s rather over my head, so I hope I\’ll never need to worry about it. Yesterday I got my hybrid back from the bike shop; and this morning I was able to take a trip to the supermarket. I looked for tofu in several sections of the store, but couldn\’t find it. I got everything else; and later, when it\’s a bit warmer, I want to go out on the road bike. I only hope the wind won\’t be as pesky as it was yesterday!

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Watch It!

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I\’d better watch it! Yesterday my weight was back to almost 108 pounds. I know — some day-to-day fluctuation in weight is normal. The problem is, I was born with a mega-sweet tooth, and I always have had trouble curbing my appetite for candy. Controlling that sweet tooth is especially hard in the evenings. I often feel hungry when I\’m probably actually tired, or thirsty, or both. Sometimes I nibble on sweets when I\’m bored. Other times there\’s something that needs doing, and I don\’t feel like doing it; and I\’ll snack instead. How can I watch it? I can heed the usual advice. I can try taking a drink of water. Maybe I\’m really thirsty; not hungry. Or I can do something that will keep my hands busy, like washing the dishes. That reminds me of something that was in the humor section of a magazine eons ago. The writer told that her husband wanted to quit smoking, and decided to take up knitting, so he\’d have something to do with his hands. Of course the wife was worried about \”what will the neighbors think.\” The man replied that he didn\’t care what they thought, as long as they didn\’t think he was knitting!? I had an appointment this morning, and didn\’t get to ride until about 11:00. On the way out, I picked up a terrific tailwind; and set a new speed record: 24.55 mph! Naturally I paid for it on the way back home. The gusts were as high as 20 mph, and bike control was difficult. Often I had to stop when I wanted to pull out the water bottle. I hope we don\’t have wind like this come Saturday!

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Which Day Is It?

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So, which day is it? Being on vacation throws off my sense of time. Day before yesterday it felt like Sunday, because I had done my long ride. It also didn\’t feel quite like Saturday, because I didn\’t do laundry. Yesterday didn\’t really feel like Sunday. I did laundry; and as a rule, I don\’t wash my clothes on Sundays. I wasn\’t riding, either. I thought of going for a short, easy ride; but the wind was stronger than it had been the day before! It\’s not an \”easy\” ride when I\’m battling the breeze. I kept thinking of making a trip to the grocery store, only to remember that the hybrid is still in the shop. The shop is closed on Sunday and Monday, so I won\’t have that bicycle back before tomorrow. At about 4 pm yesterday I finally decided to take a short ride. I was tired of sitting around. The wind wasn\’t quite as bad as I expected, but on the way out I had the sun right in my eyes. That\’s not fun. This morning I had to go for a COVID-19 test. Even though I\’m on vacation, I think it would be a good idea to check my work email once a day to be sure there aren\’t any messages about a shut-down because of the virus. As of last Friday, we\’re operating under the Orange level. But for now I can take it easy. Which day is it? When I\’m on vacation, it doesn\’t really matter!

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