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Obstacle Course?

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An obstacle course is to be expected if you take up cyclocross. But in a road race? I chanced across that article only a few days ago. This is yet another thing to make me glad that I\’m not a pro cyclist! A \”sketchy\” surface; an unlit tunnel; unpredictable people. That sounds like it was one tough day. Cyclocross can get tough, I\’m sure. Would I like to try it? I don\’t know. I don\’t have a \’cross bike, and my road bike might not be sturdy enough. My hybrid is probably too heavy. I\’d need scads of training, that\’s certain. Can I make the time for it? Could I grit my teeth and plow through those power-developing exercises? I tend to be a wimp when it comes to that, so maybe I\’ve answered my own question. I\’d have to push upper-body strengthening exercises big time! I can pick up either one of my bicycles to carry it up the three steps to my front door; but lifting a bicycle over my head for \”portage\” would be something else again. That\’s especially true of the hybrid, which weighs 35 pounds or so. Hey, that\’s an idea. Practice the obstacle course doing portage with the hybrid, and portaging a road or \’cross bike during the race would seem easy. That\’s one obstacle take care of! As to cyclocross being rough — what would Teddy Roosevelt have thought of it?    

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Spring Training

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Spring training? H\’m It never occurred me to try to teach anything to a coil of metal! Leaving crazy jokes aside, cyclists want to get going with their Spring training when warmer weather sets in; especially those who live where snow and ice make outdoor riding difficult during Winter. Here are some things to guard against. Understandably, the very first precaution is: don\’t go too hard too soon. A rarin\’-to-to cyclist who\’s felt like a caged animal for several months could very well find it hard not to get out there on the first day of ice- and snow-free roads and blast away. This might easily lead to strains and overuse injuries. Saying not to let group rides intimidate you might have been tailored specifically to me. I see enough pace lines out there that whiz past me when I\’m working hard to go 15 mph. Not attempting to keep up with them seems like plain common sense. But am I wrong? The same thing applies to \”same old intervals\”. I\’m only beginning to get back to working at \”force\” intervals. Today I touched 20+ mph, but that really isn\’t saying much. Some cyclists cruise faster than that! I\’m not as consistent with cross-training as I ought to be … Where did I put my kettlebell? As to calories, I certainly manage to get far too many! For advice on working up a season\’s plan for training and racing, may I suggest The Cyclist\’s Training Bible? When I read it, I catch myself wishing I could train like that, even if I\’m never going to enter a single race. Who knows, though. You never know what life might spring on you.  

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Why a Microwave?

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Why a microwave? Do we really need them? They seem to have become indispensable to modern life. So much so, that at times it can seem difficult to find foods that DON\’T require one for cooking! This cup of soup, another salvage-store find, is an example. The only cooking directions printed on the cup are for a microwave. I do not have one, and really don\’t want one. I\’ve no place to put it! But I decided to try this soup, anyway. For the first attempt, I added boiling water to the cup up to the \”fill\” line; gave it a good stir; and let it sit about four minutes. The soup came out pretty lumpy, and I  decided to cook it in a pot the next time. For the stovetop attempt, I put 1-1/4 cups of water in a quart pot, and brought it to a boil. Then I poured in the contents of the soup cup. When the pot\’s contents started boiling again, I turned the heat down to a simmer; and cooked and stirred the soup for 3-4 minutes. It still came out rather lumpy. It might work better if I slowly sifted the soup mix into the boiling water, the way I\’ve read you should do with cornmeal if making hasty pudding. This potato soup tastes pretty good, but I\’m not so crazy about it that I want it often. But sometimes you\’ve just got to try something new. Note: image from Amazon dot com.  

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Booster Clubs?

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Could \”booster clubs\” possibly be a term for  Grand Tour bicycle races? Or for an event such as RAGBRAI? Booster clubs, after all, are organizations that work to support a sports team. Some bicycle races began as a means to increase circulation of a news publication; hence, boosters. The Tour de France, Giro d\’Italia, and the Vuelta a Espana were all established as circulation promotions: for L\’Auto, La Gazzetto dello Sport, and Informaciones, respectively. RAGBRAI began in much the same way. The Register\’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa now attracts so many riders that would-be participants must enter a lottery. If you want to ride across Iowa with the bunch, put your name into the hat. If your name is drawn, you get to ride. If not? Sorry; try again next year. Other boosters are fund-raising rides such as Tour de Cure.  Tours de Cure are much more localized than an event like RAGBRAI, so there isn\’t a drawing to see who gets to participate. Each rider must, however, raise a minimum amount of money, something I always found very difficult. Maybe I need my own booster club?

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Chaines

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Chaines (chaînés, to give the correct spelling) seems to be more than a ballet term. As I\’ve said before, sometimes I feel chained to that bicycle! Hence, chaines. This morning I went out on the road bike. Once on the way back home, I was trying to shift to the big ring; and the chain didn\’t want to shift. It clattered and rattled, and finally dropped. I\’ve read of a way to catch a dropping chain while pedaling, and get it back onto the small ring. It seems to me that it involved pedaling in reverse for one or two revolutions; but I don\’t remember those things when the chain is resisting the big ring. Of course I had to stop; dismount; lay down the bicycle; wiggle my hands out of my gloves; and put the chain back on the small ring. I would have to get my hands greasy the day I first wear my brand-new gloves! And then, while I was holding the rear wheel up and turning the pedals by hand, so that I could get shifted back onto the biggest cog, that **** chain dropped again! A small group of riders came by, and stopped to be sure I was OK; a standard proceeding among cyclists. One of them suggested that my cassette might be worn. I had my road bike\’s cassette replaced about 10,000 miles ago, at about 14,000 miles. Is it time to replace it again? Already?? Do the rings need replacing? All that trouble for that little chain! 05/23/2020 update: my bicycle need new pulleys!  

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Look Before You Leap

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\”Look before you leap.\” Who hasn\’t heard that bit of advice? How many MTB riders have to \”jump blind\” in spite of the admonition? If  you get seriously into MTB, learning to jump is crucial. It can be difficult or impossible to see what\’s on the other side of even a small hump; so if you don\’t want to have to \”jump blind\”, you\’d better ride the course ahead of time if at all possible. Look before you leap! At the very least, study the course\’s printed description. For MTB jumping, you might want to consider using a helmet like this Leatt DBX. It looks like it combines a mouth guard with head protection, which seems like a good idea to me. There\’s a kind of \”jump\” that I\’ve heard of in the context of bicycle racing. It involves putting your bicycle in a very hard gear, and starting with a very hard push of the pedals, i.e. jumping. They say it can put you ahead of the rest of the riders: while they\’re shifting through their cassettes as they work to gain speed, you\’re already in a high gear and off the front. Another kind of jump is shifting into harder and harder gears while pedaling, then suddenly putting very hard pressure into pedaling; I believe that\’s called a \”surge\”. It\’s a way to pull ahead of the rest of the pack as the finish line nears. Oh, dear. All that talk is making me feel jumpy!

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No Kidding

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  No kidding, it\’s possible to ride safely with young children. I admit I have no personal experience with this, but the Internet has a lot of information on the subject. I\’m not speaking here of youngsters  old enough to ride their own bicycles; I mean kids between, say, ages one and three. The child should be able to hold up his head, and the neck needs to be strong enough to support the weight of a helmet; this begins at about one year of age. So, how do take the very young child cycling? One option is a bicycle trailer. Put a helmet on her; strap her in; hitch the trailer to your bike and pedal away. An advantage to this mode of child transport is that other items can also be stowed in the trailer; and when the child outgrows it, the trailer is great for bringing home the groceries. Another possibility is an over-the-rear-wheel seat. I\’ve seen bicycles equipped with these. It seems to me that it would take quite some practice to be able to control a bicycle with a weight up to 40 pounds behind you. This would be very different from having a load from the supermarket back there! Groceries might get heavy, but at least they\’re inert. Children move! Maybe your child can be your co-pilot: helping you with hand signals, for example. That would let the youngster learn some aspects of cycling before he or she starts to ride independently. Then the child will have a good start on a lifetime of cycling — no kidding!

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The Old Grind

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Yes, the old grind, and I don\’t mean coffee. It is SO hard to have to go back to work after the holiday break. For nine days, I could stay in bed until at least 7 am. I was finally beginning to feel rested! And then today, it\’s back to rising by 4:45 am if I\’m to be sure of getting in some riding. I now can\’t get to my web site until after I\’m home from working all day. By then I\’m tired, and have a half-dozen other things tugging at my mind. That doesn\’t make it easier. As to riding, there was a strong wind this morning, and the possibility of rain; so I went to ride in the park. I got lazy and rode around only twice before heading home. Maybe it was my imagination, but the wind seemed to be strengthening. I’m glad it was behind me on the way home! Before I reached home it was starting to sprinkle a bit. I had to take a detour to get home (over horribly bumpy streets) because of a train. About 20 minutes after I got home, it rained hard for a short spell. There was even thunder once! I didn’t take a bike to work because I had to go from there to a dental appointment this afternoon. The threat of rain and T-storms wasn\’t over yet, and we still could get bad weather tonight and tomorrow. Unfortunately it\’s now going to be a grind day to day. C\’est la vie.

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Start the Year Right

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Let\’s start the year right by jumping into a ride! I went out about 9:15 am. As I expected, there were big patches of debris from last night\’s pyrotechnic revelry. There must have been five or six within 4.5 miles, and most of those patches of junk were pretty big. I wish  the people who set off all those things would get up at the crack of dawn to sweep up their mess. Riding through all that stuff isn\’t so good for bicycle tires! Who wants to start New Year\’s by getting a flat? The temperature at 53 degrees wasn\’t bad. The wind freshened from 3 mph to 7 mph before I got back home. It was enough to be noticeable and bothersome. Yesterday I did some hard efforts, so I guess I was a bit tired today. Or maybe plain lazy. That\’s not a good way to start off a new year, is it? I remember last New Year\’s, when I went for a ride. Of course I wanted to start the year right with a ride, but the weather that day was miserable: colder than it is today, and misty/drizzly. Today was better, thank goodness. Although the sky was mostly overcast, it didn\’t rain; and I don\’t mind not having the sun in my eyes! By tomorrow rain and even T-storms are expected. Great. Right when I have to go back to work. They say that, what you start the new year doing, you\’ll do all year. I dropped my water bottle today, and I hope it doesn\’t mean that I\’ll do it every ride all year long. What a nuisance that would be. So I got in my miles for today, and set 2020 rolling!

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