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Fartlek

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Fartlek, despite its off-color sound, doesn\’t fall into the \”unprintable\” category. It derives from the Swedish for \”speed play\”. I first encountered \”fartlek\” in reference to cross-country skiing. It\’s rather like a song I heard as a young child: \”Giddy-up, giddy-up little pony/Now walk a little while\”. Speed play is very similar; whether on skis or on a bicycle. Incidentally, this predates My Little Pony® by many years. It was from a kiddie book that my brother had, about a little boy named Billy who got a pony. A rider doing an interval workout is performing speed play, too. The intervals might be very fast and hard; and the time between them very slow and easy. A cyclist who is out on a casual long ride also might goes fast or slow at whim. Maybe I should try that when I\’m out on a Sunday long ride; instead of trying to maintain a steady pace! In a sense, you could say that we perform fartlek all day long! Sometimes we walk fast; and at other times we drag our feet. We might run like heck to catch the bus before it pulls away from the bus stop. There you have it. Play with your speed, and have fun!

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The Numbers Are In

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The numbers are in! To be precise, my Cycle September numbers are in. I logged my rides in the Love to Ride site all month; and today I checked to see what my total was. The number given was 542 miles. I was surprised, because I didn\’t think it was really that much.  I dug into my pen-and-paper cycling journal to double check that figure; and I came up with a total of 521.23 miles. Then I remembered: when I log rides online for such challenges, the numbers are automatically rounded off. For instance, 14.6 miles becomes 15 miles. Those extra few-tenths of miles, like pennies, can really add up! Now that the numbers are in, I\’m back to my usual routine; and take Mondays off from bicycles. I think it\’s good for me to have a day away from riding once a week. My legs can recover better from the long Sunday ride. Did anybody out there do the Cycle September challenge? How did it go?

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More Power to You

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More power to you if you can generate enough wattage to light up the world like this. I doubt that I\’ll ever be able to do it! I do hope that I\’m improving my power on two wheels. That was the point of beginning \”force\” exercises last November, well in advance of Tour de Cure. My earliest such efforts were limited to 10 seconds of tying to pedal 70 rpm in a very hard gear. Initially, it took most of those 10 seconds for me to get my cadence up to 70! Over the months, I\’ve very gradually increased the length of those intervals. It took until about August for me to really see some effects of those hard efforts. The faster a cyclist can pedal in the harder a gear, the more wattage he or she generates. The longer the cyclist can keep this up, the more distance covered in X amount of time. Thus I\’ve been working at riding for longer and longer on the big ring, and smaller cogs. On days when I\’m working against a headwind, I catch myself longing for a power meter. (I\’d rather have a crank-mounted type, if I could find one; I still don\’t feel ready for roadie shoes and pedals). As I\’ve seen stated in so many sources, speed isn\’t necessarily the best way to measure your progress. Factors such as terrain and wind can skew your speed quite a bit. But power? If you\’re generating X amount of watts, it\’s X amount of watts, whether you\’re laboring up an hors cate´gorie mountainside, flying along on a flat road, or battling a 20 mph headwind. If you can generate megawatts against such a wind, more power to you. Or should I say, more power from you?  

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More Culinary Adventures

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I\’ve been up to more culinary adventures. Every few weeks I get a hankering for macaroni and cheese; and here is what I like to do. I fill a 2-quart pot about halfway with water; and put it on the stove over a very low flame. The water heats while I get the other ingredients ready. I drain and flake the tuna.  I open the can of peas; drain it; and measure out 1/2 cup. I put the peas with the tuna until it\’s time to add them to the macaroni. The directions on the box say to use 4 tablespoons of margarine or butter; and 1/4 cup milk. I use 1 tablespoon of olive oil; and 1/4 cup plain, low-fat yogurt. I also prepare some freshly-ground white pepper and parsley flakes. When the \”mac\” is cooked to my liking, I remove the pot from the stove; but leave the burner on very low. I drain the macaroni in a colander and return it to the pot. Then I add the olive oil; pepper and parsley; the yogurt; and the contents of the cheese-powder packet. I return the pot to the stove, stir until the cheese powder is well mixed in, and stir in the peas and tuna. When I have olives on hand, I like to slice up about six of them and add them to the mix. Voila! A cheapskate version of Pasta with Smoked Salmon (The Feed Zone Cookbook, pg. 227). When I\’m hungry after a long Sunday ride, this makes a nice lunch; with enough left over for lunch (or breakfast!) the next day. And there are always more culinary adventures out there! Note: this isn\’t an endorsement of the brands shown here; it\’s what I have on hand at the moment.

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YES!!

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Oh, yes; it was good today. \”Ja\”, pronounced \”yah\”, is German for \”Yes\”. And today\’s ride got lucky. The sun almost came out at one point; but the overcast remained. The rain held off, however, which makes me happy. When it\’s overcast on a hot day, of course it keeps me cooler. I don\’t need quite as much water or electrolyte drink. The wind got as strong as 10 mph; and, wouldn\’t you know, was against me on the way back home. In spite of that, my average speed was slightly higher than that of last Sunday\’s long ride. When I got the headwind, I stayed on the small ring and used a high cadence. I think I need more such low gear/high cadence work. It makes me feel a bit short of breath; and it also makes my legs feel funny. I\’ve developed the habit of doing much of my riding on the big ring, and maybe my slow-twitch muscle fibers have gotten shortchanged. Mileage, 51.60! It was tiring when I had the headwind; but I\’m not exhausted. Things seem to bode well for Tour de Cure!

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Dark vs Light

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                      Dark vs light? Which is better for riding? I ride in the dark is on a regular basis. During the work week, it\’s the best way for me to be sure I get to ride. In hot weather, when the afternoon heat index is over 100 degrees, I don\’t want to try to ride at 5:00 pm. There are advantages to riding so early in the day. During the Summer, it\’s cooler early in the morning. I\’ve seen many a beautiful moonset; and I don\’t need sunblock.  The drawbacks: come Winter, it\’s colder before the sun comes up. I also have to be much more attentive to where I\’m going than I do in the daytime; especially if it\’s foggy or raining. I must always be  sure my lights are properly charged. Riding in the daytime is a very different thing. I don\’t have to be nearly as concerned about other path users. They\’re far easier to see. Of course I can see much farther ahead than I can in the dark. It could be argued that I don\’t need to use lights in the daytime; but I do. Cars with no headlights are hard to spot in broad daylight; so how much harder it must be to spot a bicycle with no lights! The downsides: I need sunblock; and it needs to be reapplied every 80 minutes. Especially in Summer, I need to start early so that I can be home before the worst of the heat. That means no sleeping in; even on Sunday! Even if I start a 50-mile ride before 7:00 am, it\’s blasting hot before I finish. Dark vs light is analogous to the \”heat vs cold\” debate (see Archives, 05/07/18). Cycling is a balancing act in more ways than one.

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Flip of the Coin

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Another flip of the coin! We\’ve gotten another one of those \”50% chance of showers and thunderstorms\” forecasts; for both tomorrow and Sunday. One way to think of it is, \”is the glass half-full\”. Maybe it won\’t rain. There might be blazing sunshine all day. Then again, it might pour; and bring lightning with it! That makes me very uneasy; and I feel like a rolling lightning rod. Bicycling, like life in general, is a a gamble. When you go for a ride, you get what you get as far as weather is concerned. Forecasts aren\’t always accurate, as cyclists know only too well. The weather can change very rapidly, too; and a ride that began in the sunshine can end in the pouring rain. Hence the reference to flip of the coin!

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A Very Special Team

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Well … not that kind of special. But every year, as Tour de Cure approaches, my thoughts turn to a very special team: Team Novo Nordisk. Those folks really are extra special. Living with either type of diabetes must be difficult enough. Imagine balancing the demands of monitoring Type 1 diabetes with the demands that pro cycling makes on the body. It\’s quite a fine line to walk, I imagine. Er, I mean, to ride. If I had diabetes, would I dare to ride at all? I can just see myself blacking out and crashing because I had run out of GU-Gels and my blood sugar has dropped too low. My desire to ride, however, would probably outweigh that concern in short order. Perhaps even against doctor\’s orders! Tour de Cure time is also time to applaud another very special team: the Red Riders. All riders in TdC are on Team Red, but the Red Riders are TdC participants who have diabetes. There are five weeks to go before the local Tour de Cure. Those weeks will zip by in no time. Soon I must get my road bike tuned up. I also must decide what I\’ll take along for ride food that day. There will be rest stops with snacks, so it won\’t be as critical as food for my long, Sunday rides. I want to be sure I don\’t bonk, though. We cyclists must keep the glycogen levels up!

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The Nose Knows

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The Nose Knows The nose knows, they say. Or does it? I’m not so sure. It seems to me that, if my nose knew what a nuisance it is, it would stop getting sniffly when I’m bicycling. I do have a few minor allergies to plants and mold; but it seems to me that that proboscis of mine is plain old perverse. My crazy nose gets sniffly even when I ride in hot weather. When it’s cold outside, especially when there’s a good wind, the sniffles are so bad that I’m forced to resort to “snot rockets”. Either that, or I’m constantly wiping my nose on my gloves. Both are disgusting; but I can’t just let my nose drip, right? Besides, I get tired of breathing through my mouth. For one thing, mouth breathing makes me get thirsty faster. Good reason to use a Camel-Bak even is the weather is freezing! Apparently I have exercise-induced rhinitis. Whatever the name, it drives me bonkers.  As a contributing factor, cold and wind make my eyes water. Sure, there are over-the-counter allergy remedies; but I don’t like taking them as a regular thing. There really doesn’t seem to be much I can do about those sniffles. If only I could find a way to make my nose, well, run some errands for me! It ought to know how because, you know, the nose knows.    

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What\’s Up?

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What\’s up with me? Am I doing something wrong on my weekly long rides? I seem to get tireder than I should on the way back home; and I have to make more rest stops that I really want to. Is my nutrition off-base? Do I need to eat more before starting out?  The catch is, if I\’m to get underway before it gets too hot, there\’s not time to eat a hearty breakfast and let it \”settle\” before I ride. Not, that is, unless I get up at 3 o\’clock in the morning. No, thank you! Am I doing something wrong when it comes to on-bike food? Do I need to eat more? Less? Are Clif Bars and Fiber One bars the wrong kind of food? Do I need to drink more water? More electrolyte drink? What about my distance? It\’s not as though I suddenly began shooting for 40-50 miles. I\’ve been working up to it; and trying to take it gradually. Am I pacing myself wrong? In my zeal to improve my pace before Tour de Cure, am I pushing too hard for too long? It\’s one thing for me to work for a faster speed during shorter rides; but when I\’m aiming for 40-50 miles, it might be better for me to slow down. That\’s easier said than done, unfortunately.   More FAQ It gets so hot before I can finish a long ride. I wear sunblock, of course; but maybe the sun is still sapping my energy. Is that the problem? Cooler weather is probably at least a few weeks away. I\’ve known us to get a cool front on October 6, though; so maybe relief is closer than I think. Temporary relief, anyway. After a cool front it gets hot again. Then there\’s the fact that, with a sleep disorder, I\’m always tired. I\’ve battled it for 31 years now; and don\’t remember what it\’s like to feel truly awake and energetic. And all that about the Sunday long ride! I wonder whether my weekday rides have been on the right track in my prep for Tour de Cure. If not, there\’s very little time left to try to correct the errors of my ways. I\’ve got these final few days of September; and then there are the first two weeks of October. I can still work during that time to improve my force. After that I\’d probably be wise to ditch the on-bike force exercises and just work on my pace. Then, during the final week before The Day, I\’ll need to taper — shorter rides (but at normal intensity), and just a few very short hard pushes to keep the muscles sharp. Those are the FAQs. What\’s up with me? Where are the answers?

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