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Railroaded?

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Sometimes I feel like I\’m getting railroaded. I hope young children can keep their fascination with \”choo-choos\” as long as possible; but I, for one, have no great liking for trains. This morning, when I was still about four blocks from home, there was a freight train coming along from the opposite direction. For some reason it was blaring its horn for a crossing that no longer exists. OUCH! My ears did not like that. Shortly I reached my usual crossing; and dismounted to wait for the train to clear. It was a very long one; and wouldn\’t you know? The dratted thing stopped. I waited a minute or two, and the train hadn\’t started up again. There was no telling how long it might sit there, so I headed for the next crossing, 0.3 miles away. That crossing, too, was blocked by the train. If it had only moved along the length of about three cars, the crossing would have been clear. The train was still immobile, too. The next crossing was another 0.7 miles away, which meant I had taken quite a detour by the time I finally reached home. By then, the train had gone. I probably would have done much better to wait for it to move. That drives me crazy. Last year or the year before, trains would sit and sit for several days! It might easily be 24 hours before a train blocking a crossing would finally be split so that the crossing was clear. I didn\’t know what was up with all that. One day, I saw large bundles of railroad ties at my crossing; and realized that they\’d been replacing ties. I hope they don\’t start that again for about another 20 years! I\’m tired of getting railroaded.

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Word Association

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Word association makes odd things happen. This cyclocomputer of mine is a Garmin Edge 520; but I\’m always trying to call it a \”Garmin Sharp\”! I suppose I\’m comparing \”edge\” to the edge of a knife, which is — of course — sharp. Having it does seem to help me to sharpen up my training, so maybe \”Garmin Sharp\” isn\’t so far off. I can watch my cadence when I shift to a very hard gear, and then want to pedal at a higher rpm. Before I had that readout screen on my handlebars, maintaining the cadence (or any cadence!) was far harder; and, indeed, was little better than a guessing game. When I want to work to attain a specific speed, I can see whether I\’m really doing it. That\’s especially helpful when I want to push for 16-17 mph, instead of 15 mph. If I want to get faster, riding faster is part of training. I can watch my heart rate as well. If I start to feel too \”gaspy\”, I check my current bpm. If I\’m getting too close to my max, I\’ll know that I need reduce my efforts for a while and recover. The Garmin has many features that I haven\’t gotten around to using yet, such as setting a route. So far there\’s been no real need to set routes — but maybe someday! Then word association might trigger some more oddities, such as setting down roots.* *\”route\”: is sometimes pronounced like \”root\”

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Pairing Up

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Want to try pairing up on wheels, like Daisy Bell? I\’ve been familiar with the song Daisy Bell since childhood. These aren\’t the exact words that my mother used to sing, but I guess it\’s like a lot of such songs; there are a lot of variations. How would it be to ride a bicycle built for two? So far I\’ve never tried riding a tandem. I would think that it must take some doing. From what I\’ve read, a tandem is good for two people of differing abilities who want to ride together. Each can pedal at his/her own strength. I guess the trickiest part would be starting and stopping. Both riders, it seems to me, must use the same foot to start, and put down the same foot when stopping. Do tandem riders ever swap positions? (The front rider is the captain, and the rear rider is the stoker). That way, both riders would learn how to ride both positions. I see a tandem-riding couple around here pretty regularly, but haven\’t had the chance to speak with them about these things. Oh, and what would it be like to crash on a tandem bicycle? I don\’t even like to think of it. If one rider goes down, both go down. It would not be pretty. I hope Daisy Bell never had that problem!  

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Ring Out Wild Bells!

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Ring out, wild bells! Let people know you\’re coming! Okay, so the poem is about \”Ring out the old, ring in the new\”. Riding a bicycle might or might not be poetic; but I sure wish more riders had — and used — bells on their bicycles. It\’s a bit unnerving to have a rider come up from behind and whizz past me without calling, \”On your left!\” And also without sounding a bell. I don\’t always hear a rider approaching from the rear; and I can\’t watch my rearview mirror nonstop. I\’ve got to watch where I\’m going. Add to that the difficulty in getting the mirror positioned correctly in the first place. For the hybrid, I have an Incredibell; and I like it much better than the bell I have for the road bike. The Incredibell has a much better sound. I tried to switch the bells from one bike to the other; but the band for the Incredibell doesn\’t fit around the road bike\’s handlebars. These bells, incidentally, are not waterproof. When I get caught in the rain, and my bell gets full of water, it makes hardly any sound at all. Then there\’s no use in saying, ring out, wild bells.

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Lab Report?

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How about a lab report, here? Today\’s experiment with using Clif Bars for my long-ride fuel went pretty well. I seemed to have a little less trouble with feeling tired on the way home. The wind, however, was pesky for the return ride. I did a lot of pedaling on the small ring, using a rapid cadence. Even so, my overall average speed was well over 13 mph. Fast enough for Tour de Cure😊 My hopes that I wouldn\’t get rained on were not fulfilled. When I still had about 10.5 miles to go to reach home, I saw a big cloud in a southerly direction; and clearly somebody was getting some pretty heavy rain. I hoped to beat the rain home; but with about six miles left to go, I ran into the first shower. Fortunately it wasn\’t as heavy as I thought it might be; and luckily there wasn\’t lightning. What got really annoying was that the sun came out while it was still raining. I took my sunglasses off when it was raining because it\’s hard to see through wet lenses. When the sun came out, my eyes weren\’t any too comfortable. My ride was 51.00 miles, round trip; and roll time was 3:44:21. I actually was tempted to skip riding today, because I was so sleepy that I could hardly get myself to get out of bed. Typically I plan, perhaps over-optimistically, to start my Sunday long ride at 6 am. Today I didn\’t get going  until about 7:25! When I got home, I had my usual recovery drink. (See video at ~1:13 minutes). Then what did I do? I ate a couple of toaster pastries and a fun-sized candy bar. That doesn\’t look any too good on my lab report!

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Get a Grip!

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Do you need to get a grip? Or is your grip already too hard? I notice that, the more slowly I ride; the more likely my hands are to start feeling numb and tingling. Does that happen to you? It can be very annoying. I guess the reason for that is, slower riding means less pressure on the pedals; and that makes my weight go forward, resulting in more pressure on my hands. When the weather is cold, this problem is worse. I find that worrisome, having already shown some symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. I don\’t need to have hand numbness curtail my riding. I\’d better get a grip on it, and figure out this thing.

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MUSH!!

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I wish it had been the \”mush\” hinted at on the left: strong and energetic; and just a\’-rarin\’ to go. Instead, my legs felt like mush as in cornmeal mush (or oatmeal) this morning. Why, I don\’t know. It\’s not as though I rode either long or hard yesterday. In fact, yesterday morning I did a short, easy ride. Was it DOMS; that is, a  delayed reaction to Wednesday\’s force exercises? Yesterday afternoon I rode home through a downpour; did that trigger something? Maybe I need a rain suit instead of a poncho. The local Tour de Cure has announced the ride times necessary for this year\’s event. Riders on the 63-mile route will need to finish in six hours. That means that, unless the conditions are truly horrific, I shouldn\’t have trouble. If I continue to prepare as I have since last November, I believe I\’ll do fine.  All I\’ll need to do is to tell my legs to mush!  

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Tis the Day

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\’Tis the day for… Bike Friday, of course! I\’ve never tried one, and know very little about them; but I\’ve seen people with folding bikes a few times. The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling discusses the Bike Friday (pg. 68-69); including a photo of one of the authors riding a Bike Friday. The Bike Friday does look odd to me. The wheels are much smaller than those of a regular bicycle; and the seat tube is tall, so that the saddle is at the usual height for the rider. I wonder whether that makes it tricky to balance and steer. Does a Bike Friday feel different from a conventional bicycle? A folding bicycle is handy for the commuter who must take some form of public transit for part of the way, since it takes up less space than a conventional bicycle. If you must take along a bicycle when traveling by air, a folding bike is easier to pack. They say that one of the signs of a true cyclist is always wanting one more bike for something. Maybe I\’m not a true cyclist? (Perish the thought!) I haven\’t become interested in getting a Bike Friday; but even if I did want one, I have no room for another bike. That means that, even though today is Friday, I can\’t say that \’tis the day for a Bike Friday.

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Medic Alert

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Medic Alert, even if only as an ID, is a wise idea; but if you ever have a medical emergency, I hope you won\’t need one of these! However, if you have any kind of medical condition, such as a heart problem; a Medic Alert bracelet is a wise idea. I wear one because of multiple chemical sensitivities. I\’m not nearly as severely affected as some people who have the condition, but it\’s bad enough. I need to wear filter masks nearly all the time, except at home. I had to switch to a lighter-weight type because the fabric kind  was too smothery. And do I ever get tired of wearing those things! I sometimes worry about possible long-term health consequences from inhaling through those masks for hours a day; five days a week. Several months ago I got a wearable air purifier; but it seems to have no effect on whatever it is that I smell all day at work. The person who wears that stuff has toned it down a good bit, which I appreciate; but it still bothers me. I have a salt lamp at my desk, too; but it doesn\’t seem to help. I need to wear a filter mask in stores, and any public area. \”Air fresheners\”; the detergents on the shelves in stores;  and on and on. Just walking down the street, I\’m assailed by the smells of laundry detergents and fabric softeners; exhaust fumes from motor vehicles and leaf blowers; and even insecticides. Plenty of times I\’ve wished I could wear one of those masks while riding; but it makes it too difficult to breathe, not to mention trying to get a drink of water around it. I just have to take my chances, and hope I don\’t have to use Medic Alert.  

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Rain Rain Go Away

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As the old kids\’ song goes, Rain, rain, go away! We got an ill-timed downpour this afternoon. During the last hour I was at work, it got darker and darker outside. I donned the poncho before I left work, as a precaution. Wise move; there was a light sprinkle. The rain quickly became heavier; and before I had ridden 0.3 miles the wind had sprung up, and it was pouring. Between the wind and the downpour, it was hard to see where I was riding. I was glad I had my lights with me! Because of the weather, I had decided to take the short route home. Unfortunately that\’s alongside traffic. When I tried to turn my head to look behind me, my face got blasted by the wind. I caught myself wishing I had taken my usual, longer route. At least then I would not have had cars at my elbow. I got home with a dripping-wet bicycle; a dripping poncho; soaked socks and shoes; and with half the stuff in my bike trunk damp. I wish I had double-bagged it all. In a deluge like today\’s, the trunk\’s zippers leak like a sieve. And wouldn\’t you know, it stopped raining about five minutes after I got home. If I could have known the shower would be brief, I would have waited it out. That\’s the trouble with our rainstorms. We can\’t tell whether the shower will stop in 15 minutes, or persist for hours. Getting caught in the rain means extra work, too. Dry the bike, lube the chain, find a place to hang up the poncho to dry, etcetera. So rain, rain, go away. I, for one, am tired of you.

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