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Biking in the Rain

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I\’m biking in the rain; to paraphrase the song. But I don\’t really feel like singing when I\’m out for a ride and it begins to pour. Even if I have a poncho with me, I\’m soaked by the time I can get into it. In warm weather, vigorous exercise and a plastic covering are not a good mix; I get too hot. If I put on the poncho but don\’t pull its hood over my head, the rain runs down inside the poncho\’s neck opening and I get wet through anyhow. It\’s like not having a poncho at all. If it\’s dark as well as raining, reduced visibility is a problem. It\’s especially bad when I have hard efforts planned. Sometimes, however briefly, I get up to 21 mph; and I worry more than usual about the people who are out there with no lights; nothing reflective; and wearing dark clothing. Or course sometimes the rain catches me when I\’m already out riding. Somehow that doesn\’t seem as bad as starting a ride in the rain. Maybe it\’s because I can be philosophical about the former. I can\’t do a thing to stop the rain; so I\’ve got to keep biking in the rain if I want to get back home. In addition, I\’ve gotten some endorphins in my system to help combat the wet-weather blues. There are times when we get a long streak of rain-free days. Then again, we\’ll get seemingly endless spells of rain every day. If the only way I can get my ride is to get wet, I\’ll just have to get wet. And be sure I have a lot of spare socks on hand.

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What a Relief!

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What a relief! All the to-do over Tropical Storm Gordon turned out to be much ado about nothing, at least in my immediate vicinity. It didn\’t even rain much, although we\’ve got showers and thunderstorms in the forecast for a few days. Some areas got hit pretty hard, despite the fact that Gordon never reached hurricane strength; and the storm resulted in at least one death. Regions farther North in Gordon\’s path could get a lot of rain, so the threat isn\’t entirely over. This morning the wind was only 6 mph; and for a change I had it behind me on the way home. What a relief that was! I worked at stints of pushing for 16 or even 17 mph; and for 6.5 miles I averaged 15.55 mph! I think it\’s time now to take things up a notch, and work for 16 mph as a regular thing. By the time I left work the sky had some very stormy-looking clouds; and I was glad to get home without getting wet. It isn\’t raining yet; but I expect it any time.

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NOW I\’m Freezing!

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Now I\’m freezing! It isn\’t unusual for our first cold weather of the season to arrive abruptly. One day it\’s in the 80s; and the next morning it\’s down to 40 degrees! If riding in the heat presents problems, riding in the cold comes with its own set of difficulties. I don\’t want to collapse with hypothermia like that poor bicycle on the left! Where I live, snow; ice; and sleet are extremely rare. A little sleet shuts down the entire city; but when the temperature starts to get much below 60 I really feel it. I always was sensitive to the cold. I guess I should be glad I don\’t live where I\’d need icebike.org. If a humid climate makes heat seem worse, it also makes cold seem worse; the chill seems to penetrate right down to the bones. Post-Katrina I stayed with my sister in eastern Washington State; and there, temperatures in the teens are more comfortable than New Orleans at 40 degrees! When the weather turns \”brisk\”, I bring out the skull cap; leg warmers; and so on. But perhaps the biggest annoyance about cold-weather riding is the way my nose runs; especially if there\’s a wind. If I don\’t want to keep wiping my nose on a glove, the only alternative is the snot rocket. Yes, it sounds disgusting; but what can a body? If I want to keep in shape, I\’ve got to ride in all weathers; even if now I\’m freezing. If only layering could take care of that nose!

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Celebrating!

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I feel like celebrating! I finally got the Home page of my web site restored. I\’d like to know why the image disappeared in the first place, so if it happens again, I\’ll know what to do. I\’ve sure got plenty to learn about keeping a web site going. Aside from that, we\’re all on tenterhooks around here. Tropical Storm Gordon is headed this way. It looks like his main impact will be to the East of us; but those storms can do weird things. In their own way, they\’re as erratic and unpredictable as tornadoes. So I don\’t know whether I\’ll get to ride tomorrow morning. It depends on whether it\’s raining; and how hard; and how strong the wind is. So far there\’s no word from my employer about a closure because of the storm. As things stand now, I have to go to work tomorrow. I do not feel like celebrating about that.

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I\’m Melting!

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I\’m melting! And often it feels like I\’m not merely melting; but dissolving, thanks to our high humidity! Riding in hot weather certainly presents its challenges. For months on end, our overnight low temperatures can be at or near 80 degrees! That\’s one reason I ride so early in the day. When the afternoon heat index is about 100, going for a long ride is unwise. I would have to start by riding only a few miles; and then build up. It seems rather pointless because, by the time I did get acclimated, Fall and cooler weather would be here. I\’d still ride in the morning, too; or I won\’t get enough exercise! Between high temperatures and high humidity, sometimes the heat index rises to the point that a heat advisory is issued; and that\’s when it\’s time to just ride home from work (less than three miles) and stay put. But what about the Sunday long ride, when it will already be hot when I start? I fill up the Camel-Bak; and take along electrolyte drink (such as Zym); prepared the previous evening, and  chilled overnight. I don\’t blast away trying to ride at top speed for the whole ride. In fact, the Sunday ride is about long and steady at a moderate pace. Not working to go too fast helps keep me from overheating too badly; but I still feel like I\’m meltilng. It would help, of course, if I had a cycling path with some shade. But I don\’t; so I take whatever precautions that I can — and do my best to enjoy the ride despite the heat.

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In a Rut

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Don\’t get stuck in a rut! I, for one, can\’t realistically hope to get as fast as the rider shown here; but I do want to improve my pace as much as I can. At least one source I read says, if you want to get faster, don\’t go out and ride at the same intensity day after day. That leads to a cyclist becoming \”a one-speed wonder\”, as someone put it. When I first started riding the adult tricycle, I decided to let speed take care of itself; and for a while, it did. In the early weeks the best I could manage was 5-6 mph. After maybe six months, I was up to about 8 mph. But then I got stuck. After several more months with no further increase in my pace, I realized that I\’d have to start making deliberate efforts to ride faster. For the last several years one of the items on my annual list of goals has been to increase my cruising speed to 15 mph. I always fell short. Then, last November, I began weekly on-bike drills to improve my force (strength). It\’s taken until quite recently, but I\’m finally a little better at riding 15 mph. I do those force exercises only one day a week, which could be why it\’s taken so long for them to have an effect. During July I took a break from them; and on my usual schedule, every third week I skip them; that\’s for recovery. The main purpose of this work to develop more strength for riding faster is, Tour de Cure. But even after TdC is over, I think I\’ll keep the exercises as part of my regular rides. I don\’t want to wind up stuck in a rut.

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Whoa!

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Whoa! This is happening too fast! I knew there was a weather system in the Caribbean that they were watching; but I sure didn\’t expect there to be a tropical storm warning in effect already! I found out when I checked the NOAA site at about 7:45 am. No doubt the weather service wants people to have plenty of advance warning, especially as this is a holiday. People will be out and about, cycling; having barbecues; picnics; perhaps even boating. The boaters will need to get off the water soon! The wind a few hours ago was only about 6 mph (it\’s up to 10 mph now!), so I went out on the road bike and put in 21.2 miles. As all too often happens, I had the wind against me on the way home. Riding in the face of even that amount of breeze often feels like hard work. For a while I worked at holding to 15 mph, but soon ran low on the energy for it. I still need a lot of hard work before I can buck the breeze at 15 mph mile after mile. Even so, I averaged 14 mph! That\’s progress =) Whether you\’re bicycling; or roasting hot dogs over a campfire; or plain old relaxing at home, Happy Labor  Day! And let\’s tell that storm, WHOA!    

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Riding Indoors

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Riding indoors is, to me, a last resort; and I suppose this is what my legs might feel like if I did a truly hard session on a Wattbike: totally burned out. It\’s been months since I climbed aboard a Wattbike. Weekends I\’m busy with errands and the weekly long ride. After work, I\’m rushing home to work on my social media. A short Wattbike session once or twice a week would be beneficial, I think. One of the things a Wattbike does, is to let you see whether your left/right pedal stroke is even. Mine isn\’t as even as I would like. A perfect 50%/50% is very hard to maintain, and for me a L/R \”score\” of 48/52 is very good, indeed. If I\’d just get back on a Wattbike, I could see what wattage I\’m capable of producing. I don\’t remember for sure what it was before, but my peak wattage was in the 200s, I think. It would be interesting to see whether my force exercises have increased that wattage. One of my reasons for hesitating to get back to working on a Wattbike is that I don\’t need it to push my off-bike resistance and core work to the side. I really need those exercises! In addition, I can\’t get to a Wattbike until after I\’m off from \”work-work\” for the day; and by then I\’m tired. Even doing a very short session of 15 minutes means that I don\’t get home until about 6 pm. The Wattbike would be good for a Sunday when the weather is truly terrible. Maybe I\’ll try sometime, even though riding indoors is not my thing.

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Wrong Guess?

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Did I make the wrong guess? Could I have kept on riding; or was turning back early the right move? The sky sure didn\’t look like this today! Although the sun was shining where I was riding, up ahead it kept looking more and more stormy. Between that and knowing that I\’d have a headwind on the way home, I decided to turn back at the 14.5-mile point. I didn\’t want to be fighting the wind in addition to, possibly, riding through a binding downpour. Since I got home an hour ago, the sky has become almost completely overcast. It hasn\’t started to rain yet; but I can\’t say what conditions might be like farther to the West. Weather typically moves West to East in the Northern hemisphere; so for all I know it\’s pouring just a few miles away, and could arrive here any minute. Thus my planned 50-mile ride turned out to be only 29 miles. I hope I can get out and ride 20 miles or so tomorrow. Unfortunately the forecast for tomorrow looks much like today\’s. As usual, I can\’t do a thing but wait and see what conditions are like in the morning; and hope I don\’t make the wrong guess.

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Meow?

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When does a cat not say Meow? When you\’ve got only the ears! A year or so ago, I came across a wind-blocking product called Cat-Ears. I decided to try a pair; and they do seem to reduce bothersome wind noise. It\’s especially useful to have Cat Ears when I\’m not wearing a skull cap. Cat-Ears are made of some kind of plushy fabric. Each \”ear\” wraps around the part of the helmet strap that\’s in front of the cyclist\’s ear; and has a velcro fastening. The \”grain\” of the fabric must face rearwards. I ought to wash those \”ears\” more often, I think. They get gunked up with sunblock every weekend, which probably diminishes their effectiveness. It\’s possible that they\’ll need replacing fairly soon. Meow? Scratch about another 17 bucks from my bank account. Addendum, 10/03/21 Cat-Ears were similar to this product.

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