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Buck Moon

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This morning I saw the July full moon, aka \”buck moon\”. I wondered where that name comes from; and I thought it might be because bucks, i.e. male deer, are in full antler by this time of year. I looked it up; and I was right! Yesterday morning there were some clouds near the horizon, preventing my seeing the moon at all; and I was afraid there might be a repeat today. I\’m so glad there wasn\’t! The moon was beautiful; and I wish the full moon phase weren\’t so fleeting. I don\’t care whether it\’s a buck moon, or a harvest moon; or whatever name; I look forward to seeing it. I love to see the moonlight on the river when the moon is full; and more than once I\’ve wished the electricity would go out just long enough for me to ride by moonlight! If I could ride Paris Brest Paris I\’d have a better chance of a moonlit ride; but of course, that\’s supposing that it doesn\’t rain during the event! Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that I\’ll even be able to qualify for PBP. The lunar eclipse wasn\’t visible in the USA; but there\’ll be another one eventually. Maybe I\’ll be luckier next time. Oh, and the Tour de France did a grid start for Stage 17. Bucking tradition, perhaps?

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Staying on Track

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Am I staying on track? As always, I wonder whether I\’m really doing the right things. In the last week or so, my Garmin\’s Recovery Check feature has read \”Fair\” three times.  Usually it says, \”Good\”. Too many late nights? I haven\’t been taking it too easy, have I? (Contradictory though it sounds). This month I\’ve been letting force development work go, and plan to start it again in the next week or two. I keep trying to hold a good pace, but often enough fall somewhat short of what I want. It feels like I\’m starting to get out of shape! I now have August, September, and maybe half of October to train up for Tour de Cure. In the last week or two before event day, I\’ll need to be careful about not overtraining. That, on the other hand, must be balanced with doing enough that I don\’t get out of shape. And getting adequate rest. So, can someone tell me whether I\’m staying on track?

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Spare Me!

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Spare me the flat tires, please. We hear it all the time. Take along at least one extra tube when you\’re going on a long ride. If you\’re heading out on a bicycle tour, make that two tubes; and probably an extra tire as well. I keep a spare tube in my road bike\’s under-saddle pack; but it\’s been in there for so long that I have to wonder whether it\’s still good. I remember airing it up with my floor pump a while back. It was all right then; I hope it still is! Spare me the agony of being stranded by a flat plus an unusable spare tube when home is miles away! Spare me the misery of bonking, too. Up until now I haven\’t really bonked; and I don\’t want to! That\’s why I have a top-tube pouch on my road bike. When I do my Sunday long ride, it\’s my \”nose bag\” where I carry cut-up bars that I  eat while rolling. One bite every 15 minutes seems to work well. If we want to avoid bonking, we want even more to avoid dehydration! For a ride longer than 15 miles I use my Camel-Bak; and take along electrolyte drink as well. The hotter the weather, the more important the latter is, because there comes a point where no amount of water slakes thirst; and why risk hyponatremia?

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Vocabulary

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Vocabulary! @%#*! Wait a second. WHAT did you say? Yes, folks, we cyclists have our own vocabulary of four-letter words. Arch: what I love to see at the end of Tour de Cure! I\’ll bet TdF riders are even more elated at seeing the Arc de Triomphe! Also, the bottom of your foot. Bike: a two-wheeled contraption with pedals. People use them to race, get to work, go shopping, etc. And to have fun, naturally. Bonk: what happens when you don\’t eat enough food. Don\’t try it on purpose. Cold: hard on this spoiled Southerner, for whom anything below 50 degrees Fahrenheit is cold. Bring out the leg warmers, etc. Endo: what might happen if you overdo application of the front brake. I don\’t intend to try it. Flat: a tire with no air. It seems to like to happen at the worst time, such as six miles into a century. Keep a spare tube handy. And tire levers, CO2 cartridges, etc. Hill: when the ground heads skyward. Going down is fine. Going up, it\’s a different story, unless you\’re a natural climber — which I am not. ​Lazy: what a wanna-be cyclist can\’t afford to be! Ouch: see Rash. Rain: GROAN! We can\’t all be Gene Kelly. But in Summer at least it can keep you cool. Just hope the lightning keeps its distance. Rash: what happens when you crash. Wind: moving air that only too often is moving the wrong way. Zzap: I can\’t think of any other 4-letter word for lightning. When it gets close, I feel like a mobile lightning rod. Not a comfortable feeling, I can assure you. And I\’m sure there are more, without my having to venture into unprintable territory. What more can you think of?  

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Hot as a Desert?

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It may feel as hot as a desert; but with our humidity, a desert it is not. Yesterday afternoon the heat index rose to 112 degrees! I’m glad I can ride in the morning, before I go to work. I’m also glad that, when I ride a bicycle to work, I have less than three miles to go. A co-worker of mine rides 6-7 miles each way every day. I don’t believe I’ve ever see him with a water bottle; and I don’t know how he manages that ride without water, especially when it’s hot as a desert. This heat and humidity make my weekend long rides tougher. Even when I start at 6:00 am, it’s broiling hot by the time I get home several hours later. It’s why I carry a load of water on my back, and wish for a shady path to ride. But at least I can be glad I’m not riding through the landscape shown above! If desert riding is your cup of tea, though, some rides let you test your mettle. Enchilada isn’t only a cheesy snack; and Moab sounds like it’s both high and dry.   

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Voila!

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Voila! There it is, at last! My apologies to anyone who\’s been trying to access this web site for the last 5-7 hours, and found it a confusing mess. I was doing a lot of tinkering. My pages were very long; and I was trying to rearrange them long into shorter ones. Not to go into tedious detail, that took quite a bit of doing. But it seems to be working now; hence the celebratory pyrotechnics! I\’ve got to keep my guard up, though, because there are sure to be some kinks still in it! In fact, there are bound to be more \”Voila moments\”, when those snags pop up out of nowhere. Now that I\’ve got the Pages settled — for the time being, anyway — I can give more attention to Blogs. Composing posts usually isn\’t hard as long as I can think of something to blog about; but there will be spells of writer\’s block, for sure. My day-by-day rides won\’t always invoke interesting ideas; and I don\’t always see anything exciting or unusual when I\’m out on the bike. I can write about various aspects or training/cycling/nutrition; but only to give what I\’ve learned from reading. I\’m not an expert. Oh, well. We\’ll see how it goes!    

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Shortchanging Myself

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Here I go, shortchanging myself! Today\’s \”long\” ride wasn\’t all that long. As you can see, it wasn\’t any too fast, either. My weekly long ride, however, isn\’t about speed so much as endurance. But I did hit a peak speed of 21.71 on the way home — nice tailwind! I\’ve put in too many late nights during the last few weeks; and it seems to be having a negative impact on my endurance. That\’s just what I do not need! But better now than in October, I guess; because that\’s when Tour de Cure will be too close for me to have such problems crop up. I don\’t want to wind up shortchanging myself on the big day. If you\’re doing a long ride, don\’t shortchange yourself in the nutrition department! Be sure to keep fueled and hydrated. The best preparation can be undone if you don\’t eat enough during the event. Be especially careful if you\’re doing an unsupported long ride. Take along extra bars!  

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Anti-UV

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I\’m on the anti-UV warpath! This morning I visited the local Whole Foods. To my delight, I found this sunblock on sale; and at $3.50 off the usual price! I go through the stuff pretty fast; so I bought two tubes of it. I made a long-term savings of $7.00🙂 I applied that savings towards the new mirror that I bought for the hybrid. Yesterday I took a spill; the stem of the mirror got cracked; and it couldn\’t hold the mirror snugly any more. Without a mirror on the end of my handlebar, I feel like I\’m riding blind. The mirror itself is still in good shape; so I\’m going to hang onto it. Who knows, it might come in handy! But back to the anti-UV warpath. I need plenty of sunblock when I go on my Sunday long rides. Sometimes I\’m out there for four hours; and that sunblock needs to be reapplied every 80 minutes. It\’s no wonder I use it up so fast! I get frustrated at the expense, but I don\’t need to get sunburned; and possibly develop melanoma sometime down the line. I don\’t like being cold; but when the weather is cool enough for long sleeves and leg warmers, I can use much less sunblock. I like that; but the trade-off is that I have more laundry to do! Why am I so hard to satisfy?

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Frustrated Performer?

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Am I a frustrated performer? Sometimes imagine that I\’m doing fancy show-riding to music; such as this fast-and-furious polka. It would take terrific stamina both of leg and heart; and strength far beyond what I have. Maybe I never will have the strength and stamina for such a performance. For one thing, I lack the time and resources for such training; and at my age I\’m too old for it. But what fun it would be  to work out the moves! I could start with some leave-the-ground turning jumps on those two accented chords; and there would be a lot of furiously fast pedaling. During the more lyrical middle part, I\’d go into some wide, sweeping, lean-into-it curves. Then, just before the end, sweep up a ramp; fly through the air; and land/freeze on that final chord. Or maybe it\’s just wild fancies? I guess you could say that I\’m a frustrated performer. Or, perhaps, a show-off at heart.

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Wishful Thinking

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Wishful thinking sometimes takes over. OK! I have the James washer! (No pic available, alas). And there\’s a wheel! Let\’s assume it\’s the rear wheel of a bicycle. Suppose I had enough space to set up a bicycle near that washer. I could attach one end of some kind of rod to the rim of the wheel, and the other end of the rod to the agitator handle of the James washer.  The attachments at both ends of this rod would need full 360-degree rotation — right? This piston would also probably have to be as least twice as long as the wheel\’s diameter. Otherwise it would be useless! I guess that, if I hopped into the saddle and pedaled, the rotation of the wheel would cause the agitator lever to move  back and forth? Or, would it be better to have two pistons, attached at opposite points on the wheel? Would that provide more power? The catch here is that the agitator lever is at about waist level, and the bicycle\’s rear wheel is below that. Well, I can always dream. Dreaming and wishful thinking is how some great inventions/discoveries came about!

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