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Stronger?

Have I gotten stronger, or not? No, I don\’t carry my bicycle around like this. I\’m not into cyclocross. I don\’t think my upper body strength is developed enough for it. In fact, I\’m quite sure it isn\’t. When it comes to just plain riding, I often wonder whether I\’m really improving. As they say, speed alone isn\’t necessarily a good indicator, as so many things can affect speed one way or another. Headwinds can slow you down drastically. Tailwinds let you go faster than you would otherwise be able to. Hills to climb? Another thing to slow you. Yesterday I was looking at my data from two Sunday rides: Date Dist Avg speed Time in HR Zones Wind* 01/27/19 37.4 mi 13.52 mph Z2, 0:00:37; Z3, 0:21:04; Z4, 2:24:23//NNE 6-8 06/23/19 37.5 mi 13.05 mph Z2, 0:01:07; Z3, 1:43:03; Z4, 1:07:57//S 10-11 *mph This comparison seems to show that I am, indeed, a little stronger. On a day with a stronger wind, I was in my HR Zone 3 for much longer than I was five months earlier. (Even a southerly wind is against me a good bit of the time when I\’m heading back home; only a westerly wind is a real help.) Or am I imagining things? This is where a power meter would be a big help. Then I could really know: am I stronger?

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Don\’t Be So Quick

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Don\’t be so quick to try out new things my own! I wanted to start a new Photo album where I could put the pics of the products I\’ve added to my Amazon Affiliates store. I have so many now! Bad move; I should have know better than to experiment. Too often that\’s landed me in a big mess. For a while I though I\’d lost my entire Photos application. I finally got it back, after I added several images to Photos. Apparently what I needed to look for was Imports. But now I have to look up how to move images from Photos to another album! My vacation is fast running out. I didn\’t do as much riding as I hoped I might. In fact, I\’ve been feeling worn out. Too much intense work on the web site, maybe? Today I went out on the bike only to run some errands. Vacations make me want to say, Don\’t Be So Quick! Tomorrow it\’s back to the usual routine. Already!

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Cyclist Peeves

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Let\’s look into some cyclist peeves. You know how some things are plain old annoying? Every aspect of life has its aggravating side, and cycling is no exception. Even if you ride \”just\” for recreation: The weather forecast is dire, so you don\’t ride. \”Dire\” does not come to pass, and you realize you could have gone cycling, after all. Darn, I missed a good ride! You\’re out for a pre-dawn ride in hot weather, and encounter one swarm of insects after another. You hardly dare breathe through your mouth for fear of choking on a bug, yet exercise-induced rhinitis makes it difficult for you to inhale through your nose. Don\’t you get tired of having to do snot rockets? I have a similar problem with rides in cold weather. I get sniffly when the temperature gets down to about 75, and wind only makes it worse! There are people who ride bicycles in the dark without lights; wear minimal reflective material or none; and are wearing dark clothing. Do they want to get hit? Yet if you did run into them for not seeing them in time, they\’d be spitting nails. Dogs … maybe I needn\’t say any more. Commuting and running errands by bicycle has its own set of annoyances. Having to guard against getting \”doored\”. Cars that pass you too close for comfort. Traffic noise! Rainy days. Drivers who holler at you that you \”need to get on the sidewalk!\” They need to try riding a bicycle on the sidewalk themselves! Where I live there are plenty of sidewalks that are in appalling condition, and totally unsuited for cycling (they\’re not too good for walking, either). And what are your biggest cyclist peeves?

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Letting Go

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Letting go is hard. I know what this article means. When the day came that I decided it was time to let my adult tricycle go, I certainly felt some pangs. I started riding with a trike because I had some balance/dizziness issues at the time. I didn\’t dare try to ride a bicycle for fear I\’d turn dizzy and fall right in front of a car. So, in November 2009 I got an adult trike. Fast-forward to Spring 2012. I had put thousands of miles on that tricycle, including a century. The dizziness wasn\’t giving me nearly as much trouble, and for all I know it was because of all that vigorous riding. I got up the gumption to buy a hybrid bicycle. It wasn\’t the easiest thing to adjust to two wheels; I wish I\’d known this when I started. I might even have been able to skip the \”glide biking\” part! But I did learn to ride a BI-cycle, and by early 2013 had my mind on road bikes. April 2013: I became a roadie! Months earlier, after a tune-up at the bike shop, the the shop personnel warned me that the trike was \”on its last legs\”. I kept it for grocery runs, but one day I finally tried a grocery run using the hybrid and my panniers. It went fine, and that was when I decided it was time to let the tricycle go. Long story short, I rode Valkyrie over to a shop that refurbished and sold second-hand bikes. While I was there, a man arrived who had been coming for a while looking for a trike, as his had been stolen. So Valkyrie got a new home! It made letting go a little bit easier.

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Vacation Time!

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Ah-h-h, vacation time! I don\’t have a hammock to lounge around in, and I probably couldn\’t stay still for long enough to make a hammock worthwhile. I can\’t work on a laptop that way, or ride a bicycle. Alas, my week of vacation time is already half over! But I\’ve still got half a week left. Not having to get to work for 8:00 am makes it possible to be more leisurely about my morning ride, and going to feed my friends\’ cat afterwards. I can actually spend some time with the cat, instead of feeding him and rushing off to work. It\’s possible to do some things that normally are hard to fit in, such as riding over to Lowe\’s to drop off some dead CFL bulbs. I need to buy some more while I\’m at it. I can do more cooking when I\’m home all day. When I get home from work, I don\’t feel like doing a lot of food preparation. Now I have time for it, and for the dish- and pot-washing that is an inevitable part of making meals at home. This morning I tried the Clif Shot Energy Gel that I bought yesterday. It was a new flavor, Boston Cream Pie. Pretty good! I\’m starting to get hungry. Lunch time!

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Up? Down?? SIDEWAYS???

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Shift UP? DOWN? Sideways? Does all this shift up/shift down confuse you? Have you ever wondered which gear set-up to use in the first place? All those gears can seem intimidating to someone new to multi-gear riding. When do I shift? (Perhaps even HOW do I shift?) Let\’s suppose we\’ve advanced beyond that stage in our cycling life, and want to do some really adventurous riding — through the Alps, let\’s say. Let\’s go back to one of the bicycle-gear basics — that for the front gears, bigger is harder to pedal, and for the rear gears, bigger is easier. With mountainous grades, even my road bike\’s compact (50/34) crankset might be too big. I might well need a smaller one. Once you\’ve settled on your crankset and cassette, just what do people mean when they say, \”shift up\” or \”shift down\”? I\’ve long since developed the impression that different people mean different things when they use these expressions. To me, shifting up means shifting to a higher (aka harder) gear, as in driving a standard-transmission car. That means a smaller cog. To others, that\’s shifting down, as down in size to a harder gear. No wonder my brain is screaming, \”Up, Down, Sideways\” — that last out of sheer frustration. Maybe it would be better to standardize the command to \”shift [to a] harder [gear]\”, or \”shift [to an] easier [gear]\”. Then we\’d all be on the same — shall I say cog?

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RE-Tool

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RE-Tool? Well, it\’s not spelled that way, but that\’s what it sounds like. RETÜL is a high-tech bike fitting program. Today I went for re-fit. I thought it might be a good idea because of the tendonitis in my foot. I don\’t understand all the technology, but now I have a riser in my stem (I think it\’s called) so that I\’m a bit more erect. When the screen showed a rear view of me pedaling, I saw that my right hip was dipping downwards with every stroke. That explains the cramps I get in that hip when I come home from a Sunday long ride and stoop to remove my shoes. And the side view made me realize how shockingly fat I\’ve become! The technician made some adjustments to my saddle\’s position, and said something about my possibly needing a slightly wider one. I tend to sit rather far forward, so maybe I only need to scoot back a little. Trying that certainly will be cheaper than buying a new saddle! While I was pedaling, I asked whether I was ankling properly. The tech said, don\’t mess with ankling. Everybody\’s different, and everybody needs to do what\’s natural. That includes adjusting the bike to fit the rider; not forcing the rider to fit a bike that isn\’t right. Riding home, I noticed a slight difference in the way my bike feels. I should be adjusted to it after a few more rides. I\’m not going to go out riding now, though. It\’s about 2 pm, and the heat index is 102 degrees! I don\’t know of a way to RE-Tool my bicycle to keep my rides air-conditioned.

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Kettlebell

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Several weeks ago I added some kettlebell exercises to my off-bike routine. I\’ve been doing the same old exercises for six years, and it\’s gotten rather monotonous. I think it\’s time to add some new moves. I\’ve started with a 7.5-lb weight. The physical therapist who has been working with me (for tendonitis in my foot) recommended that size. He says the way to determine whether a kettlebell is too heavy for you is this: Hold the weight by the flat part of the handle, with the rounded part up, and your forearm perpendicular to the floor. If you aren\’t able to keep your wrist straight, the weight is too heavy; and you should use a lighter one. Here is one suggested kettlebell routine. And if this one will help me climb better when I\’m faced with some hilly country, it will be worth doing. Now for the 64-dollar question: can kettlebell workouts be done instead of some of my old exercises; and if so, which ones? Like everybody else, I have only so much time for off-bike work. Just be careful not to let that thing hit your head. That\’s a \”ring\” that I, for one, am not eager to hear.

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The Pressure Is OFF?

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When the pressure is off, we can relax, right? I\’m not sure sure that I can. It\’s not at all unusual for me to have orthostatic hypotension set in an hour or so after I finish a ride several hours long. But today it\’s lingered for hours! I got home from riding at about 10:30 am; it is now 7:40 pm. I still feel light-headed and dizzy when I get up and start moving about. Why do I have this trouble? My blood pressure tends to run low. Ninety-something over sixty-something (at rest, right after I wake up) isn\’t unusual. Does my system over-react to exertion? Even if it does, why should it take many hours to recover? I\’m sure I wasn\’t dehydrated. I drank about 3 liters of water during my ride, and my roll time was less than 3 hours. I averaged half a hair over 13 mph, so I wasn\’t working especially hard. I also downed about 22 oz of electrolyte drink. I had my milk with chocolate whey within about 20 minutes of getting back home. I ate lunch within the next hour. When I kept feeling dizzy, I took a salt tablet, but it didn\’t seem to do any good. I ought to be doing my Core I exercises right now, but I think I\’d better skip it. In fact, I think I need to juggle around my off-bike exercise schedule to give me long-ride days off! I\’m considering evaluation by a sports cardiologist. This is really weird. I need to know whether it\’s something to be concerned about. The pressure is off? Maybe not.

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Boot Camp?

BACK ISSUES / CAL

Is cyclist training boot camp on two wheels? This seems to turn all I\’ve read about cyclist training on its head. \”Build the base\” comes up again and again in everything I\’ve read until now. The theory is that a cyclist must build a large, strong base of steady-paced rides at a moderate effort level before launching into the intense work. So now \”base training\” is to be, well, given the boot? Mind you, these guys seem to be taking about the full-time rider, the professional rider, who has much more time for training that the rest of us. Even after a break from the bike, they probably have a higher level of fitness than the day-to-day cyclist. But how about we recreational riders who want to improve? Especially after a spell of minimal riding, such as during Winter in a region where snow and ice preclude outdoor riding. Is it really wise of us to charge out of the gate full blast when we can finally ride outdoors again? Maybe not. Where I live I\’m able to ride outdoors year-round, and so can\’t speak from experience. Building up gradually merely seems like common sense to me. If nothing else, riding hard too soon after a break might cause such exhaustion/muscle soreness that riding would be miserable for the next few days. I don\’t think any of us really wants that. Be sensible. If something hurts, back off. Forget about \”no pain, no gain\”. This isn\’t Army boot camp.

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