SpokEasy

SpokEasy

BACK ISSUES

To Your Head

BACK ISSUES /

\”Don\’t let it go to your head\” is an admonition that most of us have heard at one time or another. In this case, we do need to let it go to our heads. Head injury seems to be getting more and more attention these days, in all sports. We hear of pro football players who have permanent brain damage from repeated head trauma suffering during years on the playing field. Cyclists, of course, must guard against head injury. I cringe when I see people pedaling along without a helmet. It seems to me that they\’re taking unnecessary risks. For that matter, what little bicycle riding I did as a kid was without a helmet. It\’s shocking, now. How do you choose a helmet? First things first. Fit is the most important thing. Price, for most of us, is a close second. Color? A light/bright hue doesn\’t hurt. If you\’re like me, you\’ll put your headlight atop your helmet, and a red blinkie on the back of the helmet. I remember one time I set out on the road bike. Half a block from home I realized that I\’d forgotten to put on my helmet. I\’m serious enough about wearing a helmet that I got off the bike and walked back home to get that headpiece. I wasn\’t about to ride without it! And once, when I was using the tricycle, I managed to ride three miles before noticing that I didn\’t have my helmet on! I stopped, turned, and rode back home slowly and carefully. (This was when I was still using a handlebar-mounted light). It made me nervous to be riding without head protection! So yes; let it go to your head.

To Your Head Read More »

When to Back Off

BACK ISSUES /

Do we know when to back off? We all have days when we simply don\’t feel up to riding, whether we ride strictly for fun and exercise; or are in serious training. Especially if you fall into the second category, how do you tell whether it\’s a case of not being in the mood that day, or a genuine need to ease up for a day or two? The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling mentions some markers that indicate warnings of overtraining (see pg. 18): a morning (i.e. resting) pulse 10% or more higher than is usual; or weighing 3% or more below normal; or having gotten 10% less sleep than usual. If any two of these signs are present, keep your training short and easy until the numbers are back to normal. All three? Take a day off. Another way of looking at it is When Stop Does Not Mean Go, in this article. This list is good for \”amateur\” athletes, who might not be into pulse-taking. Even recreational athletes who don\’t do interval work need to be aware of when they\’ve been pushing too hard. Don\’t spoil the joy of riding by overreaching yourself. So learn now to tell when to back off. Listen to your body, as they say. It it\’s telling you something\’s wrong, it\’s time to take a step back.  

When to Back Off Read More »

May Day

BACK ISSUES /

It\’s May Day! What?! It\’s already MAY? I don\’t know where the time goes; and like most cyclists, I wish I had more time to ride. Maybe I need The Time-Crunched Cyclist? It sounds as though following the \”crunched\” plan means short, very intense, rides several times a week. I\’m not sure I\’m fit enough for that; and intense riding isn\’t so easy when I\’m out on the bicycle as little as half an hour after dragging myself out of bed. Sometimes it\’s only 15 minutes after I get up! Six hours a week? I usually get 6-8 hours a week on the road bike; if I ride to work daily and go to the salvage store Saturday, I\’ll get in a few more hours on the hybrid. My weekly total hours are sometimes over eleven. I do intense (for me) work once, maybe twice, a week. The total time spent riding really hard usually isn\’t more than 5-6 minutes. Do I need more? Maybe, if I\’m ever to improve my regular cruising pace. On the other hand, I don\’t need to wind up crunched to exhaustion because I\’m trying too hard to compensate for being crunched for time. Oh, as to May Day — I should be thankful that it\’s not a mayday.

May Day Read More »

Après

BACK ISSUES /

Après Love to Ride! Now that Love to Ride is over, I can relax a bit. Between the special effort to ride to work daily, and physical therapy because of tendonitis in my foot, I\’m actually quite tired. And I can think about the next Challenge, of course. Among the badges that local Love to Ride participants can earn is the Blue Bikes badge.  I suppose that Love to Ride’s in other locations offer a similar badge. It’s one of the few Love to Ride badges that I don’t yet have. The rate for a one-time user of Blue Bikes is a $5 one-time user fee; then ten cents per minute, or $6.00/hour. I don’t feel inclined to pay that just for the sake of getting the badge. Re: the Super Commuter badge, forget about my getting it this year. After work today I rode the hybrid to the bike shop. The shifting has been acting funny, and I get the impression that the front derailer isn\’t quite in order. They can\’t take care of it for almost a week, but I decided to leave the bike with them. A bike that isn\’t shifting right isn\’t all that much fun to ride; and for all I know, I\’m causing damage by continuing to ride it. When I left the bike at the shop, I wasn\’t thinking about the face that grocery shopping will be much harder without the hybrid. Hindsight is 20/20; we know how it goes when we don\’t think until après! But maybe I can skip shopping and sleep in for once! 

Après Read More »

Day 30

BACK ISSUES /

It\’s Day 30 of Love to Ride! I hope I\’ll be able to log rides for the Challenge tomorrow, even though the Challenge ends today. Usually I don\’t do an evening ride, but today I did. Getting in my last licks, you see. It\’s Day 30, after all! So ends the month-long Love to Ride challenge. I routinely log my rides even when there isn’t a Challenge in progress, which is how I found out about the April Challenge. I must admit that I’m ready for a bit of a rest now, but I can’t skip riding to work too much if I have any hopes of earning the Super Commuter badge this year. To get it, you must ride to work 200 times within the year; and I’m already behind. I missed too many days earlier this year. My profile shows that I’m 21% there; and 21% of 200 is 42, right? So I still have 158 days to go. While I’d like to get the badge, it looks like my earning it this year is out of reach. There are going to be days when riding to work is impractical; there will be holidays; and probably a vacation. Maybe I\’d do better at bicycling to work regularly if I lived farther away. I was browsing the Love to Ride site today, and I believe there\’s another Challenge coming in September. So let\’s stay in shape and be ready for it!

Day 30 Read More »

The Internal Flame

BACK ISSUES /

What\’s the internal flame? It\’s called metabolism! They say that your metabolism pretty much grinds to a halt – that is, burns next to no calories – when you sit for a long time. I can believe that. At work I usually get up about every 20 minutes; but at home I’m all too often sitting for prolonged periods, especially while working on blogs! I get to feeling rather dazed; and when I do get up, I feel tired and sluggish. Cycling can build muscle; and muscle supposedly uses more calories than fat tissue, even at rest. Cycling can also help with weight loss, and build muscle at the same time. Any exercise, in fact, helps to build muscle. They say that vigorous exercise keeps your metabolism hiked up for a long time after you end your bike ride, your run, or whatever. And when you do have to sit for a long time — FIDGET! Forget what your mother always said about \”Don\’t fidget!\” Squirm around on the chair. Jiggle your heels. Shift your legs around. It helps to keep the internal flame of metabolism from going out.

The Internal Flame Read More »

Day 29

BACK ISSUES /

Gosh, it\’s Day 29 of Love to Ride! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Step right up and sign up for Love to Ride! Only one more day left to log your 10-minute (or longer) ride. Don\’t miss out! Today I skipped the road bike, although I rode in to work. I had another physical therapy session this morning, and to top it off, for some reason I couldn\’t sleep last night. It looks like the weather will cooperate. Rain isn\’t expected. I wish the wind would be calmer. Ten to 15 mph is enough to be a hassle. But it\’s not as bad as winds of 20 mph! Soon I\’ll be able to put away the leg warmers and cycling jackets until Fall. My pesky nose won\’t run as much now that the weather is warmer. It drove me crazy all Winter! Soon we\’ll have something else: overnight low temperatures around 80 degrees! Every year, after several months of that, I\’m longing for it to cool off. I, who most of my life have felt the cold easily! I\’m never satisfied, am I? Meanwhile, let\’s make good use of Day 29.

Day 29 Read More »

How, Indeed?

BACK ISSUES /

How, indeed, do pro cyclists get so fast? An easy answer is that they start young. They have what it takes to make a professional cyclist: the genetics that allow them to develop the muscle and cardiovascular system needed; the mindset; the opportunities to race and train; access to good equipment. Most of us will never reach pro levels, but we can still work to go faster. I must be lazy, because after six or seven years I still have not gotten my cruising pace up to 15 mph. I think I shy away from the inevitable discomfort of the work required to get faster! Maybe I don\’t do enough of my on-bike force-development exercises. In addition, I ride in the morning before going to work, and don\’t want to wear myself out too much. During my long weekend ride, I don\’t want to burn out miles from home. For very short stretches I can get up as fast as 25.5 mph (that\’s with a stiff tailwind!). Rolling along at 15 mph for hours is still a ways off. Here\’s the thing about speed, though: it can easily be affected by factors beyond the rider\’s control.  How, indeed, can we know whether we\’re improving as cyclists? That\’s why some coaches recommend training with a power meter. X watts is X watts, regardless of your forward speed (or lack thereof). Dental bills and other unexpected expenses have kept me from buying a power meter, so I\’ll keep doing what I\’ve been doing to try to improve my pace. One day, I hope, there\’ll be a breakthrough.

How, Indeed? Read More »

Haunting Sights?

BACK ISSUES /

The haunting sights are becoming only too common. What rider hasn\’t seen a ghost bike? Those sad, white-painted bicycles mark a tragic encounter between bicycle and motor vehicle. Naturally my home town has its share of ghost bikes. Not long ago one appeared on the route I take to my bike shop. A bit ironic, that. I didn\’t realize that ghost bikes had been around for so long. The complement of ghost bikes is, I suppose, the annual Ride of Silence. I took part in that ride years ago, when it left from the local park. Then the ride switched its venue to another park that\’s about six miles away. To get there I\’d be riding a route that I don\’t often use. On the way there, I would have to deal with rush-hour traffic. I\’d be riding home in the dark afterwards. I\’m used to riding in the dark, but not alongside traffic. So I paid little attention to the Ride of Silence for a long time. Happily, this year\’s Ride of Silence leaves from the nearby park again. Fortunately nobody I\’ve ever known has been killed while riding a bicycle, but a friend was hit by a pickup truck last Fall while cycling. Maybe I can do the Ride of Silence this year, for him. I\’ll be able to ride home from that park with minimal contact with motor traffic. Avoiding traffic while I ride? Maybe I\’m a scaredy-cat, but as I\’ve said, these haunting sights are only too numerous; and I don\’t want the next ghost bike to be for me.

Haunting Sights? Read More »

Day 28

BACK ISSUES /

Wow, it\’s already Day 28 of Love to Ride! Today I kept feeling rather like this snail, even though I averaged 13.2 mph. I pushed for 50 miles, and at about mile 32 I suddenly began to feel worn out. I didn\’t get a second wind until about mile 46. Maybe I needed to eat more. I brought along two fig bars, a small Init bar (similar to the Kind bar), and a Clif bar. I try to take a bite (e.g. one-quarter of a fig bar, 1/8 of a Clif bar) every 15 minutes. But is that enough? I\’ve never been sure. I know I shouldn\’t need to eat as much on the bike as a pro tour rider, but that\’s all. When I\’m doing a long ride, I often eat a GU-Gel when I stop for a break. Maybe I needed more electrolyte drink? By the time I had ridden about 35 miles, I began to wish for something salty. I\’ve tried Combos as ride food, but have found that they\’re a bit too dry/crumbly. They also lack \”oomph\”. Or was bumping the mileage up from 44.6 to 50 a bit too much? I didn\’t think so, but was I wrong? No eagle sighting today, but I saw a white heron. And some eastern kingbirds. I nearly always see something interesting. Wondering what it might be keeps me riding, through Day 28 and beyond!

Day 28 Read More »