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Spring Cleaning

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No, spring cleaning doesn\’t mean, go diving into the dryer. And for sure don\’t put your bicycle in there! I, for one, most emphatically do NOT want my bike to reek of dryer sheets! But along with cleaning up the house when it\’s warm enough to have windows open, it\’s as good a time as any to brush up on bicycle-cleaning how-to. If only I had a place to clean my bicycles outdoors! I have a tarp that I can spread on the floor; but I fear it\’s too small to prevent pools of soapy water from spreading beyond its borders. I\’m sensitive to the fumes of commercially available cleaners, so I avoid using them. For the bicycles\’ frames, I use a spray bottle of plain old water, but is that adequate cleaning? Do shop towels do a good enough job of getting grease off the chain? I\’ve taken to using a self-cleaning chain lube. I have a couple of quart jars full of dirty, oily water from chain-cleaning that I need to get rid of, but you\’re not supposed to put stuff like that in the trash; and the only toxic-waste drop-off I know of is halfway across town. I don\’t have a bicycle stand. There really isn\’t room for it; and besides that, I\’m not sure I could lift my hybrid that high. Would it be possible to hook the bike into the rack, and then raise the height of the stand? Would having a bicycle stand prompt me to clean my bicycles more regularly? Good question; not that I really want an answer. I\’d rather enjoy the Spring than bother with Spring cleaning.

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They Sure Meant \”Challenge\”

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They Sure Meant “Challenge”! They sure meant “challenge” when they designed the April Love to Ride challenge! I really got it this morning; not so much the jaunt on the road bike as pedaling to work a half hour or so afterwards. While I was out on the road bike, I saw distant lightning; but heard no thunder. During the return leg of my ride, the lightning seemed to be getting closer, which made me uncomfortable. In fact, it almost seemed to be chasing me! I still didn’t hear thunder; but while I’m riding, lightning may be closer than it seems. Even if there isn’t a headwind, the wind noise from my own motion muffles the sound of the thunder. Outward bound, there was only a small drop of rain here and there. On the way back home, the drops became more frequent; and during the final mile and a half it began drizzling. I saw some fantastic lightning, too. It wasn’t close; but all the same I was glad to get home. It was actually a pretty good ride. I did some force intervals, and at one point reached 24.9 mph! Not at all bad for me; and I didn’t get too wet. Riding to work, however, was a very different story. The Challenge I donned the poncho before I left home, in case it started to pour; and was that a good move!  I set out under a  light rain; and soon the sky opened up. There was frequent lightning that got closer and closer. One strike wasn’t even half a mile away! My timing was terrible; I rode through the worst of that T-storm. Once at work, there was the problem of drying out. Before I even went indoors, I got under the overhang at the front of the building; removed the poncho; and gave it a good shaking. I rolled it up and stuffed it into the plastic bag that I brought along for the purpose. I can’t hang it up indoors because it would drip. My poncho’s sleeves don’t do a good  job of covering my arms below the elbows. I had rolled up my blouse sleeves and worn arm warmers; and they got soaked. I had to wring them out and hang them up. Of course my cycling gloves got wet through, too. It was rather cool today; but not too cool for shorts. That’s something to be thankful for! Slacks get sopping wet from mid-thigh down in weather like this. Naturally my socks and shoes got drenched. I decided not to change into the dry socks and shoes I keep at my desk, because I was sure of having to go outside during the day. That’s what comes of not packing a sack lunch. More rain is expected over the next few days. If I’m to rise to the Love to Ride challenge, I’ll have to bite the bullet and ride, no matter how wet I get. They sure meant “challenge”!

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Bike to Work Day

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Today is Bike to Work Day! So test your mettle, and ride a bicycle to work! I had no idea that Bike to Work Day went back so far. It\’s been around longer than I have!  I had the idea that it was a much more recent innovation. Locally, Bike to Work Day 2019 will be held on April 10. That\’s because it could well be hot by late May. Ironically, doing the Bike to Work ride here would take me miles out of my way, and make me late to work. I\’d have to ride through unfamiliar streets to get to work from the Bike to Work destination. That isn\’t much fun even when there isn\’t a lot of traffic. And at 9:30 am on a weekday, traffic is likely to be quite heavy. I\’ll have to check Google Maps. There might be a route with less traffic. As far as time goes, I could probably take a couple of hours of vacation. Sure, riding a bicycle to work has its downside. You\’re totally exposed to the weather, and having a steady stream of cars almost at your elbow can be intimidating. Not to mention the noise! If you have concerns about bicycling to work, check out this article. If I don\’t take part in the official Bike to Work Day ride, no big deal. I can still ride my bicycle to work.

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Fight or Flight?

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We hear about “fight or flight” all the time: we sense that things aren’t right; and our nervous systems rev up for either knocking someone’s lights out; or running like a pack of hellhounds is pursuing us. Wind (oh, that LOATHSOME word!) seems like fight or flight, too. All too often it’s fight, fight, fight against a headwind. My rides are out-and-back almost every time. I\’m sure it\’s easy for anybody to advise cyclists: plan your rides so you have a tailwind on the way back home. Fight or flight — I mean, fight and then flight, with a following breeze. If only it were that easy, I would have been doing it for years. The bike path that I use ends about one mile East of home, and the wind here tends to be easterly. If I had a car, maybe I could drive my bicycle to a place where I could park the car; do a ride that would let me have a tailwind on the way back; and then drive home. As to flight, that\’s what it can feel like when you pick up a stiff tailwind: flying! When I have the wind behind me, and shift that road bike into hard gears, I\’ve reached 25+ mph! Even when I attain 18-19 mph, it starts to feel like the bicycle is weightless; almost like it\’s not touching the ground any more! But climbing Mont Ventoux? That\’s a flight of fancy for a run-of-the-mill cyclist like me.

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Nocturne?

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Nocturne sounds to me first and foremost like a piece of music. However, there\’s no way I can haul along a piano on a bicycle ride. This wasn\’t truly a nocturnal ride; it was nearing dawn. But it was still dark enough for the rising old crescent moon to be gorgeous. When I first spotted it, the moon was low in the sky; just above treetop level. It was a beautiful orange color; and I kept stealing glances at it as much as I could. Tomorrow morning the moon might be too low for me to be able to see it; so it will be at least a month before I get a chance for such a sight again. Come to think of it, I might not see the moon like that again until Fall. It gets light earlier and earlier, which will wash out the moon. That\’s no nocturne! But in a couple of weeks I\’ll have the chance to see the moon at the full. I hope the weather will be clear that morning!

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White Noise?

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We hear about using \”white noise\” to help create a soothing atmosphere for sleep. I don\’t know about anybody else, but conventional white noise drives me crazy! It\’s too high in frequency for me. Maybe we cyclists need a different kind of white noise. How about sounds of the peloton? The freewheel during coasting; the whir of time trial wheels; and the wind whooshing past a rider\’s ears. I wish I could get the dark and quiet that sleep hygienists say we need for sleep. But with other people living on the other side of a thin wall; a fridge not ten feet from my bed; and train tracks only one block away, quiet is rather rare. I\’m tired of wearing earplugs to bed every night; but what else can I do? On top of the earplugs, I need to run my standing fan as a \”bass white noise\” machine. Otherwise when the neighbors start to talk LOUDLY, I\’ll be wakened. Or won\’t be able to get to sleep in the first place. It\’s hard to get it really dark, too: usually I have bicycle lights plugged into their chargers overnight; I don\’t have blackout curtains; and so on. I\’d rather not wear one of those masks that cover your eyes. They say that your body needs to get the natural light as morning approaches. I\’ll have to stick with my \”bass white noise\” for now, and hope to have a nice, quiet home someday; one close to lots of good bicycling paths!

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The Fixin\’s

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Turkey with all the fixin\’s is the typical Thanksgiving Day dinner in the USA. But how about the fixin\’s when it comes to a bicycle\’s mechanical problems? On any ride, there\’s always the possibility that something will go awry. It might be a flat tire; or it might be a broken spoke. It seems logical to conclude that, on multi-day events, being out riding for so long increases the likelihood that you\’ll need to make some kind of repair. Especially for randonneuring, participants are strongly advised to learn ahead of the event to change tubes and/or patch a tube quickly and efficiently; to make adjustments to the bicycle; and so on. Randonneurs don\’t have a SAG wagon tagging along! Self-sufficiency is the name of the game; and with randonneuring, that clock ticks remorselessly on. You might have to fix a flat, yes. Carry spare tubes or a patch kit, or both. What if a spoke breaks during a long tour, when the next stopover is far away? FiberFix can let you make a temporary repair. I need to learn more about these things. The idea of experimenting on my bicycles worries me, though. It would be just like me to wreak havoc, resulting in an expensive repair at the bike shop!

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What Goes Up

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What goes up must come down, they say. If only the \”up\” part were as easy as the \”down\” part! The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling provides advice about climbing on pages 48-51. It says that, during events, it\’s better to climb as fast as you can without going anaerobic, then rest while descending. Training is a different matter, when occasionally going anaerobic  is beneficial. Naturally, that book isn\’t the only place where I\’ve gleaned advice about climbing. I can\’t keep track of all the sources, but here are more nuggets of climbing know-how: Don\’t be embarrassed to use  your \”granny gear\” on climbs. In fact, trying to climb in too hard a gear is too much strain on the knees. Using a hard gear, climbing or not, also causes you to burn through your body\’s glycogen stores too quickly. On an event full of very steep grades, you might even want to swap to a three-ring set-up. Check out your cassette, too; it\’s possible you\’ll want some bigger cogs. Keep your breathing as relaxed as possible when climbing. Easy to say; not so easy to do! Keep your grip on the handlebars relaxed, too; just not so relaxed that a sudden bump will cause your hands to go flying. And now, see the crest of the hill? Don\’t relax yet! Finish the climb first. In fact, wait until you\’ve begun to feel gravity pull you downhill. Once you\’ve begun to descend, you can shift into harder gears and use a slower cadence. If you feel that you must use your brakes, use them in an on-off manner rather than ride them all the way downhill. Enjoy the descent! Remember: what goes up, must come down.

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Sunday Morning UN-ride

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It\’s a Sunday morning un-ride. Can you believe it? This is Sunday morning, and I\’m not out riding! It woke up tired; sleepy; sluggish; and with a stuffed-up head. Yesterday was a bad pollen day; and maybe that explains it. What\’s more, the forecast last night predicted winds of 17 mph. I heard the wind blowing outside, and checked the weather site again. It said the wind was 20 mph; and from the North. A North wind means a nasty headwind on the way home; and as I write this, the wind has increased to 25 mph!! The chill factor was 47 degrees, and that isn\’t good news; my nose would have driven me crazy with its non-stop sniffles. The sky was overcast, and by 9 am it was starting to sprinkle on and off. I know, it wouldn\’t kill me to ride in the rain; but it isn\’t fun. It\’s especially unpleasant when the sky opens up and I still have miles to go before I get home. They expect the rain to end early this afternoon; and maybe I can go for a short ride then. I intended to make today\’s ride a rather short one, anyway. The wind might be a little less by then, too. I hope April doesn\’t turn out to be a rainy month. That would make the Love to Ride challenge more a slog than a challenge. Incidentally, with a Love to Ride challenge imminent, I hope the Sunday morning un-ride doesn\’t become a habit.

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Puzzling

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Some things in life are downright puzzling. Composing blogs several weeks in advance is turning out to be like a jigsaw puzzle. The dates I schedule seem to change themselves. Either that; or I can\’t keep track of what I\’ve scheduled for which day; or my eyes are too tired from staring at a screen to process what I\’m seeing. Working up a training schedule is rather the same way. Which day should I reserve as an easy day? What\’s the best day for working on the short, but super-hard, efforts? What am I to do when I\’m feeling too tired for those super-hard efforts that I scheduled? For most of us, cyclist training has to be worked in around other important responsibilities: work, family, school, and so on. How do we fit it all in? We all also know that life throws us curve balls sometimes; and when it does, we have to adapt if we don\’t want to go crazy. Too sleepy to get up for your usual early morning ride? You can at least ride to work; and get in a few miles that way. Do you have a brisk ride scheduled, but woke up with a cold? Do the \”neck check\”. You might be able to go out for an easy ride. Too tired for that all-out ride? Take it easy today and do the hard ride tomorrow. Keep track of your rides. You can use any notebook; or you can get fancy with The Cyclist\’s Training Diary. Either way, knowing what you\’ve done can help you to work out future training plans. Maybe it doesn\’t have to be puzzling, after all.

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