SpokEasy

SpokEasy

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Slippery?

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This sure feels slippery. I\’ve been at it yet again. I\’m toggling back and forth between the slide builder and the web site; and working on the spacing of the various elements of each slide. It\’s turning out to be quite a lot to do. I was working on the first slide of the For All Cyclists gallery, and when I checked it in the actual web site, the text was difficult or impossible to read! The problem was that the pic had too many different colors in it. A uniform color of text blended in too well with the background in some places no matter what color I made it. I finally decided that I needed to get rid of that slide and build a new one. If I might say so, the new one looks much better. If nothing else, it\’s much easier to read. The same goes for the second slide. The text blends in too well, no matter what color I make it. Luckily there are web sites chock-full of pics that are free, so I\’ll be sure to find something suitable. I\’m so glad I\’m on vacation; it gives me plenty of time to work on this slippery problem.

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Urgent Question

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Here is an urgent question: Are we cyclists; or aren\’t we? Am I, myself, a cyclist? If being a cyclist has to mean a $5K bicycle gracing the home, count me out. I don\’t have that kind of money to spend on a bicycle; or on anything else. If being a cyclist means reading about cycling; planning a week\’s rides every Sunday; and feeling \”off\” when you miss a day of riding, I\’m in! It\’s interesting to read The Cyclist\’s Training Bible, even I can\’t really train that way. The book seems to be aimed primarily at riders training for racing; but it does discuss structured training, which is important for any cyclist who wants to improve. For me, that means increasing my cruising pace. To do that, I began doing \”force intervals\” once a week; far in advance of the upcoming Tour de Cure. I\’ve described those exercises before: I shift into harder and harder gears until my cadence (rpm) is slowed to about 50. Then I work to jam it up to 70 rpm. I began with 10-second intervals, and at first it took most of those 10 seconds to reach 70 rpm! Over time, I lengthened the intervals until I was at 60 seconds or more. Oops! I\’m drifting off the subject here. Let\’s get back to the urgent question. You don\’t train for bicycle racing; and you don\’t do interval workouts? That\’s OK. Do you happen to be the \”from point A to point B\” type of rider? I\’d say don\’t let that get to you. You still ride a bicycle, right? That\’s the important thing. It\’s what makes you a cyclist!

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Vacation!

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Yes, I\’m on vacation. I chose to take it now partly because of \”use it or lose it\”; and partly because I want to get some R&R in advance of TdC.  This view is so relaxing! It would be wonderful to be able to get away to something like that; but unfortunately such a trip is a bit beyond my budget. Just now I can\’t afford to be away from riding my bicycle, anyway. Tour de Cure is only a few days away; and I must stay in condition. Today, Monday, is my usual off-bikes day. Tomorrow through Thursday I plan to do \”pace\” rides. But no \”force\” intervals! My pace has improved as much as it will before TdC. Doing very hard workouts at this point will likely do more harm than good. Then, on Friday, I\’ll do a short and easy ride. After TdC, of course, I can start the force intervals again if I want to. I\’ve already gathered my on-bike food for the big day; and am planning my clothing for the ride. The weather forecast has changed since yesterday; no surprise there. Yesterday it said, wind 5 mph; and now it says 10 mph. Temperature between 58 ad 74; and sunny. Well, I think I\’d rather have a 10 mph wind all the way back to the venue than rain. Meanwhile, I\’m having a working vacation trying to improve my web site!

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Improving upon Me

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Improving Upon Me “Improving upon me” isn’t meant to sound egotistical. I found a YouTube about teaching an adult beginner to ride a bicycle; and it’s certainly much better than the one I did last March. Unfortunately I can’t go back and edit my video. The Cycling UK video shows the beginning rider walking the bike along when the pedals are still attached to the cranks. What a great way to end up with bruises all over your calves and shins! And if you bruise easily, as I do, your poor legs will look a sight! I guess it depends on your personal approach. I had read about balance bikes; and  when I got my first two-wheeler I had the pedals removed and the saddle lowered before I began my first efforts. I didn’t want to get tangled up in those pedals, and possibly cause myself to fall. After two weeks I decided to put the pedals put back on, although I didn’t really feel ready. The prospect of riding on two wheels was still rather scary. But I was improving upon me. I knew I couldn’t keep on glide biking forever. I wanted to ride; and as the old saying goes, We learn by doing!

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Strike?

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Strike while the iron is hot, they say. That\’s what I must do when I come up with an idea for making changes to this web site. If I let things wait, I\’ll forget what I planned to do. Once I start acting on my plans, I work like mad because I want to finish as soon as possible; so that visitors to the site have to put up with minimal inconvenience. For example, take the slide show for My Story. My original idea was to have a colored background with a pic on it; a header; and buttons for URL. I soon found that I needed to change my plans. The slides didn\’t look the same in the web site as in the slide builder; various components moved themselves around, and changed sizes; and the buttons didn\’t work. I finally made slides with the desired pic as the entire slide; and texts and buttons on top of the pic. The slides change themselves more quickly than I would like. I need to find a way to put a Pause button on each slide; so that anyone who wants to view a slide for more than five seconds can do so. There\’s always something that needs working on, seven days a week … maybe I should go on strike?

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Things Don\’t Add Up

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Sometimes things don\’t add up. As a rule, I do my weekend long ride on Sunday. This weekend, however, I did it on Saturday, because this coming Saturday is Tour de Cure. As a result, yesterday kept feeling like Sunday; and today doesn\’t feel like Sunday at all! Normally I do my grocery run on Saturday; but this weekend I did it on Sunday because I rode long yesterday. The entire weekend has felt topsy-turvy as a result. I\’ve been working hard on my web site (www.spokeasy.net) for at least a week, incorporating slide shows into its main pages. Thus my web site has been topsy-turvy, too. Today I was checking the slides for My Story, and did I ever find some goofs! On one of them I had left off one of the buttons; and I discovered that I had put the incorrect URL link on at least one button, etc. Then I keep going back over it all, to be sure I didn\’t miss anything. The same goes for the rest of the site. When things don\’t add up, I have to fix them.  

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Quick Work

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Becoming a cyclist isn\’t always quick work. From what I\’ve read about cyclist training, some people are \”fast responders\”. Their bodies react quickly and favorably to the training process. To become a pro cyclist in a year\’s time is a staggering thought; but evidently it\’s not impossible. This fellow must be a phenomenally fast responder; and phenomenally determined as well. That he started upon such a venture at age 26 makes it even more amazing. But it hasn\’t been quick work for me. After more than six years of two-wheeling, I still can\’t hold to 15 mph for more than a very short time. Probably I wasn\’t doing enough of the right kind of exercise(s), or I might have reached that level several years earlier. My approach to cycling has been, on the whole, quite casual. When trying to train up to an event, such as Tour de Cure, I think I began training too late. That was especially true of previous years, when the route was in an area that was hilly. It always seemed that there was nothing I could do to truly prepare myself for all that climbing. I see training programs for long rides that take 8-10 weeks. I finally concluded that they were for riders whose strength and skill levels were far above mine — or maybe they were for fast responders?  

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I\’m Not Purring

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I\’m not purring today. In fact, I feel quite disgruntled. This morning I discovered that the velcro strip on one of my Cat Ears had come off. Apparently the velcro was glued on, not sewn on; and after  I got caught in the rain a number of times, the glue melted. There wasn\’t time to try to repair it before hitting the bike path; but it was cool enough that I wanted to wear my skull cap. That cap helps to reduce wind noise, so having the Cat Ears was less crucial. Cooler weather means leg warmers and long sleeves; and that in turn means less sunblock. The main reason I\’m glad about that is, sunblock isn\’t exactly cheap. Today, for once, I had a tailwind most of the time on the way back home?. I put in 50 miles; and averaged well over 13 mph overall. That seems to bode well for Tour de Cure next Saturday. The odd thing is, coming back home I kept feeling tired and slow! I\’m not purring about that! I wondered if possibly I had become a bit dehydrated; but my post-ride weight was two pounds over my pre-ride weight. Ergo I probably wasn\’t dehydrated. There were some Farmers\’ Markets open that aren\’t there on Sundays. I didn\’t have time to stop and explore them; but maybe another time I can go check out one of them. Meanwhile I must check to see whether I can hand-stitch that velcro strip back onto the Cat Ear.  

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Final Stretch!

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Here it is, the final stretch. One week from tomorrow is the Big Day! Tour de Cure 2018! I hope I\’m properly prepared. If I\’m not, it\’s certainly too late to do anything about it now. If I try to train big time at this point, I\’ll merely be going into TdC exhausted. A week ago I chose several Clif Bars and some Shot Blocks to use during the event; and I set them apart from other ride food that I keep around home, to be sure I don\’t absentmindedly use them. I know they\’ll keep for a few weeks. There will be rest stops along the way with snacks; but I\’ll take along my usual ride food. TdC won\’t be such a big jump up from my Sunday long rides, which means I probably won\’t need much more food. Unless it\’s a cold day, however, I\’m sure I\’ll welcome the chance to down a shot of dill pickle juice! Being in the final stretch also means that, from here onwards, I\’ll be keeping an anxious eye on the weather. Forecasts, as we all know, aren\’t always accurate; but if I see that calm winds; no rain; and temperatures between 68 and 75 all day are expected, I shall be delighted.

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Don\’t Lie to Me!

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Don\’t lie to me, wheel! Or, how to true a wheel. This is a skill that I have yet to learn. I don\’t have either a bike stand or a truing stand . Where would I put a bike stand anyway? Of course, I don\’t want to use one of my bicycles as a guinea pig. Once I did get a spare wheel so I could practice changing tubes; but then the cold weather set in. My skin gets very dry in cold weather; and  changing tubes means beating up my cuticles. They\’d have gotten all bloody as a result. Eventually, after done nothing with that wheel for a least a year, I got rid of it. It would be handy now to have it again! Getting back to the bike stand, I\’m not sure I\’m strong enough to lift my hybrid (probably close to 40 lbs including the rear rack) high enough to get it into a bike stand. I might not be able to lift the much-lighter road bike that high. Or could I fasten the bicycle into the stand while it\’s still on the floor, and then raise it up? Don\’t lie to me. I don\’t want to spend my money on a bicycle repair stand, and only then find out!

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