SpokEasy

SpokEasy

BACK ISSUES

Dressing to the Nines?

Going for a ride doesn\’t necessarily mean dressing to the nines. I would guess, in fact, that not many of us have white-tie-and-tails or an evening dress hanging in the closet. Can you imagine riding a bicycle encumbered in such an outfit, anyway? Cummerbunds and cleats don\’t mix, I would say. I\’m sure there are many riders who don\’t own \”real\” cycling clothes. Admittedly such togs are not cheap, and if I hadn\’t developed an interest in long-distance riding I might not have any of them, myself. Cycling clothes don\’t have to be top-tier racing kit; but if you want to put in serious miles, especially on a road bike, cycling shorts are a wise investment. In a way they\’re a nuisance, because they need to be washed after each use. By all accounts, riding in dirty shorts is asking for trouble. Shorts, after a helmet, are the most important part of a cycling outfit. A jersey is nice to have, too, especially on a hot day. With Tour de Cure not two weeks away, I\’m giving a lot of thought to what I\’ll wear for the big ride. My best pair of shorts, for sure; and my favorite jersey. When I have the day\’s forecast I can complete my outfit. It might be hot and humid; or we might be getting a cold front! But whatever the temperature, at least I don\’t have to be dressing to the nines. I\’ll leave that for another time.

Dressing to the Nines? Read More »

Will This Last?

Will this last? I fervently hope not! This morning\’s ride was not what I\’d call pleasant. It was drizzling; and chilly; and there were no pretty lights to relieve the gloom, either. The drizzle was heavy enough that I was wet through by the time I got back home. Fortunately the wind wasn\’t nearly as strong as it was day before yesterday, because my legs weren\’t quite \”there\”. They seemed tired and sluggish. It was about 69 degrees; not really cold, but cool enough for my fingers to feel rather chilly. I think I would have done better to have worn full-fingered gloves. Of course I got the headwind on the way home; and since I was wet, the wind felt all the colder. There\’s more rain in the forecast for the next two days, it\’s tempting to take off a day or two; all the more as I feel almost as though I\’m getting a cold. It could be over tiredness from having had several nights of very short sleep last week; and I hope that\’s what it is! I do not need to get sick now. Not with Tour de Cure almost on the doorstep. Riding-wise I\’m going into final preparations. No more of those \”force intervals\” until after TdC. It\’s too late now for them to effect further improvement before the big day. The main thing will be working to maintain my pace; and I ask myself, will this last? My pace had better last! And I hope for good weather on November 3!  

Will This Last? Read More »

Publish or Perish?

Must I publish or perish? And, omigosh, when did I last see one of these? I first learned to type on a manual, and did that thing ever need some pounding! Seeing it reminds me of the saying about some career paths: \”Publish or Perish\”. It seems to be the same kind of thing with a blog. In order not to lose readers, you\’ve got to keep coming up with new stuff. That\’s not always so easy. It was particularly difficult before I got the idea of composing blogs over the weekend; and scheduling them to be published during the following week or two. Even composing blogs ahead of time wasn\’t always easy. Sometimes I simply can\’t thing up that many topics at once. Trying to come up with blog ideas day by day, after having worked all day at a regular job, makes me feel put on the spot. Of course that makes it even harder for me to come up with blog ideas; and I don\’t always have something ride-related to blog about. Browsing free-art sites for suitable pics only added to the stress; not to mention that the process took more time. On weekends I have more time; and thus I\’m more relaxed, which lets my mind works a little better. I can begin a blog, and save the draft if I can\’t think of enough to say (well, type) at the moment. There\’s more time to hunt for pics, too. Getting back to Publish or Perish, I saw a cartoon somewhere. It showed a tearful person standing beside a gravestone that read: \”Published, but Perished Anyway\”!

Publish or Perish? Read More »

Another Wild Dream

Here is another wild dream of mine. In fact, we can all dream of riding off into the sunset, at the end of a 200-mile day! For me to daydream about that is probably just plain crazy. A double century is no joke. Training up for such a ride requires  more time than I can realistically fit in around my work schedule, especially at my current average speed. Maybe I could get in the required mileage if I did part in the morning and the rest in the evening, but I suspect that proper double-century training would give that the thumbs down. Probably I wouldn\’t be able to develop the necessary endurance at the necessary speed using such a method. Even if training that way would be adequate, it\’s too much heavy exercise too close to bed time, especially later in the program. If I were trying to train during the Summer, I would have another problem as well. The heat index can be over 100 degrees in the afternoons; sometimes as high as 117! I would need training partners so that I could learn how to draft. And become comfortable riding close to other riders at the pace a double-century rider needs to maintain in order to finish in time. I would need to do a lot more work to improve my force, and therefore my average pace. I can always put \”Ride Double Century\” on my bucket list, but I\’m not even sure if any doubles take place anywhere near to home. Eventually I might be able to go out and ride 200 miles in one day all on my own, but it wouldn\’t really be the same thing, would it? Oh, well. It might have to remain merely another wild dream.

Another Wild Dream Read More »

Cutting Up

Cutting up doesn\’t only mean misbehavior. Needing to wear a cycling helmet on an almost daily basis brings me to the subject of how to manage hair. I myself like short hair. It needs less shampoo; it dries much faster after washing; when it\’s time to clap on that helmet I don\’t have to worry about tying up all that hair, and then perhaps having the helmet not fit over whatever style I\’ve chosen. I\’d have to waste time re-fixing my hair! Here\’s the catch about short hair. It need cutting every few months. Even at a low-cost establishment, a basic cut plus a tip easily comes to $20. There\’s usually a radio blaring away at a volume level too high for my comfort. On top of that, such places are full of the fumes of all kinds of \”stuff\”. In fact, there\’s something (perm fluid?) that smells to me like an open sewer! The only other way, then, to get a haircut is to tackle it myself. I have a pair of barber shears that I bought many years ago. I started trying to cut my own hair. Then for about 11 years my hands, arms, and wrists hurt too much (overuse at a computer at work) for me to hold them up while doing self-barbering. Then, a few years ago, I started at it again. The results often doesn\’t look too good, but hey — it will grow. Then after a few months I can try again. It\’s like — you guessed it — riding a bike. If you want to be able to do it, you have to get out there and do it! Cutting up is the name of the game in this case.

Cutting Up Read More »

NOT Burning Fat?

Am I NOT burning fat, after all? Do I need to change my riding pace; or my intensity? Oh, the \”fat-burning zone\”! Wouldn\’t we all love to be there all day long? I know I would. According to this article, we actually are there, all the time. It seems we\’ve been conditioned to equate burning calories with hard (and even grueling!) physical activity. It\’s good to know that it isn\’t necessary to stay in a certain heart rate zone to \”burn fat\”.  And that any ride will burn fat, even if we\’re blazing along at 25 mph! So why plod along at 8 mph to burn fat, if we want to spin along at 15 mph? Ride Your Way Lean has a lot of information about cycling and weight loss; and includes several stories of people who lost triple-digit weight through cycling. Dietary habits matter, too, naturally — not that I should talk. I still eat way too much junk! Let\’s just ride, and stop fretting that we\’re \”not burning fat\”. Burning calories is the main thing; and the faster/longer we ride, the more calories we\’ll burn!

NOT Burning Fat? Read More »

More Ideas

I\’ve got more ideas; and I guess that\’s good. I couldn\’t have thought of these things before I began to build the site! I guess it\’s like moving into a new home. Over time, you might  decide that your original arrangement of furniture isn\’t the most efficient. Or that the items on the front of a shelf need to be moved to the back, because you don\’t use them as often as you expected. A web site is comparable to a book, especially a non-fiction book. Over time, the information might need updating. Errors might be found that need correcting. New information might need to be added. In the case of a web site with slide shows, an occasional change of pictures will refresh the site. If l do another 100-mile ride, of course I\’ll want to add a page about it. In any case, constantly getting more ideas is a lot better than being unable to think of anything new.

More Ideas Read More »

Monkey Around?

Today\’s ride was no time to monkey around; that is, to take it easy and goof off. Certainly not on the way back home! I had already decided to make today\’s ride shorter than usual for a Sunday ride, because I\’m shifting around my schedule in advance of Tour de Cure. That is, this coming weekend I\’ll do  my long ride on Saturday and go for groceries on Sunday. Well, it\’s a good thing I did make my ride shorter. The wind was a killer. As you might have guessed, I had it against me on the way back home. It was blowing at 20-22 mph; and I\’m surprised that my overall average speed was 12 mph. If I had gone 25 miles before turning back towards home, I\’d be dead tired now. I had to make several unplanned stops to catch my breath. Possibly I really needed to eat more; but fighting a wind in a low gear and rapid cadence is quite the appetite killer. I may have needed to drink more, too; but during the last 10 miles I needed to \”go\” and wasn\’t anxious to make it worse by downing large quantities of fluid. Getting back to my average speed today, it\’s still good enough for TdC; but I hope we won\’t have a wind like today\’s come event day. It would take all the fun out of the ride. But for the moment, I\’ll just monkey around a bit. I think I\’ve earned it!

Monkey Around? Read More »

Interference

Interference doesn\’t affect only large electronics such as televisions. I once had a cyclocomputer on the hybrid that drove me absolutely crazy. Sometimes it would work; and sometimes it wouldn\’t. I probably drove my bike shop\’s personnel crazy, too, with my frequent visits about it. Then one day I went for a short ride in the evening, which I don\’t usually do. The cyclocomputer seemed fine. As it began to get dark, I switched on my headlight;  a handlebar-mounted type. Soon I looked to see how fast I was going — and that **** cyclocomputer wasn\’t doing a thing! That\’s when the proverbial lightbulb went on. To be sure of it, I turned off the headlight. The computer started working. I turned the headlight on again; and the computer quit. That incident, as much as anything else, prompted me to put my headlight on top of my helmet. It was a huge relief to figure out what the problem with that cyclocomputer was! My first heart-rate monitoring system was a Sigma. I used it for about two years, and then the HR transmitter quit on me. I discarded the chest strap/transmitter, but kept the readout unit to use as a watch/stopwatch. A few weeks ago I began wearing my wrist blinkie when riding to work, because there\’s less daylight now at that hour. I looked to see what time it was, and the watch\’s screen had gone blank! It didn\’t come on again until I had turned off the blinkie. Electronics can be very helpful, but they can also cause a lot of interference. What a bother that is!

Interference Read More »

Don\’t Be Rigid

Don\’t be rigid! Lack of flexibility  can cause a lot of problems. Activities such as ballet, gymnastics, and yoga aren\’t the only things requiring flexibility. It\’s needed for web site building, too. Big Time. What I have in mind doesn\’t always work, especially where slides are concerned. I always have to be ready to consider alternatives, whether I want to or not. It can be surprisingly hard to let go of my original plan, but sometimes I must. Cycling, and cyclist training, also require flexibility. We don\’t need to be able to perform Olympic-level back bends, or splits, but we do need to be flexible enough to do what\’s needed in order to be able to ride. For those into time-trialing, being able to tuck into an aero position, and hold it for a long time, is vital. I\’ve seen cyclists using those aero bars, which they say allows the most aerodynamic position. The downside is that, when you\’re riding on aero bars, your hands are far away from the brakes. Quite obviously this can be a problem should a sudden stop be necessary. Some events which draw large numbers of riders have banned aero bars for this reason. A training schedule needs to have some flexibility in it, too. Have a hard workout planned, but you wake up with a sore throat and feeling sluggish? Skip those hard intervals until your symptoms have improved. If you have chest congestion or other \”below the neck\” symptoms, don\’t ride until those symptoms have cleared up. In summary: we don\’t need to be able to twist ourselves into pretzel shapes; we do need to be limber enough to \”bend with the wind\”. In other words, don\’t be rigid.

Don\’t Be Rigid Read More »