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Riding Indoors

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Riding indoors is, to me, a last resort; and I suppose this is what my legs might feel like if I did a truly hard session on a Wattbike: totally burned out. It\’s been months since I climbed aboard a Wattbike. Weekends I\’m busy with errands and the weekly long ride. After work, I\’m rushing home to work on my social media. A short Wattbike session once or twice a week would be beneficial, I think. One of the things a Wattbike does, is to let you see whether your left/right pedal stroke is even. Mine isn\’t as even as I would like. A perfect 50%/50% is very hard to maintain, and for me a L/R \”score\” of 48/52 is very good, indeed. If I\’d just get back on a Wattbike, I could see what wattage I\’m capable of producing. I don\’t remember for sure what it was before, but my peak wattage was in the 200s, I think. It would be interesting to see whether my force exercises have increased that wattage. One of my reasons for hesitating to get back to working on a Wattbike is that I don\’t need it to push my off-bike resistance and core work to the side. I really need those exercises! In addition, I can\’t get to a Wattbike until after I\’m off from \”work-work\” for the day; and by then I\’m tired. Even doing a very short session of 15 minutes means that I don\’t get home until about 6 pm. The Wattbike would be good for a Sunday when the weather is truly terrible. Maybe I\’ll try sometime, even though riding indoors is not my thing.

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Wrong Guess?

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Did I make the wrong guess? Could I have kept on riding; or was turning back early the right move? The sky sure didn\’t look like this today! Although the sun was shining where I was riding, up ahead it kept looking more and more stormy. Between that and knowing that I\’d have a headwind on the way home, I decided to turn back at the 14.5-mile point. I didn\’t want to be fighting the wind in addition to, possibly, riding through a binding downpour. Since I got home an hour ago, the sky has become almost completely overcast. It hasn\’t started to rain yet; but I can\’t say what conditions might be like farther to the West. Weather typically moves West to East in the Northern hemisphere; so for all I know it\’s pouring just a few miles away, and could arrive here any minute. Thus my planned 50-mile ride turned out to be only 29 miles. I hope I can get out and ride 20 miles or so tomorrow. Unfortunately the forecast for tomorrow looks much like today\’s. As usual, I can\’t do a thing but wait and see what conditions are like in the morning; and hope I don\’t make the wrong guess.

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Meow?

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When does a cat not say Meow? When you\’ve got only the ears! A year or so ago, I came across a wind-blocking product called Cat-Ears. I decided to try a pair; and they do seem to reduce bothersome wind noise. It\’s especially useful to have Cat Ears when I\’m not wearing a skull cap. Cat-Ears are made of some kind of plushy fabric. Each \”ear\” wraps around the part of the helmet strap that\’s in front of the cyclist\’s ear; and has a velcro fastening. The \”grain\” of the fabric must face rearwards. I ought to wash those \”ears\” more often, I think. They get gunked up with sunblock every weekend, which probably diminishes their effectiveness. It\’s possible that they\’ll need replacing fairly soon. Meow? Scratch about another 17 bucks from my bank account. Addendum, 10/03/21 Cat-Ears were similar to this product.

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Don\’t Forget!

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Don\’t forget! Tomorrow begins Cycle September; so I\’d better be sure I don\’t wear myself out tonight like this fellow. The forecast for the next few days is full of rain and T-storms. I hardly need say that I\’m none too pleased about that! We\’ve already had heavy downpours two days in a row. I hope the weather doesn\’t force me to \”ride\” inside. \”Riding\” on an indoor trainer/spinning bike doesn\’t count towards Cycle September miles, as far as I know. It didn\’t count during previous challenges; so I assume that it still holds. If want my miles to count, I have to go for real rides. I don\’t like riding in the rain. That\’s partly because of reduced visibility; and anxiety about when the lightning might get close. Sometimes the wind is so strong in a storm that it\’s all I can do to control the bicycle. I haven\’t been caught in a hailstorm yet, as hail is rare around here; but you never know. But the desire to get out there and ride often wins. And don\’t forget, it\’s Cycle September. So let\’s get out there and make it a big success!

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One-Wheeled Wonder

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I\’m not a one-wheeled wonder; and I never thought of doing a hundred miles by — skateboard? Well, it really would not surprise me if somebody has done it, or at least tried. But several years ago I began to wonder whether anyone had done a century by unicycle. Following is part of the text of the blog I posted about it at the time: \”…Sure enough, some people have. It makes me think that my century on an adult tricycle isn\’t such a big deal. The trike at least had a big basket, so I could carry stuff with me. On a unicycle I, for one, wouldn\’t be able to take along much at all. Maybe I shouldn\’t criticize, but this guy should have gotten a helmet-mounted headlight for the ride. Then he wouldn\’t have had to wear out his cell phone trying to get a little bit of light. Otherwise, I say Good for him. If few people have done centuries on adult tricycles, I\’m sure even fewer have done it on a unicycle!\” So that\’s a one-wheeled wonder; but I\’ll stick with two wheels, myself. A single wheel is too unstable for me; and I can just see a skateboard skidding out from under me!

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Getting Up There!

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I sure hope I\’m as happy as this lady when I get to be that age. And I hope I\’ll still be pedaling happily away! But being a senior citizen cyclist isn\’t the same as being a twenty-something cyclist, I\’m sure. I didn\’t start riding until I was 51 so I don\’t speak from personal experience; but it\’s easy to figure out. Older cyclists have special concerns such as osteoporosis. Or arthritis. Here are some articles I\’d like to share about cycling for those of us who are no longer spring chickens: Five Things Athletes Need to Know… Cycling for Seniors Benefits of Cycling… Biking for Seniors It\’s hard for me to realize that I\’m a \”senior\”. I sure don\’t feel like it 🙂

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Should I or Not?

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Should I, or not?  You know those days when you just don\’t feel like riding? Some days you\’re tired; or you didn\’t sleep well. Or you even feel like you might be coming down with something. How do you know whether to ride as usual; take it easy; or to take a day off? The part of this article headed, \”When Stop Does Not Mean Go\”, is helpful. I keep a printout of it with my weekly ride plan, where can easily refer to it. There certainly are days when I need to ease up the efforts; even when I planned to ride hard. One day about two weeks ago, I had force-development exercises on the agenda. Maybe I got into a gear that was a bit too hard; or maybe  I was actually too tired for such attempts. It was a \”should I, or not\” moment. I just didn\’t seem to have the legs; so I decided to forget about force and ride for the fun of it. And what about the training schedule? Another article I read about training says, keep your plan \”etched in clay\” so that you can mold it as needed; it shouldn\’t be \”chiseled in stone\” so that you use it to beat up on yourself. Planned to ride hard today, but it simply isn\’t going? Ease up. There\’s always tomorrow.

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WELCOME!

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  Welcome to SpokEasy! This web site is a continuation of  my former site, www.threewheelstwowheels.org. You may follow my adventures as I progressed from an adult tricycle to a road bike. See the Archives page for descriptions of my early efforts at adjusting to two wheels; including a brief YouTube video! Along the way, I rode a century on the tricycle; and in fact, I wore out that trike! When I got it, I never expected to ride as much as I did; but I was hooked on pedaling before I completed my first mile. For a long, long time, it was a rare day when I did no riding at all. And I thought I was just buying a way to get to places more than a mile or two from home! Eventually I rode centuries on the hybrid and the road bike. Maybe, one of these days, I\’ll do a 100-miler again. It\’s hard to train up properly, though, when your riding time most days is limited. I sometimes dream about doing an Adventure Cycling Epic Tour. Or maybe I should call that pipe-dreaming. Those tours are about three months long; and the cost is beyond my budget! Once again, Welcome to SpokEasy!

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