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Lakes and Volcanoes

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Lakes and Volcanoes This blog/page may contain affiliate links. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” Nicaragua: the Land of Lakes and Volcanoes! This Central American nation contains stunning natural beauty; and, of course, there are cycle touring routes! Some are especially designed for the beginner at touring; and feature easy grades; clear directions; and manageable distances. These tours are good for families and seniors, as well as beginners. At the other end of the scale are tours for advanced riders. They present riders with more challenging terrain; longer distances; and less support. Or you might want to tackle this 15-day, 3-country tour. You’ll ride through Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. The fully-guided tour takes you through both towns and rainforests; and is suited to novice riders.  As to lakes and volcanoes, there are three active volcanoes in Nicaragua. Sensibly enough, visitors are advised not to try visiting them without an expert guide. When I was a kid, I used to think it would be great to watch an erupting volcano — from a safe distance. I know much better now. There’s no such thing as a “safe distance” from an erupting volcano. Pyroclastic flows can reach miles beyond the slopes of a “fire mountain”! Ergo I think I’ll stay away. The best time to visit Nicaragua is from November to May, when the weather is drier. Not surprisingly, the country’s climate is tropical. I expect you’d need a lot of sunblock! How about safety? That seems to be the snag about travel to many countries nowadays. I guess the best thing is to stay in a group; and don’t try to “wing it”. But if you can arrange that, the Land of Lakes and Volcanoes sounds like a great place to visit!

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Banana Run

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Banana Run Today’s ride was just a banana run; little over one mile long. I do like to have one day a week when I take it easy; or even take the day off from bikes. But when a Love to Ride challenge is in progress, I try not to miss a day. Riding to the nearest grocery store to get some bananas let me get moving. The day after a long ride is a good time to ride easy; they say it helps flush lactate out of your muscles. Not that I rode particularly hard yesterday; my Sunday long rides are about improving endurance more than developing speed. Yesterday for about three miles I had a good tailwind; and averaged almost 15 mph! I love it when that happens. Now if only I could improve to the point where 15 mph is all in a day’s ride. Thinking of that yellow fruit brings to my mind the expression, “Going bananas”; that is to say, something is driving me crazy. Then there’s this game. Bananagrams is fun to play; and I learned it while at my sister’s home post-Ida. That reminds me; hurricane season is not over. We have over two months to go; and a lot can happen on that time. Nigel, at least, is currently no threat to New Orleans; but it looks like New England might have to go on the alert again. If a storm did threaten us here, it would mean more than a banana run for me if I didn’t have the salvage-store habit. When I was a kid, there was something exciting about rushing to the supermarket as a hurricane approached; but not at my age! It’s far better to lay in your supplies as soon as hurricane season begins; if not earlier.  But I’d better stop thinking about hurricanes, or I’ll drive myself bananas.

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Heart Rate Training

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Heart Rate Training Heart rate training is another method for improving fitness; incuding, of course, on the bike. But what do you do when your heart rate monitor’s battery runs low; and you don’t have the tool you need to open the battery compartment? There’s the RPE scale; but of course that’s very subjective. It’s better than nothing; but not like having the hard numbers provided by using a heart-rate monitor. In fact, in my opinion, RPE and a heart-rate monitor are complementary. When you have a fair amount of experience watching your monitor’s readouts, you get to know what different heart-rate zones feel like.  For a couple of weeks now, I have to go by RPE. I don’t have the proper tool for opening my hear-rate monitor’s battery compartment; and neither does the bike shop. I might have to find a jeweler to do the job; and hope it doesn’t cost too much.  Today I was out on my road bike; and I could tell that I was in upper Zone 3/lower Zone 4 a good part of the time. At least once I briefly reached my heart-rate max when I “put down the hammer” to pass another rider. For the best heart rate training, though, I’d rather have those hard numbers. Without then, it’s easy to think you’re working harder than you actually are — or that you’re going easier than you are when on a recovery ride!        

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What’s Up?

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, equipment, Food /

Add Your Heading Text Here What’s Up? I’d like to know what’s up with the tropics. Hurricane Lee seems to be dissipating; but Tropical Storm Margot is crazy. She keeps changing direction;  and it’s a good thing she’s not close to land. If she were, people in her potential path would be having fits: will she strike here; or not? We’re at the peak of hurricane season; and have to stay alert. Of course hurricanes bring the prospect of an electrical outage; perhaps for days or even weeks. In a hot, humid climate, that’s miserable. I have a battery-operated fan, plus a supply of batteries; but a wearable device such as Ontel Arctic Air would be great! But here’s the snag: after six hours, the device needs recharging; and you can’t do that if the power is out! I have to think about what’s up with the weather for tomorrow. Low of 75 degrees tonight, they say; a little cooler than it’s been lately. Is Fall going to come, after all?  For my ride, I think I’ll wear sun sleeves again; but I’ll still need plenty of sunblock. I just tried KINeSYS; and it’s less heavy on my skin than my usual sunblock. Several weeks ago I was in a sports shoe store; and they had sample-sized bottles of KINeSYS. The drawback was, this version of the sunblock was only SPF 30. The spray-top kept twisting around as my hands got slippery from the sunblock; and I’d wind up spraying the stuff at nothing. That was quite annoying; not to mention wasteful. Alba Botanica has been my go-to sunblock for years. I like the shorter-size tube, because I can fit it into my under-saddle pack. This sunblock does feel a bit smothery, though; and it’s rather hard to wash off. What I like most about it is, it’s fragrance-free! Of course, what’s up with on-bike food? Lately I haven’t had much luck finding ride food at the salvage store; and today I had to buy some protein bars at a different store. MET-Rx Bars seem to be quite sustaining; but some of them are more crumbly than I like. Those crumbs tend to stick in my throat. I don’t know why, but electrolyte drink seems to wash them down better than plain water. I don’t need to drive myself crazy planning tomorrow’s ride, though. It’s not as though I were arranging an expedition to Antarctica.

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Cycle Vanuatu

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Cycle Vanuatu? Cycle Vanuatu? Not so fast. I’m not sure I heard of Vanuatu before now; but yesterday I spotted a ship while I was out riding. For a wonder, I was able to remember her name after I got home. I did a Google search; and the ship is registered there. Naturally I immediately thought about Cycle Vanuatu! This archipelago is rather isolated; and unfortunately has few cycling routes to offer. Apparently there’s climbing involved; but both routes are rather short.  The land there can be rugged; and earthquakes are quite common. There are even active volcanoes on several of the islands. I don’t mind keeping my distance from volcanoes! Vanuatu seems to have more to offer scuba divers than cyclists. I don’t think I want to take up diving; I can barely swim! So I’ll have to do my cycling elsewhere.

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Give It Up

BACK ISSUES, equipment, Outdoors /

Give It Up I might as well give it up when it comes to seeing the comet. There’s simply too much light pollution around here. The time frame for spotting it is nearly past, too. I hope I never have to give it up when it comes to cycling. For one thing, I really need the exercise! With Fall — and, we hope, cooler weather — approaching, it’s time to get that cold-weather cycling wardrobe ready. With the right clothes, there’s no need to go into hibernation for the Winter! When the morning temperatures are still around 70 degrees, a long-sleeved blouse often suffices; but as it drops below 70, I’ll need a jacket.  The jacket shown has elastic cuffs; but I prefer one with velcro sleeve openings. It’s easier to get it on even after I’ve donned heavy gloves. Keeping my hands warm during cold-day rides has always been a problem for me. Not even heavy gloves do the trick. Two seasons ago, I began using hand warmers; and they help a lot. Unfortunately my feet still get cold, even with thermal socks. That doesn’t automatically mean that the socks aren’t any good; I just get cold easily. Once the temperatures start falling below the mid-60s, I want leg warmers. They’re far less binding than regular slacks; and if it warms up during a ride, leg warmers are easily removed. They also take much less space in a Camel-Bak pocket than a pair of jeans. Keeping your head warm is very important; we hear all the time that we lose a lot of body heat through our heads. A helmet liner works well; and is especially useful if your helmet is well ventilated. Jacket, gloves, leg warmers, and helmet liner are just a few of the items that come in handy when the mercury begins to drop. The problem is, none of it keeps my nose from running!

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Extending

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, Food /

Extending I’m extending my Sunday ride! Up to 25 miles today. And I think I need to start isometric exercises for my neck. That loaded Camel-Bak was pretty hard on me; and on top of that, I think I did something weird to my lower back during my off-bike exercises. It doesn’t exactly hurt; but when I make certain movements, it feels like something’s popping a bit. Not good. Ever think of using these for ride food? I had another try at finding that comet this morning; but I think I went out too late. It was already 6:15; and the horizon was reddening from the rising sun. But I just couldn’t get myself moving earlier. Of course I had to think (no pun intended) about ride food; and cut up a Think! bar. I also brought along another small protein bar, in case I needed it. As always, I had a few GU-Gels along. Today, as a matter fact, I ate two! That’s a lot for a ride of under 30-40 miles; and I might have done better to cut up two Think! bars instead. Maybe I was under-fueling a little; I got quite tired before the end. I wasn’t exactly bonking; but I didn’t feel all that strong, either. I need to start extending my weekday rides, too. One of the things I looked forward to in retirement was more time to ride. In any case, the Love to Ride September challenge is on! I hope the weather continues to cooperate. A few days ago, we had an afternoon T-storm that was right on top of us; and I was very glad I wasn’t out riding! 

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Still No See

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Still No See Still no see; the comet, I mean. I rode early again; but had no luck spotting the celestial visitor. Maybe I was looking in the wrong part of the sky. There may well have been too much light pollution; or maybe the comet is still too faint. Binoculars would have helped, maybe. But as I said, still no see. As I rode, daylight began to grow; and that meant the end of this morning’s viewing. I did only a short ride, anyway, so I could make a trip to the supermarket before there was too much traffic. I can have another try at seeing the comet tomorrow morning; and I hope the weather cooperates. The hour-by-hour forecast says, mostly clear; so maybe I’ll have a chance. It probably would help if I were more familiar with the constellation Leo. Good weather means a good trip to the salvage store! Last week I went there on Thursday, because the forecast for Saturday was none too favorable. I’m glad I wasn’t riding home from there at about 5:00 pm yesterday. A humdinger of a T-storm broke out; with a heavy downpour and some very close lightning! Being on top of the levee in weather like that makes my skin crawl.  Today it didn’t get quite so  hot; and afternoon overcast helped. Once we get some real Fall weather, maybe I can start making short afternoon rides in addition to regular morning rides? I’ll need such training if I want to tackle RAGBRAI some day!  

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My Timing Was Off

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

My Timing Was Off My timing was off when I rode very early yesterday morning, hoping to see the comet. Today I learned that it should be visible early tomorrow; so I’ve got to set my alarm clock early. Light up the night! That means making sure my headlight is fully charged; and wearing my reflective vest. It also means using extra caution; all the more as I no longer ride before daybreak all the time. I hope I remember to turn on my tail light this time, too! Yesterday I got my road bike back from the shop; and it was great to be riding it again. Unfortunately my legs felt tired. In addition, I didn’t get going until about 7:30 am; and it was already quite hot. Before I got back home, I wished I had electrolyte drink with me. I guess my timing was off again. It looks like the weather will be clear early tomorrow; good news for star-gazers. And, of course, good news for riding! But it will be hot again tomorrow. Good grief, it’s September! It ought to be cooling off a little bit. If it did get cooler, it might help push hurricanes away. Fortunately Hurricane Lee doesn’t seem likely to head our way.

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Back to School

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, equipment /

Back to School Back to school means getting back into the groove. Books; pens; and many other items. And, of course, back to school means getting the kids to school. If you opt for active transport, there are a number of options. To take a very young child to daycare, the Copilot Child Carrier is an option. This seat can carry up to 50 pounds; and its sides are a bright, highly visible color. Copilot Child Carrier works best with recreational bikes.  For a child who’s ready to do some pedaling, the Kent Wee Ride lets your youngster ride behind you. The Kent Wee Ride has a saddle and handlebars as in a regular bike. Twenty-inch wheels; coaster brakes; and a chain guard to keep clothing from getting snagged. The Kazoo Bicycle Trailercycle is designed for children ages 4-10; and up to 85 pounds. Excellent stability; with reflectors for better visibility. Oh, and how about humming a tune on the way to school? If your child is ready to pedal independently, there’s the Huffy Upshot. This bike is for kids ages 3-9. The quick-release seat clamp lets you adjust the saddle height as your youngster grows. For carrying lunch or other needs, the Anzome Kids Bike Basket fits most children’s bikes. Velcro fastenings make it easy to attach/remove; and it has a rust-resistant coating. Easy to clean, too. Naturally, getting to and from school by active transport means being mindful of safety. If possible, avoid routes with heavy motor traffic. A safety wing and lights enhance visibility. Lighting will be increasingly important as the days shorten, and kids might be starting out when it’s still dark. If your young ‘un enjoys the creepy, there are Spider Spoke Lights!

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