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SpokEasy

bicycling

It’s Official

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, Uncategorized /

It’s Official! It’s official! Summer has begun; at least, according to the calendar. But things don’t always go according to our way of thinking of time. It feels like the dog days already; and has for a couple of weeks. Last week I was on vacation; and didn’t get in the extra mileage that I wanted to.  Of course when I’m on vacation I want (and need!) to sleep a little later; and when I don’t start a ride until 8:00 am these days, it’s already well into the 80s. In fact, overnight it gets little or none below 80. The cat-sitting was a complication. I didn’t want to leave the poor kitty hungry until late morning; and when I went to feed him in the evening, the heat index was often 100+! I wonder what the temperature in France is now. The Tour de France starts in a few days; and don’t stages typically begin around 1:00 pm? Thinking of riding in that heat makes me wilt! How do you keep cool during hot rides? The answer for me is that I don’t! Workday mornings I typically ride before sunup; but Sunday long rides are another story. Even if I start at 6:00 am, it’s very hot by the time I put in 35-40 miles; and I’m considering starting at 5:30 am! Unfortunately that means getting even less sleep; and it makes me long for Fall, when it might not be so sweltering. But it’s Summer now; it’s official.

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Like an Arrow

BACK ISSUES, bicycling, Uncategorized /

Like an Arrow I wish I could ride this fast! Time flies like an arrow, so they say. Last week certainly flew past; and I feel like I got nothing done. I was badly distracted by the prospect of having to move; and soon. Long story short, that’s on hold for at least a few days. I hope it can stay on hold for at least six more months. But the upshot was that I didn’t get to work nearly as much on my dot net site as I had planned; and today I had to go back to work. Oh, how I want to retire! I also didn’t get any too much time to relax and rest; and by Sunday night I was exhausted. Yesterday morning I didn’t even try to ride because I was so worn out. I won’t be able to fly like an arrow down the bike path if I’m tired all the time. The unrelenting heat doesn’t help matters. Summer has barely begun; and it feels like the dog days. The overnight low temperature is hovering at around 80 degrees! It isn’t fun riding home from work in this heat; and I’m glad I have less than three miles to go. Some people have a much farther commute; and I don’t know how they manage it. If I had to ride far to and from  work, how would I fill my Camel-Bak before the trip home? I guess all I could do is fill it at home in the morning; and hope it doesn’t leak during the day if it doesn’t stay upright. Keep hydrated!

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heat index

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Heat Index Be careful when the heat index rises! At of  1:17 pm, yesterday, it was 95 degrees; our heat index was 103; and there was a heat advisory in effect. Today isn’t any cooler; and the lack of clouds doesn’t help. I  dragged myself out of bed at 4:10 am; went out at 5:00 am to ride some laps around the park; and then did about 29 miles on the levee. That let me finish by 9:00 am or so; and it was already brutally hot by that time! In heat like that, my ride food get half-melted; and my water and electrolyte drink don’t stay cool. I waited until I finished my ride to go feed the cat. He won’t starve if he gets his meal a few hours later. The poor thing is lonely, I know; but my friends return  tomorrow evening. They’ve been in England, where it’s cooler than it is here; and I hope the heat index doesn’t give them too much of a shock when they get back! In this heat and blazing sunshine, I’m using up a lot of sunblock. What a mess that stuff can make! It’s the payoff for not having to wear multiple layers. When it’s as hot as this, I wonder how Grand Tour riders manage to keep from collapsing. Well, tragically, sometimes they do collapse. How many years of acclimatization does it take to race like than in the heat?

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Precovery

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

PREcovery? Sometimes I “recover” before I ride. Recovery is a vital part of any exercise program; but  precovery? That’s right; sometimes I down my recovery drink before I go out riding! My usual pre-ride snack is a banana or a cupful of grapes; often with peanut butter. Sometimes I’m out of peanut butter; or I’m simply not in the mood for bananas. I don’t always have grapes on hand; and I don’t have time for a real meal. Going for a first-thing-in-the-morning ride on an empty stomach isn’t the best idea. At least, it isn’t for me. I’ve heard about fasted training; but I think I’ll skip it. Even with that pre-ride snack, I often get hungry before I’m back home; and my morning rides usually aren’t much over one hour long. I have to have something; so if that recovery drink is sitting in the fridge, I’ll grab it. Once in a while, in spite of a pre-ride snack, I get too hungry before I can get back home; and that’s why I carry a few GU-Gels with me. They’re my emergency rations, because I don’t need to bonk! Today I didn’t go out on the road bike. I had some errands to run; and the apartment search goes on. I also wanted to tune in to a webinar about Medicare that my employer is hosting today; that’s information that I’ll need in the not-so-distant future. Unfortunately my laptop couldn’t connect to the program. I guess it doesn’t have enough memory. I’m sure it was recorded, though; and maybe I can listen to it next week, when I’m back at work. When I ride anywhere now — even if it’s a short trip — I need something as precovery to cool me off before I go out. This morning it was in the low 80s before 7 am!  

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more power to me

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

More Power to Me? Sometimes I wish I had a power meter. Does a power meter mean more power to me? Unfortunately, it doesn’t; but there are times when I wonder how much wattage I can generate while on the bike. Such a device can let you know how strong a lightbulb your efforts can light up! I suspect that my wattage is quite low. It’s been a while since I did much of anything by way of force development; and force is a component of power.  On top of that, I’ve been tired for the last few months; and when you’re low on energy isn’t the best time to push force work. Besides that, these devices are a bit beyond my budget. But if you can afford them, and wish to do serious training, the Favero is easily installed; and its rechargeable batteries last up to 50 hours. Speaking of tired, that’s how I felt on the bike this morning; and I’m on vacation! I didn’t have to get up at 4:30 am to ride; but that meant I missed seeing the full moon over the river.? I rode only 16 miles; and while I’m off work, I’d rather put in 18-20 miles per day. Well, we do what we can. I’m halfway to my Love to Ride mileage goal for 2022; so as far as that goes, more power to me!

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Fish Or Cut Bait

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Fish Or Cut Bait We can’t cut bait forever! Sooner or later, we’ve got to fish. I’ve been in a fish or cut bait situation for over three months. I was working hard to convert my old  spokeasy dot org to this dot net site; and I must confess, there’s still a good bit of editing to be done on Products. I thought at first that perhaps I should complete all the editing before launching dot net. But I can’t stay in that fish or cut bait mode forever; and if I did wait to finish all that editing, this dot net site might never get out! Cycling shorts make the ride more comfortable! Speaking of products, Pearl Izumi® shorts are a favorite of mine. When I first had the tricycle, I rode for some months before I bought my first pair of cycling shorts. They took a bit of getting used to. At first cycling shorts made me feel like I had nothing on below the waist; and I kept checking to be sure I was dressed! Now, I can hardly imagine more than a very short ride without them. This morning I put in 39 miles on the road bike; wearing cycling shorts, of course. I’m glad I was home by 11:00 am; because about an hour later, a heat advisory was posted. It felt hot enough while I was out there riding; and it isn’t even officially Summer yet! I need to go to the drug store; but it’s thundery. I don’t want to get caught in a T-storm!

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Heat Exhaustion

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Heat Exhaustion Heat exhaustion is an appropriate topic at present. Anyone engaged in outdoor activity needs to be mindful of it; and that, of course, includes cyclists. Ride early in the day if possible; and avoid going out in the noonday sun. I get off work at 4:30 pm; and the heat index this afternoon was 107! Fortunately I have only 2.5 miles to ride; and when it’s hot and sunny, that’s quite far enough. Before I went to feed my friends’ cat, I added some ice cubes to my water bottle. They didn’t stay frozen for long. Summer isn’t officially here yet; but it’s quite light by 6:15 am. Soon I’ll need to begin my Sunday long rides at 5:30 am; and even when I do, it’s very hot by the time I get home several hours later. I wish I could stop at several points to put both water and ice into my Camel-Bak; but that would mean going well out of my way. I already have some sun sleeves; Protect your arms from UV rays while keeping them cooler. and maybe I’ll get some leg sleeves, too. Another problem with heat is the effect it has on my ride food. Most ride foods that I use get very messy when it’s hot; and I end up smearing bar coatings on my shorts in an effort to get my fingers halfway clean. That’s another form of heat exhaustion: I’m tired of the heat making things more difficult!

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Super Commuter

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Super Commuter? I ride to work when I can; but some days I just have to skip it! I fear I’ll not become a super commuter. The Super Commuter badge is one of many that you can earn by participating in Love to Ride. To get it, you must ride to work 200 times in the year — I suppose that means the current calendar year. I’ve been slogging away at it; and I am now 38% there. That means I rode to work 76 times so far in 2022; and I have to ride to work 124 more times by the time the Christmas break comes. As well as I could count, there are 131 working days left. I did my best not to count days when I won’t be going to work: vacation; tomorrow’s ophthalmology appointment; and so on. That leaves little leeway for days when I can’t ride to work; and there are bound to be some such days. Sometimes the rain is simply too heavy; and/or there’s too much lightning overhead. The disruption of a hurricane is always possible; and if I need surgery on that bone spur, I’m likely to lose at least a few days. Thus I guess any dreams of earning the Super Commuter badge are as much fantasy as dreams of riding a unicycle. I’m not sure I could manage one of  these! I suppose that riding a unicycle is vastly different from riding a bicycle; but I bet it’s fun once you get the hang of it. After all, it took some doing for me to get going on two wheels; and now, I can’t imagine being unable to ride!

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Hit and Run

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Hit and Run? I hope I never end up in a wreck like this! Am I guilty of hit and run? Today I dropped my bottle of electrolyte drink; and my rear wheel ran right over it! Not that I ran; I was still about six or seven miles from home, and needed that drink. I had to stop; turn around; and ride back to pick it up. Weather certainly pulls a terrible hit and run sometimes, as in the case of tornadoes. I don’t know why I’m attracted to such videos; and I also have a thing about violent volcanic eruptions! Shipwrecks, too. Maybe it’s morbid curiosity; or maybe I like to breath a sigh of relief and think, thank goodness I wasn’t there! This morning I needed to go to Winn Dixie; and they recently changed their hours. They now don’t open until 7:00 am; and I didn’t get out on the road bike until around 8:45! I decided to make it short today — 29 miles — and it got quite hot before I got back home. The clouds towards the South and East were building up; and around 12:30 pm I began to hear the grumble of thunder. By 1:15 pm, it was right on top of me! The lights flickered; and both my window units kicked themselves from Low Cool to Fan. But the storm was moving fast; and in 15-20 minutes it seemed to have passed. Give Me a Hand! This coming Friday I see a hand specialist about that bone spur; and I hope we can take care of it soon. But if surgery is required, it’s better to wait until after June 20th. Until then I’m still caring for my friends’ cat; and a fresh surgical site on the hand doesn’t go well with scooping the litter box! I also hope any surgery will require minimal time off the bike. I guess I can set up the hybrid in the trainer prior to surgery. If I have to have hand surgery, maybe this will let me get a bit of exercise while I recuperate. After the “hit and run” on my hand, I might not be able to do much for at least a few days; and I lifting bicycles around is bound to be on the thou-shalt-not-do list!

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