It was a good month

Ok, that’s it for January.  Brenda got in 40 more miles this morning and ended the month with 553 miles.  This puts her about on plan.  Of course, if you do the math, 5,000 miles works out to an average of about 417 miles each month.  If that’s all I look at, I might be tempted to think that she’s well ahead of the plan, but there are a couple of things I need to account for. 

Brenda teaches swimming during the summer which takes up her weekday mornings, and of course it’s those weekday morning rides that are going to be so essential in achieving this goal.  Also, we’ll be taking a vacation this summer, and then she’ll be taking another one after that.  On our vacation together we’ve talked about bringing the bikes with us so we’ll probably be able to get in some miles, but we may not get in as many as we usually would.  And then when Brenda goes out on her second trip (with one of her girlfriends) she won’t get in any riding at all.  So she needs these big months to make up for the skinny months to come.  And then I also have to take into account the fact that we had mostly very good weather in January and she was able to ride on 14 days.  February will also have about 14 potential riding days in it, but you never know how many of those will get weathered-out.

So if I take all that into account, I figure she’s about on plan, which I think is great!  And she’s still enjoying it, which is absolutely necessary in a project like this (she went out this morning with the temperature in the high-40s).  And she’s riding very well and very confidently, which also counts.  I’m absolutely tickled for her.  Her average ride in January was just under 40 miles.  The shortest was 22 miles, and the longest was 60.  Her slowest average speed (averaged over a whole ride) was 13.2 mph, her fastest was 16.1.  Let’s see how those compare with what she gets in December.  (or even April)

Lesson of the Day, volume 2

And here’s another LOD:  Don’t trust the weather forecast.

Ok, I admit it—this is partly my fault.  Since Brenda has been riding so regularly when the temperature has been in the mid-40s, my sense of cold has been thrown all out of whack.  Last weekend the forecast was for the temperature to be in the mid-60s by ride start time.  That’s so far away from our new minimum my first impression was “Wow, that’s almost like summertime!”  So I went out with just a light, sleeveless base layer under a short-sleeved jersey.  As soon as we got out on the road it hit me: “Summertime, schmummertime—it’s dang cold out here!”  The mid-60 forecast had turned into a low-60 reality.  And that, coupled with the low sun angle, and the increased shade, and the wind, all meant that I didn’t warm up until we got to about the 20-mile mark—you know, that place where all the smart people started shedding their jackets.

Morning starts are tough to figure this time of year.  In the summer, everybody knows what to expect—low 70’s to start, high 80s by the end.  Wear as little as possible.  But this time of year you’ve usually got to put on at least a few extra layers to start, and then take them off as you go.  And that’s what makes it tricky—you want to wear enough to be comfortable at the start of the ride, but not so much that you end up needing a suitcase for your extra laundry by the end of the ride.  Sometimes you get it right, sometimes not so much. 

One of the keys to getting it right is to have a lot of choices.  Arm warmers are a good item—they allow you to go from long sleeves to short sleeves while you’re stopped at a red light, and you can easily stuff them into a jersey pocket.  Base layers are important.  There’s polyester (not your father’s polyester—I mean new, high-tech polyesters that are really comfortable.)  And now, more and more, you see the availability of wool base layers.  Again, I don’t mean the 20-years-ago wool which brings with it the “S” word (scratchy).  I mean wool that’s become really smart.  A high-tech wool base layer works great because it can be so light weight.  This translates to warmth when it’s cold out, but is still bearable after the sun comes up a little higher.

So whatever the weather is, you need a strategy.  But trust me, the main part of that strategy should be to take the weather forecast, and then be flexible… you know, just in case.

Lesson of the Day, volume 1

Ok, so here’s an LOD (Lesson of the Day) I’ve learned before but apparently have to keep on learning.  Get your bike ready the night before. 

Yesterday’s group ride didn’t start until 9:00, so I figured I’d have plenty of time to get the bikes ready in the morning.  I got Brenda’s bike, pumped up the tires, lubed the chain—ready to go.  Then I got my bike—flat rear tire.  What’s up with that?  It was fine 2 days ago when we rode.  Then I was kind of under the gun because we were meeting a bunch of other people in just a little bit so I didn’t take the time to check the inside of the tire and stuff like I’d usually do—I just took out that tube, put in a new one and we took off.  We did a relatively short, 37-mile ride, and it’s a good thing we didn’t go any farther than that.  After we got back I checked the old tube, found the leak, and matched it up to where its position would have been on the tire.  Then I took the tire off and checked it, and sure enough, there was a metal sliver in there that surely would have eventually poked through the new tube too.  (And when I say “eventually” I mean I got off real easy not flatting on that ride.)

Flat tires are weird—I’ve gone for years without getting a flat, and then I’ve gone through periods where they come hand over fist.  Brenda hasn’t had a single flat tire yet.  I only hope that when she finally gets one I’m with her.  I’m happy that she rides with a very good group—if she ever is in a position to have to ride home by herself there are several in the group who will ride with her just because they don’t like to let a girl ride very far by herself.  Thank you, guys—you know who you are.

It all looks so different on a bike

We just got back from a 37-mile ride in a part of town that I’ve driven around in for years, and I’ve even ridden my bike through much of it.  But at several places along the ride I was reminded of one of those great lines from the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”  Butch & Sundance are on the run from the law, and they’re riding (horses, not bikes) across all kind of terrain, through forests, streams, over rocks, and at one point they stop and look back to see if they’re still being followed.  Butch is trying to convince himself that they’ve outrun the posse or at least that the posse won’t know which way they've gone, and he says “I don’t even know where I’ve been, and I’ve just been there!”

It’s funny—you can drive a route in the car, and then when you ride it on a bike it can look entirely different.  It’s also happened to me the other way too—I’ve ridden with a group several times over roads that were kind of new to me, and when I tried to do part of it in the car the whole thing looked entirely different.  At times, I wasn’t even sure I was on the right road.  In the car, things come at you faster so you only really see the big things, and you see big things even if they’re off the road quite a ways.  But on the bike, your field of view really focuses in on what’s right in front of you.  You really only see the things that are right on the road, or right next to it, and you get a real good look at them because they don’t go by as fast.  Giving driving directions I might say “Go down here till you come to the library and then turn right.”  Giving the same directions to someone on a bike I might say “Go down here past the driveways with all the gravel in front of them and then when the pavement changes and starts to get bumpy take that next right.”  In the car, you’d never notice the gravel or the change in pavement, and on the bike you can very well not notice the library.

But the great thing about group rides is that all you have to do is just stay with the group.  As long as the ride leader knows where he’s going, you’re golden.  And typically a person will only lead a group on roads that he’s ridden himself many times.  Of course, it’s nice if other people in the group know where you’re going so they can know when to take the lane for turns and things like that, but really, that’s just gravy.

No wheelsuckers around here

So, on a bike the wind is a big deal, right?  And every road rider knows that the best way to get out of the wind is to get behind somebody else.  This, as any NASCAR fan could tell you, is known as “drafting”.  It’s called that in road riding too, at least when it’s done in a respectable way.  By that I mean that riders, at least riders who are at a level more or less equal to each other, will typically take turns at the front to set up the draft for the rest of the group.  Or, if a stronger rider is in a group of less experienced riders, the strong rider will spend most of the time, if not all of it, at the front of the line while the others ride in the draft.  Or, if there is a new rider to a group who may not be familiar with the route or with the group dynamics, that rider wouldn’t necessarily be expected to spend much time in the front—he’d be welcome to draft the whole ride.  These are all respectable examples of drafting.  But if you ever come across a group where there is somebody who is just as strong a rider as everybody else but doesn’t ever take a turn at the front, then what he’s doing isn’t called drafting anymore, it’s called “wheel-sucking”. 

The way the draft works is like this:  Somebody is in the front of the line, and then, either when he gets tired or at some pre-determined time or distance interval, he moves out to the side of the line and drops back to the back.  The person who used to be in the second position is now in the front, and he takes his turn and then moves out to the side of the line, drops to the back, and then the next person in the line is now at the front.  A group of riders who are well-matched and familiar with each other can keep up this kind of rotation all day long, and if they do, the whole group goes faster than they would in any other arrangement, and they got much faster than any one of those riders would by himself.  But you can spot a wheel-sucker a mile away.  This is the person that stays in the line until he gets into the second position, and then, when the person in front of him moves out and goes to the back of the line, this guy moves out too, and goes back with him.

It doesn’t happen very often, and never in close-knit groups where most of the people are friends off the bike too, and they ride together often.  You’ll only see it in big groups with lots of turnover and no clearly defined ride leader.  But the great thing about riding is that even when there’s a goof-ball in the crowd, it’s still fun, challenging, and rewarding. 

It was a Forrest Gump kind of day

Forrest said, “I just felt like runnin’” but with Brenda today it was “I just felt like ridin’.”  This was one of those days that make up for days like Tuesday.  She got out there this morning and rode very comfortably out to the ride, and then had a good strong ride.  Afterwards one of the girls asked Brenda if she wanted a lift home.  She didn’t even have to think about it—she turned down the offer because she just wanted to ride.

I love days like that.  Everything sort of clicks, the weather is nice, the ride is nice… it really does make you want to just stay out there.  So now I figure Brenda is ready to take it to the next level.  She’s done a 60+ mile ride; now I think it’s time to get in a 70-miler.  And I think this will be fairly easy to plan.  There is a 40-mile route that we do on a semi-regular basis, that is, whenever we’re not riding with a group.  And there’s a point in that ride where we can turn and do an extra 15-mile spur out to a place called Fort Christmas.  (Yes, there really is a fort, from back in the days when they were building forts against the Native Americans, and it’s called “Christmas” because it was around Christmas time when they were building it.)  So if we do the 40-mile loop with the 15-mile spur, out and back, that gives us about 70 miles. 

I think it’ll be a good bench mark for her.  I think if you can do 70 then you can do 100.  I’ve always said that the toughest part of a century (100-mile) ride is from the 40-mile mark to the 70-mile mark.  The first 40 miles of course, is easy because we do that all the time.  And when I get that far I think, “ok, I’m almost half way.”  But then I have to ride 10 more miles before I really am half way.  And then I have to ride 10 more miles with the computer reading 50-something (which my mind still thinks of as half way.)  And then during the next 10 miles, the computer reads 60-something, and that always feels like it’s only slightly more than half way.  So I ride about 30 miles, all the time feeling like I haven’t moved off the half-way mark.  But then, as soon as I look down and see 70-something, then all the world is right again.  At 70-something the end may not be in sight, but it’s a heck of a lot closer than the beginning. 

We’re going on a bike Safari in April and we’ll have an opportunity to do some good long rides including a century.  Here’s hoping we can get in a nice 70-mile tuner-upper before that.

It's all about the wind

Some things happen on a bike that you wouldn’t expect.  Or at least things that I wouldn’t expect…  Like the effect of hills, for example.  I would’ve thought that, on a loop ride, hills wouldn’t be a big deal because whatever you lose going up them you make up for going down them.  But it doesn’t work like that.  Going uphill, you’ve got the hill against you.  Going downhill, yes, you’ve got the hill in your favor, but the faster you go the more wind you create which is against you.  (Now, on a really steep hill you still get to go way faster than you ordinarily would—I’ve gone 40 mph downhill before—but you really have to lean over to get out of the wind.)

Likewise, I would’ve thought that, on a loop ride, wind wouldn’t be a big deal because, since you’re going to end up where you started the wind should be at your back as much as it’s in your face, and it should come at you from the left or right just as much.  But here’s the problem—even on a perfectly windless day you’re riding against a 17-20 mph wind (or however fast you’re going).  So when you’re riding against the wind, there’s way more wind than you’d think, and when you’re riding with the wind, all that happens is it negates the wind that you create by riding.  (And when the wind is from either side, that’s almost as bad as having it against you.)

This is why you’ll so often see riders trying to stay together in a line—it gets everybody but the lead guy out of the wind.  Of course if you fall too far back then you’re out of the draft and you’re no better off than the lead guy.  You have to be as close as possible to the bike in front of you, which, as you’d expect, can make things interesting.  New riders are typically hesitant to stay right on the wheel of the person in front of them.  But then, as they begin to realize the great benefits of being there (and especially after they get dropped a few times by falling too far behind the group) they get real comfortable in there.  And then the really cool things is when we look down at our computers and realize that we’re going way faster in this group than we ever could by ourselves.  And it’s all because we’re out of the wind.  Love those group rides!

Some days you feel it, and others you don’t

I know how this goes with cycling, but I’ve never really understood it.  Some days I feel really strong even if maybe I didn’t get enough sleep or I've been off the bike for awhile, or have had a bunch of other stuff going on.  But then other days I think, “This’ll be a great day, I’ve been training well, eating well, sleeping well…” and then I go out there and it feels like I’ve got bowling balls for shoes.

Brenda had a day like that today.  She didn’t cough very much last night, and had a good night’s sleep (even though we were both up before the alarm went off).  We’d had a good ride on Sunday afternoon; the weather today was beautiful—all the ingredients for a spectacularly strong ride.  But somehow she just didn’t feel it today.  She still did 40 miles, and pulled on the way to the ride and on the way home from the ride.  But during the bulk of the ride she just didn’t have that I-can-go-any-speed-I-want feeling that we get sometimes.

But you know what?  That’s just the way cycling is.  Some days you’re off, some days you’re on.  And some days get rained out.  And it’s still a great way to spend a morning, especially on a nice day.  I won’t be at all surprised if on Thursday she's back on her game.

Will ride for food

They say that during the Tour de France those guys eat something like 7,000 calories a day.  (each!)  That’s one thing cyclists can do is eat.  My first exposure to a serious recreational cyclist was a guy I used to work with.  Now, often people will bring their lunch to work.  And sometimes they’ll also bring a snack or two.  But it wasn’t unusual to see this guy eating a plate of spaghetti at about 10:00 in the morning.  “Eating your lunch early today, huh?”  “Lunch?  This is just a snack.  My lunch is over there,” he’d say, pointing to a bag with 3 more generous servings of something or other in it.  And it’s not just after the ride—check out the rest stops on a century ride sometime and you’ll see some guys going through peanut butter & jelly sandwiches by the stack. 

And make no mistake about it, sports nutrition companies are very well aware of this.  There are on-line retail stores just full of different kinds of energy bars, gels, gummies, and drinks.  There are products specifically designed for pre-ride nutrition and other products for post-ride recovery.  There are products to use during long rides and other products for short rides, products designed to be used during training, and others to be used during racing.  And flavors?  It’s not just chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry anymore.  No, now there’s everything from Latte Explosion to Banana Peanut Caramel Macadamia Mango Fusion.

But not all cyclists buy into the high tech sports nutrition products.  We were on a ride recently where at a rest stop a guy pulled out something wrapped up in aluminum foil.  He opened it up and took a bite out of some lump of something in there; I couldn’t help but ask him what it was…  “It’s a beet.”  “A beet,” I asked, thinking that something so unusual deserved more than a 2-word response.  “A beet,” he repeated matter-of-factly, as if to say, “What, haven’t you ever seen a guy pull a beet out of his pocket before?”  Ok, so who am I to question a nice boiled beet on a bike ride? 

On another ride Brenda saw a girl eating something that was about the size of a golf ball, had a dark outside, and an intense purple inside.  She figured it was a chocolate-covered blueberry something, but when she asked about it the girl said, “It’s a potato… a blue potato.  Want one?”  (It tasted just like an ordinary white potato.)

Everybody’s got their favorite things.  Potatoes, beets, bananas, energy bars, trail mix, electrolytes, carbs, protein, hi tech, old school… you name it, sooner or later some cyclist will be eating it.  That's one thing we can all do.

Sometimes you just gotta ride

This must be more than just a cold that Brenda has.  In a couple of days it’ll be 2 full weeks of this loose hacking cough.  She doesn’t have a fever, and she doesn’t have that all-over body ache that comes with the serious stuff.  But she’s still not back to 100% yet.  (She does have some allergies, and that might be part of it.)  And with a very busy weekend, riding today was looking like a very border-line call. 

We rode on Friday, then we went out of town, met an old friend and had a very late night Friday night, then a very full day on Saturday, got home Saturday night, and then went to church this morning.  So then this afternoon Brenda was very tired, but not necessarily that sleepy kind of tired where she could have gone in and gone to sleep—just that run-down kind of tired.

So this is where you have to make a decision:  is it better to stay home, stay warm, and rest; or is it better to get out and get in some miles?  We talked about it a little bit, and decided on the miles.  The temperature was very mild, probably in the high 60s, and it was sunny, so I thought we’d be able to stay pretty warm.  And as it turned out it was a very nice ride.  Just kind of a quickie—22 miles; we kept it slow at first, and stayed on the trails.  But the cool thing is, once you get out there and start riding, sometimes you get a little invigorated.  Your circulation gets pumped up a little, you get in some deep breathing, you get your legs moving—riding is great for picking you up when you’re a little run down.  By the time we were on the last leg of the ride we were out there on East Lake, taking turns at the front, cruising at 19-21 mph from Tuscawilla all the way home!  (Like Brenda said, “We kicked East Lake’s butt today!”)  There’s nothing like a nice ride to boost your psyche to the next level.  We love it!

Dang! Had to miss a Saturday

Now, ordinarily a Saturday would be one of our longer rides for any given week, but we had some out-of-town stuff scheduled for today.  Good thing yesterday was a day off and we got in at least a few miles—it did bump this week’s total up close to the 100-mile mark for Brenda.  But it was zero miles today on what would’ve been another beautiful day for riding even though it was a little breezy.

We just got back in town and as we were walking in the door one of our riding friends was leaving a voice mail message saying that he was going out tomorrow morning and did we want to join him.  Well, as much as we’d love to, we probably won’t.  He’s not going out until 8:15, and that means we wouldn’t really get in any significant miles before we’d have to be back here to get ready for church at 10:00.  So if we do anything on Sundays, we either have to do it real early in the morning (not very likely until later in the year) or in the afternoon. 

With weather like we’ve been having lately, I won’t mind at all going out in the afternoon, although it does tend to be a little bit windier than it is first thing in the morning.  But you never know what else is going to come up after church.  (And, there will be a couple of good football games on TV, so we have to take that into consideration too…)  But between the two games, that’s about 6 hours of football, maybe 7, and we’d only need 2 or 3 hours for a good ride.  I like watching football, but I like riding too, and Brenda likes riding way more than watching football, so I’ll see if I can get us out there.  At least there shouldn’t be much traffic…

One of the great things about cycling

You get to meet a lot of people on group bike rides.  At one of the weekday morning rides last week, Brenda met some new people who had recently moved here from Indiana.  And of course Brenda doesn't wait very long after meeting someone before she’s inviting them to one thing or another.  In this case, she invited them to ride with us this morning and it was great fun.  The cool thing about meeting people on a bike ride is that right off the bat you've got something in common with them.

We rode in a little bit different part of the area this morning than where we’ve been riding.  Instead of going out east from here and a little bit south, we went out north from here and a little bit west.  I’ve ridden in that area a lot with another group, so I’m pretty familiar with the roads, and it was fairly easy to plan out a little 31-mile ride with a stop at a coffee shop part way through—a nice way to sit and visit for a little bit.  And it was a great day for a ride!  Not a cloud in the sky, a little chilly at the start (high 40s) but very nice at the end.  It was windy, but just windy enough to make it challenging—not so windy as to make it miserable.  Here’s the best way I can describe the wind:  riding south, about 14-16 mph—riding north, about 19-21 mph. 

So it was a great morning.  How many people, in late January, get to go out riding with just a long-sleeved jersey, light-weight tights or shorts, and maybe a light jacket?  Riding with Brenda on a beautiful day and meeting some new friends—that's one of the great things about cycling!

Temperature is sooo relative

Like I said, I didn’t use to go out if the temperature was below about the mid-50s.  But Brenda is all about this thing, so she has been heartily embracing the upper- and even mid-40s.   This morning the app on her phone said that the temperature outside was 52 or something like that, so she was all set to go.  We both got a good night’s sleep last night and woke up before the alarm.  She was ready, and when I walked out the door to go to work my first thought was, “This sure doesn’t feel like 50s.”  It felt dang cold to me.  I had my fleece jacket zipped up all the way and the heater on in the car the whole way to work.  *But then I'm such a sissy when it comes to the cold...)  By the time I got to work the sun was at least all the way up, but when I got out of the car and walked across the parking lot I thought, “This still doesn’t feel like the 50s.”

But I knew the wheels were already in motion by then and Brenda was well on down the road.  I know it was cold to her too though, because she told me afterward that when she got to the meeting place nobody was there yet, but she couldn’t just stand and wait.  She had to keep moving to have any chance of staying warm so she road down the road a couple of blocks and around a loop just to keep active until the others showed up. 

So she got in her miles today, riding to the ride, riding the ride, and riding home from the ride—43 miles.  But she still isn’t quite back to 100% yet—still has that loose, hacking cough.  Not as bad as it was over the weekend, but not as good as being over it, either.  Tomorrow is a Friday off for me, so we’ll get in some miles but we’re meeting some people new to riding in this area so we’ll probably go fairly short.  And then this weekend we’re kind of booked up, so we might end up with a couple of short weeks in a row.  But the goal is still the goal, and she’s not discouraged about any of it.  Let’s ride!

Now about those pedals…

I mentioned yesterday that someone in the group crashed before they even got out of the parking lot.  If you’re not a road cyclist, that might seem a little weird—how could somebody crash in the parking lot?  But if you’ve ever ridden a bike with what are called “clipless” pedals, you know exactly how it happened.  They call them clipless pedals, which seems like a bit of a misnomer because we talk about “clipping in” and “clipping out” of them.  But the name comes from them being the next generation after the pedals with the toe clips, that is, cages around the front of the pedals into which you slide your feet.  With clipless pedals the cage, or toe clip, is gone.  (that’s the clipless part)  The way they work is that you attach a cleat to the bottom of special bike shoes, and this cleat then clips into a mechanism in the pedal (that’s the misnomer part) to hold your shoe (and hence, your foot) to the pedal.  (Brenda thinks they should call them “clip-ass” pedals because you can fall on your ass every time you use them.)

Yes, that’s right—your foot is attached right to the pedal.  Why?  Well, it’s all in the name of going faster, of course.  When your foot is attached to the pedal you’re not just limited to pushing down on the pedals, you can exert pressure on the pedals all the way around the rotation—push forward at the top of the stroke, push down, pull back at the bottom of the stroke, and pull back up to the top.  More pressure on the pedals, more speed.  More speed, more fun.

The deal is, to get your foot out of the pedal you have to twist your foot and then the mechanism lets go of the cleat, and your foot is free.  The only problem is that we all learned how to ride a bike using pedals that just sat there—not only no toe clips, but no locking mechanism, no cleats on our shoes, no attachment at all.  If you were going slowly and the bike started to lean over to one side, all you had to do was put your foot down.  It was all one motion, out to the side and down.   And so now, when any of us are going slowly and the bike starts to lean over to one side, our first reaction is always to try to slide our foot straight out off the pedal.  The whole twisting-thing just doesn’t come to mind automatically.  I would venture to say that every road cyclist who’s been riding very long at all has gone over at least once.  (I know one guy who said the first time he went out on clipless pedals he went over 4 times before he ever left his subdivision.)

It’s happened to me.  It happened to Brenda last year as we were training for a long charity ride.  Usually the worst of it is that we get a little embarrassed (it’s never a pretty sight).  But in this case it ended up in a broken bone in her hand.  Ok, so that’s the bad news.  But the good news is she can go faster…

Back in the saddle again

Ok, a little chilly this morning, especially early.  But I put her bike on the car so she could drive to the ride—that way she’d start the ride at 8:00 instead of 7:00, when it’s a little warmer.  Plus, since she’s been a little under the weather it kind of eases her back into it after the time off.

So she got in a short ride (24 miles) but right back at the pace she left off at.  (good ol’ muscle memory…)  Kind of an odd ride though—they didn’t even all get out of the parking lot before someone had a flat.  Ok, regroup and help the guy fix his flat.  And then, on try number 2, before they all get out of the parking lot, a parking lot crash.  (not bad—just one of those where somebody was clipped in to their pedals but was going too slow to stay upright…)  Ok, so they finally got out of the parking lot and barely half way into the ride (you know what’s coming, don’t you?), yes, another flat.  Same tire, different tube.  And who among us hasn’t been in that position before?...  Yep, I know what that means—time for new tires.  That’s my rule—even if you can’t really see any bad cuts or wear spots in a tire, if you get 2 flats in 2 or fewer rides, it’s new tire time (barring of course the exception of a pinch-flat).

But in spite of flats, crashes, mix-ups, or whatever, it’s still good to just be out there.  I’m glad she’s feeling well enough to ride again—not just for the sake of the 5,000-mile goal, but for her health.  Like I say, riding is more than just exercise—it’s a way to clear you mind too.  It’s a real good way to spend time with friends, practice a little servanthood, get some fresh air, and concentrate on something other than the problems of the day.  Once you start riding, you get to love riding.

She's a shopper

Brenda likes bike shops.  She went a lot of years without ever setting foot in one, but now they’re one of her favorite things.  We were in Gainesville recently, and one of the things she wanted to be sure to do was check out the bike shops there (because she’s been through all the ones around here). 

This is one of those areas where Brenda and I fully embody the “opposites attract” theory of mating.  I believe I’ve gone for years at a time without every buying a single thing.  I can go into a store to buy something, see 37 other things that they sell too, get overwhelmed, and walk out without buying the one thing I wanted in the first place.  When Brenda goes into a store, she’ll not only get the thing she went in for, but most of the other 37 things they sell too.  (And she keeps the rest of those things in the back of her mind as placeholders for the next time she sees them.)  

Now it’s true that if you want to ride early in the morning or after work during this time of year, you could well be out there in that time when it’s still a little (or almost) dark.  And that being the case, it’s a good thing to have a light (or several lights) on your bike.  Well I’ve usually made it a point to not be out there in that near-dark time, so I’ve never really made it a point to have a light (never mind several lights) on my bike.  But when Brenda went into one of those Gainesville bike shops they had a really good deal on a really good light.  And of course, that’s the thing, isn’t it?  If it was just an average deal on a really good light, or a really good deal on an average light, that’d be intriguing, but it wouldn’t really make it a must-have.  But when you get a really good deal on a really good light, well, who could resist that, right?  (I mean, besides me, of course.) 

So now Brenda has this really good light on her bike.  (And no, it’s not the way I would have done it, but I love her enough that I’m sure not going to let something as little as a bike light get in the way.)  And once she’s gotten a really good deal on something, you know what the next challenge is?  To check and see if she could’ve gotten as good a deal around here, of course.  So the next time she was in one of our bike shops she checked, and sure enough—the deal was there to be had!  So now I’ve got this really good light on my bike…  (wonder if I’ll ever use it…)

Dang--not today, either

Ok, so it was cold this morning, but Brenda was still feeling kind of crappy anyway.  She didn’t even go to church just so she could stay warm and rested.  So we thought we might go out in the afternoon, and it would’ve ordinarily been great riding weather, but not really when you’re not quite 100%.  And you know how those colds work—if you put yourself out there before you’re completely over it, the risk is you’ll end up worse than you were to begin with. 

So we figured it’d probably be best to take another couple of days off, and look forward to Tuesday morning.  So that means we lost a weekend.  Oh well.  But we did set ourselves up for a gain—the bike club is putting on a 6-day biking safari in North Florida and South Georgia, and we signed up.  Actually, we signed up as volunteers,  which means we’ll work 3 days and ride 3 days, but still—that’ll be 3 pretty solid days, plus (hopefully) a regular weekend ride after it’s all over.  So we should be able to gain some miles there.  There is a century option (100-mile ride) on two of those days (to allow the volunteers to get one in).  The safari is in late April... who knows?  She’s already done 60 miles very comfortably…  (but of course anybody who’s done a century knows that the first 60 miles are nothing—it’s the last 20 miles that are the real killers.)

But you never know with Brenda.  Heck, I’ve been married to her for 34 years and if there’s one thing I’ve come to know it’s that I never know with Brenda.  So she just might be ready to take on that century ride, I don’t know.  Once she gets over this cold we’ll get back into it and ride as much as possible.  I’d like to see her do it, but I don’t want to push her into something that she wouldn’t be ready for.  Ok, so we’ll see how that works out.

I hate it when that happens

Ok, so here’s the thing.  Tuesday morning was cold.  Mind you, it wasn’t one of those bitter cold days in the 30’s or anything like that, but it was cold enough for 2 or 3 layers, and I think Brenda went out maybe a little unprepared.  Or, maybe that had nothing to do with it.  But in any case, later that afternoon her throat was a little sore.  Then Wednesday, it got a little worse, but not so bad that she didn’t still want to go out on Thursday morning.  But then after that ride, on Thursday afternoon it got even worse, and on Friday morning she sounded terrible.  It’s one of those things where she coughs so much her stomach hurts, and then she’s got that junk dripping down the back of her throat all the time—you know…(yuck!)

Anyway, we saw that this morning was going to be in the low 40’s to start—that kinda rules out a 7:00 start time when you’re not 100% to begin with.  And then we had a thing we had to do at 11:00, which kinda rules out a 9:00 start time.  So we thought maybe we’d go out in the afternoon today instead of in the morning like usual.  But after we got done with our 11:00 thing she was really sounding bad, so I thought it’d be best to just get her home and keep her warm and let her rest.

So this is the first Saturday in months that we haven’t ridden—probably the first non-riding Saturday for her since she broke her hand.  (That’s another story.)  She’s got in 80 miles so far this week.  (Ordinarily I’d say, “Wow, she got in 80 miles this week!” but when the goal is 5,000 miles for the year 80-mile weeks are bad things, not good things.)  So depending on how she feels we might go out tomorrow afternoon, we’ll see.  It’s supposed to be even colder tonight and tomorrow than it was last night and today, so we’ll have to play that one by ear.  

Peloton

I think it’s French for “platoon” or something like that.  If you’ve ever watched any of the Tour de France on television, you know that it’s the cycling word for the main pack in a group of bike riders. 

Typically, in any group of 4 or 5 road riders everybody always know what to do without a word needing to be spoken:  get in a single-file line and take turns at the front.  Likewise, in any group of 10 or 15 cyclists they’ll also know what to do: get in a single-file line unless you’re out in the middle of nowhere and the traffic allows; then get in 2 lines side-by-side.  But in a group of 50 or more, all bets are off.  A group that big will officially be considered a peloton, and there is a constant movement, shifting, positioning, and re-positioning.  Professional riders are at home in a peloton.  They’ll eat, drink, pass water bottles to teammates, get supplies from team cars, change their clothes, plan their next vacation, and write letters to home while riding in a peloton.  But recreational riders…not so much.  Most recreational riders aren’t used to riding in groups that big, and with all the inevitable jostling going on it can easily become a white-knuckle, full concentration, don’t-look-to-the-side experience.  But you know what else?  It’s a blast!!

Here’s the thing:  if you can ride at about 15 mph by yourself, you’ll be able to pretty easily do 17 mph in a line of 4 or 5 riders, 18-20 mph in a bigger group, and you’ll be able to cruise right along at 22 or 23 mph in a peloton without even realizing it.  In a big group, you just kind of get sucked along –there’s not only no wind against you, but you get some kind of vacuum created in front of you that just pulls you right into it.  That’s why it’s so hard to “attack the peloton” as the Tour announcers say.  To attack the peloton is to break out from the easy pedaling of that pack and take off by yourself or in a small group, which is basic insanity unless you’re in supreme physical condition. 

Recreational rides, or club rides typically don’t consist of enough people to be considered a true peloton, but we have fun anyway.  There’s usually a place on any ride that is a well-known sprinting area.  One of the keys is to know when to break out and make your attack.  If you go too soon, you burn out and end up getting caught by the main group that you just broke out of (aka “the pack reels you back in”).  If you go too late, somebody else might have a stronger sprint.  And the other key, of course, is knowing who to go out behind.  If you go out behind a much stronger rider, they’ll ride away from you and you’ll be left out there by yourself.  If you go out behind a weaker rider, you’ll end up pulling them…which is just the same as being out there by yourself.  But the great thing about recreational rides is that sooner or later everybody gets back to the parking lot together and you get to talk about how strong (or not) you felt.  Yes, bike club rides are great!  And if you ever get a chance to participate in a very large group event, I highly recommend it.  Don't be scared by the huge group of spokes and elbows--just go with it and have fun!

And here’s the other thing about averages…

Have you ever gone on a ride and every time you look down at your computer it says you're doing 18 or 19 mph, and then at the end of the ride you check the average and it says 14 or 15?  I know!  What’s up with that, anyway?  The thing is, every time you stop, or even just slow down a lot to make a turn at an intersection or let slower riders catch up, it really does a number on your average speed.  And average speed is one of the key statistics that I keep track of.

 

If I ever mention riding 30 or 40 miles around people who don’t ride, the question that I get asked most often is, “How long does that take you?”  And I really don’t get that.  Those of you who golf—if you ever mention playing 18 holes around people who don’t golf, do they ask you how long it took you?  No.  They might ask you how you did, or why you would do that, or didn’t your wife mind, but I bet they don’t ask you how long it took.  And those of you who play tennis—if you ever talk about playing 3 sets, do non-tennis-players ask you how long it took?  I bet not.  But for some reason the first thing non-cyclists ask is how long it took.  And I never know the answer to that question.  I don’t keep track of time on the bike or total elapsed time for a ride.  Oh, I know in general that most of the rides I do take longer than an hour, and usually less than 4 hours.  But more specifically than that, I just honestly don’t know. 

But I do pretty much know what my average speed was for a given ride.  Not that average speed is a mandatory statistic for all riders on all rides.  I remember talking to an “A” rider who said he didn’t really keep track of average speed—he just went out and raced all the other “A” riders.  (He also said that, even though he didn’t really keep track of his average speed, he knew enough to know that if you couldn’t do at least 30 mph for long distances you wouldn’t be able to keep up with his group.)  (In case you’re wondering—no, I never went out riding with him…)  No, average speed doesn’t always really tell the whole picture.  For example, today Brenda went out and had a very strong ride again (I’m so proud of her), doing a whole lot of 17 & 18 mph.  But her average for the 44 miles was only 14.4 mph.  That’s because the middle part of this ride is a trail ride, which means a lot of traffic, a bunch of cross streets, and a bunch of hard right turns, all of which you do at about 3 – 5 mph, and all of which destroy an average speed.

But even though you can get faked out by an average speed, I still keep track of it.  It’s an easy way for me to track progress, and somehow to me it makes more sense than keeping track of how long it took.  How long it took depends on so much else besides the riding—how many stops you made, how long you stayed at each one, whether or not anybody in the group had a flat tire, or whether or not you stopped to watch some bald eagles circling overhead (which happened to us out in Geneva this year—very cool) .

So Brenda had a 14.4 on a trail ride today.  But by listening to her talk about it, and hearing the excitement in her voice, I know she was pulling the group at 18-20, and that’s enough to impress me.  Good ride.

Bike clubs are great

We just got back from our first meeting of this bike club that Brenda has adopted.  Ya gotta love a bike riding club where the guy who gets the “spirit of cycling” award is 80-something years old, the guy who is in charge of the club’s 6-day safari ride in the spring and the century ride in the fall is well into his 70s, and there’s a 91-year guy sitting 2 rows in front of us. 

I know—you’re probably thinking, “You mean these guys still get out and ride bikes?”  And I think that’s just it.  I think the operative word there is “still”.  Clearly these are people who didn’t wake up one morning on their 75^th birthday and decide to go buy a bike and start riding.  These are people who’ve been riding for years and years and years.  And how cool is that about bike riding?  Check out a masters swim team sometime (“masters” is the old-guy part of the swimming population) and you’ll see a bunch of guys in their 30s or 40s.  Take a look at the people who belong to any of the running clubs in your area and see how many of them are 70+.  But cyclists?  There are a lot of retired people at those weekday morning rides…  (I’m just sayin’…)

I did a century ride a couple of years ago.  It was the 30^th anniversary of that ride, and one of the 2,000 riders who made up that event was a guy who’d ridden in all 30 of them.  Yeah, he was 90-something.  I love that.  I don’t know when I’ll take my last ride, but if I live into my 90s, I hope I can do it riding.  And the only thing cooler than that would be if Brenda is out there still riding into her 90s too.  Here’s hoping...

It’s amazing what a couple of days off will do

After riding 90 miles in 2 days Sunday and Monday were down days.  But then Brenda went back out with the group today and had a very strong ride. 

Now, here’s the way club rides work:  The ride will be posted on the web, and the information will generally include the starting time and place (important), the distance of the ride (not as important), and the typical speed the group will likely be going (most important of all—this is so you don’t show up for a group ride and then get dropped in the first couple of miles because the group turns out to be a bunch of racer-heads who cruise at 28-30 mph.)  The starting place will typically be a shopping center parking lot or maybe a park, because a ride can often attract people who live 10 or 15 miles away, and driving to the start may be the best way for them to get there.  I’ve gone to rides in neighboring counties on some occasions, driving 45 minutes or more just to get to the ride.  But if you live close enough (or want the miles and can judge the time well enough) you can ride your bike to the starting place, aka “riding to the ride.” 

The club we ride with most schedules a short ride (just 25 miles or so) on Tuesday mornings, but Brenda meets a couple of guys near our neighborhood and then they ride to the ride, and then ride home from the ride, so she gets in about 36 miles.  This morning, she was enjoying the effects of having taken a couple of days off after having ridden 90 miles in the previous 2 days.  She was able to pull in the sprint section of the ride (20-22 mph) and then pulled on the way home too!  Don’t you just love those days when you get done with a ride and feel like you could’ve gone double that distance?  Your whole body is invigorated for the rest of the day!  Ya gotta love riding!

Saddles are science

Ask 5 different cyclists, “What’s the single most important part of the bike?” and you’ll get 5 different responses.  Some will say it’s the wheels—this is where all the rolling resistance is, and the more of that you can eliminate the better off you’ll be.  Some will say it’s the frame material.  Aluminum, carbon fiber, titanium, bamboo…some want it to be stiff and responsive, others want it to be supple and comfortable, and everybody wants it to be fast and light.  Some will say it’s the frame geometry, some will say it’s the components…  Me?  I say it’s the saddle. 

To have fun on a bike, you’ve got to be able to sit comfortably on it for hour after hour.  And the thing is, a stock saddle that comes with a bike, unless it’s a really high-end bike, will generally be a very low-end saddle.  So that’s when you start looking around for something else.  They’ve got foam, gel, wider, skinnier, thicker, lighter…  Oh, and then they’ll also have the ones they keep in the glass case instead of out hanging on the wall.  (But who’s kidding who?  These are just the same as the others but about 3 times the price.)  You can try as many of them as you want. 

Or, you can go old school.  There’s an English company that makes saddles, basically the same way they did at the turn of the century (I mean that other century—since 1908 or something like that.)  These saddles are leather.  Not leather covered, or leather lined—I mean just leather.  They start with a minimal metal framework, and then rivet to that a piece of stiff, 1/8 thick (or so) piece of hard leather.  I know, it doesn’t sound nearly as comfortable as something with “gel” or “foam” in the title.  But what happens is this:  as you ride (that is, as you break them in) they tend to kind of custom fit themselves to your sit bones.  After the leather softens up a little, it’s sort of like sitting on a hammock. 

Every now and then you run across an old picture of some cyclists from 20 or 30 years ago.  Whenever we see one of those, we always comment on how old-fashioned and uncomfortable-looking those bikes are.  The shifters are in the wrong place, the handlebars put you in a bad position, the frame is all wrong...  But I also check out the saddle and think, “Man, those guys were smart.”

Accessories

I've always said that one of the things I love about bike riding is that it’s basically free.  Oh, sure, there is the initial investment, and yes, there are some maintenance items that you have to consider.  But it’s not like golf, where you have to pay $50 every time you go out.  I can hop on my bike, ride out from the house, and get in 2 or 3 hours of very good exercise/therapy for virtually no cost whatsoever. 

Now that’s not to say that cyclists can’t spend money.  Just stop in to a local bike shop sometime and see what else they sell besides bikes.  I recently bought a new set of wheels (the lesson there is that you can only adjust spokes so many times on stock wheels before you just plain need to upgrade.)  As I was looking I saw wheels for anywhere from $200 to $5,000.  Yes, that’s $5,000—just for the wheels.  (And no, that doesn’t include the tires.)  It’s amazing what we can spend on stuff besides the bike.

Starting at the top, it goes without saying these days that you need a helmet.  But in addition, there is also the skull cap (or sweat-soaker-upper) that goes under the helmet, and the rear-view mirror that mounts to the side of the helmet.  Then there is the apparel—you need at least a couple of short-sleeved jerseys, it’s nice to have a long-sleeved jersey, and if you’re like me, a sleeveless jersey is also a must.  The problem with the long-sleeved jersey though is that as the morning warms up, you’re stuck in long sleeves, so another good thing to have is arm-warmers—sleeves that you can wear with a short-sleeved jersey, and then take off as it gets warmer.  You also need the bike shorts--a must-have on 2 counts: 1) the tight, non-flapping fit, and 2) (more importantly) the padded butt.  And don't forget the gloves.  (When I started riding I thought the gloves were more for show—after my first ride without them I learned better.)  Then there are the shoes.  When it comes to road riding, shoes are a whole science in themselves because they become an integral part of the pedals.  The shoe-cleat-pedal combination is a whole other subject. 

And besides the personal accessories, there are the accessories for the bike.  You need at least a computer.  This might be as simple as something that just gives you your speed, distance, elapsed time, average speed, and maximum speed.  Or, it might be as complicated as something that also gives you your time splits (as frequently as you want them), your GPS location, a map of your route, your heart-rate, your power output, your calorie expenditure, and your oxygen intake.  (I think they’re working on a model that will also give you the amount of glycogen in your blood, the weight of the sweat in your socks, and the number of servings of lasagna you’ll be able to eat after the ride without gaining any weight…)

And all that is not to mention the lights, tire pumps, chain lubes, flat repair kits, saddle bags, Allen wrenches, handlebar tape, bar ends, map holders, water bottles, and water bottle cages.  But really, one of the great things about cycling is that it’s basically free…

Ahhh, that’s much better…

So here are the two options with a new saddle:  1) tough it out during the break-in period (and end up breaking in much more than just the saddle,) or 2) get one of those foam or gel seat covers like they often have available for spinning bikes at the gym.  For Brenda, option 2 worked out just fine.

After her sit-bones were so sore from yesterday’s ride, we both knew (yes, I’ve been there before too) that she’d be in no shape to sit on that saddle for another 40+ miles today.  So last night we made a last-minute run to a sporting goods store to get one of those seat covers.  We got the last one they had, and oh, by the way, while we were there Brenda saw a very nice winter-weight long sleeved jersey that she thought might work out well. 

So this morning, with the temperatures in the mid-to-upper 40s we took off with her new memory foam seat cover and new long sleeved jersey.  Meanwhile, I made the mistake of dressing for the end of the ride instead of for the start of the ride, and I took off with only 2 light layers up top and no socks.  (The no-socks-thing comes from my triathlon roots—I got in the habit of riding with no socks in order to get through the transitions faster, and now I really don’t even think about socks when I ride.)  But I should have thought of them this morning—my toes were dang cold for the first 10 or 15 miles.

But it was a great 48-mile ride; her new jersey (with one base layer under it) was the perfect weight for this weather, and she was very comfortable with the seat cover over that new saddle.  In fact, while she was pulling the group down Lockwood she started to ride away from the group.  (When we go out by ourselves, Lockwood is one of our go-as-fast-as-you-can areas, and we try to keep up a very fast pace on that road.  She got out there in front and the autopilot kind of kicked in and she started an attack without even realizing it.)  But I chased her down and she dropped it down a notch to keep the group together.

Nice weather, great ride, and 198 miles in the first week of the year!  Not a bad start, eh?   (Even if I consider the New Years Day ride to be “last week” she still got in 153 miles.)  But now it’ll start to get tougher.  This week included two days off for me.  Next week is a full week of work so she’ll really have to be self-motivated to get out there.  Here’s hoping this mild weather holds up.

Oh, and there’s a bit of a break-in period with that…

After a bad experience with what was supposed to be the best complex-carbo-loading-long-term-energy drink that was available, I learned:  Never use any new stuff on an event ride.  Event rides should be all about the event.  You want to be able to enjoy the experience of riding with hundreds of other riders and all the trappings that go along with events without having to deal with some piece of gear not working quite like you expected, or some piece of apparel being just a little smaller than when you tried it on, or some complex-carbo-loading-long-term-energy drink just not setting very well in your stomach in spite of the fact that it is supposed to be the best available.

So when Brenda saw a new saddle that she wanted to try I was very careful to warn her, “But don’t try it out on the New Year’s Day ride.  That’ll be in somewhat unfamiliar territory, with a huge peloton, and we don’t want to be trying out a new saddle then.”  So we did that ride with our old familiar stuff, and then afterwards I put on her new saddle since the next ride we were going to do would be a club ride with people we knew, on roads that were closer to our home turf.  Now here’s the thing:  Lots of new bike stuff often takes some getting-used-to.  New shorts, new jerseys, new shoes or pedals, new wheels, sometimes even new tires can feel different from the old ones, and it can take a couple of rides to break them in a little.  But there’s one piece of equipment more than any other that requires a break-in period:  the saddle.  In fact, I think with the saddle, it’s about 50% you breaking in the saddle, and 50% the saddle breaking in your butt.  They can be painful.  And finding the right one can be a real treasure hunt.

So Monday is when we went out for the first ride with this new saddle.  Smart me—it was a local club ride, familiar roads, familiar group.  Dumb me—it was a 60-mile ride!!  Now, you know how sometimes when you work out some part of your body in a new way, you don’t always notice the effect of that workout until you go to use that body part again?  Yeah, well, this was kind of like that.  She actually made it ok through the 60 miles on Monday.  But today was the first day she was back on the bike for the second round with the new saddle, and by the time we got to about the 30-mile mark, the saddle was winning.  Ouch.  She finished the 41 miles, but we had to get resourceful with a towel to add a little cushioning during the last 10 miles.  And now we’re going out again tomorrow.  So we had to get real resourceful and went out and got one of those memory foam seat covers.  Here’s hoping that works…

Ok, my bad...

I thought this morning’s ride had that 9:00 start time, but it turns out it was 8:00.  (Apparently it’s just the weekend rides with this club that start at 9:00 during the wintertime).

So, if the ride starts at 8:00, and she rides to the meeting place, that means she has to leave the house at a little after 7:00, at which time it was still in the mid-30’s or maybe upper 30’s at best.  No way that’s happening.  And if she drives out to the meeting place she’d gain about 45 minutes, but it was still going to be dang cold even at 8:00.  And when you’re already in a nice warm bed, “dang cold” is not easy to overcome. 

“So, then why,” you might be thinking, “doesn’t she just go out at 9:00 or 10:00, after it’s warmed up?”  Well, that’s where you really have to know Brenda.  You see, for me, I wouldn’t think twice (if I wasn’t at work) about going out by myself later on in the morning.  But that’s me.  And if there’s one thing I’ve come to understand in our 34 years of marriage, it’s that Brenda and I are nothing at all like Jenny and Forrest.  That is, we’re not like peas and carrots at all—we’re more like peas and… oh, I don’t know, maybe peanut butter.  For me, riding is all about riding.  But for Brenda, it’s a social event.  For her it’s all about spending time with her friends, which is easily one of her top 5 favorite things to do in the whole world, probably one of the top 3.  And that, as I’ve finally come to understand, is why we work so well together.  If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t know more than a half-dozen or so people.  And if it wasn’t for me, she’d never do anything for longer than about 23 minutes before she’d be on to something else. 

I don’t know why it happens, but I think this is not particular to just Brenda and me.  Why is it that people see something different and exciting in someone else, hook up with that person, and then spend the following years fussing about those differences?  (Ok, here’s where I confess:  I like country music.  Yes, I like lots of other music too, but I love country music because only there can you find songs with lines like “God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.”)  That’s it.  People are crazy.  Myself included.  But in all my craziness, there’s one thing for which I will remain eternally thankful:  I have been blessed enough to remember why I fell in love with Brenda in the first place!!  And after all these years, I still love her. 

So even though any other rider might have gone out by themselves today, she chose not to.  But she’ll still get in the miles.  The goal is still the goal.  And I’m still as much in love as ever.

The thing about averages is...

Y’know, when we looked at this thing last year we said, “Ok, 5,000 miles—that’s just about an average of 100 miles a week.  100 miles a week is probably do-able.”  But the thing is, that’s an average of 100 miles a week.  We both know that there will be some weeks, like when we’re on vacation (planning a trip to Yellowstone this summer) when we probably won’t get any miles at all.  So that means that we’re going to have to have some weeks in the 200-mile range, or a whole lot of weeks in the 120-150-mile range. 

And, in case there are any engineers or statisticians in the crowd, here’s what I’m thinking:  Even though the calendar week starts on Sunday, and even this whole year started on a Sunday, I believe for this exercise I’m going to consider the week to be Monday through Sunday.  Now, please don’t consider me to be blasphemous for moving Sunday from the first day of the week to the last day—I’m just thinking practically.  After all, we consider the “weekend” to be Saturday & Sunday, right?  And I just think it’ll be easier to keep track of stuff that way since we’ll probably use the weekend to catch up if we’re behind. 

So with all that then, I’m taking the 45 miles from our New Years Day ride out of this week’s total since it was on a Sunday.  That means she only has 60 miles so far this week.  And the overnight low tonight is supposed to get down to the high 30’s.  (That’s the bad news.)  But there’s a club ride that starts at 9:00 tomorrow morning, and by then it might well be back up to decent riding temperatures, like at least the low 40’s, and maybe close to the mid-40’s.  (That’s the good news.)

So let’s see what happens.  When I leave for work tomorrow I’ll make sure she’s up and ready if she wants to go.  If she wants to drive out to the meeting place, I’ll get the bike rack on the car for her and get her stuff ready.  This is that ”iffy” time of year when you never know really what it’s going to feel like.  At least the weekend is supposed to be nice, so if she gets temperatured-out tomorrow, we ought to at least be able to get in some serious miles in the following days.  

Florida is a great place to ride, except...

Contrary to popular belief, it does get cold here in the winter.  Oh, I don’t mean cold like Alaska-cold.  We were in the interior of Alaska in the fall of ’10 and we met a local woman who told us about her son who rides his bike until the temperature gets down around 30 below.  30 below!!!  And then she said the problem isn’t so much that he can’t stay warm, it’s that the air in the tires starts to act funny and the bike doesn’t perform like it should.  Well, I don’t know what they wear in Alaska in the wintertime, but it’s clearly different from what we wear because around here even 30 above is way too cold to ride.  And it does get down into the 30s every now and then—like today for example. 

Now obviously, temperature is one of those things that is very relative.  For example, when I was riding by myself a lot, I had set the mid-50s as my minimum riding temperature.  Anything colder than that, and I wouldn’t ride.  But on one of those fluke cold days this past November Brenda went out with one of the local riding clubs when it was in the mid 40’s.  So there it is—a new standard.  And wouldn’t you know it, one day over this past Christmas break, on the morning of a nice club ride, the temperature in the morning was in the mid 40’s.  For her, this was a no-brainer—without thinking twice about it she was ready to get up at 6:00 in the morning, get everything ready, put the bike on the car, and drive out to the meeting place to do this ride.  For me?  Well…  Ok, but I couldn’t let her go out there by herself—after all, I’m the domestique.  So there I was on a non-work day, rolling out of a perfectly warm bed to go out and ride in weather that was 10 degrees below my (previous) minimum.  Like Huey Lewis says, it’s the power of love…

But today it’s not mid 40’s, it’s mid 30s and windy on the morning of what would ordinarily be a riding day.  (Now, truth be told, after 105 miles in the last 2 days, today would probably have been a recovery day even if the weather had been nice.)  But after 2 strong days of riding, how nice is it to be able to, on a cold day, stay inside with a fire in the fireplace, and watch movies & eat a nice hot soup?  (Not for me, of course—for me it’s a back-to-work day.  But Brenda gets a well-deserved day off.)

A new personal best

60 miles.  And on a very windy day.  So now we’re at 105 miles in 2 days.  That means she’s riding at a pace to get in, let’s see…(umm…365 times—no, divided by…umm…bring down the naught…) 19,162 miles this year!    hmmm...  Ok, so I guess there comes a point at which the principle of extrapolation doesn’t really work out too pretty good any more.

But here’s the thing:  she’s getting very strong.  In road riding, it’s all about the wind.  It’s like geese flying south for the winter—they all get in a line, or 2 lines forming that classic “V” shape, and the goose at the front is the one who does more work than anyone else because he’s the one setting up the draft.  For the NASCAR fans in the crowd, you know what I mean, right?  And so it is in road cycling.  If you’ve ever seen a group of riders out along the side of a road, you’ll notice that they’re often in a single file line.  The reason for this isn’t necessarily because they’re trying to be polite and all stay to the side of the road to make more room for the cars.  It’s because everyone is trying to stay behind the person in front of them so they can take advantage of the draft.  (And if you ever see a line of cyclists and then a big gap and then one guy behind the group, feel sorry for that guy because he is now officially on his own.) 

Now the goal in those lines of cyclists would be for everyone in the line to take a turn at the front.  If any one person, even a very strong rider, stays out at the front for too long , that person gets wiped out and the whole group slows down.  There are some exceptions to that—typically new riders aren’t expected to go out in front, and sometimes even strong riders might stay in the back if they’re new to a group or are on unfamiliar roads.  But everybody else should be willing to take a turn in front.  And Brenda has been in that position each of the last two days.  She pulled us toward the end of the ride yesterday, and she took 2 turns out in front today.  So that’s it.  It’s official.  She’s no longer a new rider.  And she’s getting stronger with each ride.  And I, for one, am thoroughly impressed.

Day One

Ok, 45 miles down, 4,955 to go.  (Don’t worry—I won’t do that every time…)

There is a guy (I think he’s an attorney or something) who is the de-facto voice of road cycling in our area.  I don’t know that he’s associated with any one particular bike club, but he keeps in pretty close contact with all of them.  He puts out a very well distributed e-mail newsletter every week, and has been organizing a New Year’s Day ride for several years now.  His influence has been bringing out about 250-300 riders to this ride, and this year we were two of them. 

So there we were on New Year’s Day morning, in a pack of a couple hundred riders cruising along the streets of downtown Orlando.  That’s one of the coolest things about this ride—the traffic at 8:00 on January 1^st is next to nothing so that allows us to ride on roads that we’d ordinarily never be on.  And that’s quite an experience—there’s nothing quite like being in the middle of a huge group of bikes, all going up the on-ramp to the 528, blowing through the tollbooth, and significantly outnumbering the cars on every road we were on.

Brenda had her first experience in a very large group, and also learned the technique of negotiating the rest stop…or more accurately, how not to negotiate the rest stop.  Picture 300 cyclists all pulling into a convenience store at the same time.  Of course some of the guys are finding a place out behind the building or in the bushes across the street, but the girls are all queuing up at the inside rest room.  After awhile, the general crowd starts to get a little antsy, and some start drifting out towards the road.  The girls start using the men’s rest room too, to try to pick up the pace a little, but before the bulk of them are done, the de-facto voice of road cycling in our area announces “ok, we’re rolling.”  Next thing you know there are 250 bikes on the road out at the stoplight waiting for it to turn green.  And Brenda is still inside waiting her turn.  Needless to say, we lost the group.  The lesson of the day:  either hurry into the restroom in the first wave, or don’t bother. 

But a very dear friend of ours, along with our middle son who rode with us this morning, waited with me so there were four of us that finished the 2^nd half of the ride together.  We hooked up with a tandem couple for 5 or 10 miles, and another single rider.  So we didn’t have the draft of the big group, but we had our own 5-person draft, and all took turns at the front.  Brenda took her turn too, and pulled us down University Blvd at 18-19 mph.  Pretty good considering this was at the 30-35 mile mark.

So it was a great start for the project.  It was a beautiful day (sunny and temperatures in the mid 50s to start, & 60’s at the end) and a fun ride.  We’re on our way!