The Ghosts of Cycling Past

  It's 10am, I'm done riding and I am soaking wet. My shoes are full of water. I had no intention of riding today. No intention to the extent that I dumped all of my cycling clothes into the washer and turned the knob. After all, it is supposed to rain today - all day. And, I had forgotten The Rules.

  For whatever reason I woke up earlier than usual today and flicked on the morning news. According to weatherlady it was going to start raining at any moment so I put on a pot of coffee and made breakfast. About an hour later I'm on my second cup of coffee and have yet to see any signs of precipitation. The weather radar showed a perfect little gap in the green directly over my neighborhood. 

"Shit. I could've gone for a quick ride if I had known the rain was going to hold out," I grumbled to myself.

"It's still not raining, and so what if it does? So what if you get wet?" Rule #9 chimed in, "it's 73 degrees, technically it's still summer. You used to ride in the rain all the time."

"Yeah, but my clothes are in the washer and I had bacon and fried eggs for breakfast. Do you know how well bacon and eggs are going to sit after 20+ miles?" I asked.

"Oh my God! HTFU!" Rule #5 interjected, "go get your old shorts out of the closet, yes, the ones with the hole in them and grab that jersey you never wear because you think it makes you look fat and go for an effing ride!"

  Then I remembered running into a former Texas French Bread rider yesterday. I haven't seen the guy in years, but he is still wicked-fast on a mountain bike.

"Wow! You must have put on fifteen pounds or so since I've last seen you," he said, poking me in side. 

"It's more like thirty," I confessed.

"Well, you must be riding fairly often because you're able to keep up with me," he said. 

"Yeah, but not as much as I used to," I replied and began listing all of the excuses: injury, working out of town, record heat wave, etc. And, for every excuse he had a solution: more stretching, weight room at hotel, ride at night.

We rode on for a bit discussing bikes, politics, exercising and chicks with cute butts before he had to peel off and head for home. I put in another fifteen miles before stopping for the day.

  So, I grabbed the thread-bare shorts, pulled on the jersey that gathers too much at the bottom, and ran out the door with my bike. I didn't even bother to turn off the TV or set the alarm. I just went. Of course it started raining almost immediately, but I didn't care. I rode fifteen miles in the pouring rain and loved every minute of it. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Photo Credit: Wendy Harman

Do You Jam (When You Jam)?

   I ran over someone's iPod on the Veloway last year. It was one of those "old skool" iPod Shuffles - the kind without any moving parts/display screen so it was in relatively good shape. I posted a note near the entrance, but no one ever responded so I bought an adapter and discovered the iPod had been dead to begin with.  Perhaps that's why the owner never bothered to claim it?

   Anyway... that got me to wondering just how many people listen to portable media players while riding. I see lots of people with "earbuds" in so I assume they are listening to something. I tried it once but didn't like it for two reasons. I got a cheap sports radio so I could listen to things like Eklektikos and Car Talk while riding and kayaking, but I found that wasn't any good for kayaking since a big part of being on the water is the sound of nature. As far as biking goes I realized that being aware of the passing of time (in three minute song increments) made the miles seem much longer than if I just rode along letting my mind wander.  The other big reason is that I sweat. A lot. There is no way I could keep any kind of electronic device safe and dry.

   So, as I sit here waiting for Broder Daniel to finish downloading from Amazon I was curious what devices people use, how do they keep them dry, and more importantly what do they (this means you) listen to during a workout?

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meddygarnet/

The New Paradigm is Listing to the Port Side

   Something has happened recently, although I'm not quite sure just what. I seem to be in the middle of one of those fundamental shifts in physiology, and to a lesser extent, psychology. A mid-life Polar Shift, if you will. Everyone says that as you get older your metabolism changes, your eyesight fails, and a whole host of other events occur. I figured that these things would happened gradually, like a ice cube melting. But instead I've noticed they tend to evolve rather quickly - as in two weeks, or even overnight. One day I could read the directions on an aspirin bottle and (literally) the next day I could not.

   This past week I've lost any desire for spicy foods, and just the thought of belching all day quickly reinforces that. The other night I was craving refried beans and tortillas so I bought some Amy's Organic Refried Beans, opened the can, took a whiff, and dropped the whole thing into the trash - too spicy. And by too spicy I don't mean onions, jalapeno's or salsa, I'm talking about salt, pepper and paprika. Another development has been a loss of interest in meat. Yesterday I went through the refrigerator and tossed out all of the chicken, ribs and steak that resided therein. I kept the fish though.

   Of course, nature has its way of balancing out losses with gains and I've noticed a sudden interest in sugary drinks, which I've never really had before unless beer counts as a sugary drink. Sadly though, I've lost most interest beer, which really sucks since I've got a batch of home brew recently bottled and quietly maturing in a cool, dark place. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd feel compelled to swing by the convenience store and buy a Mexican Coke on the way home instead of a Shiner Bock... What is the world coming to?

Riding and Pain

   I want to ride today.  I need to ride today.  I probably could ride today, but what if riding today meant that I might not be able to walk tomorrow?  When you consider that I work outside, and on my feet, being able to walk tends to be a priority.  I've experienced intermittent foot pain over the past decade and it randomly flares up in either foot, but thankfully never both at the same time.  After trying to manage what seemed like quarterly gout flare ups on my own, I finally began taking Allopurinol and had thought I'd put any kind of foot pain behind me.  However, I keep experiencing inflammation along the side and top of my foot that tends to travel upwards towards my ankle and Achilles tendon.  

   The best way to describe the pain is that it feels like someone took a ball peen hammer and whacked the crap out of my foot.  I've been to the podiatrist several times and have had my feet x-rayed at different times.  The foot doctor diagnosed the issue as Peroneal Tendonitis caused by an overly tight Plantar Fascia.  He recommended I get new work boots, arch/ankle supports and prescribed a round of Meloxicam which is an anti-inflammatory drug.  I even bought new pedals/shoes/cleats for the bike - ones which have a wider platform and provide more support.  I was able go for about a month and a half without any new flare ups, but last week the pain returned.  I blame it on lugging equipment across rugged terrain for eight hours, but to be honest I was already feeling the "twinge" before the day even started.

   So, here I sit on a beautiful sunny Sunday in mid-February with an expected high of 65 totally jonesing for a ride.  Past experience has taught me that if I choose to ride today, then tomorrow is a total crap-shoot.  I could make things worse or I could wake up feeling perfectly normal.  I think the most frustrating part of all of this is the lack of consistency.  There really doesn't seem to be any pattern of "cause and effect" here.  It's also depressing.  So, do I sit inside and hope I don't do anything to anger the little man that lives inside of my foot, or do I suck it up and go ride?  Hmmm... choices, choices.

Photo Credit: Eric Fischer

Winter Riding Gear

   I hate being cold. You'll never hear me complain about a 100+ degree summer day. I might remark upon it, such as "Man, it was HOT outside today," but I'll never complain about it. I will, however, complain bitterly about being bitterly cold. And by bitterly cold I mean anything under 85 degrees. In fact I make no distinction between 30, 40 or 50 degrees - they are all lumped into the same category: cold. It's kinda like my microwave, which only has an "on" button, it's either on or off with nothing in between.

   My definition of cold means I dress the same whether the conditions outside are considered mild or snowing. I made the little man below out of clothes to illustrate what my winter riding gear entails. I start with a base layer such as a long sleeved shirt and tall socks. Then I pull on a pair of tights, or leg warmers (it's much easier to put on the socks first since tights have an elastic band around the bottom.)  Next comes the bib shorts over the tights and a pair of low cut socks. Then I usually put on a short sleeved jersey followed by a long sleeved one. Cap it off with a helmet liner (beanie) and a pair of full fingered gloves and I'm ready to head out the door.

   While the layers above may seem like over kill, they are just that: layers.  This means I can easily lose sections of clothing as the ride progresses and temperatures warm, but I usually end the ride dressed the same as when I started. I don't mind being (almost) uncomfortably hot when the alternative means numb fingers or toes. Comment below and let me know what's your "go to" layering system when the weather turns colder?

An Intermittent Creaking Sound

   A couple of weeks ago I noticed a creaking noise coming from the left side of my drive train, so I did what I normally do - I ignored it.  And it went away.  And then it came back.  The noise appeared to come from the area where the left crank arm attaches to the spindle and progressively got worse.  So I tried spitting water on the crankarm as I pedaled along and that seemed to make it happy.  I figured there must have been some dust or sweat-crud lodged in a crease somewhere.  However, the noise kept returning.  It was then that I noticed that the left crankbolt had come loose and upon tightening it down the noise went away.  Several times the creaking resumed and I found that I was having to tighten the crankbolt every 15 miles or so.  (Luckily the crankarm also has "pinch bolts" that hold it on as well.)  Finally the noise became constant whether the crankbolt was loose or not and I began to suspect it was going to be rooted in the bottom bracket.
   As I rode along muttering profanities and dreading the impending trip to the bike mechanic I thought of one last "user friendly" repair (if you count ignoring and spitting water as actual "repairs") that I could try.  I removed the spindle cap from the pedal body, applied a couple of drops of chain lube and Viola!  No more noise.  

   So, what I thought was going to be an expensive bottom bracket repair actually ended up being a creaky pedal and it helped me discover a potentially dangerous situation involving the crankbolt.  A torque wrench should solve that problem.

Cycling Milestones

   I've reached a couple of milestones on the road bike recently.  

Road Tube vs. Mountain Tube

   My first "rite of passage" was a flat tire.  As someone who has over twenty years of mountain biking experience I've had lots of flats, but this was the first time I had ever had a flat on a road bike.  I haven't ridden a road bike (think English Racer) since I was probably thirteen or so. While the concept of patching an innertube is the same there are some subtle differences.  First and foremost was the brake release.  I actually had to ask the Bike Noob how to release the tension on the brakes in order to remove the wheel.  It turns out that road bikes have a lever on the brake assembly, whereas my mountain bikes either have disc brakes or the cable unhooks from a slot.  The next difference was/is that the tubes are really skinny.  My patch was almost wider than the tube.  Once I got the tire patched and returned to the bike I realized that my mini-pump wasn't getting a good "bite" on the valve stem and it kept "popping off" the stem every couple of seconds.  Fortunately I had purchased a couple of CO2 cartridges and dispenser at the time I got the bike.  I had heard various comments about how hard it was to reach the necessary PSI for a road tire with a mini-pump.  Which led me to milestone #2, using CO2 for the first time.  I was really apprehensive about inflating tire with the CO2 cartridge since I wasn't sure how hard it was to puncture the seal, and whether the tire would explode or all of the gas would leak out before I could get the tire inflated.  Needless to say everything went smoothly and the tire inflated in less than a second. I really felt empowered and am now totally hooked on CO2, though I still carry the mini-pump just in case.


   Perhaps the next milestone I reached was a "real" road ride, and by real I don't mean noodling around the neighborhood.  Instead, I'm referring to the open highway.  I was amazed at how hard roadies have to concentrate while riding in traffic.  Naturally you have to pay attention to keep from getting ran over, I have to do that on the mountain bike as well.  But roadies also have to literally watch the pavement in front of them since they don't have the shock absorbers and 2 inch wide tires that mountain bikes have.  When I'm riding the road bike I have to be very alert for things such as drainage grates, cracks in the road, expansion joints and missing valve covers and such.  These things can dump you off your bike in a heart beat and when you are riding less than a couple of feet from a moving vehicle it can even be deadly.  And so we come to milestone #4, getting passed by car while in the same lane.  There is only a brief stretch of road on my route (about 500 feet) where the shoulder disappears and I'm forced to share the lane with 65 mph traffic whizzing by.  It's a white knuckle affair and I really don't like doing it, but it's really brief, and traffic is very light on Sunday mornings. I wouldn't be caught dead trying to navigate that section of SH 45 during peak hours.


So, what, if any, milestones have you met in the pursuit of your hobby/sport? I'd love to hear your experiences...