Greg’s visit puts the odd punctuation in my rides. I frequently note that nothing prepares one to ride better than riding; basement kettle-belling is wonderful (I’m very behind in that due to early morning starts & fatigue) but it’s completely ancillary to actual cycling.
Added Riverside to the Friday loop & got one good lap on it. The climb from MacGavock on 14 teeth feels exactly challenging enough. I’m no fan tho of the Left-Side Bike-Lane & the barrier protection is a danger both to cars & bikes – a series of fabricated bread-loaf-shaped obstacles seemingly designed to ruin cars’s under-carriages & equally pitch cyclists from their bikes.
Early rides to beat the heat are a fool’s gambit because the humidity at Dawn is 98% although the temperature is a cool 70° & at 2 the temperature is 98° although the humidity is 56%. My single bidon holder is still an issue but I’m working on a few devious plans.
Yet today I rode again on the sprinting-gear up into some fine hills on a large double Monday route & saw what I’m told is a Rafter of wild turkeys – large & untroubled by a sweating cyclist at fewer than 3 feet of distance. Ben Franklin may have been right about them, but I’m glad we chose our Eagle; Thanksgivings would have been very awkward. 2 Fauns I also saw & they too were untroubled by my passage. Some who live nearer to the park than I have been hand-feeding deer for years now & it often shows.
Hills in the sprinting-gear always remind me (1) that I admire The Jensie for good reasons & (2) that 14 teeth feel more natural to my style of pedaling than any other ring. I took for the first time in the big gear the right up Sevier off of 14th; 2 blocks is as far as I went but I as the route dictated rode it twice. I took the Shelby exit up to 19th also twice & neither time felt Herculean. 46 miles I went but figure a triple is one more extended loop.
I remember the day I watched some cyclist riding laps at the airport in a manner unlike any other cyclist there. The places where he pushed hardest we’re not the places where anyone else did anything special. I – as best as I cd – copied his style & still ride Sprintervals like his today.
Today – after a week off due to the visit of an old friend – was a tough day; AM humidity uncharacteristically uncut during the day sucked much of my energy away in vain cooling efforts. At 31 miles I was maintaining a 16.7 average mph; but I had planned on 48 today & knew i had it in me. The back loop went well but necessarily slowly. Travails can encourage beneficial introspection as well as despair.
I’m still using this year as training for a better more ambitious next year
Took the big red egg (named Gojira) around the block again for another practice Thanksgiving. After 15 years of Propane I’m relearning Coal – very slowly. These things are designed to re-radiate via ceramic plates & inserts & im way too used to direct heat & fast. Took the small chicken about 1 hour 15 minutes. I’ll get better at this.
Our friend visiting from out of town leaves Sunday & I’m trying to get him to visit more regularly. Our talks are wide-ranging & delightful.
The humidity drops in the late afternoons so we ate in the downstairs porch.
I still think early starts work better even though the humidity in July will be 95%; there are fewer cyclists & fewer kids trying out new bikes – there’s generally less traffic & less danger. My single Bidon though is becoming an issue. I sweated off 8 pounds today & that’s never a good thing. I may have to try an uncomfortable-looking Camelbak soon.
I stayed with the sprinting gear even though Saturdays usually mean the heavy bike on 15 (I’ve switched her over to 16) teeth working the legs in hills on the tough gear will get me where I will want to be in September a little faster.
Someone once told me the best thing to do after a long tough ride is another ride – something about lactic acid flushing. Whatever. Seems to me that a Recovery Ride is about letting your legs know you still trust them. I need to make more of an effort to ride nearly daily.
Since I’m having troubles in the new house getting proper resistance when switching out rear wheels, I went with 16 teeth on the heavy bike. My old Uphill Configuration but I planned on a very flat ride just to keep my legs confident. So naturally I ended up taking Frisbee Golf Hill four times in 32 miles – & each climb felt wonderful.
Today was a traditional climbing day & I managed 3 laps on the usual course including once up the challenging Newhall – which sustained far less tornado damage than I had thought it wd. Just to the South-East of Newhall there are more empty lots now than houses, but Newhall has only a few homes with broken windows & its spectacular duck-pond looks undamaged. Due to my ordinary humanity, I take Chapman up to Riverside more often then Newhall, but the season for me is young.
During my 2nd set of recovery laps at the airport I got passed by what I took as an elderly married couple – I’m almost 60 so when I say Elderly I mean 70s and above. The wife was up front pulling in the low 20s & the husband peeled away back to me & said Jump On Jump On Here, so I caught his wheel (I’m on 16 teeth on climbing days – I can hit 20 mph but I can’t sustain it for very long) & he led me back up to her wheel. We did half a lap at her pace & my body recovered quickly enough that once I saw my exit back to the hills coming up I broke protocol & sprinted up to take the lead – I’ll Lead I’ll Lead My Exit’s Coming. & is actually did it, 16 teeth & all, maintaining the 20s to return the favor.
One of the unavoidable downsides of riding Fixie is the lack of opportunities for Group Rides. We are less agile than coasting-bikes & frankly we are slower on most terrains. Today for me was a rare treat. Belmont Endurance Team Cycling is what I remember to be on the old man’s jersey but I may be misremembering.
I always figured I cd fit 3 laps into 62 miles [I was wrong; I’ll have to fit them into a 75] & it was fun to test my figuring.
Ever since I upgraded to 48 up front I’ve been on 16 in back – technically it’s my climbing gear but I’ve been using it for every ride. Yesterday I put the sprinting wheel back on Mr. Tib just to see if I cd handle 14 teeth on a traditionally sprinting day at the airport. I figured my initial climb up 16th just 2 blocks from my house wd be a Test Climb. I passed the test.
I know that ten speed cyclists search for a specific Cadence in their rides. Cadences are like Querencias in bull-fighting – places where the bull feels comfortable & is hence more dangerous to the matador. Cadences allow cyclists not to think about pedaling for a bit & concentrate on tactics instead. As I recall Lance Armstrong’s cadence was fast – 95 pedal-strokes a minute – & Jan Ulrich’s was slow – something like 80 per minute. It turned out that from his 95 per minute Lance cd better attack & respond to attacks than Jan cd from his 80 per minute.
Fixies provide no opportunity to have any specific cadence save on flat ground. One’s pedaling-rate is entirely a response to terrain. That having been said, I ride more comfortably on 14 teeth than 16 despite how many teeth I have up front. 14 fits the things I’m trying to do better.
Today was a good day; my first 75 of the year & one of my best sustained speeds. Plus I got to ride with Red Beard for a bit & chat.
My plan is still to use this season as training for next season, but today’s ride felt like actual cycling
