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
My math still sucks on an unambiguous Friday 45 (or more desirably 48) but once I doubled the Airport miles & added the Back loop, with double hills all around it came to a warm 46 with few other monkeyshines. A triple 62 ought not present mathematical problems.
I know Lance Armstrong is justifiably discredited but he’s the one who got me treating uphill as actual cycling & flats as recovery in order to climb more. I’m grateful for that.
Tornado Zone is coming back slowly. The repairable places are getting repaired & the complete rebuilds are slowly getting cleared out & marked. 10 years from now we will have some amusing & uplifting tales along the hills.
Mr. Tib has a single clamp-on bottle-holder because her frame was built in an era before Gatorade. Stage races once depended on spectators & local bars to provide sustenance to cyclists; outright theft was not unheard of. Since I’m out there on back-roads generally alone I must find a way to hydrate short of looting garage refrigerators. Amabo (my other bike) has the traditional 2 carriers but she’s slated for short rides as she’s the Heavy Bike (about 34 pounds). 2 bidons for 62 miles is standard but high humidity causes that to be expected even for 45 miles, creating my curent problem.
A good ride today; hilly & solitary. Still many detours in tornado land but I think I’ve found the new standard Monday route.
Since I started alternating bikes to make both last longer I tried to keep necessary tools on each bike in their various bags, but often during reorganizations things get shuffled about inconveniently. I made certain that when I forwent Bike Pumps (my frame-sizes aren’t conducive to the portable pumps) I kept plenty of Air Cartridges in various bags, but alas it seems I neglected to keep Tire Levers also in various bags. Rolling on the regular Saturday route I avoided most of the glass & metal debris but most in cycling is doodoo. I noticed the slow leak about 27 miles in & figured, given the 98% humidity, a quick patch was preferable to a tube change, but I cd accomplish neither without a lever. A complete rookie mistake.
It was a good ride but along the way I noticed the same 2 roving cop cars; our Floyd George protests had become violent enough to draw out tear-gas; the cops I’m assuming we’re monitoring some of the same out-of-place looking cyclists I saw today – all in black tee-shirts, all with back-packs, all riding the wrong kinds of bikes** on the greenway. They (I passed nearly 15 of them all in a line) turned over the pedestrian bridge where I went straight to loop around Nissan Field, & then later they came back over the bridge to head back toward Shelby Park. Cops tracked them politely the whole way ( I’m assuming there were cops in cars on the other side of the bridge). So far I’ve heard nothing about any new vandalism or violence.
At any rate a good ride albeit 15 miles too short.
*Please forgive my French Pun
**BMX, Mountain-Bikes, awkward looking Hybrids – just things that stuck out as Odd (& this from the dude on the Fixie but Fixies looks just like 10 Speeds until pedaling through every turn). These bikes didn’t belong
Granted it’s been a while but I foolishly took on a Metric Century in June with one Bidon. Just a dumb thing to do & in the end when it’s important to stay focused I knew that I was comprised & still finished the miles. Mr. Tib being built on an ancient frame has no holes at all for standard holders, so I use a clamp-on & most of the Winter & early Spring never need more than the one. Rookie mistake in Summer.
Still it was a good ride. I’m not up yet for an extended Airport sprint 100 so I noted the dry ground & took the new bridge over to the Back Loop to extend the milage. The blackberries are out but not ripe; the greenway is built but not paved. I took a bad turn & found out why Fixies are not Mountain Bikes.
It’s I know a good sign that road crews are out fixing roads & bridges and trimming overgrown trees & bushes, but I wish the traffic-flow moderators knew the difficulties cyclists have keeping up momentum uphill & not signal for us to Stop when we can see the way is clear. I haggled & took a right turn up a very tough hill I had not climbed in 2 years, so how cd I be angry. With tornado clean-up now uninhibited by any lockdown, I’ll probably incorporate the Detour into the general Monday Tour.
I went for another Double today just to work out the exact mileage (I’m off by 10 miles on 45s but 30s work perfectly) but missed the second climb up Shelby by taking Porter instead.
It must have been 2 Months ago that I figured a standard Friday ride doubled would not get me the 48 (now, 45 at the time) miles I aimed at but a Triple wd come close to 62. Turns out that handled correctly I fall 10 miles short of 48 but the ride itself is difficult & lovely & not a little sad with the continuing tornado damage to many homes along & beyond Holly.
I’m not yet ready for a Triple – what with the climb up Sevier – especially once I add Newhall back to the route, but the Double was exactly what I needed even with the humidity. I managed most of the climbs seated – my general barometer of cycling fitness* – which came unexpectedly given my general lack of climbing this year.
I finished the final miles with an old Porter Road loop; the neighborhood is nearly surviving our Pandemic. Restaurants adapt & everyone needs gas & car repair.
*Since one can’t downshift on a Fixie seated uphill riding depends on the torque one generates through the core to the extremities. It feels like all leg-work at first but once the ride ends one feels the effort nearly everywhere.
Simonetta was a welcome soigneuse as always (that’s the name of my Hot Tub)
Ecbatan 