For some reason, it’s easy for me to get into a rut of riding
my bike on the same route. I hate that! I’m now in such a rut. Mainly because my
go-to route is the most convenient high quality ride I can do right from my
home. It’s a 51-miler out and back. It’s mostly flat but includes around 1,100
feet of climbing. It’s a dedicated bike trail with no cars. It’s a real gem of
a ride. So I do it. All the time.
A big factor in this route rut is the current non-availability
of riding buddies. I’m fine riding alone on my go-to route. But on a ride that
involves getting in the car and driving for miles, I’d rather ride with a buddy
or two, for the company and the back-up help if a mechanical or crash happens.
Not that mishaps can’t be handled alone – usually they can, if they’re not
serious and you're not alone in the wilderness -- it’s just a good idea to
have help close at hand on the road.
My past cycling buddies have moved from the area or are
available only on a limited basis because of work and family time. So no
worries, I have to find new cycling buddies. One way is through joining a local
cycling club that does group rides. I’m just not a fan of group rides. Still, I recently met a local club rider who
leads long group rides on a regular basis, so maybe I need to get hooked in to
his group. Either way, I need to mix up my routine. Hell, I’m ready to plan
an out of town ride and just do it solo. But when am I going to do this? I’m ready for a good climbing ride. OK, enough. Shut up and put it on the
sched!
Learning cadence for
speed
Last week did six rides in seven days for 300 miles, mainly
to get as much riding in as I could before several days of rain coming in. The
legs were strong on some of the rides and pretty tired on others. On the last ride
when I was overall pretty beat, I tried to ride with a faster
cadence on the pedals as a way to maintain a strong speed with less stress on
the leg muscles. I haven’t mastered this yet, though from everything I’ve seen
out there, higher cadence, or spinning, maintains speed with lower leg stress better
than riding in a higher, slower cadence gear. I’ve gotten into the habit of
riding in a higher slow cadence gear on flats to get up to speeds I want. But
when I click down to a lower gear at a higher cadence, I definitely spin, but I’m
usually not able to maintain the speed of the higher gear. I’m still playing
with it and a couple of times, the higher cadence spinning has produced surprising
speed for me. So I think it’s just a matter of doing it more to get in a gear
that not only lets me spin, but isn’t too low. That is, high enough to maintain
speed. The pedaling tips in this video are something I need to get in my head! Pretty
useful info. Check it out…
Patience my son,
patience
Patience is a virtue, no doubt, and it surely is when on the
bike. I got reminded of that recently. After a long ride I was following a
line of slow-moving cars on a school campus as they approached a T-intersection
stop sign, where the cars will turn left or right. I was behind a line of about
five or six cars and they were plodding along. I wanted to get home and got
impatient, i.e., I didn’t want to move that slowly. So I veered to the right of
the car in front of me and rode a narrow gap between the cars and the sidewalk.
It was pretty tight and suddenly I had to slow way down to avoid hitting a car
mirror. Then my front tire went up against the curb, bringing me to a stop. I
couldn’t kick out of my right pedal in time and had to break my fall toward the
sidewalk with my arm. This stupid riding move on my part, was all caused by
impatience. It lead to an altogether avoidable fall – which was minor – but
made me look like an idiot, especially when I yelled the F word in frustration upon
my fall. I was yelling at myself, of course for my stupid move. But it just
called attention to my awkward blunder.
“Are you OK?” asked a student that saw it all from the sidewalk. I quickly got up and back on the bike and said,
“I’m good,” but rode on trying to act like it didn’t happen. As I rode the
couple of miles home, I said to myself, “That was stoooopid, total operator
error. Slow down bro, have some patience.” Yep, definitely need to see the light go on when
a lack of patience is about to cause me to rush ahead on the bike, and then remind
myself: "Hey, slow the eff down, chill out.”
Gotta try this, sounds good. At least in theory!
Running the gauntlet
The one thing I’ve made it a habit to do on rides is to be
thankful when I ride safely through heavy traffic. There’s a
nasty heavy traffic section near my house that I have to ride through to get to and
from the local bike trail, and it’s pretty damn scary sometimes. In both cases,
heading out, or coming back, it involves riding on the side of a lane that has freeway
onramp lanes on the right. And in heavy traffic there are times when I’m riding
full speed with cars passing me on the left and right simultaneously. Then it
is suddenly a white knuckle ride. Most times, drivers are cool and give me room. But of
course there is the occasional driver that is offended by a bike to the side of
what they perceive is their lane, a lane that in their mind a bike rider has no
business being in. Some of them honk out of frustration, others hit the gas as
they pass as close as they can, in anger. I just want to stay upright on this
stretch because a fall would be a real problem with other cars coming from
behind. Anyway, I’ve managed to make it through every time so far – knock on
wood – and I hope my luck continues. Once I’m out of the traffic zone,
either going on or coming from a ride, I always sit up on the bike and look
skyward with one thought in my mind: Thank you. Because I truly am thankful.
Not only for making it safely through a danger zone. But also for just being able to
get out on the bike and ride. These are things I’ve made it a point to never take for granted. May all riders stay safe.
Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you
get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and most
importantly, have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson
No comments:
Post a Comment