Beat the heat, ride early...

This past week I had one long ride left to do, a 51-miler, and had skipped going out the day before because it was windless and triple-digit hot.

Still, the forecast was for high 90s on this last ride day available, and that meant one thing: If I wanted to get this ride in without getting heat stroke, I’d have to leave early.

Leaving early is a relative thing. Early early to me is pre-dawn, and that’s just too early for me. I’ve done it, and hey, I’m not even awake several miles into rides this early. Plus, I’ve found it’s hard to see in the pre dawn light, still waking up. And wearing sunglasses doesn’t help.

If it’s too early, I know I’ll probably have to fight off the need to nod off along the way, and that’s just a bad scenario. Half-snooze while on the bike? Crash. Not good.

So early to me in the dead of summer is more like between 6:30-7:30 a.m. I usually do a stretch routine to get the rust out of the joints and muscles, and that has helped keep my back relaxed and pain free on a long ride.

But to leave early enough on this last ride, I had to skip the stretching, kit up and get out on the bike pronto, since the angry heat outside was already moving the needle steadily toward a scorching afternoon.

Even when I need to get out as fast as possible, I tell myself not to rush while getting ready. Whenever I do, I feel out of whack and unsettled mentally after I start the ride. Once out, I’m sure I’ve forgotten something important like my phone (which I’ve done), or something else -- which wouldn’t happen with a steady, thoughtful pre-ride prep. Because of rushing to get out on the bike, I’ve forgotten to put on my riding gloves and one time, my helmet!

Anyway, without rushing, but also without stretching, this time I got out on the bike at about 7:40. Which wasn’t ideally early, but early enough so there was still some coolness in the air. And that’s always a welcome with the promise of nuclear heat later in the ride. When the air is already warm at the beginning of a ride, that means, oops, yeah, left too late, gonna pay for that.

At the start of this ride, I felt a little stiffness in my lower left back. Which I was pretty sure could have been avoided with my stretches. So with that little warning sign, I decided to go easy, and not push a strong cadence right away.

I’ve learned to pay attention to back stiffness on a ride. For me, it will flare up after riding for many miles under-hydrated.

So, with the intentional slow start and regular deep drinks of water, I rode. And while I didn’t ride near my fastest average speed, the little tightness in the back I felt at the start, worked itself out.

I finished the ride before noon, before the heat was in full beat-down mode. Not a fast ride, but my back felt fine, no heat stroke. By leaving early, not starting out too fast, and keeping hydrated, the heat kept in check.

Signaling is good

This week I rode up behind a guy pedaling a recumbent bike. As I got closer and closer, he suddenly decided to make a left U-turn, blocking the oncoming lane and where I was about to pass him. Whaaaaat?!!!

I jerked the front wheel to the right, course correcting without a hit or a crash. But just barely. As I rode past, I mentioned to the guy, in a nice way of course, to maybe SIGNAL before doing a U-turn, eh?

Hey, we’ve all done it, made a sudden dangerous move without thinking, or signaling. But just like drivers that never signal lane changes or turns, it’s an indicator of too much of a ME attitude, that says “Who cares how my actions affect others, they can get over it.”

Which is really not so great. So let’s all huddle up and remember to signal our turns and lane changes. As somebody once said, safety is no accident! Sure, it’s a corny line, but true. Most of the time, anyway.

Stop and help? Absolutely…

On a couple of rides this month, amid the hot dog days of August, I came upon rattlesnakes slowly crossing the bike path. Both were visible enough ahead of time to make riding around them easy. But I always tell upcoming riders there’s a snake ahead of them, because if they’re not paying attention, they could ride over them, lose control, crash, and kill the snake. One morning I rode up on a big snake that suddenly appeared in the shady, dark part of the trail, and I just missed hitting it. I told oncoming riders, but on the way back saw the snake had been run over and killed. Which made me feel bad. Maybe I should have stopped, got off the bike and shooed him off the trail.

On this last ride, a guy on a mountain bike coming the other way was stopped and pointed to a big snake on the path as I rode around it. I think he helped it off the path, because when I came back through about an hour later, there was no dead snake, just clear trail.

So it’s true, sometimes stopping while on a ride to help a snake survive a trail crossing, or even a rider with a flat, is a worthy goodwill gesture. This is something I need to do more often, because riders have stopped to help me repair a flat tire when I definitely needed the help. One guy stopped and just kept me company while I repaired my flat, and rode on when I was finished. Now that’s something to be thankful for, very nice humanity.

And while I’ve stopped to help a rider with a flat, I still need to be more on the lookout for chances to help snakes or other riders. Just riding past someone who looks like they might need help, and not even asking if they do, is pretty lame.

OK, on it!

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 don’t forget to have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Beat-down riding? None fun...

Last year about this time I strung together three long rides in three consecutive days every week for a couple of months, trying to go as fast as possible.

It was a tough task, to say the least.

On each ride, I vowed to push it hard all the way. I peeked at the Garmin regularly so I knew when I was slowing down and needed to whip the horse to pick up the pace.

While pretty tough duty, it did bring results. I got consistently fast times.

However, all that work and no play made it a huge buzz kill when I got out on the bike. It turned it into work, a job, something that wasn’t much fun at all. Since I did it for several weeks running, it became nothing but long sessions of grueling labor. It was harder and harder to get motivated for three-hours of regular hammering. I’d get back home ready to take a nap.

So, you may ask, why did I do that? I wasn’t training for a race. What was the deal?

Well, I was just curious.

It can be fun to test our speed capabilities on a bike, just to know ourselves better as a rider. So that’s what I did.

But hey, I learned it’s also good not to get hung up on hammering all the time to spike up average speed. It can become a ridiculous and excessive self beat-down. Pros probably do it every day. But me? Who needs it?

So this year, I’ve taken a different approach.  And guess what? It has made saddle time fun again.

I now ride for a comfortably fast rhythm, but not one that feels too hard to maintain. I guess you’d call it spinning in a moderately high gear that doesn’t have too much resistance. The gear is not high enough to regularly slow down the cadence, and require a burst of energy to get back up to speed. So the ride is not a stress-test.

And, no doubt, my ride times are a lot slower compared to a year ago.

But an interesting thing has happened. My times and average mph, while oscillating down and up from very slow days to semi-fast days, are producing a slow but steady trend of improvement in average speed.

It’s like laying down a foundation and building on it. It’s a nice even application of leg power, a more patient approach at building speed. And because it’s free of constant bursts of hammering, aside from a few interval sprints, I look forward to getting on the bike. No more dread.

So hey, fun to go as fast as we can, maybe beat ourselves up a bit while doing it, just to see what we can do. But for me it works better to ride within myself and push just enough for a workout. No need to continually surge for speed.

If you feel burned out from pushing yourself too much on the bike, give it a shot. Your average speeds will dip at first, but over time, they’ll start moving north. You just won’t be crushing yourself while doing it.

Sleepy rider

I went out on the trail a couple times last week, tired from having worked a 5:30 to 9:30 a.m. shift. The rough part is this shift requires getting out of bed at just before 4 a.m. The nice part is that I’m home and ready to go on a ride at 11 a.m.

But doing that a couple days in a row, I was sleepy at the beginning of the ride. That’s a weird feeling, if you haven’t experienced it. Here you are riding along, legs moving well, but you feel your gaze start to lock up as the sleep zone creeps in, even as you pedal on subconsciously.

I’ve ridden for fairly long stretches in a drowsy state. I’ve watched the trail unfold ahead, while some far-away music played in my head. These stretches have been sublime and flowing, a pleasantly sedated dreamlike experience that thankfully has never turned into actual sleepriding! At least as far as I know…

I once downed a Coke to fend off sleepiness, and it perked me up a little, but my system felt slightly off the whole ride. It was probably due to empty calories that brought no sustained energy.

But last week I managed to get past the early ride sleepiness, and was happy I could. Because falling asleep while riding a road bike fairly fast, just like in a car, can be bad news. Don’t really relish suddenly waking up while rolling into the soft dirt on side of the asphalt trail, then jerking an overcorrection to get back on track… Crash! Uh, no thanks.

If sleep had come on strong, I like to think I’d be aware enough to stop, pour some water over my head and snap out of it. It’s definitely a weird semi-conscious state to avoid on the bike.

Til next time, remember to strap 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

Mental toughness? Or just denial...

All of us cyclists who are on the bike regularly know one thing: That we will ride even when we don’t feel 100% physically or mentally. Why do we do this? If we need a little mental therapy we know a long ride can be just as beneficial, if not more, than seeing a shrink.

But if it’s a matter of physical pain, we also ride. Because we’re pretty sure that even if we’re not 100% injury or pain free, we’ll feel better by going on a ride than not going.

Is this mental toughness? Maybe.

They say courage is shown when we do something challenging despite our fears about doing it. That sounds noble and everything, but sometimes it might not be smart. It might be just plain old stubbornness. Fueled by denial!

One morning a few years ago I woke up with back spasms, but was supposed to go on a mountain bike ride with my buddies. I was in agony, on the floor, could barely put on my shorts. But I was determined to go on the ride. Turned out the pain went away for a little bit on the ride, but on the way home, when I cooled down, everything stiffened up, and my back turned into a seething, searing ball o’ beat-down pain. I couldn’t move in the truck seat without getting sudden jolts of off the charts pain.

My buddy drove me to a nearby hospital emergency room. I couldn’t even sit down as I waited for a doc. I eventually got some painkillers, and gimped home.

So, looking back, it was probably unwise to deny the chronic pain my back spasms were sending to my brain, and go on the ride in spite of them. But hey, I really wanted to ride that day, and I was in some way testing my ability to push back the pain and try to ride through it. I wanted to see if I could do it.

But I learned something. Without painkillers, it’s impossible to deny the crippling feeling of chronic physical pain. Yeah, I felt good about the mental toughness that led me to do a ride even though I was fighting nasty pain. But, ultimately, the pain won, so it would have been smarter to put up the white flag, bag the ride and get some treatment for my back.

Earlier this year, I was at a rest area with other riders half way up Mount Diablo. An older guy pulled up on his road bike with his buddy, and sat down on a wood bench. He started telling his buddy all the injuries he had, and it began to sound like this guy should be in a hospital bed in traction instead of climbing up Mt. Diablo on his bike with his friend. But he wasn’t letting his aches and pains get in the way of going on a ride. He was toughing it out, but maybe he had the benefit of pharmaceuticals that deadened his chronic pain receptors. He sure didn’t seem in pain.

I found that riding, even without painkillers, often ease aches and pains as the body loosens and lathers up. But the cool down is where I hit the wall, and then it hit me like a brick. I needed to curl up in the fetal position, and whimper a mantra for relief, “OK, body, ride bad idea, I surrender…I won’t do this again…repeat, won’t do this again…”

What I learned was when my body tells me it’s hurting badly, even the high of a ride isn’t going to overcome it. It might put it off, but the pain will return and set up camp all over again. So listen to your injuries, aches and pains. It may be best to treat them and heal before going on your next ride. Because denying them, even with painkillers, ultimately won’t make them go away.

Real mental toughness

When your legs are dead, you haven’t had enough sleep, you’re facing hot temps and headwinds, and you get on your bike anyway, hey, that’s mental toughness! Because you know it’s going to be a slog, you know you don’t have much gas in the tank, but you want to get your pedals in. And you’re willing to pay the price.

I’ve had a few rides like that lately, and I’ve developed a defensive strategy that helps me ride through the tough conditions.

The first thing I do is find a pedaling rhythm and cadence that is right for my energy level that day. If I’m low on energy, I just go to the speed where I’m riding within myself, not too fast, staying out of the red zone, but not too slow, so I’m still getting a workout, even if it’s low level.

When I get to that zone, I relax and let the mind go blank with no thoughts. I get into a dream-like state and watch the bike path unfold ahead as I ride. So while the legs move at a slower pace in the tough conditions, my mind is relaxed in a meditative state. That minimizes the stress of riding in the heat and wind with tired legs, and a not completely rested body. It’s a way of accepting the tough conditions mentally, without combatting them physically, and draining energy. And when you finish the ride, you can feel good that you got your pedals in, despite very tough conditions.

Use that strategy a few times and you’ll take away dreading a ride even though it looks like it’s going to be nothing but an ugly beat-down!

No need to talk yourself out of getting on the bike. You’ve got a self-preservation coping strategy to see you through it. That’s the key.

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then ride with the rubber side down, and as safely as possible. And then, don’t forget to have a blast.

--Mark Eric Larson

The hot and muggy ride, oh my...

We’ve all had mushy feeling, tired legs while on a ride. The feeling that if you call on your legs to accelerate, they won’t respond, they’ll have nothing in them to sustain harder pedaling.

But one of the nicest feelings as a rider to me is when I can “feel the steel” in my legs as I pedal harder. It’s the great feeling we get as the legs respond with power when suddenly called upon to kick it up a notch. They feel solid, strong, full of energy.

Whenever the legs feel that strong, I can point to a few ingredients: Overall fitness, good nutrition and good hydration. With all that working, the legs respond with plenty of energy and firepower on the pedals.

But even when those conditions align, the weather on a ride can be the wild card that helps or hinders the ability to stay strong on a ride.

There’s wind. There’s heat. And then there’s heat and humidity combined with no wind.

Over three rides this past week, my legs felt strongest on the second ride, when the weather was the best, the air was cool and dry, and there wasn’t much wind to deal with.

On the third ride, my legs felt good, but there was a difference. That time the air was unusually humid, and started cooking in the heat of the day as the ride went on. And, there was no wind, which kind of made for a hothouse effect. I didn’t notice the heat until sweat started trickling down my face during the first 25 miles. That rarely happens on this ride, since the wind is usually enough to evaporate any forehead sweat before it gets to the drip stage.

But the muggy conditions made me sweat a lot more than normal. I took that as a sign to drink plenty of water as I rode.

At the rest point on the 25-mile return, I ate snacks, filled my water bottle, had more water with a couple of electrolyte gel caps, and wiped the dried sweat streaks off my sunglasses. The muggy conditions had continued to amp up as the day warmed toward the 90s.

As I rode back, my legs felt good initially, but after about 10 miles of higher heat and sweating, I could tell, my energy felt like it was draining out along with my sweat. I kept drinking water, but the humidity seem to leak any extra firepower out of my legs. I rode at a strong cadence, but didn’t have the gas in the tank to maintain an upper end speed of 18 plus mph.

Without the muggy conditions, I think I would have had the surplus energy to ride faster. Thinking back, I’ve never been able to feel strong when working out in heat and humidity for some reason. I used to run long distance regularly in dry air. On a visit to Hawaii, I went out for a run, and didn’t last long. It seemed like every pore was pumping out sweat, and I don’t know if it was the distraction of the sweating, or that my energy was draining along with the sweat, but I didn’t do much of a run before I stopped and walked the rest of the way.

I feel lucky to live in a dry air climate. To you cyclists who can ride strong in the heat and humidity, a tip of the helmet to you. I don’t know how you do it!

Fellowship of cyclists

 Whenever I’m at a rest break on a ride, having some snacks, I sometimes encounter other riders, and sometimes not. But I’ve found it rewarding to say hello to other cyclists and offer up a friendly comment or two about the conditions, or whatever. Even when I really don’t feel like chatting, and another cyclist is also quiet, I’ll offer up some sort of communication. And almost every time, I’m glad I did. Shared experiences among cyclists are a great thing. It’s a fellowship. Cyclists talking cycling, the thing we all love to do.

Thankful for riding time

Getting out on the bike is something all of us cyclists treasure. But work schedules and other commitments often get in the way. Still if you really want to ride, it’s a matter of making the time any way possible. When we know we’ll have a few hours free, it can be a mental boost to work a ride in. Even if we can’t ride as long as we’d like, at least we got on the bike and made the most of the time.

A good friend of mine loves to ride, but his work schedule takes him on the road for most of the year, he has dad duties when home, and he’s battled knee and shoulder injuries. He just texted me that he just went on his first ride of the year on August 15, and was ecstatic once he was back in the saddle. Made me realize how lucky I am to get the regular rides in that I do. Circumstances can and do take rides away. Hopefully there aren’t too many obstacles keeping us off the bike for long periods of time. But if there are, keep in mind how fun it is to ride, and don’t stop trying to get out on the bike anyway. Keep riding, Kev.

Thanks to you

This is the 100^th posting of this blog, which I started three years ago, and it’s been a great combination of the two things I enjoy most: cycling and writing. So if you’ve been a reader, thanks a million for tuning in. I hope you keep reading, and that I can keep posting blogs that make for a worthwhile read for you.

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Ride stats show improvement? Sweet!

One of the most rewarding things in cycling for me is boiled down to one word: Improvement.
Whenever I can improve on any aspect of riding the bike, be it riding more efficiently, faster, with better hydration than in the past, noticeably better bike handling skills, whatever, if there’s clear improvement in any aspect, the ride brings a feeling of hard earned satisfaction.
One way to see if you’ve improved is to compare the metrics of each ride, which show your comparative speed in any splits you may have, and your overall time. And a bike computer is the best high tech tool for doing that.
I use a GPS-powered Garmin bike computer. Over the nearly five years I’ve had it, it has added to the enjoyment of each of my rides tremendously. I’m pretty much hooked on getting the numbers it produces for each ride.
Now, I know I could do a ride without the Garmin, and still enjoy it without knowing all the statistical details. But hey, since I’m intrigued by the numbers it provides, I say, why not? So, I put the Garmin is on the bike and turn it on for every ride I do.
Post ride, my routine is to plug the Garmin into my desktop computer and upload the numbers. In a few minutes I have a full statistical breakdown of it and, since I have a regular 51-mile out-and-back, which I do more out of convenience than anything else, every stat is comparable to those of previous rides.
I can see just where I went faster or slower on all the splits along the course.  The Garmin gives you far more info than you really need or want, but it’s still interesting stuff: High, low and average temperature during the ride, the temp at any point in the ride, fastest mph and where it was, average speed, the speed of each split, time of day, map of the ride, elevation gained and lost, calories burned, distance, the whole enchilada.
After awhile, you build a cumulative body of knowledge about the ingredients of a fast or slow ride on your regular course. And any others you go on.
Last week I had some days off in a row, so of course I decided I’d make the most of my free time and do back-to-back 51-milers three days in a row.
My part-time job at a big box retail outlet requires a lot of constant walking, almost no sitting, over the course of shifts that last from four to eight hours. I learned I needed cushioned insoles to keep my feet from barking at me, and plenty of water to keep from the ill-effects of dehydration.  Still, it’s tough on the legs, and on ride days, it’s given me heavy legs.
But when I warm up the legs early in the ride with a nice fast and easy cadence, they start to feel stronger and power up as the ride goes on.
This past week, on the first ride, I cut myself a break and just tried to ease my legs into a steady pedaling pace, pretty much telling myself not to push hard for speed.
Conditions were good, not too warm, so I left at 8:53 a.m. not too worried about getting broiled on the way back. There was a little cross/headwind to contend with on the 25-mile second half of the ride.  But still, very nice conditions overall.
I finished in 3:09:00, not counting a 20-minute break in the middle of the ride, the turn-around point. It was far from a fast time, an average speed of 16.23 mph, but my legs seemed to shed their early heaviness, and I was fine with the pretty slow time.
The second day promised to be triple-digit heat in the afternoon, so I left a little earlier than the day before, at 7:32 a.m. I brought electrolyte capsules, and told myself to drink, drink, drink, since I knew it was going to be a slow roast out there, even with the earlier start.
I drank a tall glass of water before leaving and a full water bottle on the first half of the ride, and that seemed to help keep my energy steady. My legs felt stronger than the day before, so I pushed the pace a bit more. I filled my water bottle at the turnaround point, ate snacks and washed down a couple of electrolyte caps with some water. The heat started to crank up on the ride back, and there was no wind, which really brings the max temp to a hot day, making for glowering heat waves off the bike trail tarmac.
On hot rides, I stop at a water fountain at a spot about six miles from home. I fill the bottle, drink half and start pedaling to finish out. I’ve noticed a big difference in my energy on that stretch when I’ve got enough water in me, I don’t feel nearly as drained of energy, and avoid getting crampy in the quads or achey in the lower back.
I finished out the ride at 3:06.46, two minutes and fourteen seconds faster than the day before, in hotter conditions. That was an average speed of 16.41 mph, and it felt good! The legs had more in them.
The third day, triple digits were again in the cards, but this time there was a lot of smoke from regional wildfires in the air. I left even earlier, at 6:52 a.m., just about two hours earlier than on the first ride. I kept the same hydration routine and swallowed electrolyte gel caps. Despite the increasing heat and hazy air, my legs felt stronger than on the previous two days. I finished at 3:02:30, or six minutes 30 seconds faster than the first day. And four minutes, 16 seconds faster than the second day. My average mph for the ride had risen to 16.8 mph. So I had steadily improved my time, even with hot conditions, by leaving earlier when it was cooler, and staying hydrated, while all the while, putting a little more push into pedaling.
The improvements, documented by the bike computer, felt rewarding. And that was mainly due to the deeper understanding of each ride made possible by the bike computer’s data collection.
So if you don’t have a bike computer like a Garmin, try it, you’ll like it. If you do, you’re probably like me, hooked on all the interesting stats it generates. Especially when they show you’ve improved.

Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don't forget to have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson