Getting passed rudely...uh, motivates

A pair of not so friendly riders passed me on a recent ride, while I rode with rusty legs and lack of sleep. Their brusque “outta our way” arrogance as they passed inspired me to pick up my pace and try to stay with them. I finally got it going enough to catch up and passed them back, maybe with a little of my own attitude. Then after I rode ahead of them for awhile, one of them decided to do a stealth pass of me on my right. I was already close to the right edge of the trail, and he almost scraped against me as he passed. I think he was offended at my unexpected earlier pass and he wanted to startle me, just a little hostile payback. I just kept riding and he and his buddy really hammered it, going about 20-22 mph. They opened up a lead of about 50 yards. I caught up to them at the end of my first split, where they had stopped to catch their breath. They pretty much blew themselves up from a long stretch of all out sprinting. Yeah, these dudes rode fast with attitude, good for them. But hey, they were done. I rode on. Have a good day, boys.

Yeah, lighten up…

On the way back, there was a steady headwind and it was pretty warm. I was tired from not enough sleep and rusty legs, so it was just a matter of keeping a reasonable pace in tough conditions. A woman flew past me on a tricked out Cervelo, bent over time trial handlebars. Oh, I thought, if I can catch her wheel, I can keep a better pace without killing myself. So I jumped on it, and caught up to her. She blazed right along, so it wasn’t easy to keep up once I was on her wheel. After about a half mile she slowed down and waved me ahead. She was annoyed and said in a bored tone, “I’m doing a workout, and I don’t want you on my tail.”

I just rode ahead, didn’t say anything. But I wondered why she didn’t wave me ahead when I first caught up to her. Anyway, she didn’t look like she was having any fun at all. Cranky! I’ve been there, and it’s a bad place to be mentally. It happens when you beat yourself up in a workout, even though you really need to rest. And it makes you angry, because the workout is just a relentless self-inflicted painfest, and you’ve already had enough, you’re physically and mentally burned out. Hey, I’ve learned when the body tells you to rest, it’s a good idea to listen. If you don’t, you’re just beating yourself up, wearing yourself down to the nub. And that doesn’t make you more fit, it just breaks you down.

Time to rest, lady. Enjoy the workout, don’t hate it. If you hate it, you’re burned out. Time to chill.

I could have said those things to her, but hey, I got the distinct feeling she didn’t want to listen to some clown’s workout advice!

Squirrel wars

I’m always on the lookout for squirrels, since they commonly run across the bike trail, and sometimes get hit by riders. I asked a trio of riders I came across the other day if they’d ever hit a squirrel. One of them said he had. Another rider had just told him that a squirrel got caught between the spokes of his front wheel, and it snapped his bike frame in a couple places as he tumbled off to the side of the trail. The guy luckily only scraped up his shoulder, but he needed a new bike.

This guy said even after he heard that story and saw a picture of the broken frame, he was pretty sure the odds of a squirrel getting caught in his front wheel were pretty small. Even though the guy told him, hey, if there’s enough space between your spokes, it can happen.

So this guy, not long after, was riding along and BAM!, he flew over his handlebars with his arms straight out like Superman to break his fall. He did a face plant, however, he said, landing on his cheek. OUCH! He got up to see that a squirrel had – you guessed it – got caught in his front spokes, and it had snapped his front fork in half. Before that happened, he said, he would ride the flats along the trail like a time trialer, head down, almost never looking too far ahead.

But now? He looks ahead for squirrels – and chuckholes.

I told him and his buddies that I hiss really loud, like a big bad snake might, whenever I see a squirrel ahead of me. I’ve found  that most times – not always – that scares them and they take off, usually in the opposite direction. Some squirrels, however, are oblivious, and either don’t move at all, which is good, or they run right at you, which is not good. They’re fevered little squirrel brains are busy with thoughts of gathering nuts or the urge to mate, so you can’t predict when they’ll dart at your bike as you ride by.

Uh, hello…

I had a bizarre feeling on the bike the other day from another wild animal, this one a whole lot bigger than a squirrel. As I rode through a shady part of the trail, I had the sudden feeling of a presence to my right, so I looked over. And there was a big deer standing quietly in the shadows right at the edge of the trail. I rode by, and it didn’t move, but it felt like I was about three feet away as I passed by. Whoah! Glad I didn’t run into that big beauty. Made me think that yes, it could happen. OK, let’s just hope it never does. Avoiding maniac squirrels is about all I can take…

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… have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

The big burst on a pass? You gotta hit the gas

When Jerry Rice took a pitchout on a football play and ran toward the sideline, he’d pick his spot and then make an explosive slingshot-like turn upfield. He was suddenly so fast, he said he was “running downhill.”

At that speed, nobody could catch the former wide receiver great with the San Francisco 49ers – at least for most of his career. It was a thing of beauty, a graceful display of pure speed.

We riders can summon that same fast but easy speed on the bike. It starts with a quick burst on a flat trail that produces a smooth, fast pace. Which to me, feels a lot like riding downhill. Or at least with a nice tailwind!

But it takes fresh and strong legs to launch an explosive burst. And with them, a big desire to hit the gas.

I get motivated to suddenly spike up my speed on the bike when I get passed by a rude, fast rider!

I can be riding a pretty nice pace, feeling good about myself, then Whaaat? Suddenly get passed by a rider with a too-close brush-by?

Sometimes that ticks me off! But how I respond depends on how much I have in the tank.

If I’m tired, I’ll be philosophical. “Hey, not my day to be that fast, just riding on the energy I have,” I’ll say to myself.

Which for me, isn’t always easy. Because I want the legs to chase down the rider.

If I’m feeling frisky though, I’ll probably have an “Oh yeah?” reaction. Which is a bit childish, really. But hey, if it stokes the competitive fires, and triggers a burst of speed, I’m good with it.

I try to catch their wheel and see what I can do from there. Can I stay with them? If so, when’s a good spot to pass them? If I pass them, will I be able to separate long enough to drop them?

Then it’s just a little on-the-fly fitness test to see just how much I have in the tank. It’s a fun exercise.

Pass ‘em, crack ‘em

On a recent ride I had stronger legs than usual. So I was surprised when I was passed by two riders in dark blue kits that nearly brushed me as they passed. I took their pass as dismissive and rude. Idiot ego was suddenly turbo-charging my legs!

I gave chase, but they were moving pretty well, at about 20 mph, so it took awhile to reel them in. Once I caught their wheels, I concocted a little challenge for myself. It was about a half mile before the end of my 14.5-mile split, the first long one of the ride I try to ride at an average speed of 18 mph or above. The end of the split has a few twists and turns, then a straightaway where I sprint to the end. I passed the two riders a little way before all the quick turns, then hit it, full gas.

I crossed the finish of the split, and rode to a gradual climb along a bridge sidewalk. That’s where the two dudes caught and passed me while I was recovering from my sprint. It took me another mile or so before I saw them slow down ahead on a long straightaway and pretty soon I passed them. I was energized for the remaining eight uphill miles to the turnaround point of the ride. Never saw them again, I passed my own little test. Dropped ‘em, and in the process, had a strong time for the first 25 miles of the ride. Nice!

On the ride back, I still had strong legs. For the past several months I haven’t been able to sustain a whole lot of speed on this regular 51-miler. Must be getting old!

But even with a nice19 mph pace going, a guy passed me! He had to be doing around 21 mph. I was impressed. He opened up a lead of about 30 yards.

OK, I said to self, reel him back. I was pretty sure he couldn’t hang with that pace for long. Unless he was a pro. Nah, no way!

I slowly gained on him over a couple of miles. Then I saw him coast for a bit, then start up again. So I pulled closer. He stopped pedaling again, and I poured it on and passed him. He had burned all his matches. Cracked. Nice!

Missing bike time

My schedule was so full this past week that I wasn’t able to get out on the bike. Booo! Which hasn’t happened for a long time. I definitely missed riding, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. I’ll be back on the bike this coming week. I’ll be extra stoked because of the break, and that alone should free up some pent-up energy in the legs.

And a break from the bike isn’t all bad. It can offer a chance to realize how lucky we are to do rides we love. A chance to feel some gratitude for all the mental and physical rewards that we get…when we’re on that bike.

Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down and ride safely. And never forget to have a blast.

-- Mark Eric Larson

Pump air into a flat? Uh, no...

I saw a guy on the side of the bike trail the other day. He had a flat tire on his mountain bike. He was in his late 40s or so, riding with a young mountain biker, who was also stopped, who looked to be in his 20s.

They needed a bicycle pump, they told me, when I stopped. The guy with the flat was in tennis shoes, shorts, didn’t have a spare tube or any equipment to change a flat. “It’s my daughter’s bike,” he said. He just stood there calmly, doing nothing, like he expected someone else to fix his flat because he couldn’t.

The mountain biker said he didn’t have a spare tube with him either, only a patch kit.

So the younger guy inspected the flat tire and found the crown of a thorn embedded in the rear tire of older guy’s bike. He picked it out.

Without sizing all this up, I took my small tire pump and started to pump air into the flat rear tire. The idea was to get enough air in it so this guy could ride to a nearby parking lot, and the younger guy would ride to his truck and pick him up there.

So, there at the side of the trial, somehow the logic escaped me that pumping air into a flat tire doesn’t do anything. I went ahead and pumped air into the tire and then, sure as shootin’, it all went out through the hole in the tube. Oh man, no kidding!

“I’ll just walk it to the parking lot,” the older guy said.

They both thanked me and left as I reattached my pump to my bike frame.

As I got back on my bike, I laughed at my poor diagnostic skills while trying to help this guy. I didn’t even question how using a pump was not the solution, just did it anyway!

Neither guy had a backup tube with them, which isn’t good, but oversights like that can happen. Especially if getting a flat never enters the mind as a possibility.

Hell, I’ve been in the same boat. I remember once having to use a patch kit when I flatted out in the middle of nowhere on my mountain bike. Didn’t have a spare tube. Suck town! I got the tube to hold air -- eventually.

But messing with a patch kit takes too long, at least when I do it. I could be in the dark hearing crickets before I’m done. After that I always brought two tubes on a mountain or road bike ride. But it still took me way too long to learn how to replace a road bike tube without puncturing it! I figure trial and error is probably the best teacher for learning how to fix flats in a reasonable amount of time. I got humbled plenty along the way, but the proper fundamentals finally sank in.

Ride when you can, but…

Working a ride in before or after going to work for half the day is great to do, but this past week my plan for an afternoon ride was derailed. By choice.

I worked from 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., so when I got home there was still time for me to get out on my bike by 11 or 11:30. But there was an obstacle in the conditions. It wasn’t cold. It wasn’t windy. It was triple-digit heat, with a smidgen of wind blowing in forest fire smoke from the Yosemite area.

So by the late morning hour, the heat was just starting to get into its full-on, nuclear torque, sizzle mode. Higher temps were predicted to move past 100 and push close to 109 as the day wore on. I looked out the window at a palm tree I always check to see if there’s any wind. Because, I told myself, if there’s a little wind, it will be cooler than if there’s no wind at all. And in that case, a ride could be do-able.

But I could see there was just an occasional small flutter in the palm fronds. Which meant, uh, pretty much stagnant, very hot smoky air – broiling muck -- would be in the cards all ride long, 51 miles with about 1,500 feet of climb. So I decided, even though I was due for a ride, it wasn’t worth it. Stay in, relax, enjoy the air conditioning. Take a nap.

I knew if I’d gone out, it would have been a sweaty suffer-fest. Especially if I happened to flat out or have some other mechanical in some remote area in rippling heat with no shade. Nope. Not worth it.

I waited a couple of days til my next day off when I could go out early enough to beat what also promised to be a scorching hot day. It was plenty cool enough on the way out, and got pretty toasty as the day heated up on the way back. But I drank a lot of water, took a couple of electrolyte gel caps, and got the ride in.

On the ride, the early-morning air held some overnight moisture and that put a drag on my speed. Plus, my legs were a little rusty. But even with tired legs on the way back, when the air had heated up and dried out a bit, I rode faster. Weird how those variables of moist air/dry air wind resistance vs. relative leg power affect speed in different ways.

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

-- Mark Eric Larson

Hey, ride with those at your level... or? Not so great

I ride solo a lot, but I’ve gone on group rides where the relative shape and riding skills of participants are all over the map. I’ve also gone on buddy rides, where the relative riding skills and physical shape between us has been close.

And I’ve come away with this conclusion: If you want to put in a good ride where everybody’s having a good time, do one of two things: Ride solo at your own pace. Or ride with buddies that ride about as fast or slow as you do.

Otherwise, somebody won’t be happy on the ride.

When couples go for rides together -- and this doesn’t happen in every case, of course -- often times the difference in speed preference makes the faster rider have to ride slower than he/she wants to, so they don’t rudely abandon the slower rider. And if they’re left alone, it’s no fun for the slower rider, who would probably like to chat a little while on the ride.

On the other hand, if the faster rider in the couple insists on riding at his or her own speed, far ahead of the other half of the couple, there’s gonna be somebody (the rider left behind) who really isn’t too happy about it. I know this, because it has happened to me a few times, and maybe to you.

I would be the self-centered one who would ride ahead at my preferred pace, determined to get a workout, and not ride with the slower rider – despite the later argument that I was rude to do so. Guilty!

But I’ve also ridden slower than I’ve wanted, to stay alongside a slower rider, just to be social and polite, and have fought the urge to hit the gas and take off. After quite a long stretch of holding back, I was the one that was unhappy at ride’s end. I didn’t feel like I got a workout at all.

So it pays to ride with riders at your level. Nobody gets dropped by a mile or so, there’s friendly competition, everybody’s happy. Unless a couple rides at roughly the same level, one will think the other is riding either too slowly or too fast.

Just this week I ran into a young guy at the rest stop where I turn around on my routine ride. He had ridden ahead of his older brother and his older brother’s wife. The older brother rolled in before the wife. He tells the younger brother: “She’s had a hard time, but when she comes in, tell her she’s riding great, that we haven’t been here that long.”

So when she finally pulls in, obviously beat, both brothers gush at how well she’s riding, blah, blah, blah. But she doesn’t look like she’s buying their trumped up cheers. No.

While hubby and brother were using the facilities, she tells me: “I ride at 10 miles an hour. This trail was hard! They told me it would be flat.”

Which was definitely an untruth, a good amount of climbing was included.

I passed the husband and wife on the way back and it looked like the younger brother had ridden ahead again. But this time, hubby was riding slowly alongside his wife, keeping her company, not leaving her in the dust. So, while that probably made her feel better, I can guarantee you he wanted to hit the gas and ride his bike hard. So, I’m betting, he wasn’t so happy on the return trip.

So to get the ride you want, go solo, or go with buddies with the same riding level as you. Then hey, who’s gonna be unhappy? Nobody!

A barely used bike bargain

A rider I ran into this week just bought a little used Trek road bike, which sells in stores for $1,500. He got it for $750, and it came with TT forks, a computer and shoes that fit the buyer. What the..?

He has a slow hybrid, but is getting in shape for an Ironman event at Lake Tahoe, and wanted a lighter road bike. So he looked on Craigslist and found the Trek.

“Was it hot?” I asked.

“No, seemed like the guy was legit, wanted another bike,” he said.

So this guy scored, getting an almost new carbon frame road bike, loaded with accessories, for a huge discount.

So I guess the point here is that you don’t always have to pay a premium price to get a good bike of any kind. Check Craigslist or eBay. There may be a great bike, priced to move, by a legitimate seller who (a) hasn’t stolen the bike, or (b) put too many miles on it.

Great value deals on bikes probably aren’t going to come up very often, but they’re out there, as this rider found out. For me though, when it comes to cars or bikes, I want a new one from the start. But hey, that’s just me.

Altitude schmaltitude…

This same guy with the new bike asked about some high altitude rides he could do to train for the Tahoe iron man. I didn’t ask when his event is, but having grown up at Tahoe, it takes a couple of weeks for a not-in-shape person to get used to the altitude. When I was a kid, they had a high altitude training center up there for track athletes training for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. But those were world-class athletes going for any edge possible. I’ve climbed high altitude peaks in the Sierra, such as Monitor and Ebbetts passes without any high altitude training and done well enough. I think if you’re completely out of shape, you’ll really notice the thinner air if you’re in it for a few days. But if you’re in good cardio shape, I’m not so sure it takes a lot of high altitude training to do well in thin air. But hey, what do I know?

Til next time, be sure to pull a helmet on 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