Thursday Thoughts ~~ Training?

“What are you training for?”  I was asked that recently.  Turns out it’s a pretty good and interesting question.

The overwhelming majority of us are amateur athletes.  We pursue athletics as a recreation, a hobby, a pastime.  We have jobs and occupations which are primary in our lives.  We pursue some field of athletics for the pure love of it, or for the challenge and joy of competition.  But we don’t get paid for it.  We don’t have to do it.  So why bother?

In my own case, I haven’t entered a serious event in the last year.  So what am I training for?  For the last year my training has been on “autopilot.”  I have been training from the habit of training.  I was doing so because I knew that there would be an event or challenge in my future.  I just had not defined a specific goal. 

This past year has been instructive.  For many years, I’ve had very well defined, tightly focused training goals.  I needed a break.  I needed to reassess who I was, and what I was training for.  In short, I needed to refresh, clear my head, and define some new and different goals.  But that hasn’t stopped me from training.  I train because it is a large part of who I am.

I am in the process of forming some goals for next year.  By that I mean, I am looking for a few, very specific, well defined events to aim at.  When I have decided on those events, I’ll have a short answer to that first question.  I will be able to say,  “I’m training for such-and-such.”

There is a larger meaning to the question.  It can be read as,  “Why are you training?”  or even as,  “Why would you even bother to set goals, pick events, and go through the hassle, pain, and stress of training for them?”

The surface answer to that would be,  “Because it makes me happy.”  I enjoy the process of planning training, of charting progress, of selecting short term, intermediate, and long term goals.  I am greatly rewarded by achieving those big goals.  And there are big benefits that accrue from the process.  I relish the feeling of coming into “condition.”  I like being healthy, and strong, and having good endurance.  I get a kick out of walking with a spring in my step.  Perversely, I enjoy the feeling of arising in the morning, feeling stiff and a little sore, as a result of recent hard training efforts.  I relish the activity of working toward an achievement, and then standing at the finish, goal met.

I will have some very well defined training goals and events to work for in 2011.  The training for these events will begin soon, in the Autumn of 2010.  There may be finish lines and medals involved.  There may not.  But there definitely will be ironclad times, places, and accomplishments.  That, after all is what a goal is.  It’s a dream with a deadline on it.

But, “What are you training for?”  I think the real answer is,  “I’m training for my life.”

Why Should We Train?

It’s time to start thinking about how to round out this year, and what shape next year will have.  There are “problems” involved in that.  I mean “problems” in the engineering sense of the word.

Start thinking about these things.  We’ll be addressing them in the near future.  As a suggestion, consider the following topics.

• Have I gained weight in the last year?
• How do I feel about myself and the bike right now?
• Was I happy with things this past Spring?
• How long did it take me to “get into shape” this year.
• Do I really enjoy riding?
• What parts of cycling are most enjoyable for me?
• What kind of time can I commit (be realistic!) to sport, recreation, and exercise?
• What habits am I seriously willing to quit or change in order to improve?
• How much television do I watch, and what do I really get out of this?

Make your own list too.  This is a good time for some contemplation.  We’ll tall talk more soon.

Seasons Advance

Seems in always happens this way, and it’s always a jolt.  Here in our part of the world, the shift from Summer to Autumn gives us plenty of warning, and then it pounces on us.  Folks riding the Six Gap Century this past Sunday certainly got a strong notice.  It rained, and was quite cool.  Here in the Atlanta area, we just got the news today.

The sudden shift from lows in the 70s, to the low 50s does seem a bit extreme.  My pre-dawn excursion this morning was brisk.  In the dark and with lots of moisture still on the ground from the recent rains, the mid-fifty temps seemed cooler than they actually were.  It’s time to start pulling out the cold weather gear.

We won’t need the heavy stuff for a while yet, but I should have been in tights this morning.  I do not like finishing a ride with goose bumps and shivvers.  Arm warmers and a light wind vest were not enough.  Open finger gloves were completely inadequate.  It was a bracing ride.

So, the season is truly upon us.  It won’t take full hold for a while yet, but the inevitable is near.  It is time to pack away most of the summer weight jerseys, and time to pull out the weather clothes.  Time to inspect and inventory.  What needs repair?  What needs replacing?  What should be readily to hand?

Looks like this will be a temperate day with a high in the 70s.  The leaves are starting their turn.  The night sky advances toward the Winter constellations.  It’s no secret that I do not like cold, and yet, I relish the challenge that this season presents.  Let’s all go forward, into this time, and make the utter most of it.

Fixie Update: The new build

Into every life must come a certain amount of confusion, and a bit of irritation, garnished with some frustration.  That’s not to say we dwell in those places.  But it happens.  Some time ago I featured the latest project, a Surly Traveler’s Check.  If you follow this blog, you might have noticed that, after that announcement, we were strangely silent about the whole thing.  There were reasons for that.

A lot of stuff happened.  This stuff took up a lot of time.  At the same time, I ran into what Robert Pirsig refers to as a “gumption trap.”

Those of you who have not read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance will need a bit of prompting.  (Please note, I strongly recommend this book!)

First off, what is “gumption”?

-noun Informal

1.  initiative; aggressiveness; resourcefulness

2.  courage; spunk; guts

So “gumption” could be seen as the inner fortitude and resourcefulness to see a task through to successful completion.

How many of you have had a scenario like this?  You begin a job or task.  You know what you wish to accomplish.  Things are going fairly well.  And then it happens.  Some glitch, or unforeseen problem arises.  Possibly you solve the problem, but another one arises.  You find a fix for that.  Then another glitch occurs.  At this point you are getting tired, and you realize that the solution to this latest problem is to back up, undo a lot of work, and re-do it.  The temptation is to quit and go away.

That is a gumption trap.  It’s a situation that robs you of your gumption, drains away your stick-to-it-iveness.

That is pretty much what happened to me.  In order to get the Surly up and running, I needed to build a rear wheel around the magic SRAM Torpedo ™ hub.  I ordered a rim, calculated the spoke lengths needed, got spokes, and went to work.  I prepped the spokes and laced the wheel up.  So far so good.  But when it came to tensioning and truing the thing…  Well, that was when I discovered that I’d miscalculated the spoke lengths.  They were all about three millimeters too long.

And there was all this other stuff happening in my life.  That’s a perfect recipe for a gumption trap.

Yes, I make mistakes.  The problem of spoke length is a nontrivial one.  More, I work with this stuff all day long, so I have a bit less inclination to do so on my own time.  That’s when I want to ride a bike!

Of course, I’m a lot slower on my own projects.  The time I spend working on my bikes is very limited, and it competes with so many other demands.  Nothing unusual there.  We all have many demands on our time.  It’s a constant juggling act.

So, I let the project sit.  Don’t tell me none of you have ever done anything similar.  We all fall into this from time to time.

So now I’m on a schedule. 

This week:  Get that wheel built!

Next week:  Driveline

Week after:  Final assembly and test

Watch this space for more news soon.

Friday Follies ~~ Music

I’ve always been enchanted by, informed by, and often transported by music.  I come from a musical family.  There was always sound around.  I loved it.  I still do.

When I was able to begin to gain control of what I listened to, my tastes diverged from the “approved” genres.  It could be said, in the very mildest of terms, my parents did not particularly like the stuff I was drawn to.  That didn’t matter much.  I found ways, as all kids do.

I also discovered that I like to do more than just listen to music.  I liked to do things with music playing for them.

In this day of iPods and other portable music devices, it’s kind of hard to remember what it was like to cycle in silence.  But there was a time when music wasn’t terribly portable.  Of course I had the “sound track in my head,” but that somehow, wasn’t as satisfying as actually hearing the stuff.

Once, back in the early 70s, a group of us hired a sound truck to follow us, playing loud rock through its speakers.  For various reasons, this experiment wasn’t repeated.

Thanks to the Space Age, various electronics revolutions, and miniaturization, it became possible to carry the devices of music with us.  My first real attempt at this was a clumsy “portable” transistor radio.  This was problematical.  The thing was about half the size of a lunch box, it only received AM, it only had one earplug, and it was very directional.  In other words, if one did not hold still, the sound turned to static.

Remember the Walkman?  Wow!  Now there was a device.  A good friend of mine demonstrated just how bad an idea that could be.  He had a pair of the (then new) electrostatic earphones, and a Walkman tape player.  He managed to stuff the player down the front of his jersey.  (It wouldn’t fit in his pocket.)  He ran the speaker cable up around his torso, and out the back of the jersey neck.

For a while my friend was really rocking to the sounds of his favorite mix tapes.  But then disaster struck.  On one particularly rough stretch of road, the player dropped out of the bottom of his jersey.  It promptly hit the end of the speaker cable, and started to pendulum.  Before my friend could get stopped, or even realize that he had a problem, the thing swung into the front wheel.  The resultant crash was pretty bad.

I got into the act with a mini disk player.  Wonderful device.  Came out just before the iPods hit.  I got the device specifically to allow me to listen to music while I worked out.

Now in those days I had only a rudimentary idea of how to go about play-listing an exercise routine.  I loaded a disc with a series of high energy stuff.  It was full of the then new (at least to me) techno.  And off I went.

My workout for the day called for a long, lower aerobic level, sustained effort.  I had a route all mapped out in my head.  I would warm up carefully for about seven miles, then move into my intended region, and stay there for several hours.

Okay, I could see several pitfalls, and I thought I’d spotted them all and avoided them.  I would not put the ear-buds in until I was out of town, out into a rural area.  I vowed I would use my mirror religiously once I did turn the sound on.  In that way, I would not increase my risks in high traffic areas.

At first things went according to plan.  I got out of town, settled into my gradual warmup routine, and then, well out in the countryside, I stopped briefly.  I inserted my earbuds, hit {Play}, mounted up, and started into the core of my intended workout.

I was riding through terrain that well matched my purposes.  It was an area with long gentle “rollers.”  The music was good.  I settled into a steady rhythm.

But there was a flaw in my thought.  The selection I’d loaded for my second long track was an extremely long one.  In fact it was a recording from a rave in Europe, and was over two hours long.  The music built up, and I went with it.  About a half hour into that second track I noticed that I was flat out flying!  I was having a complete blast!  This was fun!

But I did realize that I was cranking along a bit too hard.  “Dial it back a bit,”  I said to me.  And I dutifully listened and reduced effort.  At that point I was, at least dimly, aware that I had been exceeding my goal parameters.  In fact, on this lovely cool day, I had worked up quite a sweat, and I was breathing pretty hard.  I spent a half hour consciously disciplining myself, riding slowly, and recovering.  Then I relaxed.

I got lost in the music again.  It was a gorgeous day.  I felt grand.  The scenery was rolling by.  The rollers were almost flat.  I lost track of where I was, and gave myself over to the music and the moment.

The long track ended.  I came to my senses.  I was not where I should be have been.  I was a long way from home.  It was late.  I was…  Well I was tired.  From the standpoint of meeting goals, my workout was totally blown.  And I still had to ride home!

Since then, I’ve learned a thing or two about using music as a background to exercise.  With today’s tools, I can actually set up a play-list that will do what I want to.  I can control it, instead of the other way around.  I rarely (almost never) use music on the road.  But I still remember how much pure fun that ride was.  Stupid, but fun.  Sometimes that’s necessary.

BTW, is anyone up for a Fall Colors Mountain Ride?

Thursday Thoughts ~~ How to End a Cycling Career

I believe in competition.  More I believe that everyone should enter some kind of competition, at least every two to three years.  Yes, that’s pretty general, and it could mean anything, but I’ll get to cycling specifics in a moment.

I like the idea of “Formal Competition,” on a somewhat regular basis.  It’s good for us.  We learn things in the contest that we could not learn any other way.  And win, lose, or draw, a good race can be a lot of fun.  But…

Please note, I used a term, “Formal Competition.”  I’m much in favor of this.  The “formal” means an organized, sanctioned event.  One with rules.  One that has impartial officials, and one that takes place in a controlled venue.  On a level field, the contest has real meaning.  It’s kind of important too, that all the participants know that a race is on.  I’m not in favor of street racing, or “secret racing,” or “charity racing.”

There is something about cycling that brings out the competitive in us.  I don’t know why this is, and I don’t understand it.  I’m put in mind of something Faulkner wrote, to the effect that, if there were two horses in a county, one could be assured that there would be a race.  Maybe that’s part of it.  Certainly a lot of the marketing of the cycling industry centers around competitive sport.

However, we should all remember one thing.  Cycling is a pastime.  It should be fun.  Wasn’t it the element of Joy that brought us into this?  I would guess that most would answer yes to that question.

And therein is the problem.  You see, we got into it for joy.  And at some point most of us start to be competitive.  Whether that competitive urge is expressed formally, or not, it tends to get expressed.  Then comes the part that can be corrosive.

I see this scenario play out far too often.  An individual in early to middle adulthood returns to cycling.  Usually there is the excuse of needing to recover fitness.  But the bike is chosen as a means to this end, because it is fun!

Then, after the suffering of returning to fitness, the individual drifts toward the contest.  There are some mixed early results.  Then comes some form of success. Next thing, the now not so new rider is “training,” and doing a lot of racing.  Racing becomes an obsession.  “Fun rides,” vanish.  It’s “march or die!”

This individual doesn’t know it, but their days as a cyclist are numbered.  Racing rules!  But racing is an extremely harsh mistress.  And one day the results begin to diminish.  So, urged on by various bicycle-specific “beauty magazines,” the obsessed competitor begins to ride harder, train more, and have less fun doing it.

The day will come when this person will “hit the wall.”  It might be an injury that does it.  It could be a crash.  It could be just one lousy race too many.  But the adult-child who returned to this delightful pastime, grows weary of it, and walks away.

What’s the cure?  The only thing I can figure is, don’t take yourself, your bike, or your racing too seriously.  And when it starts to get intense, leave all the training tools at home, and go for a long, slow ride to the grocery store.  Look at the world!  Maybe invite some folks who are really slow along for a ride, and make sure you are at the back the whole way.

It’s a thought.

My Sore Hurts and My Tired is Hangin’ Out

Yup.  To use the Texas vernacular,  “A’hm tarred!”

Lots of stuff happening, and lately a good bit of it meant losing sleep.  It’s been good, but how much of a good thing can one person take?

We often advise simplifying life, keeping things in perspective.  Focus on the fundamentals.  So?  We do try to practice what we preach.  But sometimes Life just happens.

Monday night was a great and wonderful ride.  Good companions, great terrain, fabulous riding conditons.  But it mean staying out late.  And this morning, due to an unavoidable obligation, it was an early early wake up.  That meant, dashing about, performing duties, and not getting any riding in today.

I mention all this simply to point out that everyone has those moments.  I’m counting on the habits of cycling to re-right the old war canoe.  Tomorrow is a good day to ride!

No I haven’t looked at the weather forecast.  I’ll do that in the morning.  I really don’t care what the weather holds.  I’ll dress for it, and ride anyway.

May you all do the same.

See you on the road!

Ride Report (And a hint about the next one):

Last night was the Fall Equinox Celebration Ride.  And a most excellent ride it was!

To begin with, the weather was wonderfully cooperative.  It was a mild evening, and it cooled quickly and delightfully as the sun left the sky.  Sunset occurred as we left town, and we were pretty much in full darkness shortly after 8:00 P.M.  It never got cold, but it was pleasantly cool throughout the evening.

The moon was nearly full, and had ascended into the sky before we departed.  It lit the night wonderfully, often hanging right over the roads we traveled.

Traffic was light, especially was we moved farther away from town, and it pretty much stayed that way.  Sure we had a bit of traffic as we returned, most notably as we rode northward on GA-74, but even that was quite light.

The Route:  We left “The Fred” on time, and rode south out of town.  We started the ride by following the Novice Loop, backwards, but that changed fairly quickly.  After about five miles we turned off and rode toward (and through) Woolsey.  From there on, it was mostly Terra Incognita.

Initially, we traveled more east than south.  We rode past Woolsey, and out between Hampton, and Griffin.  By the time the route turned we were actually on the outskirts of Griffin.  We skirted Birdie (which is more a state of mind than a place) and slipped back to GA-92.  After a brief stretch of 92, we again found our way onto more rural road, and slipped through Vaughn, before turing toward Brooks.  A quick trip through Brooks (all trips through Brooks are quick), set us well on our way home.  Finally, we came up GA-74, and then turned onto Redwine, and finished with a trip up the Peachtree Parkway, from the south.

This blog is beginning to attract wider attention.  For that reason, we are no longer posting names of event attendees.  That said, we had XX happy and cheerful riders along.  A good group, and a lot of fun.

Stats:  By the GPS, we covered 42.9 miles, in 3:02:00.  This is pretty respectable for night riding.  The pace was brisk, but the crew seemed to be enjoying it.

The quote of the night:  "This night stuff is cool!  You can't see the hills, so you don't feel them as much."

We can hardly wait for the Mid-Fall Celebration Night Ride, next month!

The Big Hint:  The Mid-Fall Celebration Night Ride will have a different start/finish location.  We’re going to do a remote start, a bit to the south.  Details will be forthcoming soon, but for now, know that you will have to drive about 30 minutes from Peachtree City to get to the start point.  As for the rest of the big hint, there will be bridges involved.

It’s Getting Dark… Let’s Ride!

Tonight is the night!  We’ll be going out to do the Fall Equinox Celebration Ride.  If you are new, this is an intentional nighttime ride.  Lights and reflective equipment are required.  (That means a good strong headlight, a strong flashing taillight, a reflective sash or vest, and reflective ankle bands.  More on that in a bit.)  Of course we’re requiring helmets too.

We’ll rally at the Fredrick Brown Amphitheater, in Peachtree City.  Ride time is 7:30 PM (sharp).

Sunset will be at 7:38 P.M., and Civil Twilight will end at 8:03 P.M.  After that it will be dark.

Our ride will cover somewhere between 40 and 45 miles, which means we are going to be doing most of it in the dark.  Pace will be a comfortable touring speed.  We plan to keep the group together, but we’d like to be done by 10:30 to 11:00.

The Route:  As usual, I’m keeping my cards close to my vest, but I’ll divulge this much.  There will be hills, but no monsters.  (Churchill has expressed a concern.  Churchill, you may tell your servant that we will not be traveling on Rockaway Road.)  The terrain is generally fairly gentle.  I think I can predict, with a high degree of confidence, that we will put most of you on roads you haven’t seen before.

Now, here’s a suggestion:  The requirements for these rides represent our considered opinion and experience concerning the minimum equipment for safe night riding.  Is there a maximum?  That’s a question that could be debated endlessly.  Obviously, at some point, the sheer mass of additional equipment would be so great as to prevent the cyclist from moving.  But that said, there is room for consideration.

What is essential, and what can fail?  Good reflective gear is essential.  Bouncing a car’s lights back at the driver is a great way to be seen.  Hence we require vests and ankle bands.  At first blush, it would seem that these reflective pieces are not prone to failure.  They require no batteries.  There are no moving parts.  But…

On closer examination, there are two types of reflective clothing.  One uses a process that makes cloth extremely reflective.  Scotch, has a trademark on this process, and there are others who market similar types of reflective gear.  The other common reflective part uses a multi-layer vinyl material.  And the two do not work in quite the same fashion.

The reflectivized cloth material actually is much more visible, but…  It loses most of its reflectivity when it gets wet.  On the other hand, the layered vinyl material is a bit less reflective, but it retains almost all of its reflectivity when wet.  I guess you put your money on a number there.

As for lights...  Here’s a handy concept.  Lights have been known to fail.  The bulbs burn out.  Batteries have a lifetime, and are notorious for not giving a lot of warning before failure.  It’s really not a bad idea to have a backup light.  We’re not talking about a light that comes on when you go into reverse here.  Instead, the concept is the same as skydivers having a “reserve chute.”  It’s a pretty good idea to have some kind of emergency second light.  After all, finding oneself in the dark, a long way from home, is a truly uncomfortable situation.  With today’s ultra-bright compact LED type lights, a second one is pretty easy to carry.

Tomorrow:  A brief report on tonight’s ride, and a few tantalizing details about next month’s Mid-Fall Celebration Night Ride.

Friday Follies ~~ A Cyclist will always have ten more miles…

When I was a young cyclist, just then beginning to investigate the idea of touring, I was privileged to be present at a particular “bench racing session.”  (“Bench Racing” is what performance oriented cyclists call it when they get together to exchange advice and to lie to each other.)  The topic turned to a recent incident, in which a relatively local individual was discussed.  This man had been out on a long ride.  He had gotten into trouble, and stopped going.  The conditions were bad, and the man had suffered severely from exposure, requiring hospitalization.  He’d stayed out, without rescue, for a long time.  Our local paper (a small town bi-weekly) had carried the story in some detail.

The paper described the things that the unfortunate cyclist had done after stopping.  He had attempted to construct some kind of shelter, and had been unsuccessful in starting a fire.

One of the people present at the discussion was an older and very experienced cyclist, from Europe, with a lot of touring behind him.  (Let’s call him Hans.)

Hans expressed an opinion.  “That man should have kept going.  He should have continued to ride.”

Several others argued with Hans’s viewpoint.  “He was already exhausted, and lost, and in a remote area,”  one man said.  “That’s why he stopped.”

“Besides,”  another man added,  “When you’re lost the best thing to do is stay in one place, so you can be found more easily.”

“This is not so,”  Hans said.  “Yes, the man was exhausted, but not so much.  He did a lot of things after he stopped.  So?  He could have still been riding.  Really exhausted means that riding is no longer possible.  And as for the advice to stop moving?  This applies to when one is lost in the wilds.  Not so much on roads.  He should have kept moving.  It would have kept him warmer, and the chance of finding help is much improved.”

Someone protested that the unfortunate couldn’t ride any more.  To which Hans replied,  “Bah!  Any cyclist always can go ten more miles.  If you can mount the bike, you can ride for ten more miles.”  I’ve remembered that advice, put it to good use, and given it a lot of times since then.

To brand new riders, ten miles equates to a really long way.  But anyone with a bit of experience realizes that ten miles is a relatively easy accomplishment.  I’ve found the “ten miles more” statement to be generally true, and I have put it to extreme tests.

There is an interesting corollary.  It comes under the heading of,  “The fact that one can do a thing does not mean one should do it.”  And here is where a little bit of judgment comes into play.  There have been times when I have been in remote areas, alone, tired, sick, cold, and on the bike.  The best way out of the situation was to keep going.

Now take this past weekend.  I was riding the “100 Mile Loop” of the Cox Atlanta Bike MS event.  That loop is actually 105 miles long, and it is hilly.  The day was hot.  I was having fun.  I managed to get behind the fuel and hydration curves.  By the time I hit the lunch stop (at 80 miles), I was in a bit of distress.  I felt lousy.

Lunch stop cooling, sitting, food, and drink helped me a lot.  I got back on the bike and continued.  By the time I arrived at the stop at 93 miles (one I would usually skip), I was again really feeling it.  I elected to withdraw and get a ride in.

The question remains, could I have completed this ride?  I think the answer is yes.  But I would have paid a penalty for it, and risked injury.  The ride was supposed to be for fun.  It wasn’t “for record.”  There was help readily available.  I used my judgment and took a lift.  As a result, I had a good ride on Sunday, and a great one on Monday.

That statement, “Any cyclist always has another ten miles in them,” can go a long way.  But it’s wise to know when to apply it.

A NOTE OF PRAISE AND THANKS:  The SAG drivers at the Bike MS event are true heroes.  They were fantastic!  I was far from the only rider who had trouble dealing with the heat.  Those selfless volunteers did outstanding work making pickup on literally hundreds of heat stressed riders.  They did it with style, care, compassion, efficiency, and a lot of hard work.  More, they maintained good cheer throughout a long and difficult day.  I can’t say enough good things about them.  I can only say,  “THANK YOU!!!”

Thursday Thoughts ~~ The Everyday Anytime Bike

Remember what it was like as a kid?  You could just go get your bike out of the shed and ride it.  Maybe, you had to pump the tires up.  No other special preparations were required.

I spend a fair amount of time thinking about that.  What kind of bike is ready all the time, at any time?  What stops us from getting on the bike and going for a quick ride?  Why not just jump on the bike to go to the store for that small item?  Why not grab the bike to run over to Billy Bob’s or Linda Sue’s to watch the chop suey western?  What stops us from this?

Sometimes capitol C Cyclists seem to get so caught up in the gear.  We know that clipless pedals are a terrific boost to efficiency.  We know that the correct shorts improve comfort.  But are we so fashion conscious that we are afraid to simply get on a bike without a lot of folderol?

Is it, maybe the bike?  What does an “everyday anytime bike” look like?  Is it a cruiser?  Maybe an older and somewhat battered hybrid?  Suddenly the bike manufacturers are bringing out a bunch of new, entry level type bikes.  They seem to have the thought that “less is more.”  These things have fewer bells and whistles, less suspension, less complexity.  They look like they would be more serviceable, more capable of being instantly ride-ready.

I wonder if we don’t let ourselves get caught up in all the “stuff,” and miss the ride.  As I write this, I am thinking about putting together such a ride ready bike.  Of course I am.  And that’s the problem.  I have a stable of bikes.  Surely at least one of them is ready to go at a moment’s notice, and with no real preparation?

Can it be that the act of cycling is interfering with riding?  This will take more thought.

Coming UP!

It’s time to charge up the lights and go do it again!!  Yes, this coming Monday night, we’ll go out and celebrate the change of the Seasons once more.  This is starting to become a tradition.  So…  This time, on 20 September, the night before the Autumnal Equinox, we’ll go out and do yet another 40 to 45 miler.

Venue:  Once more, we’ll meet at the Fredrick Brown Amphitheater, in Peachtree City, Georgia, USA, Earth, Milky Way, Local Group, Universe.

Time:  We’ll depart a little earlier this time, as it will be getting dark sooner.  So we’ll be leaving at 7:30 PM (sharp)

Distance:  Somewhere around 40 to 45 miles.

Pace:  A comfortable night group touring pace.  We’ll keep together, but expect to be able to finish the ride in around three to three and a half hours.

Route:  As usual, I’m going to keep routing details to myself.  I’ll promise two things.  One, it will be different.  Two, we will not go up Rockaway Road.  Aside from that, you can expect hills, flats, headwinds, tailwinds, paved roads, and mostly rural riding.

Be prepared:  It is getting cooler.  We are now into a typical weather pattern for this time of year.  Temps will likely be in the mid 80s at ride time, but they will be falling, and could drop as much as 10 degrees while we are out.  Remember too, darker feels colder.  I’d recommend bringing a pair of arm warmers and possibly a wind-shell or wind-vest along.  Just in case.

Requirements:  As usual, helmets.  In addition, you will need good headlights, a good flashing tail light, a reflective vest or sash, and reflective ankle bands.

Big Weekend Ride Report

A word about the reason for this past weekend’s events.  Multiple Sclerosis is a wicked and evil disease.  It slowly cripples its victims.  The National Multiple Sclerosis Society uses these Bike MS weekends as a major fundraiser.  Funds from the events go to research for treatments, and a cure.  I sincerely hope that each and every one of you will join me in supporting this effort.  For more information, please go to the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation Georgia Chapter.

Now on to the fun and game!

On Friday, Chris, Curly, Candy and I rode down to Pine Mountain.  Chris and I chose to haul all of our worldly goods and possesions (not really but it sure felt that way!) behind our bikes.   The plan was to drop the trailers once we got to our destination in Pine Mountain.

The Trip Down:  It was a nice ride.  We’re happy to report that it was largely an uneventful trip.  The four of us got under way at about 9:00 A.M. on Friday.  We took our time on the way down.  This was partly because Chris and I were pulling trailers.  (I admit it, I was a bit overloaded.)

The route we chose was about 50 miles from Peachtree City to our lodgings in Pine Mountain.  We arrived in town a bit too early to check in, so we went in search of food, and had a great lunch.

Check in had a minor glitch, but the nice folks at the Pine Mountain Chalets  straightened that out with a minimum of confusion.

After check in, it was time to head back into town and pick up our rider packets.  Then to the street party, and dinner!

(Does it sound like food is a big part of our day?  You betcha!  The calorie requirement for a touring cyclist is absolutely incredible.)

Saturday 105 Miles:  We chose to ride the long route on Saturday.  It is a tough ride under any conditions.  This past Saturday was especially challenging.  The heat came on early and kept on coming on.  I got behind the hydration curve.  I’d been having a pretty good ride through the morning, but by early afternoon, I was pretty well toasted.  I withdrew in good order at the mile 93 break point.  Sometimes it’s best to chose to “live to fight again another day.”

Sunday “60” miles:  What a difference a day makes!  Sunday dawned a bit cooler, and with a lovely cloud cover.  It stayed a lot cooler on the course.  I chose to ride at a bit less strenuous pace, and enjoyed a really nice morning on the bike.  Lot’s of smiling faces all around.

This ended the Cox Atlanta Bike MS event.  We finished up the ride to the cheers of the wonderful volunteers, and packed up the weekend.

Of course the four of us who were doing the weekend tour style had a slightly different experience.  We saw the rest of the crowds leave.  We saw our friends and cabin mates climb into their cars and drive away.  Then we settled down and relaxed for the rest of the day.  We had a pleasant dinner, and retired for the night.

Monday, The trip back home:

It was ind of strange to be down there, at the Pine Mountain Chalets, and see no other riders.  We had the place pretty much to ourselves as we prepared to ride into town for breakfast, and then ride back to Peachtree City.

The weather favored us wonderfully.  It was blessedly cool!  We actually started out in arm warmers and vests.  More, the cool didn’t go away quickly.  The morning stayed cool, and a delightful wind came up to keep us cooled off as we rode.  In fact this was the best riding day of the four.

We chose to take the route over Pine Mountain, and turn north via Warm Springs.  We made a slight detour on top of Pine Mountain, and rode out to Dowdles Knob, to enjoy the view and the park.

Generally, all four of us agreed, we were pleased to find that we weren’t overly tired.  We all felt the effects of being on the bike for four days, but no one was suffering.  Call it a great weekend of super high quality cycling.

Friday Follies ~~ In the Meantime…

Two quick notes:

First:  As you read this (Assuming always that you are reading this sometime during the day on Friday 10 September) I am somewhere south of Peachtree City, on the road, pulling a trailer with way too much stuff, on the way to Pine Mountain.  In other words, I’m having fun!

Second:  On Monday, I’ll be doing the inverse of the above.  I’ll be hauling that trailer back home.  So…  I will be taking a brief hiatus from posting on Monday.  Regular posts will continue on Tuesday 14 September.  (Maybe, I’ll even talk a bit about the weekend.)

 How I got ready for this weekend’s Tour, and Rides.

I don’t remember exactly how the idea germinated and took hold.  If you’ve been reading this blog, you might actually have a better grasp of that than I.  The concept was simple.  “Let’s ride to the Bike MS weekend, do the rides that weekend, and ride back.”  Like I said, the concept was simple.  The execution turns out to be a bit more complex.

The Practical Considerations:  Of course the idea of riding to and from Pine Mountain, in order to get to and from Bike MS seemed simple enough.  I’ve done the trip numerous times in the past.  But the thing is, I plan to stay down there in between.  That means spending nights in some kind of lodging.  It also means I need to have stuff  with me.  What stuff?  You know.  Clothing.  Toiletries.  Bike maintenance supplies.  Stuff.  And so there had to be a way to get the stuff down to the event and back.  Just sort of naturally, I had the thought,  “I can do that with the bike!”

So naturally, I announced that as a goal.  Of course I hadn’t thought it through completely.

But it’s not quite that simple:  I could use my touring bike to haul stuff.  It’s good at that.  But, I want to have a nice, light weight, reasonably fast, fun bike to use for the weekend.  I hit on a solution.  My utility trailer will hook up to almost any bike.  I could pack the trailer with the necessary clothing and gear, and haul it behind the preferred event bike.  This is analogous to hitching an Airstream behind a Ferrari .  Turns out that it seems a bit ridiculous, but it’s doable.  Sort of…

Implications:  You see, on a self-supported tour, I’d be carrying a fair amount of stuff, but for this four day adventure, I’m actually carrying more.  The thing is, I plan to stay in a decent accommodation.  I want to have fresh riding clothing for each of the three days (not counting the trip down).  I want to be able to put on “civvies” for those times I’m not on the bike, but am being sociable.  I want to be able to use the bike as transport while I’m down there.  Every one of those statements implies  something.

Take for instance, the “use the bike for transport” idea.  That one implies that I’ll be riding around Pine Mountain in the dark.  That means adding lights, batteries, and reflective gear to the load.  That’s just an example.

The approach:  I’ve done this the way I usually recommend it be done.  I made a big list.  I included everything that I thought I might want.  I pulled all that together and weighed it.  Then I started subtracting the things I thought I could really do without.  It’s still a beast of a load.  It looks kinda like this…

S'welp me, this is gonna be fun to pull over Pine Mountain!

But once uncoupled, I’ll have the magic bike available.  I’ve done some practice riding with this load.  It’s a tough pull, but doable.  Should be interesting to see what it’s like to drag this down there, a trip of about 60 miles.  Then do a century on Saturday, a metric (approx 65 miles) on Sunday, and drag the trailer back (over the mountain, no less!) on Monday.

See you on Tuesday.

Thursday Thoughts ~~ What Johann Thinks

This is Johann.  I am writing for today, the blog post.  This is because Road Dragon is being very busy making prepared for big weekend tour.

Road Dragon tells me to make a post about some kind of thinking. I am writing to say you should be thinking about this one thing.  This thing is simple.  Do it right!

I am seeing many things, when I am looking at so many of you.  You are riding the bicycle.  That is good.  But so many dirty bikes!  Has there been a rain storm today?  No?  So why is the bike dirty?  Old bike is okay.  Old and dirty is not so good. 

What about the tape on the handle bars?  Why is that so bad looking?  Some wear is okay.  This shows that you are riding the bike.  Big gaps, and raggedy tape is not good.  Did you just crash?  No?  Then why is the bar so messy?

You have bag for under saddle?  Good for you!  Good to have necessary things in right place.  But I see so many bags all wrong.  Bag is all faded from sun.  Very good.  This means the bike is riding.  Bag is wearing out.  Why?  Bag is loose.  Why?  Make it to be fixed up.  Where is self respect?  Loose and wear out bag makes noises.  It rubs shorts and wears them out.  Maybe one day it falls into wheel and makes the crash.  Make it to be fixed up nice.  If not fixed, get new one.  Okay?

I am not understanding this.  I see nice gloves, but not so nice helmet.  This is a very silly thing.  Blisters can be healed.  Busted heads not so much.

Another thing is the clothes.  So some peoples wear just what they wear.  This is okay.  It is good that they get on the bike to go someplace.  They do not have to wear the uniform.  Other peoples are wearing the bicycle uniform all wrong.  Let me tell you some things.  The jersey is never tucked into the shorts.  Do not do this.  Nobody is wanting to see the shorts waistline.  The jersey does the work better when not inside the shorts it is.  Also, it is important, do not wear the onderpants with the shorts.  The shorts have the pad.  Onderpants just make the awful feel and saddle sores.  Wear the shorts with out the onderpants.  This is the right way for wearing the uniform.

Some peoples ask me about the arm warmers.  They say,  “Johann, is the arm warmers under the sleeves or over the sleeves?”  I say, it does not matter for the arm warmers.  Just keep pulling them up.  Only when it is too hot, you push the arm warmers down.  This is not a problem we have much in my country.  Only two days, do we wear the arm warmers.  The other times it is too warm, or it is too cold for the arm warmers.  You peoples in Georgia have good fortune.  You can wear the arm warmers many days.

One thing more, and Johann goes away.

I see many of you when you ride.  How is this that I do not see you make hand signals?  You think car drivers read your minds?  Please.  Use the hand signs.

It is very simple.  Just do it right.

This is Johann.  Thank you.

Touring: What have I got myself into?

The PLAN is to ride to Pine Mountain this weekend for the Cox Atlanta Bike MS event.  I’ll describe elsewhere, how I intend to do this.  But suffice it to say, I am now wondering if I can pull this off.  That’s not unusual.  Every tour event I’ve ever done has had this feeling about it.  It comes on just before the event.  Doubts.  Can I do this?  What have I forgotten?  Did I train enough?  Is the rig too heavy?  Should I leave more out?  Should I carry more spares?  Will my legs handle the loads?

I see this in lots of other folks too.  I think it’s sort of natural.  We look forward to an event.  We plan for it.  We work to make it happen.  And then, close to start time, we begin to have doubts and worries.

Some of this is performance anxiety.  The “Am I going to screw up and let myself and everybody else down?” kind of worries.  Some of it is the “Night before Christmas” kind of anxiety.  Some of it is, for athletes, a product of the necessary shape of training.

Wise athletes, and all coaches know that training must end.  It must end a good bit before the event.  If not, the athlete will not be well rested.  But that leaves the athlete with a problem.  He or she has been dedicated to following a rigorous training schedule.  Athletes are accustomed to having little time, and working under demanding loads.  Suddenly, training tapers off, and time, free time, is available.

Two temptations occur.  The first is to go out and do something!  The second is to worry.  Both are unhelpful.

In my case now, as in the case of a lot of adult amateurs, there is really little to worry about.  This is a fun event.  There is absolutely no pressure to perform.  It’s just that I’m in the habit of preparing for demanding events, with set goals.  Worse, now that training is over, and resting is the rule, I have time to worry.

And that, in a nutshell, is what stops a lot of us from truly enjoying the recreations we pursue.  We’re in the habit of setting and meeting goals and expectations.

The cure?  Simple.  Sit back.  Take a deep breath.  Let the worry go.  And now go out and have a grand old time with it.  In the long run, it doesn’t matter whether it’s glory or goof, and both make good stories for Winter “bench racing.”

I'll let you know how it goes.

Autumn is Coming

Thanks to a lot of media induced misinformation, many folks miss the point of this time of year.  It is not Autumn yet.  Autumn begins on 21 September.  We have now moved into late Summer.  That said, it is most certainly possible to feel the advance of the seasons.  I have actually done several early morning rides in arm warmers.  We had us one blister-hot mid-Summer.  It’s noticeably cooler now.  The days are noticeably shorter too.  It is time to prepare for Autumn and for the Winter that is surely coming.  With that, I should like to announce the kickoff of the Maintenance and Project Season.

Late Summer and early Autumn is a good time to catch up.  The Summer vacation insanity is mostly over.  The Back to School Hubub has settled down.  The Holidays are still off beyond the horizon, not yet looming large.  This is a time of year to do a lot of things so that Winter will not catch us off guard and unprepared.  It’s a good time for fairly serious maintenance of bikes and equipment.  It’s an auspicious interval for seasonal projects.  And if done right, one will line up some serious indoor work to be done later, in January and February, when it is very dark and cold out.  Here are a few suggestions from my own list.

Projects:

• Give the home shop a good cleaning and organizing.
• Find the trainer and all related indoor spinning gear ~ clean, lube, prep
• Inventory Fall and Winter Gear, inspect for wear, begin to replace what is worn or non-functional.
• Evaluate maintenance needs for all bikes and schedule work
• Build up the “Winter Bike.”

Maintenance (Each bike gets the following, as needed):

• Tune up, including adjusting brakes, shifting, truing wheels, adjusting bearings, clean, lube chain, proper inflation and inspection of tires.
• Test all lighting systems.  Schedule battery replacement where necessary.
• Schedule heavier maintenance on bikes that need it.

Longer Term:

• Schedule that big “Winter Bike Building Project”
• Start getting the Winter clothing out and ready.
• Plan shop upgrades and equipment maintenance.

Holiday Stuff

So it’s Labor Day.  No, I’m not about to go into a long rant either Pro or Anti the subject of Labor Day.  Others have beat that one to death.  Frankly, I don’t much care why we take this as a holiday.  I’m simply glad that it is, and that I work for nice folks who observe it.  It’s a day off, with a good chance of good weather.

When I was a kid, Labor Day had a different meaning.  It meant that it was time to go back to school.  That didn’t make it my favorite holiday.  Now, at this point in time, kids return to the classroom in early August.  So for them, Labor Day is a welcome break.  It certainly is for me.

I’ll be doing what I like.  That means, I go out and ride my bike.  Likely, I will do so without a definite plan in mind.  Seems to me that this holiday is a good one to dedicate to just rambling, aimlessly, and seeing what there is to be seen.

There is one particular form of observance that Labor Day marks for me, and I suggest it to any cyclist.  This is the beginning of the Maintenance and Project Season.  I’ll take some time tomorrow to explain that.  Why wait until tomorrow?  Because I am going to go celebrate Labor Day now.  Mostly by not working.

Friday Follies ~~ Born to Climb?

I’ve always had a fascination with high places.  As a child I climbed absolutely everything that could be climbed, and many things that shouldn’t have been.  I can’t explain this, but I was (and am) fascinated by heights, and by the process of attaining them.

I’ve spoken of my “first real bike.”  It was a glorious Schwinn cruiser.  When I received this thing, my family was living in a series of relatively flat places.  Sometimes I would encounter a hill.  Occasionally, I would have to get off the bike and push it up one of these.  They weren’t particularly large, but the coasting down was fun.

When I was just 15, we moved back to the homeplace, in the mountains of Virginia.  The town of Staunton, to be exact.  (If you are curious, use Google Maps.  Find Staunton.  It’s almost due west of Charlottesville, in the Shenandoah Valley.  Now use the terrain feature.  You get the idea.)   Flat, Stuanton is, emphatically, not.

This presented a problem to me as a bike rider.  These were honest to goodness hills.  I could simply not get up most of them.  Even if I stripped all of the excess stuff off of the bike, I could not ride up most of those hills.  This was when I entered the “running phase” of my life.  I could run up, or down almost anything.  I also did a lot of climbing in the mountains.  I climbed everything from small rocks to major ones.

Then I discovered bikes with gears.  I don’t mean the old two speed “kick-back,” or the three speed Sturmey-Archer, but rather bikes with derailleurs and ten gears.

The first one of these new fangled things that I had was pretty crappy.  But it could climb stuff.  Not well, but possible.  (I would later learn that lower gear ratios actually were possible.)

Eventually, the idea occurred to me.  I could ride up some of the mountains!

Now I had already been taking my old Schwinn into the mountains to coast down fire roads, and bash around on trails.  But this was a new idea.  I think it was spawned by finding out about European road racing, through finding an old copy of a cycle sport magazine.  Anyway, it opened an new realm of possibilities.

Just a bit east of Staunton, is the town of Waynesboro.  Just to the east of Waynesboro is Afton Mountain.  The pass at the top of Afton, was then, an intersection betweent he northern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Skyline Drive, and US-250.  In those days, the Interstate Highway System was under construction.  The interstate over Afton Mountain, would not be started for several years.

I loaded my bike on a car, drove to Waynesboro, unloaded, and started my ride.  My intention was to go up US-250, then a three lane road, to the Blue Ridge Parkway, then ride the Parkway a bit, and return.

The climb was awful.  It was long.  I was overgeared.  It was hard, hot, slow, sweaty, and I had to stop fairly frequently.  But I made it to the top.  I cruised the wonderful road, south along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I stopped at one of my favorite overlooks and ate the small snack I’d brought.  Then I turned around to head back.

Remember, this is taking place in the late 60s.  And I did say the bike was pretty crappy.  It was, even by the standards of the time.  And trust me on this one, the best that was available then wasn’t all that great.  We just didn’t know it.

Okay, the shifting was problematical.  The gearing didn’t have nearly enough range.  It wasn’t high enough or low enough.  Brakes were awful.  And speed wobble was common.

As I turned onto US-250, and began my descent, I didn’t know how much I didn’t know.  Books have been written about performance cornering and braking.  I hadn’t read them.  I had no idea what was about to happen.

I do not know how fast I was going.  Reliable, solid state cyclecomputers were still science fiction.  It’s safe to say I’d never been that fast on a bike before.  At first it was wonderful.  Then it started to shake, shimmy, and rattle.  There was a turn coming up.  I felt like I was going too fast.

After three good strong applications, my brakes faded to almost nothing.  The pads had gotten hot enough to start melting.

Obviously, I made it down off the mountain.  It wasn’t pretty.  It was terrifying.  But I survived it.

Gradually, I learned.  Slowly, I got better equipment.  For a long time, I hated climbing on the bike.  It was too much work.  Later, when I was racing, I had new reasons to hate it.  There were other riders who were so much better at it.

It took a long time for me to come to a couple of realizations.  I had to learn how to climb.  I also had to learn that, while I would never be as fast as the light climbing specialists, I actually enjoyed the process.  With those lessons, climbing became a joy, and the mountains a wonder.

Oh yes, I’ve since learned how to descend too, and that is a real blast!