Choosing a Helmet

A new helmet is on my upgrade wish list for the new year. My current mid-range Bell helmet is merely adequate—it's a bit heavy and on hot days it's quite stifling. I've been browsing roadbikereview.com and other review sites to get a sense of my choices, and it's pretty tough going. On RBR, there are a few helmets that get a large volume of reviews (Giro Pneumo and Atmos and Bell Sweep and Eclipse), and then the number of reviews drop off substantially. I like what I read about how like and cool the Atmos is, but the price is pretty steep. What is the cooling effect worth? That's the big question that I need to figure out. Atmos is all about having as many vents as possible, while helmets like Lazer have a different approach, with few vents that are much larger, and a seemingly innovative Rollsys system with a rolling wheel on the top of the helmet to secure it too your head. The Lazer Genesis is around $150, the Atmos is around $135, and the Bell Sweep is $120. I can't imagine spending over $150 on a helmet...seems so much to spend, but I'm open-minded.


If you have any suggestions, I'd love your input.

EA Active vs. Wii Fit Plus

EA Active for Wii has introduced yet another workout alternative to cycling, and judging by how sore I am after three days, I'm loving the alternative. When will I have time to get back on the bike, considering my very real time limitations for working out?

After working out on Wii Fit and then Wii Fit Plus for almost every day starting in February when I dislocated my shoulder in a skiing accident, I'm absolutely convinced of the value of Wii as part of a personal fitness regimen. EA Active takes daily Wii to a new level. In Wii Fit Plus, even the most intensive combination of workouts get me burning just over 100 calories in 30 minutes, whereas EA Active allows me to burn over 200 calories in 30 minutes. It's not just the calories, however; EA Active has a much greater variety and range of exercises because of the use of the resistance band and nunchuck, and I'm convinced that I'm getting a much better all-around workout. Then there's the 30 day challenge, in which new exercises are introduced at a reasonable pace, and different muscle groups are targeted on different days, allowing those other sore muscles some down time for a day or so. Lots of jumping, running, leaping, bicep curls, kicks, cardio boxing, dancing, and my personal favorite, tennis. I love tennis so much that I created my own high-intensity tennis workout that lasts around 10 minutes and burns about 100 calories. I've done that tennis workout four times in two days! Who cares about the calories—this is the most fun I've ever had with Wii. Tennis in EA Active is surprisingly realistic and challenging, particularly the overhead smash.

The only frustration so far is when Wii doesn't seem to understand what my movements. Both Gail and I have experienced this problem. The other annoying thing is trying to simultaneously hold the resistance band handles and the Wiimote and nunchuck. Oh, and then there's learning the exercises properly and having the patience to sit through the introductory videos. Finally, there's the lame motivational component. "You OWN this exercise!" "You are poetry in motion!" The male workout companion sounds like a Canadian surfer dude transplant to SoCal. Just shut up already, dude. This isn't inspiration, it's intrusive and annoying. One more thing: the music sucks.

These small complaints aside, EA Active makes Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus seem like child's play. Don't get me wrong, I'll always love Wii Fit, but I don't anticipate using it for much more than the bicycling and a few other fun activities like downhill skiing and skateboarding, after the results derived from Wii Fit.

Drivetrain Upgrades

As anyone who has ever shopped for cycle components can attest, there are so many choices to make that you can easily get psyched out, especially if you have as tight a budget as I do. Tonight, after several years of contemplation, I finally made the choice to upgrade shoes and pedals. What a relief to finally arrive at a decision and feel good about it.

For those of you living in or near Central NY, Glenn Swan has a fantastic shop on Mt. Pleasant Rd., just outside of Ithaca. It's certainly off the beaten path, but well worth the trip. You'll come back again and again, and just marvel at how much great gear he keeps in his modest shop. Great prices, but more importantly, incredibly knowledgeable and no-nonsense advise.

I've been riding clipless pedals since around '84, around the time when Shimano's SPD pedal system came on the market. What a difference it makes to be one with your pedal, but as with all technology, improvements keep on coming. I never kept up, and have continued to ride with the original SPD system, even after the introduction of SPD-SL, the Look Keo, Speedplay, Egg Beaters, etc. Yeah, I'll admit to some serious pedal envy, but until this year it didn't matter that much to me. Now that I have a road bike, every component choice matters more. For example, Ultegra shifters and derailleurs were an important choice, as was a carbon crank and the Selle San Marco Aspide saddle, which I love.

My new bike came with generic one-side SPD road pedals, so I couldn't justify spending even more right off the bat, and since my Shimano shoes were the old school two-bolt system and wouldn't accommodate a three bolt cleat, I was overwhelmed by the sticker shock of new shoes AND pedals. However, after a year of very intensive riding with a less than satisfactory shoe/pedal combination, I finally was able to justify the upgrade.

My pedal choice was the Shimano 105 SPD-SL pedal. In a way it was a conservative decision. I toyed with the idea of Speedplay, but something about the complexity of the cleat had me a bit worried, particularly the thought of cleat-related problem while riding far from home. Yeah, it's unlikely, but also Speedplay has so many products with such a range of options that I was overwhelmed by the decisions just within one type of pedal. Then there's the price, not only of the pedal itself, but of replacement cleats. I briefly considered Look Keo Classics, but I wasn't so sure about buying a polycarbonate pedal. It just didn't seem like it would hold up as well as the Shimanos. I feel like the steel Shimanos just seem more robust and are likely to be more reliable and last longer. You can't really argue with their track record or the extensive testing process. Also, Shimano has only three flavors of this model; the 105, the Ultegra, and the Dura-Ace. There's a $60 price differential between the 105s ($75) and the Ultegra ($135), and enough online reviewers and serious cyclists opined that the weight differential was probably not worth the big price jump. Since Dura-Ace was just out of the question for my budget, once I decided on Shimano, it wasn't hard to chose the 105s.

Shoes are a whole other torturous decision. Ratcheting clasp or straight-up velcro? Carbon fiber soles or nylon with steel reinforcement for added stiffness with a weight penalty? Buy online and return several times until I land the right fit/price combination or buy locally and be assured of a good fit? I chose to buy locally with no regrets. The Louis Garneau Ergoair 2 don't have a ratcheting clasp or a carbon sole, but they fit nicely, are plenty stiff, and cost less than $100, so I'm very pleased with that choice as well.

After testing them briefly on the trainer, I know I made a good choice. Yeah, $175 is not insignificant, but it's a huge performance and comfort upgrade for the price. (I'm not sure if comfort is the word I'm looking for...perhaps stability is a better term.) The concept of float (how the heel can have wiggle room to pivot a little bit without losing firm contact with the pedal) was only an abstraction until now. Yeah, they only allow 3 degrees of float, and Speedplay offers much more, but after so many years of having essentially no float and frequently accidentally forcing myself out of my pedals, any amount of float feels luxurious. Even more significantly, the larger platform feels so much more substantial, and the stiff soles will certainly translate to less wasted energy and more power heading directly to the drivetrain. I can't wait to test this out on the open road, but it'll be a while.

Organizing the Resistance

Thanks to my friend George, we are now the proud owners of an early '90s vintage NordicTrack Skier exercise machine. It took me a while to decide whether or not to adopt this odd looking torture equipment resistance-based exercise unit, but I'm very glad that we chose to be its new parents and add it to our growing resistance movement. After one quick and very fun workout, I'm sold. Brilliant design...very simple and very effective, just like the 1UP USA resistance bike trainer. It just works, and it does a fairly decent job of emulating the real nordic skiing experience. I just have to figure out why my heels occasionally hit the back stop thingermajigger.

While the bike trainer certainly won't be gathering dust, this seems like a very nice companion activity to cycling in place. I haven't been cross-country skiing in many years, and who knows, maybe this is the year to get back into it, especially if we can convince the boys about how fun it truly is. Maybe I need to organize a ski party in the north country. Millions of Scandinavians can't be wrong! Soon it'll be time to build a sauna, dig a pond in the backyard and ferment some vodka. Oh, and how about some raw, salted herring?

Hunkered Down

Snow is in the air! Now that I'm hunkered down and all set up for spinning in the basement with my trusty trainer, let the snow fly, I say. The big challenge now is to keep up the schedule of indoor biking workouts three times weekly through the winter. This is unchartered territory for me, as I've never maintained an indoor training schedule of any kind before. It's so much harder to get motivated to ride with a trainer than to ride on on the road. How do professional athletes do it?

One of the obvious reasons that I slowly gained weight through my 30s and 40s and had such a hard time losing weight is my strong aversion to exercise. For my whole life I've held stubbornly to my position that exercise for exercise sake is just plain boring and that I'll never do that. If it's not fun, I'm not doing it. I've been able to hold true to this mindset all through this year of substantial weight loss and improved fitness by doing a Wii Fit workout almost daily since February in addition to road biking all summer. For those of you who haven't experienced the magic of Wii Fit, you have so much fun working out that you don't resent it. I've never been into gaming, but I can do Wii Fit for an hour or more without getting bored, and the cumulative effect is incredibly beneficial. The Wii Fit experience is data driven, and I've written in prior posts about my obsession with gathering and analyzing data from my rides. Wii Fit Plus improves tremendously on an already fantastic product, with lots of new fun activities like Island Cycling, Obstacle Course, Birds-Eye Bullseye, Skateboarding, Boxing, and Snowball Fight. In addition, it tracks an estimate of calories burned, and analyzing the graph of your weight loss is very motivating.

So why am I rethinking my anti-exercise stance? Wii Fit alone will not keep me in shape over the winter months, given the limited amount of time I have set aside to work out. That leaves the bike trainer, not the most fun thing in the world, so it means...gulp...exercise for exercise sake. Yikes! Can I succeed? I'm definitely motivated, so hopefully that will make all the difference.

Ask any cyclist who has tried riding on even the best trainer—it's a pale substitute to the euphoria of road biking. It's a good workout but you have to work hard on making the environment comfortable and find distractions that work for you. I get bored quickly with my music mixes, so I have to keep on top of this issue and make a few new playlists in anticipation of my next workouts. It's all about mind games, but there's no doubt that my positive state of mind, thanks to many months of intense aerobic workouts, will contribute greatly to the success of this workout strategy.

Music To Spin To

Morning Edition no more! There is so much written about what to engage your ears and eyes while spinning on the trainer, and this no shortage of product to fill this supposed need. Spinervals gets lots of hype, and while I suppose it would be kind of cool to fantasize about competing in a race and watch the road while analyzing your PowerTap data, I disagree with the assertion that Spinerval DVDs are "a must for indoor training." All I care about is developing tasty music mixes to make the minutes fly by.

No techno for me, thank you. NPR's Morning Edition was a real drag to work out to, so this is my first attempt at a workout mix. Real standouts on this mix are Bowie, Gang of Four, Labh Janjua & Panjabi MC, and Old 97's. It's not all about tempo, but it seems to be important to alternate driving up-tempo tunes like Doreen with slower, quieter songs like Clem Snide's The Sound of German Hip-Hop. All in all, this is a pretty good workout mix, though I need to really experiment and change things up. Today was the first time that I trained for more than 35 minutes...I made it to almost 1 hour and 1,000 calories, and the music really made a difference.

I don't want to entirely abandon the notion of watching video while working out, and I even shot video of my favorite climbs, thinking that I'd make videos to watch while working out, but it seems to me that the audio element is far more important than the visual.

Suggestions for workout distractions are welcome!

Yellow Barn Burner

Another lucky day in late November. Temps in the high 40s and dry roads meant another "last ride of the year" experience, 38 miles and up Yellow Barn Rd. in Dryden. It was odd to have frozen feet and a sweaty upper torso simultaneously, but I happily coped. No sunshine today and a moderate wind from the northwest.

On Buck Rd. I was scolded by a very old and stout beagle. Felt sorry for the old chap. I slowed down so he could bark at me some more, but he just didn't know what to do with me.

Today my raspberry Clif Gel tasted particularly nasty, like factory donut goo. I guess I'm a sucker for goo (or is it gu?), and it seems to work for me. I wish I had the Clif Mocha Gel instead, but I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel in the goo/gu/gel department. Perhaps I should try a Hostess Twinkie or a Snowball next time.

In Dryden I decided to take on Yellow Barn Rd., the steepest road that I know of in Dryden. This was only my second time up Yellow Barn, and this time I had a sense of where to work and where to restrain myself.

Here's the detail view of the Yellow Barn climb. The climb starts at 1028 ft, and it crests at just under 1800 ft. (1799 to be precise) 2 miles later, which means 390 ft. of ascent per mile for two miles. That's a pretty good burn, and the old ticker hit over 170 bpm twice on the climb.

My idle thoughts today were about how much it would cost to heat a house on the top of this hill, with the winds and colder temps. It was 43 degrees on top of the hill, while it was 47 degrees in Ithaca, and I'm guessing that the differential is far greater in the dead of winter.

Here are some screen shots of a video I shot of the Yellow Barn climb. I'll try to post the video of the climb in the next few weeks.

Trip Data:
Distance: 37.35 mi.
Time: 2 hours, 7 min.
Avg. speed: 17.6 mph
Max. speed: 40.6 mph
Calories burned: 2146 cal.
Vertical ascent: 2402 ft.
Avg. heartrate: 144 bpm
Road miles this year: 2840 mi.

Big Dairies & King Ferry

As the king of hyperbole, I won't shy away from describing this ride as absolutely euphoric. It's November 15th here in Ithaca, and the high temperature on my ride was 67 degrees! Riding without a jacket in mid-November is most bizarre, but I'm most grateful to the cycling goddess for arranging such ideal conditions and facilitating the further extension of an already long season.

Today I passed the 2800 mile mark for the season—I carefully chose a route that would get me there, and since I haven't been up along the lake to the King Ferry area in a while, I chose that route. This was my first time on Ledyard Rd., and it is the perfect choice for heading east and turning back to Ithaca.

I'm so glad that I decided to bring the camera today. Usually I am reluctant to bring the camera along, since I am trying to get maximum miles in during my allotted cycling time, but today I had the luxury of some extra time.

As you can see, I saw some very noisy wild turkeys on Remington Rd., just a couple hundred feet from Boynton Middle School. The sun was only with me for the first half hour, then the skies darkened and I thought perhaps I'd encounter rain, but it just stayed overcast for the rest of the trip. With all of the trees bare, it was a great day to get shots of the lake in the distance, as well as old barns and some beautiful homes.

This route takes you through some very big dairy operations around King Ferry, Genoa, Venice and East Lansing, and I tried to imagine what the old farming days were like in this area. There are a few remnants from those days, but now, the only shiny and new-looking farms are huge, sprawling dairies. It's so sad that family farming is the exception, not the rule.

Drivers seemed to be less attentive toward cyclists now that it's mid-November, and on a couple of occasions, drivers almost turned into me while I was in an intersection. Good practice for the lungs (I don't shy away from shouting at drivers) and for the evil-eye-darting-glance, but moments like those are most unwelcome. Us cyclists aren't asking for much, just a little attention. Put those damn cell phones away, people, and watch the road!

You can also see that I was all about the data today. Regular odometer, heartrate cyclocomputer and GPS, not to mention the camera. I know that it seems like overkill, but I won't be using the heartrate unit as an odometer. I've read that it can easily get reset by accident, and I want a reliable odometer to keep track of my road miles. Furthermore, my basic meter has a thermometer, which is pretty handy. Still, I can't wait to get a new Garmin Edge with cadence, like a Garmin Edge 405 or 605. That way I can ditch the Polar unit and have my heartrate data integrated into my speed and elevation data. This will allow me to see how my heartrate changes during specific climbs. This would be very valuable information for training purposes. Too bad I'd have to shell out around $400...I'd much rather spend it on a new wheelset or something.

Speaking of heartrate information, I hit a max of 170 at the top of Ridge Rd. in Lansing. That was pretty cool. I averaged 144 BPM for 2 1/2 hours, which feels pretty damn good. I don't think that downhill skiing will come anywhere close. Sure, cross-country skiing would be similar, but I probably won't have many opportunities this winter. Who knows...snowshoeing might be a good middle ground.

My favorite part of today's ride was Gulf Rd. in Lansing. There's a short, steep climb where Gulf meets Conlon Rd., and it's a real pedal stomping heart pounding affair. That turn onto Conlon Rd. is so gratifying.

See the ride on Everytrail

Here's the data:

Distance: 46.13 miles

Elapsed time: 2 hours, 30 min.

Avg. speed: 18.5 mph

Max. speed: 46 mph (heading east on Ledyard toward 34)

Vertical ascent: 2566 ft.

Calories burned: 2431

Avg. BPM: 144

Nov. 15th, and planning a long ride

Check back later...this is truly incredible, high in the mid 60s on Nov. 15th in Ithaca. I'm going for a long ride today up to King Ferry. Should be some great views of the lake. Bringing the camera too. Never again will I write something like "last ride of the year." Or maybe I should, since it seems to guarantee that I'll be wrong. While I don't subscribe to paranoid views that this is a clear sign of global warming, this would clearly be the up-side!

Last Ride Redux (happy to be wrong)

Today, November 9th, the high temperature in Ithaca was 70 degrees! Lucky, lucky me...as the geese were flying south in impressive numbers and the squirrels were busily gathering their last nuts, I left work for another 20 mile ride up to Lansing. I can't quite fathom my luck, and I'm so happy to be wrong about the last ride of the year.

Bicycling Magazine Acknowledged Ithaca

Somehow I missed this Bicycling Magazine piece on cycling in the Finger Lakes. Not a lengthy article, but it sure is nice to have our area acknowledged as a great place to ride. Cycling nirvana, indeed!

I took this photo while on a ride near King Ferry, around 20 miles north of Ithaca on the east side of the lake. The view is looking west, and the hills in the background are on the west side of Cayuga Lake, looking at the Trumansburg area.

Last Ride 09?

Well, no complaints today. November 7 and the weather was perfect for an afternoon outing. It was a real challenge to get out the door today, but I knew that I would regret it for many months to come if I didn't force myself.

I've come to realize that just as I am addicted to the rush of completing a challenging climb, I'm also addicted to the weary post-ride feeling. I really don't know why that's the case, but I guess the whole cycle has merit, and you can't have the ups without the downs.

Once again, massive tailwinds heading up Triphammer toward Lansing, and brutal headwinds on the return trip. It was a very hard slog as I headed up the rude 4% grade by Ridge Road Imports used car dealership, a hill that looks like nothing from afar, but when the tank is low-to-empty and the headwinds are around 15 mph, it's more than a bit discouraging.

The ride on EveryTrail.com

Data:

Distance: 23.55 mi.

Time: 1 hr. 20 min.

Speed: 17.7 mph

Max speed: 32.6 mph

Vertical ascent 1218 ft.

Calories burned 1276

Anatomy of an Ithaca Ride

Now that I'm transitioning (reluctantly) to the off-season, I thought it would be fun to study the anatomy of one of my favorite rides, Ithaca - Lansing - Dryden - Yellow Barn Rd. - Ellis Hollow - Brooktondale - Ithaca.

What's not to love about this ride? There are plenty of challenges, exceptionally scenery, very light traffic on most roads, and the roads with traffic have wide and well-paved shoulders. I think that the best aspect is the climbs and where they occur along the way. I'll isolate out the biggest and most memorable individual climbs and focus on the specific challenges, as well as my state of mind as I'm climbing.

Remington is the best way to escape the flats of Ithaca. As you can see, it's the second-steepest climb of the trip, second only to Ringwood. The climb up to Sunset, then up to Cayuga Heights, is almost exactly 400 ft. in just over 1 mile. The road is nothing short of perfect, with smooth pavement, little-to-no traffic, and lots of twists and turns. It's best to stand on the pedals right away for the first 100 yards at least, until the first slight leveling off. When you're standing on the pedals, it's nice to have the entire lane to yourself, and drivers will always give you plenty of clearance. This is a popular road for cycling and walking, and pedestrians always seem to outnumber drivers. The challenge of this initial climb is counterbalanced by the fact that I typically have fresh legs at this point. I tend to stand two or three more times on the way up to Sunset, and alway on the last turn leading up to Sunset. After a very brief respite, there's another steep, short climb up to Cayuga Heights Rd. which involves standing and gets my BPM up into the 160s. Then, after crossing Rt. 13, there's a short, moderate descent before the easier Oakcrest climb up to Triphammer.

After this intense beginning, Triphammer up to Lansing is a much less intensive endeavor. The grade is in the 3-5% realm, as opposed to 8-10% for the first part. Triphammer may be a bit boring, but there are great views of Cayuga Lake as you climb. At this point, I'm starting to feel in the groove, and there are some stretches where I'm standing on and off and getting upwards of 25 mph heading toward Terpening Corners. The total ascent for this stretch is a little over 200 ft., so there are lots of sprinting opportunities here. I usually reach Terpening Corners at around the 28 minute point in my ride, and I can gauge my energy level or the effect of the wind when the numbers are different.

Triphammer flattens out for a stretch, and then as you head west toward Dryden the road gets gradually steeper, but is almost completely devoid of traffic. This is beautiful farm country, and while the roads aren't great (chip seal), it doesn't much matter. This part of the ride is quietly contemplative, and my worries and daily concerns are slowly diminishing, replaced by inane musings. I often fixate on little details, like decorations on houses, what it would cost to heat a house up on these hills, country vs. city living, etc. This is the most comforting part of the ride.

After the descent into Dryden, there's a nice plateau that takes you into Freeville, which serves as the rest before the insane ascent of the day, Yellow Barn Rd. This is a great place to fuel up with a gel or a power bar, and you really need it. With 800 ft. of climbing over less than 4 miles, this is a ridiculously tough challenge. The other alternative is to take Ringwood Rd., which is 600 ft. spread over a similar distance. This is a deceiving climb, since the road twists and turns, and you can't get a good read on how long and how steep it truly is. And it just keeps going and going until you think you can't climb anymore.

After the ascent, my legs are rubber for a while, but then there's this incredible downhill that takes you all the way through Ellis Hollow and down into Brooktondale. The ride is essentially over, save for the obligatory last push into Ithaca. At this point I'm elated, exhausted and feeling triumphant.

This loop has so much variety and character, with discrete sections, well-timed climbs, great scenery and just the right distance for this much elevation climb. I think that taking the loop counter-clockwise would be a bit easier, so that's something to explore for next season.

Praising the Cycling Goddess

Today I'm praising the cycling goddess once again. Here we are in November, and I was lucky enough to go on a 40 mile ride WITH SHORTS ON! No freezing fingers or toes, no more leaves on the trees, and gorgeous sunshine. It was a transcendent and somewhat unreal experience. A few weeks ago I thought I was done with the long road rides and for sure I wouldn't be riding on Ringwood Rd. again until the springtime.

Memorable moment in today's ride was when a tiny puppy (Jack Russell Terrier?) decided to chase me. The foot-long dog managed to chase me for only about 30 ft., and the dog's owner freaked and called out its name. For many miles afterwards I kept speculating about what the name was. I heard either Owen, Rodent, of Flovent. I wanted to head back and ask to resolve the confusion. Rodent would be an awesome name for a pet, no? And if you were an asthma sufferer, Flovent would be a constant reminder of your condition. Owen is OK, but not that interesting, so I vote for Rodent.

Data: 40 miles, 17.3 mph, approx. 2250 vertical ft. ascent, avg. 144 BPM.

Halloween Ride

Who'd have thought such opportunities would present themselves? No jacket on Halloween with dry roads and dramatic skies. Wind speeds were around 15 mph up in Lansing. Intense tailwind on the climb all the way to Searles Rd. had me sailing up Triphammer and than POW! What a brutal headwind for the return trip.

As a data-obsessed cyclist just starting my heart rate monitoring adventure, I was quite amazed at how much a headwind adds to the heartrate, even when I was struggling to go faster than 14 mph on a relatively flat road. Having this data is most helpful, and lessens the frustration of pedaling hard and not going very far. At least I have concrete proof that I'm working hard.

Data for today's ride: 19.6 miles, 147 avg. BPM, 19.2 mph. Odometer for the year: 2670 mi.

Reality is sinking in that this is probably the last week of road riding for the year, but at this point I feel very fortunate that the season has lasted so long. Some lingering questions: When will next season begin? What kind of pedals will I buy? Ultegra/105s or Look Keo? I have all winter to figure that one out.

The picture is from the Library of Congress' American Memory Project:

Bike racer, Carl Stockholm Stockholm sitting on a bicycle in front of a light-colored backdrop in a room. 1929. Photograph. Chicago History Museum, Chicago. Http://memory.loc.gov. Library of Congress. Web. 31 Oct. 2009.

Slipping Away

Sadly it's true. The outdoor road biking season is indeed slipping away. I'm starting to get skittish about riding on wet roads with slippery leaves glued to them. I'm studying the weather forecast like tea leaves, looking for that one last chance to get out there before it's too late. Very sad indeed, but now I am motivated to make riding the trainer more fun. Music or video? Morning Edition is kind of a lame-o accompaniment, especially if it's a downbeat story about the economy. Perhaps a Jacques Tati movie instead?

The Season That Never Ends

It was a bit too chilly for my before-work circuitous commute/workout, a 10-mile climb up through Cornell and Community Corners to the airport and back down again. The weather forecast was promising, however. It was 35 degrees when I headed off to school, but it was 60 degrees when I left work! Indian summer days like this are magical, and it the gloomiest of late winter days, it's really hard to imagine that days like this even exist.

I managed to get a 15 mile ride in, my favorite quick loop up to Terpening Corners via Remington, Oakcrest and Triphammer and down Rt. 34, the best descent close to downtown. What a gift! It was also my first ride with my Polar heartrate cyclocomputer. I don't know yet where I really should be, but I averaged 150 bpm for a 42 minute ride.

Forever Young

As an adult cyclist, every now and then I feel a bit self-conscious, riding with my tight-fitting fancypants gear on roads with drivers tucked in nicely in their cars. What are they thinking about these encounters? Are they mildly annoyed that they have to slow down for a little while and cautiously pass at the first opportunity, or are they simply amused at our peculiar costumes and mucus clearing methodology (don't ask)? I wonder, if they aren't adult cyclists, do these encounters stir some deep-rooted childhood memories of terrorizing the neighborhood on their chopper and performing dangerous stunts like standing on the banana seat as if it were a skateboard?

I can usually tell who's a cyclist (or cyclist sympathizer) and who isn't by how they pass me. Sympathizers usually go the extreme giving lots of room while passing, often crossing the meridian, and waiting very patiently. The alternative can be pretty damn scary. I've had too many close calls over the years with the oblivious, the angry, the distracted, and the purposefully indifferent, those who don't want to give more leeway than the law allows as a matter of principal.

As a young cyclist, I was pretty oblivious to my surroundings, but now I ride with a finely tuned sense of all potential hazards, including deer. (I've had an increasing number of encounters with deer of late, particularly on one section of Oakcrest and on Remington and Sunset.) As a child, I felt impervious to danger; as an adult, I feel on guard at all times, which is why I really like my Remington escape route [Remington must be the subject of a future entry].

Today I've been musing about why cycling is so appealing to me, and I think it's all about savoring and holding on to my childhood. So much of life gets complicated and conflicted, as we start swimming upstream, having kids, see our parents turn elderly, and started contemplating our own mortality. Maybe I'm just in denial, looking for ways to keep my young in body and in spirit, but I really don't think it's that self-conscious a decision. I just bike because it's more fun than just about anything. But maybe what makes cycling that much more joyful is the flood of positive childhood memories that it prompts. With all of the endorphins flowing, I tend to concentrate on the happier memories, and I often puzzle through what I did wrong in past encounters and life situations. I wonder if it's a coincidence that my best bicycle year in the late '80s is also the year that I've reconnected with so many childhood (and young adult) friends and acquaintances?

Great Archive of Ithaca Maps

I just discovered a treasure trove of historic maps of Ithaca and surrounds by a guy named Bill Hecht. Check it out. We're talking HUNDREDS of maps here! There's a great topo map from 1909, and here's just a portion of it. Given how tiny Tinytown was in 1909, it sure makes it easier to study the contour lines.

Also, there's a Cyclist's Road Map from 1893! I had no idea that such things even existed. Here's a detail from the Central NY map:

It must have been quite a challenge for cyclists back then to climb these hills with those heavy bikes and mostly gravel roads. I'm mystified, and will have to learn more about the early days of cycling in our area.

Bill Hecht did an incredible service with this site.

Data driven cycling with GPS and Google Earth

In the spring of '09 when I finally bought my new road bike, I also budgeted for some cool accessories. The coolest one by far was a Garmin Edge 205. This handy little unit has fundamentally changed the way I ride and where I ride. It has also become the catalyst for reflecting on my rides with friends and total strangers via online social networking tools (Facebook and Twitter) and online route sharing sites such as Everytrail.com and Mapmyride.com. I also import all of my rides into Google Earth, which lets me do a virtual flyover or tour of my ride.

The Garmin Edge 205 is the entry level bike GPS unit. While its capabilities are limited in comparison with to pricier models, it was more than sufficient for my needs. While the main function for car GPS units is to keep from getting lost and find the fastest way to a specific locale, I use my Garmin to monitor my speed, distance, average speed, calories burned, and most importantly, my altitude, percentage of grade on my climbs, and my cumulative vertical feet climbed.

My Garmin accompanied me on most of my rides this year, and really gave each ride a life of its own. Sometimes I would bring a small camera along as well. My typical post-ride routine is to download my GPS data, then use an online converter tool provided linked off of Everytrail.com to convert the file into KMZ format. Then I upload my ride to Everytrail, write up a description, add pictures if available (sometimes I add screen shots from Google Earth), then share the ride with my Facebook and Twitter friends. After that, I upload the KMZ file to Google Earth and view the flyover (tour). I have also started posting videos of my Google Earth tours with narration to YouTube.



Why do all of this? I actually love it, and it allows me to connect riding with other activites that I'm interested, such as blogging, mapping and video editing. I get a chance to reflect on the ride, study my data, try to beat my best average speed on a given ride, and study the maps to look at new possibilities for routes. This has all made me a better cyclist, without a doubt.

This summer I participated in the Le Tour Challenge, an event sponsored by MapMyRide and others. I rode every day that I could that coincided with a Tour de France stage, then uploaded my ride data to MapMyRide. I could see how my data compared with other participating cyclists as well as the Tour cyclists. I ended up with some pretty satisfying results, which drove me to ride even harder. I also won a really nice Polar cyclocomputer with heartrate monitor, which brings me to thoughts about what I'll do with this in the future.

While I like the Polar cyclocomputer's heartrate monitoring function, and really see the value of assessing heartrate data, it seems silly for me to ride with two separate devices (GPS and Polar). It would be hard to justify this, but an upgrade to an Edge 305 (or better) would allow me to capture heartrate data and eliminate the need for the Polar unit. Also, the heartrate data could automatically be added to the Everytrail posts.

I loved watching all of my rides accumulate in Google Earth—it provided very tangible evidence of my progress, and prompted me to explore areas less traveled. In the spring I'll hide all of my rides in Google Earth and repopulate the map all over again.

Four Days Off and Feeling Good

It's a good day. I've been sick for over a week, and off the bike (including indoor rides on the trainer) for four days now. This time of year you have to sneak the rides in whenever you can since you never know when the season will be over, and in spite of the fact that I'm not 100% recovered from an annoying, lingering cold, I decided to do my roundabout commute to work today.

My workplace is less than 1 mile away on completely flat roads, but since last spring I have been exploring increasingly long and convoluted ways of getting to work. My latest and favorite route has me heading up Cascadilla Park Rd. (see picture—this is my favorite Ithaca street, and it makes me think of the Italian Alps), a short, steep and absolutely beautiful road alongside the Cascadilla gorge, then through the Cornell campus, across the campus Fall Creek bridge, then up to Triphammer, past Community Corners to Warren Rd., and then over to the airport, down Dart, past the mall, down Oakcrest to Cayuga Heights Rd., and finally down Sunset and Remington to Lake Ave. and finally the high school. Phew! It's a 10 mile ride with over 800 ft. of vertical climbing, most of it in the first 2 miles. It's a great way to start the work day, and I was already reconciled to the notion that I had already taken this route for the last time of the season.

This morning I discovered that four days out of the saddle can really refresh you and make you somehow feel stronger. I have know idea how this works, but it certainly did in this case. My body is still in recovery mode and I only got 5 hours of sleep last night, yet I felt so good on this ride. I'm puzzled but very grateful for this phenomena.

Since February I have lost 33 pounds without having weight loss as a primary goal. I'm pretty happy about this, since I never thought I could lose this much weight over a number of years, let alone 9 months. I have used Wii Fit almost every day since February, and I think that the weigh-in is a critical factor contributing to this weight loss, as is some changes in my diet and (of course) lots of cycling up steep hills from March until now. At this point, I don't have strong feelings about losing more weight. My primary goals are becoming an even stronger rider and not gaining back any significant weight over the winter months. More than anything, I want to end the outdoor cycling season strong and keep the momentum going for the much less fun indoor cycling season.

The Southern Tier Bicycle Club, my intro to cycle touring and a buffer from bad times

It was either '76 or '77 when I first started riding with the Southern Tier Bicycle Club. I have so many fond memories of my experiences with this friendly bunch. This summer I cleaned out a bunch of stuff from my mom's house, and it wasn't surprising to me that one of the few objects that I didn't toss over the years was this patch. I think I need to frame it.

I don't know how I found out about the club, but one day I joined them on one of their shorter group rides, and I was hooked. According to their website, the group was formed in 1969. It's probably what motivated me to buy a helmet, as helmets were required equipment, and I haven't cycled without a helmet since, no exceptions. [I have very strong feelings about bike helmets—everyone should wear one at all times, unless you have a death wish. There is no good argument not to. If you ever wonder why so many kids don't wear helmets and continue on helmet-less as adults, just look at all of the adults around modeling poor behavior.]

The STBC members were incredibly kind and welcoming to this geeky and needy high school kid. They accepted me and my crappy bike with no reservations and soon I was going on rides every weekend. This is when I really started to learn how to ride with a group and pace myself over long stretches. I learned about how to shift in anticipation of hills, manage my cadence and keep hydrated. I also learned that riding with others could be so much fun. I recall lots of great conversations and joking around, and so many of the group rides were centered around fun activities like ice cream sampling and bar hopping (sadly I was excluded from the latter.) This was before performance clothing was regularly used, though some had bike shorts with real chamois. Cotton was the norm for me and most of the others.

Much of what I learned from club members came through observation and inquiry. I learned about a wide range of gear including racks and panniers, as well as the difference between frame materials and geometry. It was helpful to learn about what tools and supplies to haul, and how to quickly fix a flat roadside on a bike without quick release skewers. (Imagine having to carry wrenches with you and having to remove your wheel from the frame, fix the flat, then tighten up. This adds time, weight and frustration.) Some bike clubs are fairly ruthless if you break down, with most, if not all, riders continuing on while you take care of things. The STBC was the opposite. While there may have been a few fancypants racerboys who kept going, the vast majority of the group would patiently wait and help out.

The day I discovered that I suffered from hayfever and also got my first taste of rabbit was a memorable ride from Vestal to the Montrose PA area. As was often the case with club rides, the destination was someone's house. I really liked how members welcomed relative strangers to their homes. We ended up at someone's home with significant acreage. I can't remember if it was a family farm or not, but we were treated to a hay ride and a huge meal. Moments after the hay ride began, I started sneezing and it quickly became out of control. Everyone asked me if I had allergies and I had not idea that this was the case. I was miserable for the rest of the week, but the consolation was that I learned that grilled rabbit is actually quite tasty, rather like chicken!

In an earlier post, I noted how my bike was a mule for newspapers. Sunday papers were huge, and I routinely strapped 50+ pounds of paper around my shoulders and gingerly made my way to my route. One day I really payed the price for this long-term bicycle abuse. I was on a long-ish (50-mile) ride and on my way back home in downtown Binghamton, I hit a small pothole, heard a big, nasty clunking sound, and suddenly my rear wheel started grinding. It didn't take long to discover that I snapped my axle in half! My dad had to come to pick me up, and while that was the only time I needed to be rescued, my dad was none too pleased.

My most profound memory of STBC rides was my first century ('78 or '79), a trip from Vestal to Ithaca and back. The ride was significant for two reasons, the distance and the destination. I've been on lots of shorter rides that were more challenging, but your first century is usually a significant milestone. I had real doubts about being able to make that kind of distance, and I certainly wouldn't have taken on that challenge without the company of a supportive group. The ride went well, and I was completely blown away by Ithaca, a small city that I had never visited before that trip. I think we ate at Moosewood, and that experience got me started with vegetarianism. (I've been a vegetarian for 27 years now.) I fell in love with the town that I have called home for the last twelve years, and I can clearly trace my desire to want to live in Ithaca to that trip. I loved how Ithaca felt like a cohesive, vibrant locale, and the progressive politics on display was very appealing to me. (I was a fairly strident lefty, even as a teenager.) Also, in addition to the natural beauty of the city and surrounding area, I liked the compact footprint of the downtown area and the fact that the housing stock was older, well-maintained, and relatively free of vinyl and aluminum siding. When I finally got my first car, I would often take the long way home to Binghamton via Ithaca, just to visit my favorite small city. Yes, Ithaca certainly has its own issues (intolerance, piousness, too many people leave town), but it has been a wonderful place to call home.

If you are (or were) a member of the Southern Tier Bicycle Club and you happen across this blog, I want to publicly thank you for making my teenage years better! I was a pretty miserable kid for a number of reasons, and your kindness will never be forgotten. Feel free to comment.

My first ten speed, a crappy department store bike

It must have been 1976 when I bought my first ten speed. It was pretty crappy, but then again, I bought it with my newspaper money and was very proud. It was bright yellow and looked a bit like this machine. It was heavy and didn't shift that well, but it was my ticket to personal liberation. That bike allowed me to go on many long adventures with the Southern Tier Bicycle Club, which I will elaborate on in later posts, and I didn't buy a new bike until around '84.

I had a pretty big newspaper route with about 76 customers, and every day except for the snowiest of days, I biked to the garage where the newspapers were stored, stuffed my bags across both shoulders and pedaled off to the first house along my route. I perfected this really cool stunt where I ditched my bike on the yard and jumped off the bike. The poor bike endured all sorts of abuse, but I also taught myself rudimentary bike mechanics, thanks to a fantastic book called Anybody's Bike Book.

With this bike I started going on longer adventures, often with my friend Ted. My favorite destination was the Broome County Airport (now called Greater Binghamton Airport) and the Tri-Cities airport. Cars and airplanes were two of my biggest obsessions, and I loved to go to the airport and watch planes take off and land. I particularly liked hanging out at Tri-Cities, since there were exclusively small private propeller planes like Cessnas, and I could often get really close to the planes. The trip to Broome County Airport was longer, hillier and more challenging, and it was my introduction to hill climbing on a larger scale. The rolling hills in the Southern Tier and the Finger Lakes makes for some really challenging cycling and this is when I first started developing my cycling legs.

The most dramatic ride with Ted was a trip to the Broome County Airport happened on a day when my mother was scheduled for minor surgery. On the return trip from the airport, Ted was just ahead of me when he was suddenly chased by a dog. In his panic, he ended up kicking the dog, which resulted in the dog chasing after me instead and biting me in the ankle! I ended up in the same hospital as my mom with stitches and a tetanus shot. This was the second of my third (to date) cycling accidents, but it did little to dissuade me from biking. After that incident, I always carried a can of Halt with me and successfully used it to ward off dog challenges a number of times until I learned about the swinging bike pump technique.

Crummy photos of my Miyata 1000 touring bike, purchased in '86

Yeah, the photos do stink, but these are for just for reference purposes. This blog won't be chronological, so let's jump ahead to 1986. I just had a great touring bike stolen from my apartment. This is the machine I bought back then to replace that bike, and it was my main ride up until the spring of '09. Mostly original parts, including Shimano biopace chainrings.

Look at how tall the stem is! The frame was too small for me, but I was stubborn and decided to just make adjustments to accommodate the frame size, including the stem and the seatpost. That was a pretty bad idea in retrospect. I thought that I'd save weight by doing that, but what did it matter on those long tours hauling 70+ pounds.

History of carbon fiber bikes

Kestrel was the first company to mass-produce carbon fiber bike frames back in the late '80s.

Becoming aware of adult cycling

At a certain point in my early teen years I became aware that adults rode bikes competitively and for fitness and adventure, not just for a casual ride to the store. This was long before cycle racing was a known element in most parts of the U.S. This awareness came to me around 1974 or 1975, thanks to my neighbor John's dad. John's dad (also named John) had a Peugeot road bike which was one of the coolest things I ever saw. Hopefully the picture is an accurate representation of this bike...I'm sure the younger John can weigh in on this. Seeing John head out and return from his cycling adventures really made an impression on me, and made me want to do something similar. This was years before the movie Breaking Away was released (1979), a motion picture that really raised the profile of cycle racing in the U.S.

While most kids were content to ride around the neighborhood, I always wanted to explore beyond these artificial boundaries. When I lived in Kobe, Japan (1972-73 when I was between 10 and 11 years old), I adventured all over the city, exploring nooks and crannies without my folks worrying about me. They started worrying after one particularly wreckless adventure. I neglected to stop at a stop sign and rode right into traffic. It was a tiny car that hit me, and more damage was done to the car than to my bike. I went flying and sprained my ankle, while the poor driver had a big ol' dent in the front of his machine. I was overwhelmed with guilt for years to come after the man came to visit me with a giant fruit basket and many bows of apology.

That incident clearly made me more aware that I had to be responsible in traffic and follow rules of the road like everyone else. I honestly have no recollection if John's dad wore a helmet, but I was riding with a helmet by around '76, for sure.

John's dad make quite the impression. I must have peppered him with questions about his cycling adventures, but my childhood memories are unfortunately very spotty. See John's comments below about his dad.

Ten years old

When I was ten, I was back in the U.S., living in Endwell, NY, a sleepy suburb of Endicott, birthplace of IBM. I have such vivid memories of setting up races up and down our hilly streets. Helmets weren't even considered at this time, and I probably terrorized many drivers as we zoomed around. Mostly my friends Ron and Ted raced around the block and then did stunts in the Catholic church parking lot. We were really into skidding out and popping wheelies, but I remember that I was always most interest in going as fast as I could.

I have no recollection about what kind of bike I had. I do remember that Ron had the coolest bike, and that I was very jealous. It looked something like the photo.

I grew up without religion, and recall one time that Ted and Ron dared me to go in to the church and go to confessional. I was very reluctant, but I confessed to ten years of bad deeds, as well as never having gone to confessional. The priest must have been a bit confused.

Why start this blog in the first place?

Cycling has been a critical part of my identity since I was at least seven, some fourty years ago. Every few years I am reminded of this, particularly when I have a watershed cycling season like this one, 2009, the year I got my first road bike. (Why did I wait so long?) [upcoming posts: watershed cycling experiences]

I've thought so much about what cycling means to me for so long that now I decided that it is finally time to write about some of my most treasured road biking experiences, as well as reflect on my attempt to be a year-round cyclist with the help of my new trainer. Since I'm terrible at keeping journals, I thought that maybe the discipline of maintaining a blog would be somehow more attractive and easier.

This picture is from 1971. We lived in Japan for three years, while my dad took a job with IBM to help to develop a new plant. This was my first serious bike and I was so proud. This photo was taken at our apartment complex in Osaka. It was a 5-speed with some pretty awesome headlights and tail lights, as well as a generator. I was king of all the world.