Zesty Wintery Ride

I can't think of a better adjective than "zesty" to describe today's wintery road biking adventure, after a week of the flu and no exercise. Temps were in the mid 20s, but the 10-15 mph winds and the occasional snow posed somewhat of a challenge. Ski goggles were and absolute requirement today. Roads were mostly clear, though there was a lot of fishtailing on the lesser-maintained roads behind the airport. I'm glad that I'm not riding a studded tire in the rear, in spite of the decrease in traction on the sloppier roads. Studded tires really do add quite a bit of resistance.

19 miles, a little over 1,000 vert. ft, 16.1 mph. Not bad for a heavy touring bike and a studded tire.

Fingers were freezing on the way up the hill, though they finally thawed by the time I got to the airport. My left foot was an ice cube by the time I got home, but curiously, none of that mattered. Here's hoping for a mid-winter thaw so I can take the road bike out again...

Father & Son Day

Finally another father & son cycling day. After a few failed attempts to convince the lad that another ride in the country would in fact be a fun activity for us both, Toby finally relinquished, and we had a blast. He's getting stronger and more sure of himself all the time, and he's really learning how to handle a climb. Today we averaged almost 10 mph, not bad at all, considering his age and the weight of the mountain bike he's riding.

Today I was teaching Toby all about climbing—when to shift and when to stand. He's really getting it, and the constant stream of consciousness chatter is a hoot! We also had a blast watching the planes take off and land, one of my all-time favorite activities as a child.

I can't think of a better way to stretch the legs before tomorrow's race.

Tour de Syracuse training week

Today I managed to squeeze in a total of 36 miles of hilly riding before and after work, as I sought out a more balanced race week training strategy than my first attempt. Finding the time to train in the midst of work and family obligations isn't easy, but it's a fun challenge. My morning extended airport commute was an example of using every available moment. Gail had a workshop, so she got the boys to school and I got an extra 15 minutes of early morning cycling bliss. I love figuring out continuous improvements in the morning route, and today I took the shortcut through the west end of the Cornell campus over to Warren Rd., then down Warren all the way to Hillcrest, a road I've never cycled on before. Then it was over to Triphammer, Asbury, and back on East Shore Dr. to work.

The best part of today's ride was that workers closed down the downhill lane of East Shore Dr. to fix the shoulder and add new barriers, which meant that traffic slowed down, and I was able to own the entire lane on the long, moderate descent! What a great way to start the day.

Now my plan is to taper off the training in advance of Sunday's race. I'll just do the morning commute tomorrow and Friday, followed by another moderate 10 mile ride on Saturday, and see how that works for boosting my energy level and performance for race day. My bike racing books are pretty vague about this whole tapering business...

Motivation on a Grumpy Day

The combination of a miserable work day and the unseasonable weather (once again a grim, gray, rainy mid 40s day) had me wanting to crawl under a rock after work. A year ago I probably would have laid low, but the more I ride, the more I need to ride and push myself in spite of all obstacles, perceived and real. Part of the reason probably is that every time I push myself out the door, the end results are so positive that I just know it will be worth it.

Today's ride was yet another case in point, a slog up to Lansing and toward Dryden, followed by an upbeat, blistering pace through Freeville and back on Rt. 13 past the airport, then back down Oakcrest, Cayuga Heights Rd., Sunset and Remington. Halfway through the ride, the heavy gray clouds started to slowly separate, finally revealing some hopeful patches of blue. This was such a restorative training ride, and a mighty fine loop worth revisiting.

Stats:

Distance: 32.55 miles

Avg. speed: 19 mph

Vertical ascent: 1679 ft.

Calories burned: 2279 kcal

Max. speed: 33.9 mph

Time: 1:42:55

Commuting Season Begins in Earnest

Spring has truly sprung, after a trying few days of cold, rain and fog. Today was therefore the perfect day to begin my circuitous bike commute, followed by a longer after-school ride, which is what I did regularly last spring and in the fall.

The day started off on the chilly side, 38 degrees to be precise. You warm up quickly when you climb up Cascadilla Place and up through the Cornell campus to Warren Rd. The only bother with this ride is the campus traffic and poor road conditions in the Northeast.

After school was blissful, a jacket free day in the upper-50s with sunshine and a north wind. Today I took 34 to Lansing, then back via Gulf Rd., which has a very steep and short uphill connecting back to Conlon Rd., a nice little add-on ascent before the long downhill along East Shore (34B). Best avg. speed of the season thus far, 19.8 mph, so all of the cross-training and indoor cycling seems to be paying off.

Today on my morning route, I passed a fellow teacher and district colleague on her bike (with trailer in tow), heading in the other direction toward her school on the hill. I rarely get the chance to chat with her because she's always on the move! Then, on my way back up the hill for my afternoon ride, I passed her yet again on her way back down the hill. I loved the symmetry of our encounters. I so admire and respect this teacher for her great work in the classroom, and also for her incredible athleticism. She is both a very competitive nordic skier and super-strong cyclist and runner, and quite the inspiration.

Today I received the bad news that a friend and colleague was injured in a car accident yesterday in Lansing. He was driving at 55 when someone not very far ahead of him pulled out of an intersection or a driveway, giving him next to no time to react. He ended up in the ditch, beaten and battered, with a totalled car. My thoughts are with him and his family, and I'm so thankful that he wasn't hurt worse. While I have no information about what led the other driver to make their unsafe turn, I can't think about the shocking statistics about distracted driving and texting while driving. A study released by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that truck drivers who were texting were 23 times more at risk of a crash or near-crash event than non-distracted driving. Also, the average teen sends close to 3,000 text messages a month, and many of those messages have been sent or received while driving. These are particularly scary things to think about for us cyclists. No matter how safe we ride, we are at the mercy of drivers. I just hope that chronic cellphone users realize that no text is worth a human life.

Random photo time...it was bath night for the boys and for the bike!

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.