Cayuga Lake Loop in the Humid 90s

My quest to bike five of the finger lakes this summer encountered a roadblock last Thursday, due to yet another mechanical problem. I drove off to Watkins Glen to take on Seneca Lake, but only made it 25 miles when one of my rear spokes broke. I haven't broken a spoke in years, but I think the numerous rude railroad crossings did me in. 20-spoke racing wheels go way out of true when you lose a spoke, so no amount of loosening of brakes allowed me to proceed. Thankfully the amazing Chuck bailed me out, driving all the way to the Mr. Twistees in Dresden to pick me up. It was a perfect day for a ride, with low humidity and temperatures in the low 60s, so I was actually chilly while I waited and took in the view of the Seneca Meadows landfill in the distance. I marveled at the steady stream of garbage trucks heading toward the enormous landfill, and wondered how long it took to get so big.

After calling around ten bike shops around the state in vain for an aero spoke for my Mavic Aksium wheel,  I was pleased to learn that once again, Swan's had just what I was looking for. Keith was incredibly helpful in getting my wheel perfectly trued, and he used his very cool Park Spoke Tension Meter to set spoke tension accurately before doing the final truing. I love learning new things about bike repair, and Keith is incredibly talented and very willing to share his knowledge.

Today I continued my finger lakes quest undeterred, with the goal of tackling the Cayuga Lake loop, a long but familiar ride. If I really spent the time to study the forecast, I might have reconsidered, as the temperatures were blazing in the mid-90s with no relief from the sun. On balance, I'm glad that I went, in spite of the fact that I was suffering quite a bit between miles 50 and 75. I packed a sandwich, clif gels, power bars, and two bottles, and made just two stops along the way, one in Union Springs for liquids, and one at Taughannock for water and a quick dip in Cayuga Lake.

Somehow I thought that substantial weight loss meant that I could handle intense heat and high humidity better, which is probably the case, but I don't remember hurting so bad on a ride in a long time. In spite of stretching, I cramped up in my thighs and in my stomach, and generally flailed around for an hour or so before recovering somewhat. While I'm still a bit cramped, I'm not even close to understanding what cyclists in The Tour de France are going through daily, as they punish their bodies and ride to the edge of exhaustion, only to line up the next day for more pain, and that's not even factoring in all of the crashes in the early stages. It may sound foolishly romantic, but I think that regularly riding to the edge of your abilities is good medicine for the spirit. Perhaps that's what I'm really addicted to, in addition to the endorphins!

Stats:

Distance: 86.28 miles

Avg. speed: 19.8 mph

Vertical ascent: 4059 ft.

Calories burned: 6069 kcal

Max. speed: 37.7 mph

Time: 4:21:14

Mid-Season Assessment

Yesterday we were blessed with perfect cycling conditions, with temperature in the upper 60s, low humidity, a nice breeze, and endless views for miles from the top of Ringwood Rd., unobstructed by the haze so prevalent during the summer months. I enjoyed a fun training ride with my friend Bruce, who is new to road biking. He's a remarkably quick study, and soon he'll be burning up all the glorious hills in the region.

As I was advising Bruce on his setup, adjusting seat height and handlebar angle, swapping saddles,  and cleaning the drivetrain, I was reminded of how much I have yet to learn in the realm of bike mechanics. I noticed that when I move the handlebars from left to right, my wheel locks into the middle position, which can't be good. After a little bit of online research, I found out that this problem is referred to as "indexed steering." The headset bearings tend to remain in one position (straight in line with the frame) much more than any other, and the bearings wear depressions in the bearing races. While I'm stressing a little about causing more damage or losing the ability to easily turn, I also welcome the opportunity to learn about headset bearing maintenance and replacement.

Now that I'm four months into the nine month cycling season, it's time for a mid-season assessment. My goal is to at least ride 4500 miles this season, but of late, vertical ascent stats have become even more important to me than mileage.

Overall Stats, March 6-June 29, 2010:
Mileage: 2180 miles
Vertical Ascent: 124,827 ft.
Calories Burned: 146,700 kcal

Here's where I've cycled so far this season:

Mileage per Month:

Vertical Ascent per Month:

I'm fairly pleased with these stats, and look forward to some longer summer rides. Tomorrow it'll either be Cayuga Lake or Keuka Lake, though Cayuga is the more likely choice. This is to fulfill my random goal of biking at least five of the finger lakes this season. Owasco is already crossed off the list, so now comes Cayuga, Keuka, Seneca and...to be determined.

Yesterday's ride with Bruce:

At Last, A Long Ride

While there are certainly lots of stresses in the life of a K-12 educator, summer vacation is unquestionably one of the greatest benefits, especially if you have young children. Our summer vacation is starting off on a great note, with lots of parties, special events, camps and trips to Taughannock park to look forward to.

I just returned from Taughannock with the boys, where we enjoyed a refreshing afternoon swim, and this morning I was able to at last go on my first longer ride of the year, a 78 mile trek that took me through Lansing, Locke and Moravia, then along gorgeous Owasco Lake to Auburn and back. This was only my second time on this route, and I forgot how spectacular the lake views are. The road conditions on Rt. 38 heading north to Auburn left something to be desired, but the weekday traffic was light enough not to really matter.

I was deep into my velotrance as I passed through the town of Scipio. For a minute I forgot how to pronounce the name of this small town, so I started playing word association, thinking about the gritty movie Serpico, then when I remembered that it was pronounced "skippy-o," I started imagining a fictional goofy Skippy peanut butter TV commercial. Ah, the mental ramblings of and endorphin-fueled mind! Serpico, Skippy-o, let's work the whole thing out.

My pace ware really good today, and I was averaging around 20 mph when I hit Auburn, just after 9 am. The return trip was a little challenging, with some unexpected climbs on Rockefeller Rd. (did they name it that in hopes of getting some money from his estate for road improvement?), and then one hell of a climb up Lamphier Rd., heading east out of Locke. That sucker was around a 14% grade at the steepest section, and I knew it was coming up, though it didn't make it any easier, especially considering the fact that this came along at the 60 mile point of the ride. This detail from Ride With GPS shows the 14% grade wall, which is the equivalent of eating a big bowl of wasabi.

This was my longest ride without stopping, though I did have to get off the bike for a few minutes because the thoughtless person living at this house on Sharpsteen Rd. in Lansing didn't see the importance of having her dog on a leash or behind a fence. Let's just say that we exchanged some sharp words (no, no obscenities, but some very direct and forceful statements and gesticulations), as she failed to recognize the importance of corralling her barking, chasing dog (not to mention her goats). Get a clue, lady! After chasing me, her dog then chased a car, so I had to wait until all traffic was out of the picture. Finally a neighbor helped out, but by this point I was fully enraged and adrenalized, which did help boost my speed in the final miles!

In spite of the dreaded doggy incident, this was a strong and memorable ride. Now I know that all of my training translates to riding strong for a long stretch without stopping, which means I'm ready for longer races if I so choose. And thanks to the overcast skies and cooler temps, I came home with water left in my bottles!

Stats:
Distance: 77.76 miles
Average Speed: 19.7 mph
Vertical Ascent: 3530 ft.
Top Speed: 37.7 mph
Calories burned: 5607 kcal
Time: 3 hrs., 56 min., 42 sec.
Conditions: overcast then sunny, low humidity, upper 60s and lower 70s

Cycling Season Opener!

Much like Jonathan Richman yearns for New England and my boys yearn for unlimited access to sugary carbonated beverages and french fries, I have been yearning for the road bike season to begin since November 21st, my last ride of the '09 season. In my last post I predicted that my first ride of the year would come on March 12th, I am delighted to report that I was off by about a week.

The off-season has been quite a trial, but if I lived in Hawaii, there wouldn't be an off-season, and you know what they say about the importance of yearning! My strategy of combining once or twice-weekly rides on the trainer with daily workouts with EA Active (for Wii) has really worked out well, and now I really understand the value of cross-training. I was really strong on the hills today, and felt in as good a form as mid-summer last year.

The roads were in surprising good shape for early March, even before the heavy rains have come to wash away all the salt and grit from the shoulders. I was reluctant to take my precious bike out, given the destructive power of the road salt, but a quick bike bath put things back in good order once again.

Without a doubt, the highlight of today's ride was seeing the brilliant sun reflecting off of vast fields of snow in Lansing. This time of the year, as the sun's angle shifts, the snow fields rapidly melt in angled patterns, resulting in almost blinding shimmery seas of snow. The Cayuga lake views are equally stunning without the foliage to obstruct roadside views. 

I'm so thankful that I'm back on the road again. There is no substitute for cycling outside, and all of the unknown variables like sun, rain, wind, unexpected roadkill, and oblivious drivers who are too busy texting to notice you. No close calls today, just some to-be-expected obliviousness from drivers who aren't expecting to see human powered transportation on the roads. 

Today was my first road test of my upgraded drivetrain and new helmet, and I'm happy to report that my new shoes and pedals exceeded my expectation. The Shimano 105 pedals and Louis Garneu road shoes were incredibly comfortable and stable. What a difference it makes to have a larger and less wiggly pedal platform. It makes standing on the pedals so much easier, though the toe box is a bit looser than I want it to be. Thicker socks might be in order.

Now I need to convince Chuck, Jean, and Karl to smash their piggy banks and buy an entry-level road bike. Come on guys, it's SO worth it, and I'd love some more riding partners! I'll be your personal bike mechanic, and that's a promise.

It's stats time...I'm really happy with my ride today, given the stiff headwind as I headed north. It will only get better!

Stats:

Distance: 22.64 miles

Avg. speed: 18.7 mph

Vertical ascent: 1017 ft.

Avg. heartrate: 157 bpm

Calories burned: 1360 kcal

Max. speed: 33.6 mph

Time: 1:12:34

Cycling Season Opener!

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Remington Rd. Hillclimb, Ithaca (video)

Remington Rd. Hill Climb, Ithaca NY from Armin Heurich on Vimeo.

For cyclists looking for a great hill climb in the finger lakes region, this is one of my favorites. This route takes you on a 600 ft. vertical ascent in just under 2 miles, with twisty, well-maintained low-traffic roads and great views of Cayuga lake. It's also the most stealth exit from Ithaca to surrounding towns of Lansing and Dryden, where cycling can't be beat. I shot the footage from a car, and slowed the video down to simulate cycling speeds.


I shot the video footage in the fall of '09, at the tail end of a great cycling season. It's taken me a while to finally edit this together, and I'm hoping that it serves as inspiration for you cyclists waiting for the road biking season to begin. 

Making Plans, Digging Deep

It's never too early to make plans for the cycling season, so I'm considering taking on five finger lakes this year. Don't hold me to it, but I'm certain that I'll circumnavigate at least Cayuga, Seneca and Owasco this year. Keuka and Canandaigua are the wildcards. I did the Keuka loop back in the late '80s, and really enjoyed that ride, especially the northern dual tip. It's definitely the coolest shape of all the lakes. I've also done Owasco once and Cayuga at least eight times.

The multicolored lines in this picture represent my finger lakes area rides from last season, and it's immediately apparent that I did lots of repeat treks, especially around Lansing, Dryden and Ellis Hollow. There's a certain comfort in repeating well-worn routes, and this also allows you to assess your performance from one day to another and focus on improving hill climbs. On the other hand, I think it's really helpful to get out of your comfort zone and face unpredictable elements, though thanks to online mapping sites like MapMyRide.com and Everytrail.com, you can preview your hillclimbs and be better prepared for the challenges. Still, factors like road conditions and weather are wildcards that alway make road biking exciting and unpredictable.

In the meantime, the winter drags on, and for the first time in many years, I am desperately looking forward to spring and clean, salt-free roads. After taking a few weeks off of the trainer, I grudgingly climbed on the trainer twice in a week. This morning I pushed really hard, and burned 660 calories in 35 minutes, averaging 160 bpm. My plan has been to stay in form so that there's hardly a transition to the road bike season, and I'm confident that I will succeed, after all, my first ride last season was March 20th! Yeah, it was an anomalous spring, but I'm hopeful that I'll get at least one or two rides in before April 1. I continue to study the accuweather 15 day projection tea leaves every day, looking for a sign.

Looking For A Sign

I've got the February blues, and I'm looking for a sign. The road bike sits in its basement bunker, waiting patiently for it's moment to attack the twisting roads up to Lansing, Dryden, McLean, Groton, Trumansburg, Ellis Hollow, Richford, Brooktondale, Spencer, Candor, and beyond. Yet these are desperate days for me, as I realize how I'm in complete withdrawal from road biking addiction. Sure, I see brave cyclists on the road in winter climbing up East State St. and elsewhere, but I have no intention of breaking out the road bike until the bulk of the road salt is washed away.


Every day I visit Accuweather and check out their 15-day forecast temperature graph, hopefully looking for signs of a warming spell, but today's graph offered no encouragement. The anticipated high temperature has essentially flatlined for the next two weeks, so I guess I just have to face the inevitable, and prepare for some more indoor riding with the trainer. It's so hard to get motivated for indoor cycling, but it will surely pay off.


Speaking of indoor training, my friend Joe sent me the link to a story that ran on the radio show Only A Game about an annual event called Bikes and Beer. This event sounds like a blast, and if I lived closer to Boston, I would definitely participate. Nearly 300 cyclists visit the Harpoon brewery for an indoor time trial, a stationary bike race that simulates an eight-mile course. Imagine all these riders riding on trainers that are all networked to an electronic scoreboard. The software is so sophisticated that it allows for drafting! Somehow an event like this appeals to me (in theory at least) much more than a spinning class, not just because you're using your own bike, and it's not just because of the beer reward afterwards. As one of the participants pointed out, if your a recreational cyclist participating in a race with Cat 1 riders, you'll only see them for a minute or two, and then they'll be out of sight for the rest of the race. In this even, however, you see them for the whole race, which might offer some inspiration and some performance tips. Here are some pictures of the event.

If you're starting to think of cycling events to participate in for the summer, I recently heard about an event called BikeIt! Here's a blurb from their web site:

Imagine 5,000 bicyclists riding into Detroit, the Motor City, to help bring about a different world. We see thousands of cyclists coming from every direction converging on the United States Social Forum next June, voting with their legs for a greener, cooler, fairer society. We’re taking that ride, and we invite you to join us.

The first U.S. Social Forum took place in Atlanta from June 27 to July 1, 2007. Like the annual World Social Forums, the Atlanta event brought together activists, organizers, people of color, working people, poor people, and indigenous people from across the United States. They built unity around the common goals of environmental and social justice, formed alliances to broaden the social justice movement, and had a blast while doing it. Now the second U.S. Social Forum is organizing. It will open in Detroit on June 22 and run until June 26, 2010. We are now looking for organizers to recruit squads of cyclists and biofuel-powered support wagons to ride from wherever they are to the Opening March.

Hopefully I'll be chatting with the organizer soon and providing more information about the event. Lots of rides are being organized around the country to head to Motor City and participate in what looks to be a really important event that will hopefully initiate grassroots activism on a range of environmental and social justice-related issues. If you're interested in joining the Finger Lakes BikeIt Ride, check out this link. This group will have a max of 50 riders from Ithaca, Syracuse, Binghamton, and smaller towns in Central NY. The ride will be about 500 miles, and here's the map of the route:

If I had the time, I'd love to participate. The Canadian section of this ride is spectacular. There's very little traffic for most of this stretch, and the views along the Lake Erie shoreline are spectacular. 

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

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.