A Tale Of Two Rides
It's been nearly a week since I've posted. I had a system, I'd ride, then I'd post.
I broke that.
Quite frankly, I was embarrassed about my last ride before today. You see, a few people actually read this thing other than me. I'm glad of it, as it gives me encouragement and advice. But all of a sudden, it's more than a personal journal. Well, yeah, a blog isn't exactly a diary, but still... The thing is, after all that talk about finding hills, I went out and found some. And they were perfect. A small greenway by the Chickamauga Dam, the total loop less than two miles. The loop is like a figure eight, and the upper part of the eight is a decent hill (probably no problem for most, but hey, I am just starting here). If you don't want to do the steep hill, you can do the roughly one mile lower loop. Perfect for a beginner, right? Well, it killed me. I did the upper loop with the steep hill once, and when I came back around, I couldn't face it. So, just do the lower loop, right? Well, twice around that, and I couldn't even get up the small hill to the crossover point. I had to stop at the top to rest. Then, on the way down, I got going too fast for the pathway, and swerved around some poor guy walking, and almost wiped out. At that point, I said to hell with it, and packed up the bike and went to mom's for dinner. Grand total distance... three miles.
I was not happy with myself. The more I think about it, the more I think it is a matter of equipment and technique, or at least my ego hopes so. For one thing, that front derailleur was still off, and I couldn't get to the low ring, so two one was the lowest I could get. Even that was only about 5 MPH though, so that probably wasn't it. Plus, standing still bounced. All in all a shitty day, that basically soured the whole weekend.
Which leads me to today.
If I'm not ready for hills, the only thing I could think to do is build more stamina, which means ride more. So today, instead of hills, I went back to the levee. This time, I avoided the Camp Jordan part, as the heavy gravel is a pain, plus it had rained earlier and I didn't want to deal with the puddles. So I took the loop around Eastgate again. Four times. That led to a total trip of 16.75 miles. The last lap around Eastgate wasn't so bad, but the hill leading back to the levee wasn't pleasant. What helped was the thirty minutes I spent adjusting things before I started. I can get to the lower ring on the front now (although I didn't need to), I stiffened the rear spring so I can stand and pedal (which I did do) and I tightened both the front and rear brakes (part of the reason I almost lost it before, they weren't gripping tight enough). Still, it is about 3.2 miles from Eastgate back to Shallowford. The first mile gets you back to Brainerd Road, and instead of using the stairs, I went to the light to take advantage of the wait to stretch. But about a mile from Shallowford and my stopping point, it was all I could do to keep going. I started counting off the tenths of a mile, making myself keep going. Yeah, I'm making it sound all melodramatic, when it was a measly 16+ miles, but to me it was important. Also, it may be one of the last times I take that route.
After Thursday's hell ride, I went out Friday night and proceeded to get a major boogerage on. But while out, I talked to the source of the loaner bike. He stays up all night, and said he'd be up until 10am, and to come pick up the bike. So I set my alarm, and had a friend who gets up early despite boogerages promise to call. Well, the friend called, the alarm went off, but I couldn't get up. Still, I think that opens the way for me to get the bike this week. Since he's up till 10am, and I go to work at 9am, I should be able to swing by Wednesday and pick it up, and drop it off at the bike shop (no idea which one) for a tune up at lunch. So by Friday I might be riding a real bike, not a piece of crap. That rules out the gravelly levee. Let's hope so, anyway, because I have been threatened with abduction most cruel on some future Saturday, this one being the first possible target. Somehow, I think those Friday night boogerages may have become a thing of the past. Sigh... I've cut back on them anyway for other reasons, but I already miss them.
3 Comments:
If you're dropping below a cadence of 40-50 then you're going anaerobic, and you're going to bonk hard and fast. If you can't get into the low chain ring, there's no shame in giving up after 3 miles of hills; that's a completely different muscle useage pattern than aerobic distance.
You know, I still am unsure what the whole cadence thing is about. Is it complete revolutions? If so, then I tend to stay right at about 50 to 60 or so. I count to ten over and over again, left foot odd, right foot even. I know when I am getting tired, because I'll forget to start over at one after I get to ten, and will catch myself usually about fifteen, but sometimes as high as forty! Anyway, I can tell when I am getting fast or slow by how long it takes to get to ten, and make myself fall back into the same rhythm, which is makes a ten count about five to six seconds. Down slight hills is harder to keep steady, as at times that pace is slower than the bike is going and so I am just idling the pedals, so I usually coast until my speed drops. Up slight hills is better, as I can either put a bit more effort in to keep the same pace, or drop a gear or two and slow down at the same pace. But steeper hills I can't maintain the pace very well. I think it has to do with the low gear ratio on this bike, since at that same pace in the lower gears I am going so slow I think I will fall over, but higher gears are more effort than I can pull, so I end up in a lower gear pedalling twice as fast. Probably the wrong way to do it, but I guess I'll get to the point I won't have to do things that way soon. Or I suppose I could just walk up the darned things.
Cadence is RPM of the crank, so the number of times your right leg goes down per minute. The bike geeks like a cadence in the 90-95 range and claim to have physiological studies which prove such a rate is optimal. This seems amazingly fast, especially without toe clips or clipless pedals, but with practice it's not too bad. However, even for me it takes a conscious effort to keep going that fast.
When we started tandeming, Charlene used to scream any time we got over about 80, but within 200 miles we're now comfortable occasionally as high as 110; it's something practice will help with.
And, yeah, if you're down in the 50-60 range you might try working on getting that up a bit, then when you do hit the hills and downshift you won't fall over 'cause you're going too slow (currently one of my issues on extremely steep climbs) and you'll be trading aerobic activity for anaerobic, and since you're working on the aerobic generally you're going to build that up before you get to the anaerobic strength.
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