Back into Gear

Hello to my two faithful followers!

Today marks the first day of my return to cycling. It's been a while but well... it was like riding a bike. Literally. (Thanks for humoring me with the laugh.) Today I rode a whopping 23.6mi through route 8 in northern Kentucky. It's a great road to ride, not much traffic, decent amount of shade, and enough hills to keep things interesting. There are plenty of other riders out there but not enough to interfere with your ride.

I am not going to lie, I almost didn't go on the ride today. There were more times than I can count this year when I said to myself "Naomi, it is time to get back on that bike and start cycling regularly again!" and every time, there was some excuse. I have to clean my apartment. I woke up too late. I had a big dinner. I'm tired. I'll do it tomorrow. The truth of the matter is, excuses are easy. But you don't get anywhere by doing what's easy. In life, in relationships, or in cycling. If you can push yourself through that first mile, you'll start to settle into the flow of the ride. That's when it starts to become fun and you'll realize why you pushed yourself out of bed in the first place.

Life is never going to be easy. Every time you think it is, there comes the next climb. Most of the time you will consider, at least for a second, getting off and walking it. But then you're on the climb and you start to push and your legs start to scream back but you keep pushing and you finally reach the crest panting and feeling completely empty and 100% satisfied and accomplished. We have all decided to walk a climb before, whether at your job, in your personal life, or on your bike. It's easy, like deciding to skip the ride to begin with. Each time you stay on the bike though, it makes you a little bit stronger and a little bit more persistent. Then at the end of the ride you can slide off your bike onto the pavement and know the ride was worth the effort you made to not make excuses and get out there in the first place. Nothing is quite as satisfying as succeeding by sheer will power and perseverance.

It's like Will Smith says. Running (and cycling) teach you to push past the little man in your head who says you can't do it. There will always be people in your life who don't believe in you and tell you you can't achieve something. If you can defeat the person inside you telling you you can't, you can defeat all the people around you saying the same thing.

So I guess today's lesson is don't make excuses. Don't take the easy route. Face the climbs head on because when you get to the top, it is always worth it.

This is how victory looks. Painful and beautiful and 100% worth while.

The Climb: head down, jaw slacked, up off the seat, mind silent.
The harder you push, the faster you reach the top.

When my legs hurt, I say: "Shut up legs! Do what I tell you to do!" ~ Jens Voigt

An Aside

I realize this blog is officially a cycling blog but considering it's called "Between the Spokes" I thought I'd take the opportunity to delve "between the spokes" of some of our country's founding principles and my own moral compass.

Today, while attempting to show my support for equal rights, a friend pointed out I was setting a double standard. So here's the question: Is it wrong to try and coerce people to boycott a business who does not believe in equal rights for all people when our country is founded on the belief that everyone has the right to an opinion, as well as the right to speak it openly, whether or not you may agree with that opinion?

Like most stories, there are two sides to this one too. For the sake of avoiding bias based on the subject, I'm going to keep this general.

Let's take a look at this from the perspective of the business (since this tends to be the less popular one): This is a family-owned business. It was built up from the ground and is now a nationally known and loved corporation. The firm has worked hard to associate their name with down to earth family values. In recent years, this business has decided to make known an unpopular value that involves a desire to remove the rights of a community who, while they currently do not have many rights, has been working to gain them for quite some time. The firm believes the community is a detriment to the down-to-earth way of living they have been supporting since their beginning. The belief in the way communities should live and the way, in the eyes of the firm, that communities have been living since the beginning of this great country. Using the freedoms of speech, beliefs, and religion this country was founded on, the family business takes their opinion public.

Here's the other side: Many people, whether a member of the community in question or not, feel it is the community's right (based on the freedoms of belief and religion this country was founded on) to live in their own manner. They believe in their right to live in their own way without being questioned publicly in a manner that is degrading to their way of life. They decide to speak out against the large firm and stand up for their own rights and freedoms by starting a boycott of products sold by the family business mentioned above. In this manner, they hope to begin to diminish the beliefs that their way of life is in some way wrong or inappropriate and start to build a country where equality is not just a word people use but a truth.

So is the firm wrong to protest the community's way of life? And is the community wrong to protest the firm? And are people outside the firm and outside the community right to protest either? Or get involved at all? The answer is not clear. On the one hand, supporting the community could potentially get rid of the conflict all together, convincing the majority that the firm is attempting to destroy a peaceful way of living. On the other hand, the same could be said for the support of the firm.

I'm not trying to give an answer here and I am guessing those of you who are well informed in the politics of this country know what I have been referring to even with my attempt to generalize. So I'll leave you with one final question: By showing support for the community, are you supporting freedom of belief of one community at the cost of the freedoms of belief of another?

Please share your comments. I am interested to know what you think.

Day 3 and the Driectionally Challenged Biker

My Dearest Readers,

Today is day three of the official training regimen. In the past, one of my most difficult days. Usually it’s the day when I start gorging on junk food and decide not to work out… I’m sure some of you know the feeling. Well, I already pigged out on grotesque amounts of Oreos yesterday and the day before so that’s out of the way and my route is planned out so at this point there really is no excuse to not ride. There. It’s officially on the blog for all to see so I must ride.

Now that that’s taken care of… Yesterday’s ride was my first “official” training ride by myself. I mapped out a route similar to the one we rode on Monday but this one had a few alterations. For one, I nipped out the unfortunately large hill on Gilbert. I also cut out Kellog on the way back and decided to try something new. Fortunately, I did not get lost once and actually spent a few miles of the ride along side two other cyclists. They were part of a larger group of “casual” riders so eventually I had to move on.

A few things I noticed in comparing Monday’s ride with Dr. Jayne to my solo ride yesterday: On Monday, Dr. Jayne and I worked quite a bit on drafting. I don’t think I fully appreciated the extent of energy that saved and how much easier it made the ride for be. Tuesday’s ride was quite a bit harder without another rider to break the wind for me. Instead of averaging around 18-19mph, I probably averaged 14-16mph. The entire ride out had a fairly decent head wind and just my luck, it didn’t become a very good tail wind when I began heading the other direction. In addition to having a more difficult ride speed-wise, I also struggled quite a bit with my cadence. Monday I was pretty consistently above 90rpm, spending most of the ride around 93-96rpm. Today, it was a struggle to hold 91rpm on the flats.

After Monday’s ride, Dr. Jayne talked to me about the way my left foot bows in when I ride. He asked me if this was a natural pigeon-toe or if it was something that occurred mostly when I ride. I don’t have a pigeon-toe naturally but I definitely noticed yesterday that my left toe turns in when I get tired. I struggled to adjust this for most of the ride. If it persists, I am going to try adjusting the float on my left pedal. Hopefully a little less float will limit the amount my foot can turn without effecting the way my body naturally moves. I will play with it and see what happens.

Time for a mini rant: I try to be understanding of other riders on the road but there are just some people I do not understand. For instance, people that insist on biking in the middle of the road but refuse to go at a reasonable pace… Yesterday, I encountered a gentleman riding towards me, in the wrong direction, down a bike lane. Let me explain what I mean by “gentleman”. This wonderful sir was riding a bike that was clearly too small for him, wearing an oversized t-shirt and cargo shorts, and listening to music on his very “stylin” beats head phones. As we approached each other on the painted in bike lane with special arrows to explain which direction you should ride in, he turns off at the last second, smiles, and waves as if he too is just another jolly cyclist out for a ride on a beautiful afternoon. I am completely baffeled by this. If anyone can explain the insistency of novice bikers to ride in the road, in the wrong direction, in my way, please tell me. I would LOVE to hear it. This is why we have to have “share the road” signs. This is why cars don’t like bikes on “their” roads. Because half the people out there don’t know what the heck they are supposed to do the second they put their two wheels on the pavement! Well let me explain… Drive the same direction cars drive!! This is America. We drive, bicycle, whatever on the right side of the road. Not the left. Also, for all those drifters out there, stop. You will make cars angry and make them not like cyclists. A rage which they will likely release on us law-abiding cyclists by driving uncomfortably close to us.

Thanks for bearing with me through that much-needed rant! Hope you are all enjoying your summers as much as I will (one more final exam on Thursday and I’m free for a whole week!).

Yours Truly,

Naomi

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” ~William Eardley IV

This is the route I took yesterday. It's about 23.4mi. (Route 4 on my google maps at the url below)
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
204824175833049123999.0004c1c2ccec0f6e00e17

Cadence, Confidence, Consistancy

This is the trail that goes by Lunken Airport. We rode the length
of the trail during our ride today.

Hello Fellow Readers,

It’s been a while. How have you been? Well that’s just dandy. I’ve just been studying my butt off over here getting ready for final exams so please excuse my recent lack of posts.

Today was my first ride with Dr Jayne, my official advisor in the realm of road cycling. For those of you new to my blog, Dr Jayne is also the faculty advisor and coach for the UC Cycling Team. I received an email from him today at 11:30 about a possible noon ride which, due to the imminent three drops of rain that were expected to terrorize the city within the hour, was postponed to 6:00pm. It’s a good thing too because those three drops… ended up being 9.

I decided with all of the newfound time before the ride with Dr Jayne, I would set aside my manic studying for an hour (as thrilling as Material Balances is…) and attend to a few bike needs I had discussed with the Doctor at our last meeting. I packed up my tiny saddle bag, hiked up my padded bike shorts, strapped on my helmet (safety first!) and headed out the door. Only to return immediately for my forgotten cell phone and money… As my roommates probably know, this is a regular occurrence for me. I generally expect to leave the house twice on account of forgetting something.

As I was saying, I headed over to the Campus Cyclery, the local bike shop, to get pick up the goods. After some discussion with an employee about cost and possible future maintenance, I walked out with a new tube, glue-less patch kit, speedometer with cadence reading, and a brand new water bottle.

Being a person who is not very good at waiting, I immediately biked home and began setting up my new speed coach. After a couple adjustments, the use of every zip-tie in the package, and a thorough coating of chain grease on my hands and shins, the speedometer was up and running! I must say I’m a little bit proud of that one.

I met Dr Jayne at 6:00pm in his office for the ride. After a short chat about safety, we took the elevator down to the garage level and hopped on our bikes. On the ride out of the garage and onto Martin Luther King Dr, Dr Jayne ran through the signals he uses, a safe distance to maintain from the curb (1 arm’s length), and a quick run through of the beginning of our ride.

I’ll spare you all the gory details of the ride but here are some things we discussed as well as the route we took. It took us around 1.5 – 1.75hrs to complete this route.

The main focuses of this ride were cadence, drafting, and giving Dr Jayne an opportunity to examine the way that I ride so he can better tweak and assist my technique. In the past, I have had some knee problems while biking so per the Doctor’s orders, I have been working on increasing my cadence from 75rpm to around 95rpm. It is a big adjustment that I can honestly say I struggled with most of the ride. A higher cadence requires different use of your gears, different reasoning behind your decisions to shift, and more attentiveness to your pedal stroke. It is very cerebral in a way I was entirely unprepared for from a bike ride. Learning to draft is a whole other animal. It does take some level of mental understanding but for me, most of learning to draft is being confident in your awareness and reflexes. Knowing that if something were to happen, you are giving yourself enough distance to stop and you will react in time. Also, it also takes a steady path and the ability to ride consistently. This way, the cars and other riders on the road will be able to predict your moves, an important thing when drafting and riding closely to other cyclists.

For those who don’t cycle regularly, drafting is when you ride close to the rider in front of you, allowing them to break some of the wind and decrease the amount of work you have to do. It can lower the wattage you output by 30-60%. On longer rides, this is a completely invaluable skill needed to preserve energy so I was paying close attention to it today.

I am by nature a fairly cautious rider and it usually takes me a while to overcome any new scenarios. I found myself constantly having to pull forward and push my comfort boundaries in order to get into a position to draft. A good distance for drafting is usually no more than a wheel diameter behind the rider you are drafting off of. You also want to be about the length of your handle bars to one side. This gives you more time to react if the rider in front stops abruptly or falls.

On the return to campus, our ride took us up Gilbert Ave. For those in Cincy who know downtown a little, you understand. For everyone else, Gilbert is a steady 2mi climb of 300ft. Not the most giant climb for a seasoned cyclist but for a beginner, it’s quite the little beasty. Fortunately however, with the increased cadence and the use of my absolute lowest gear, I made it to the top successfully and with the approval of one Dr Jayne. In the words of the Doctor, I have the potential to be “quite a good climber” if I continue cycling consistently.

After we returned to campus, we went over a training plan. Starting this week, I will be riding 5-6 times a week with 4-5 of these rides being around 20mi and the last ride being a longer ride. The long rides will start at 30mi and increase by 5mi each week until the week before my century ride. By this point I should be at 75mi.

That’s all the news for today. Wordy and long as always but I guess you can say long-windedness and talking runs in my family… mine is just a little more confined to "paper" than to general conversation.

Safe and happy travels and remember, dreams are pointless unless you choose to make them reality.

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.” ~Napoleon Hill

Education Explosion

Hi All!

Today, I met with the UC Cycling team's adviser, Dr Bruce Jayne, to talk about bike maintenance and to get some general training tips. The meeting began at 5:30pm and due to our joint interest in the topic and the endless list of things to talk about, we did not part ways until 9:30pm. It was for all intensive purposes a 4-hour crash course in everything bike related. And by everything, I mean a very small portion of everything. There is so much to learn it's impossible to fit it all in in only 4 hours.

Here are some things I learned about Bike Maintenance:

1. Clean EVERYWHERE. In the past, I'd done the occasional sweep of some paper towel over the visible parts of my bike mainly for aesthetics but as it turns out, a lot more is needed for regular upkeep. Of course this should have been intuitive considering the sheer number of moving parts on a bike and their exposure to the elements. But of course I didn't think about it. Here are just some of the things that should be cleaned on a weekly basis:

• the chain (it should also be lubed and excess lube wiped off)
• all parts of the frame
• the brake pads
• the cogs and chainrings
• the derailier
• the spokes
• the wheel rim
• the tire

You get the idea... Basically the entire bike needs to be cleaned. Every part has a specific reason for needing to be cleaned. A dirty wheel rim causes uneven wear on the break pads as well as jolty breaking. A dirt chain causes wear on the chain and cogs/chainrings. Aside from just cleanliness to avoid excess wear, going over your bike and cleaning it gives you the opportunity to inspect your bike up close and personal. This helps notice anything that may be amiss such as small cracks in the wheel rim, unbalanced wheels, uneven break pad placement, etc.

So there's the cleaning and general maintenance of the bike, then there's all the individual tweaks that make the bike suited to your particular needs. The handlebars, break horns, suicide bars, bike seat, can all be adjusted to fit different body types and cycling needs.

Here's an interesting factoid: The height of your seat should be 110% of your inseam.

Here's another interesting factoid: The height of my inseam (I'm 5'2") is only 1.5cm less than Dr Jayne's (he's 5'7")... I always knew I had long legs but that's essentially a 6" difference in torso length! Also learned today that my thighs are proportionally longer than most people. Take this plus the slight scoliosis (uneven shoulders, hips, and back), left-handedness, and the fact that I'm a female in the construction industry... I'm basically just an oddball. Thanks mom and dad! <3

I'm sure you all are bored to tears by now with all of this rambling so I'm going to wrap things up. Just wanted to share a snip-it of some of what I learned today. Talking with Dr Jayne got me all ramped up even more about cycling and made me realize just how much I have to learn.

Interesting Factoid #3: Most road cyclist ride at a cadence of 95rpm... Right now, I ride at most at around 75rpm. I have strict instructions to stop that immediately and bike at a higher cadence.

So the moral of today I guess is there are about a million and one things to learn bout cycling and then, once you think you have got that down, you find a thousand more. If there is something you are interested in, don't just do it. Get involved in it. Try to understand it. Get your hands dirty. Literally! Dig in and get involved because you never really know what it is you're saying you like until you delve into all the nuances and culture of it.

~"Supposing is good but finding out is better." -Mark Twain

The Lost Cyclist

Hello Again!

So I know I already posted today but since that was about my first day of riding, this is going to count for the Day 2 post...

Today's ride was ... Interesting. Day 2 of any exercise routine for me is usually pretty good. I am in a good mood because I usually had a good day the day before and I'm feeling like I can do anything if I put my mind to it. I mapped out the ride the night before, looking at it for long enough that I felt comfortable with the seemingly simple directions. I look at it again this morning and confirm that I am completely confident in my abilities to find the three streets I need to turn on for the entirety of the ride.

Everything runs smoothly from the moment I wake up. I avoid hitting the snooze button, excited to get going and get my ride started. I drink a tall glass of water, down two of my Cliff energy blocks, chewy and sweet but filling, and get all of my gear on in record time. Looking at the clock it's only been 15min so I brush teeth, check tire pressure, put my shoes, leg warmers, arm warmers, helmet on and sit by the door. 5min to leaving time... I can't wait any more so I leave a few minutes early.

Here's where things start to get interesting. As is usually the case with new routes, I felt much more confident of my ability to find the roads on the map than I do while actually riding. And as I expect, I get to the point where I am no longer familiar with the roads and, thinking I've passed my turn, double back and turn on a different road, hoping to cross the road I was looking for. This doesn't happen.

Instead of my "natural directional intuition" leading me to my preferred route, it leads me to one man taking out his garbage, two women on a walk, and one cyclist at a red light, all of whom tell me I am going the wrong way.

Aside from getting lost three times, I did get to revisit some places in Cincinnati where I may have gotten lost before... and realize the importance of being confident in the route I am going to take and knowing the roads near my turns.

Overall, it was still a great ride. I met some very nice and helpful people, who pointed me in the right direction continuously only to have me confuse their directions and get lost again =P And, it extended my route so I got a great workout!

Moral of the story is, know your route and don't be afraid to ask for help if you get lost. People are usually understanding and everyone can use a laugh at the expense of a lost and confused cyclist =P

~ "Getting lost is just another way of saying 'going exploring'" -Justina Chen Headley

The Beauty and The First Ride

Hello All!

Today marks the first day of a new chapter of my life. A chapter where I invite cycling back as a regular part of my life. In the words of cyclist Jim Burlant, "Cycling is like Church. Many attend but few understand." And he is absolutely right. Cycling is more than a means for transportation or a way to relax outside on a sunny weekend. It's the most beautiful, refreshing, exciting, sometimes exhausting and absolutely simple way of travel. Bikes have somehow mastered the perfect speed to travel at. The speed at which you can get from A to B but still manage to catch snip-its of conversation from people as you pass by. You can take in the beauty of the world around you.

Cycling is not only beautiful because of the aesthetics of the sport though. In a similar way to rowing, cycling gives a feeling of exhilaration that can only be achieved by sports that rely on pure power. It can be argued that it takes some degree of skill and knowledge of gears and the way bike work and the roads you are riding on ans what ever other factors you want to come up with. The bare-bones of the matter however is half way up the climb when you feel your legs start to scream and you consider stepping off and walking but instead, you feel your legs press up and suddenly you're standing and climbing faster and the pain becomes white noise and the only thing you hear is the quickening pace of your breath in time with the spinning of the pedals. This is the real beauty of the sport. The moment of truth when we find out what we are really made of and how hard we are willing to push ourselves to get to the top. And then, when you feel like you can't push another second, you look up and the top is right there in front of you. It's that moment when you stumble off your bike after the climb and sit down and begin to hear the birds around you and the fact of what you just accomplished starts to sink in. Very few things are quite as satisfying as breaking a physical barrier you did not know you could break.

So as you probably guessed, I'm pretty much a cycling fanatic. I mean this in the very loosest of terms. I absolutely love biking with every facet of my being. The only problem is, I have not devoted much time to it. It's easy to forget how much you love something when you're not doing it. So... I've decided to start cycling again, regularly and document my adventures in this blog so I never forget how much I love it. And hopefully, others will get to experience some of this joy along with me.

This week I have started officially training for my very first Century ride! My first ride of the week, yesterday, I biked the 16.2mi to Shelter Cove Marina (the marina the University of Cincinnati Rowing team practices out of) and back to my house by UC. It's a great ride for the first day of training because its familiar, fairly straight, directions are not challenging, and includes a major climb. Speaking of Collins...

Cycling Achievement #1: First time riding all the way up Collins! (5/21/2012)

The ride to the marina was great and reminded me just how much I love to bike, even when its painful and I'm feeling like I might start rolling backwards...

For all you cyclists out there, spread the word about the best way to travel! Because there really is nothing better than a bike =)

For all you potential cyclists: You never know how great it is until you try it with someone who's already fallen in love. Find a cyclist you know and go for a ride with them. Ask questions. Get in their head. They will tell you just how great it is.

A rediculously long first post but the future ones will be shorter, I assure you =P

~ "Nothing compares to the simple pleasures of riding a bike" John F. Kennedy