Morning ride: 52:12 Distance 11.78 miles Average Cadence: 91 RPM
Three days riding out of five days off over Thanksgiving. What a blessing. I spent the ride thinking about a conversation I had with a friend, and how grateful I was that I could help her with a problem. I was in a good place, emotionally, physically, and spiritually for this ride.
Until about 100 feet from my house when a car squeezed past me on our narrow Swillburg streets and called me a dick.
I believe in God, and looking back at this, I’d say he has a very wry sense of humor. It was, I now see, a great way to remind me I’m just another bozo on the bus.
Thursday’s ride: 55:20 Distance: 11.74 Average cadence: 88 RPM
Maybe I’ll start a Thanksgiving tradition of going on a morning ride. Except for those Thanksgiving mornings that require snow removal. This is Rochester–the bane of forecasters everywhere. Once I heard a weatherman give a completely serious, unironic snow forecast of ‘a trace to a foot.’ That may sound like he was just a bad meteorologist, but that really is the way the snow falls around here. One neighborhood will get a trace while another one does get a foot.
So on Thursday I got up a little bit after six, and put our Thanksgiving turkey on our grill to smoke,* then got dressed and took my ride. Since it was a holiday, I was less worried about traffic than I was parades and footraces, but I managed to miss both of them.
After the ride, the kids and I watched the Macy’s parade, played Monopoly, baked pies, played more Monopoly, made mashed potatoes, baked squash, had Thanksgiving dinner, cleaned up, played video games, watched a movie, went to bed, got up this morning, went and made crafts at our church’s Anti-Black Friday activity day, I made turkey stock, and now I’m taking a few moments to updated you.
It looks like snow for tomorrow. I may ride anyhow.
Hope that if you had a Thanksgiving celebration, it was a good one.
The crutches are borrowed from my son's school. He thought he hurt his foot.
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*for a 15 lb turkey: soak bird in brine for 10-12 hours, changing the liquid every 4 hours. Pat bird dry in and out, then apply generous amounts of whatever dry rub you prefer (try 4 tbsp each of salt and onion powder, plus 2 tbsp of ground garlic and crushed red pepper flakes to start out; add other spices as you see fit) onto skin and inside cavities, wrap and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, fire up your charcoal, then divide into 2 piles that you put on either side of a large (3 quart) foil pan (I have two wire baskets that do the trick). Fill the foil pan with a mixture of cold water and either wine or fruit juice, then put bird on the grill directly above the pan. Put the cover on the grill, and leave it alone, opening only to add charcoal to the fires. Bird will be fully cooked in about 9 hours.
This morning’s ride: 1:10:55 Distance: 14.99 miles Average cadence: 87
A slow, cool morning. My pace was a bit off. And, like clockwork, my inner thigh started aching at the one hour mark, meaning I had to slow down even more for the last two miles.
But I’m not complaining. I got to take a nice ride the day before Thanksgiving. What’s to complain about?
I’ve been asked for more information on the writing thing I’ll be doing. It’s for a children’s website, called The North Pole Times. It chronicles the adventures of Santa and his elves as a series of daily reports, starting tomorrow, and running through Christmas Day. I write the main ‘news’ story for each day. I’ve created a 29-day story arc that involves Santa getting launched into space, and elves going on strike because they’re being served vegetables. I’d love it if you took a look.
I need to get into the kitchen. I’ve got pies to bake, cookies to make, and a turkey to rub (I’ll be smoking a turkey starting at 6am tomorrow).
Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US, I’d like to express my gratitude to all of you for reading this. It really is one of the things that gets me out of bed on some mornings.
This morning’s ride:57:07 Distance 11.7 miles Average cadence: 94 RPM
I love Sunday morning rides. I can sleep late* and still get up and take a ride. No pre-dawn crap. Although around here at this time of year if it’s not high noon it still feels a little dusky.
Today’s ride had a real ‘farewell tour’ feel to it. I managed to ride along some of my favorite paths today–including Cobbs Hill and the Erie Canal. Riding up Cobbs Hill made me reflect on how much I’ve grown as a cyclist this year. In April, I considered two trips up and down the hill to be a workout. Now that’s more like a warm up. I rode through traffic–something I was once scared to do. I tackled hills that used to intimidate me with energy and aplomb.
I doubt I’ll get many more rides like that in this year. Of course, I’ve doubted that before. But it’s been a good riding season, and I can’t wait to see how things turn out in the spring.
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*which now means sometime after 8AM. Once upon a time this would have been considered ‘early.’ I used to complain if I had to get up at the crack of noon.
This morning’s ride:54:15 Distance: 0 miles Average cadence: 100 RPM
At the end of my last post, I noted that I rode for twenty minutes with my headphones on without listening to my iPod. I did that again for this ride. Only this time it was for more than half an hour, and I did it on purpose.
I have a whole bunch of playlists on my iPod that are 45-50 minutes long. I made them to play while riding inside. It was what got me through the winter on my bike. I couldn’t imagine just sitting on the bike and pedaling.
I’ve changed.
It started this year while riding outside. Whenever I rode my bike anyplace where there wasn’t automobile traffic, I would put my iPod on. I thought I needed the distraction to keep myself going. One day I realized I wasn’t doing that anymore. I was perfectly content to ride with just my bike and my mind. My rides became more contemplative, more meditative. It didn’t matter whether I was riding on a path or on a road; I was fine in the moment.
I figured that would not be the case when I had to go back downstairs. Apparently, not so much. I have found that I am as content to ride with my thoughts in the basement as I am out on the road. At least for a while. I did start to get a bit bored, and I started listening to music. This accounts for the strange ride time. It got to be 50 minutes, but I was really enjoying the song that was playing (I believe it was Guster’s “Come Downstairs and Say Hello”), so I rode until it was over.
This time, I thought about happiness, and my ability to have it.
A little backstory: right now, my work sucks. It’s a very stressful situation, and there’s little I can do to change that. I was letting that work situation cloud all of my life. I was getting grumpy and irritable with everyone. Especially myself.
Then, on Thursday morning, as I was driving to work, I heard a report about an awards ceremony for publishing. The report was about how the publishing industry was dealing with the changes brought on by technology–which is a nice way to say the industry is losing lots of money because fewer people are buying traditional books because most folks do their reading on the internet now. It included a sound bite from the guy who won the publishing equivalent of the Lifetime Achievement Award. The guy was positive, and upbeat, and genuinely excited to be part of a changing environment. He was completely unafraid.
Ever heard someone talk about an aha moment? Ever have an aha moment yourself? A moment when the solution to a problem presents itself fully-formed in your mind?
I don’t get those. What I get are oh yeah moments. They’re similar, but in my case I don’t invent solutions–instead, I remember things.
This particular oh yeah moment was this: I am responsible for my own happiness. And that I can be happy even when there’s a whole bunch of crap happening around me.
The issues at my work are really beyond my control. The only thing I can do is do my job to the best of my ability. Everything else is beyond my control. Everything, that is, except my attitude.
That’s what I took with me on my ride that morning. I thought about a conversation I had with my oldest son several months ago. He was about to take an exam that would have a rather significant impact on his career. The test was the next day, and he was so worked up about it that he couldn’t sleep.
“Did you study for the test?” I asked him.
“That’s all I’ve been doing,” was his response.
“Okay. Think about this,” I said. “There’s two people taking that test tomorrow. Both have been studying. Both know the material as well as they can. One of them gets a good night’s sleep, the other one stays up tossing and turning, worrying about the test. Who will do better on the test the next day?”
“The one who went to sleep,” was his dutiful answer.
“Hell, no!” I replied. “Or maybe yes. Who knows? There’s so many factors out of their control. The only thing we do know is one of them got more rest while the other one worried about things he couldn’t control.”
So much of what’s happening at work is beyond my control. And it will remain out of my control whether I’m happy or unhappy. So why be unhappy?
This morning’s ride: 45:12 Distance 0 miles Average cadence 98 RPM
And so the basement riding begins. I dragged my bike downstairs Tuesday night and wrangled it onto the trainer. I swear it gets harder to hook up every time. Almost like the bike doesn’t want to do this any more than I do.
So this morning I donned my iPod and grumped down the stairs to start the winter riding season. I may have to find a different place to put the bike, because right now I think it’s too close to the sump hole. I know this because the whole thing seems to lean too much to the right.
I decided that at least for a while I’m going to ride with a little less resistance and a little higher RPM. Later I’ll drop the speed down and increase the resistance.
The other interesting thing about this morning was that it was 20 minutes into the ride before I realized that I was wearing my headsets but not listening to music.
This morning’s ride: 50:12 Distance: 11.22 miles Average cadence: 96 RPM
My daughter’s complaining about the lack of snow this November. Me, not so much. I did pass a guy on the canal path today using poles and roller blades, getting ready for cross-country skiing. “No! Too soon!” I cried as I rode past him. “You wish!” he shouted back.
I do wish. But I’m pretty certain it’s just a dream.
I checked my odometer today after my rides. I’ve logged 2,100 miles on my bike this year. Some of that was done in the basement, in February and March, but the bulk of it was roadwork. I feel like I’ve accomplished something this summer. That’s a good feeling.
The week ahead looks pretty mild, too. I’m going to skip Monday, and if Tuesday is in the high 30’s/low 40’s, I’ll ride again. If I do, I’ll put the details up here, but probably little else. I’ve got a paying writing gig that will take me from now through Christmas. I’ll drop the link on here (and also on my facebook page) when the site goes online. After Christmas, I’ll be visiting my Mother in Florida until the first weekend in January. Then I’ll be back home, and most likely, back in the basement.
I don’t know how much posting I’ll do for that. Not much to write, really: “Rode for an hour listening to an Ira Glass podcast. Swallowed a cobweb. Watched the cat eat its breakfast. Watched the cat get rid of its dinner.” That’s about it, really. Oh, sometimes I’ll listen to Garrison Keillor, but the rest is gonna be about the same. If there’s something worthy of note during this time, though, I will post it.
Writing this blog has been very helpful in my training. It’s made me more accountable. There really have been days where I would not have gotten out of bed if it wasn’t for the fact that I would not have anything to post. And I want to thank you for reading, and hope you’ll continue to do so as I get closer to my goal.
This morning’s ride: 1:11:39 Distance 15.03 miles Average cadence 95 RPM
I took today off from work, because it’s Veteran’s Day, and my kids were off school. Among other things, this allowed me to sleep a little later, and ride mid-morning instead of in the murky pre-dawn. I set off a little past 9 AM to make sure I didn’t get caught in any morning commute traffic.
It was a bit windy, the temperature was in the low 40’s, but I was glad to be out in it. It was a glorious late fall day–about as good as one can hope for this far into the season. People tend to complain about the weather around here (maybe they do that everywhere), but from the saddle of my bike, I’d say it’s been a good summer and fall. Yes, there’s been some rain, but don’t overlook days like this. I’m grateful to be able to enjoy days like this, and hope for many more.
This morning’s ride: 49:12 Distance: 10.49 miles Average cadence: 89 RPM
When I was a kid I used to bowl. At one time in my life I belonged to three separate leagues, one on Thursday afternoons, one on Friday evenings, and one on Saturday mornings. My average in the first two leagues was always 10-20 pins higher than the average on Saturday mornings. I took this as definitive proof that I am not a morning person.
I bring this up now because I see the same pattern in my riding. I am always 1-2 mph slower in the mornings than I am at any other time of day. Some of this can be attributed, I’m sure, to my riding in the dark. When I can’t see the cadence counter or what gear I’m in, I tend to drop farther down in gearing than I normally do, and also it’s hard to tell how fast I’m pedaling. Some routes I ride have more lights than others; this morning’s ride was a dark one. But nice weather. I felt quite comfortable on the ride.
Except for my chin. My chin was freezing. On Saturday night I shaved off my beard. I’ve had a beard for thirty years. One of the main reasons I shaved was because I’ve had a beard for thirty years. There’s a lot of adjustments I have to make–starting with when I look in the mirror. But I wasn’t really prepared for how cold it got when I rode. I may need to get a baclava. No, not the tasty flaky pastry, but the winter head covering that also covers your mouth.
Although, now that I think of it, the other type would be pretty tasty right about now…
Friday morning’s ride: 26:15 Distance: 5.04 miles Average cadence: 93 RPM
Saturday afternoon’s ride: 1:00:39 Distance: 14.99 miles Average cadence: 96 RPM
Friday morning’s ride was a great upper body workout. I noticed that the rear tire was low. I pumped it up enough to get to my favorite local free-air gas station–and their air pump was not working properly. So, I spent a good 15 minutes with my dinky hand-pump getting the tire properly inflated. I have three little gas canisters that fill tires to their proper level, but if I use one of them, then I’ll only have two.
Saturday afternoon’s ride was spectacular. Warm weather, no wind, and not too many strollers out and about on the path I rode. An excellent workout. I also made time before the ride to do a little bit more maintenance. My brakes are nearly worn out. They’ve been worn for a while, but I hadn’t done anything about them because I ride so early in the morning. That’s a factor partly because theres so little traffic I rarely need to brake, but also becase it’s damned difficult to do much work on a bike in the dark.
There was actually a third ride this weekend–I rode my bike to my regular Saturday-morning meeting. I try to ride my bicycle as much as I can, and this is one of my regular rides. It’s only a two mile jaunt, so I don’t even chronicle the ride. It was still in the low 40’s when I left my house, but because it was such a short ride, I only wore a sweatshirt and some light gloves for the ride.* The topic of the meeting was acceptance, which was good, because less than a quarter-mile into the ride, I had to accept the fact that I was severely underdressed.
It was a good lesson for me. I was in a classic ‘damned if you do/damned if you don’t’ scenario: If I rode slow, there would be less wind on me, so I won’t be as cold–but I’ll be out in the cold weather longer, and I wouldn’t get my heart pumping enough to warm me up from inside. If I pedaled faster, I would warm myself up, but the increase in speed would make me colder. This was not an unusual position for me, and others as well. In fact, there’s been huge patches of my life where I was faced with no good choices.
The only thing to do was to follow that old Churchillian adage: When you’re going through hell–keep going. And no, it really wasn’t hell, just a minor inconvenience. But the lesson remains. And hopefully, the next time I come to a similar situation, I put on some warmer clothes.
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*I mean, in addition to the rest of the clothes I was wearing. Sheesh. Get your mind out of the gutter.
One September Day in 2008 I decided I would ride my bike up the side of Mount Washington--the highest peak on the East Coast. At the time, I was 49 years old, thirty pounds overweight, and an amputee. Of those three things, two will change. This is my chronicle of this quest.
