training for one...gear

[Thanks for the snot rocket tips, guys! I'm going to fully make use of them later this week.]
One reason why I rode nearly every day last week was the weather forecast for the weekend: it was going to rain from Saturday to Monday.
Awesome.
All for the best, probably, as my left calf is still stiff and generally refusing to cooperate. But three days of sitting around? Even the internet can’t keep me entertained for that long...!

I dutifully worked my arms and abs and then hopped on the track bike for some intervals on Saturday. Taken from last month’s Bicycling magazine, it looked something like this [and yes, I did it in those beat down shoes]:
Go all out - 5 seconds Rest - 30 seconds Go all out again - 30 seconds Rest - 30 seconds Go all out and try not to die - 60 seconds Rest - 3 minutes
I did that three times and by the last minute-long interval, I pretty much wanted to fall over. We should all get S.H.I.I.T done once in a while, but the thing is, I know I’m not doing them right. The warm up, cool down, and rest periods between those intervals are supposed to be done at a high cadence of around 90rpm. Even though I’m spinning on my lower gearing of 46/17, anything above 80rpm has the back of my rollers bouncing around and my rear wheel swinging from side to side. If I was doing this on flat ground outside, I’d spin out before I reached 90rpm.

Obviously, that plan wasn’t written with the single-speed in mind.
But with rain outside and a weekend’s worth of time in front of my computer, I did a little research. I scoured all the [women’s] fitness blogs I’m currently obsessed with, googled, and came up with...very little. Most of the blogs out there are maintained by runners or triathletes; cyclists with blogs are predominately male and/or pros. And while it’s helpful to know that so-and-so can crank out 4000 watts in one hour, or that someone climbed 392,033,919,365 feet yesterday, it’s just not that relevant to me, my lack of gears, or my pillowy legs. To complicate things further, the training programs that I could find usually require at least 12 hours of riding a week; no bueno when I can probably realistically manage, at most, 10.
Okay, yeah, I could probably cut 2 hours out of somewhere and figure out a way to ride. But at the risk of this sounding like another poor excuse, I’m actually sort of afraid that a 12 hr/week program complete with 2hr rides followed by sprints are going to make my knees melt. That might be an irrational fear, but I know how my knees feel after anything over 3 hours. To throw down 4, rest a day, then get back on to do a 2 hour ride, week after week, might actually make my knees pop.
But never one to give up - I admit, the single-speed thing is totally my fault - I have a bit of a plan. It’s not fully formed yet, but things seem to be coming together. Slowly but surely, on one little gear.

snotty but laid back

A friend commented the other day that he thought I was from the Pacific Northwest.
“You’re so laid back,” he said.
I burst out laughing. Me? Laid back? Yeah, laid back like bat shit crazy’s laid back. Still, oddly flattered, I brandished my compliment du jour later that night to Mike. His response:
“.....WHAT???? Does this kid even know you? Hahahahahahhaa! You, ‘laid back.’ Hahahahahaha...”
I told him to shut his face.

True, that compliment isn’t accurate, and was the farthest thing from the truth a few weeks ago. I had given up on the rollers; even Dragonforce couldn’t coax me on my track bike. Bored and frustrated, I was pretty much going stir crazy. The weather outside looked bleak and miserable. Riding bikes had ceased to be fun about two months ago. Spring didn’t look like it was going to make an appearance anytime soon. My middle name was “Doom and Gloom.”
But the weather turned on Saturday and for the first time in my [fairly short cycling] life, I did solid 2 hour rides on 5 out of the past 6 days. Fully aware of my finicky muscles, I rolled out my IT bands every few hours after riding, did some awesome yoga stretches, and even tried stretching in class. Miraculously, my IT bands didn’t break in half, my calves are still functioning, and my tendons haven’t been torn into itty bitty pieces. An ever-so-slightly lowered saddle fixed the aching hamstrings after the second day. Considering how out of shape I am - remember, two weeks off those rollers? - the fact that I’m capable of standing right now is pretty impressive.

The almost daily rides also meant that I’ve had that buzzy feeling of euphoric exhaustion all week [and a ravenous appetite]. Too tired post-ride to do much else than hold a highlighter, my frantic mood swings were unusually subdued. I was almost laid back. Mellow, even.
My rides were the same way, too, which is something you might expect, as they were far from long or fast. Sure, they were challenging enough to make my doughy legs work for it, but there was a lot of no-handed riding in there, too. And all week, I got to pat myself on the back for simply riding. Yay!
Everything on my rides was awesome...or is awesome, until the whole snot thing starts. For 80% of my ride, I’m sniffling or smearing snot around my face with my sleeve. I’m totally okay with being gross by myself, but my faucet-like nostrils are distracting, to say the least. Finally fed up with it yesterday, I looked up and down the street, made sure no cyclists were in sight, and tried my first snot rocket.
It splattered all over my right thigh. I’m not even going to tell you how obscene it looked.
If any of you have tips on how to master that elusive nostril-clearing technique, please let me know. I can really use help on this one.

velo bento -- march 11, 2010

Okay, more like apres velo bento.
Mixed baby greens, sliced mushrooms, and grape tomatoes drizzled with balsalmic vinegar, a sprinkle of nooch [a.k.a. nutritional yeast - it's addictive], plus some chunks of goat's cheese were devoured after an easy 2hr20min ride yesterday.

I was going top off that salad with slices of roasted sweet potato, but completely forgot. I made up for it with the orange I stuffed into my face after that salad.
And yes, I eat my salads with [pink!] chopsticks. More proof that I am awesome!

early bird

So I did the absurd yesterday. Somehow, I decided it would be an awesome idea to get up at 5.30am and be out the door, on my bike, by 6.30am. Do an easy, breezy 2 hours, shower, pack my bag and head to school for a 10am class.
Um...what?

I almost didn’t. Seriously. I slept in until 5.45am, then had to choke down breakfast [I mean it was delicious - see yesterday’s post - but eating anything before the sun is fully up is kind of hard]. I ended up leaving around 6.45am, still groggy and crusty-eyed.
You know how they say that the first 5 minutes of anything is the hardest part? But like once you get into it, it’s okay? Apparently, as applied to yours truly, “first 5 minutes” means “first 30 minutes.” I was completely hating myself, my ideas, decisions, and legs. The voice in my head was all “but it’s not even 7am yet...! What are you doing? Wahhh wahhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh--“ And then I hit a hill and I didn’t have the energy to complain and kick myself while trying to climb on my one gear. Because keeping your bike upright at 4mph is actually harder than you’d think.

Oh and you know how I said I’d ride 2 hours? Yeah, it turned out to be closer to 2hr30min. It took a while to stretch my legs [see above], and even though I promised myself I’d take it easy, I felt pretty drained on the way back. My feet went numb from the toe clips and wind, snot was everywhere. But the reward of the post-ride shower kept me pedaling and shooting down the hills.
I got home later than I planned [9.15am! Eeeep!], and just barely squeezed in the shower and eyeliner-ing while packing up a smoothie, my lunch, books, and laptop. I stretched briefly before I hopped right back on the bike.
It took me about 20 minutes to get to school. It’s 3 miles away.
Ahahahaha....um....yeah...

power morning

It's 6.15am. When/how/why did I think it would be a good idea to squeeze in a ride this morning?

I have some oatmeal mixed with oat bran, ground flaxseed, cinnamon, and a drizzle of maple syrup to start my engine. And coffee, of course.
See you on the flip siiiide...

sunny unpreparedness

Sorry for the radio silence, peeps! There just really wasn’t much going on last week; I had planned a [geared] ride while I was down in the city, and then it rained. Which sounds like the lamest excuse on the planet but a) Mike only has one set of fenders and b) I lack the proper gear to ride in wet conditions. I did push-ups and Pilates instead.
And then I came back to Boston, fully prepared to hole up in my apartment until cabin fever had me running around my block, screaming a la Linda on Intervention [a.k.a. that Asian woman that was addicted to those painkiller lollipops and who was absolutely insane...did anyone else see that episode? BECAUSE IT WAS INSANE]. I pretended I wanted to be on the rollers again. I tried really hard to act like a law student and get work done. I sighed a lot.
But then...but then...it got warm...!

Like warm enough that I’ll have to quit trying to even call myself a “cyclist” if I didn’t ride. Even if the whole concept of riding outdoors for more than 30min has, by this point, become completely foreign to me, it seemed like the right thing to do. Besides, there wasn’t going to be much wind. Which meant I could probably survive riding some short distance and then pat myself on the back for not wanting to die afterwards. Perfect!
And then I realized I left my shoes, only light windproof jacket, and only light pair of gloves in NYC. Oops.
But realizing that that is the most ridiculous excuse that I’ve come up with thus far, I made up my mind: I was going to go on that damn ride, regardless of whether I looked like a poor hipster or not. Lack of a proper jersey meant that all my tools went into my Baileyworks bag, which went over a black fleece zip up, layered over my long sleeve Underarmour. Shorts went on under Underarmour leggings, paired with Sidi socks, sneakers [um...yeah...don't hate], and my NYC Velo cap. And I was like damnnn, yo, this is like the most pro thing I’ve ever worn, in my life...!

Pro-ed out, I pointed the front wheel southwest towards Dover and did a super easy 2 hours. I waved at some peeps, got some nods and sunglass-ed smiles from other peeps, and still got my ass handed to me on the easy hills. It was refreshing, though, if only in that it wasn’t freezing out and I was perfectly fine in my completely unprepared state.
Of course, I forgot about bringing food. I was starving by the time I got home but a smoothie craving demanded I run to Trader Joe’s to stock up on yogurt. Actually I was starving 1hr30min into my ride but I just really wanted that smoothie. Yes, I thought about the potential embarrassment of walking into a grocery store in the most revealing outfit I own, but somehow I found the idea of spending most of my morning without underwear on mildly appealing.

So 5 hours after I ate breakfast, I blended the shit out of some nonfat greek yogurt [yeah, I'm not vegan anymore], almond milk, hemp protein powder [the unflavored kind that sort of tastes like ground up rope from Bob’s Red Mill...don’t worry, you can’t really taste it], half a banana, and some frozen peach slices. It was delicious, regardless of how disgusting it looks in that picture. And then I inhaled lunch.
I spent the rest of the day rolling out my IT bands and trying not to fall over from sheer exhaustion. Just so I could do it all over again on Sunday, a little more prepared that time around. But more on that tomorrow...
[Please tell me all you Boston people rode this weekend?!]