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.

wild thing

Going to the dentist freaks me out. Like most people, I don't particularly enjoy getting the insides of my mouth poked and prodded with sharp, cold, metal instruments. I might not even mind that discomfort, actually, if it wasn't for the lies.
Why is that? Like every "don't worry, this won't hurt" is dentist code for "grab the sides of this chair because I'm about to blast air onto your raw nerve! Woo!". And then there's the "relax, I'm just going to take a look [and pull out this wisdom tooth once you allow me access to the back of your mouth!!! AAAHAHAHAHAH SUCKAAAAA!!!!]." One can only take so much of that, and once I give up, lying in that dentist's chair placidly, my dentist will always tap my shoulder, saying "don't tense your shoulders up so much, relax," and if it weren't for the 4 different metal objects in my mouth, I'd tell him that I'm not tensing up, I just have broad shoulders, but thanks for reminding me of my manly attributes.

Even after surviving traumatic wisdom tooth extractions [it involved a hammer and chisel, and yes, I was conscious], I still cringe and whine before a dentist appointment. The association is too strong to have those harmless tooth cleaning sessions absolve the dental profession in my mind. And it's that same unforgiving ball of anxiety that greeted me as I threw my leg over the Dolan last night.

Because for once, it was out in the wild. More familiar [and lighter!] road drops having replaced the anvil that was my steel track drops, I had hoods to grab onto for dear life but I wasn't sure how that would actually translate. I remembered balancing precariously on those white-tired, pink-rimmed wheels and wobbling dangerously as I attempted to keep the track drops straight. I remembered almost biting it a block from my apartment. I remembered how it felt to tear open a few knees on asphalt. I remembered being on a bicycle and feeling slightly afraid.
So I cringed a bit, and felt a little uneasy sticking a foot into the toe clipped pedal. But with a deep breath, I pushed off and it felt easy. Maybe all that time on the rollers paid off. Maybe I just got better at cycling. Maybe riding the Dolan wasn't so terrifying as it was incredibly fun.

The Dolan's light aluminum frame slicing through the last rays of sunlight in the quickly darkening afternoon, I was almost tempted to ride it on the street more. Good thing my gearing borders on the impractically ridiculous if inclines are involved. Because otherwise, as stiff pain reminded me this morning, I may not have much knee left...

it hurts

So apparently going from sitting in a chair in the library for 12 hours a day for three weeks to riding over 100 miles in two days makes for an unhappy knee. Not to mention my ass.
I have knee tracking problems that make my knees sound like velcro when I get up from any kind of squatting position. And now my IT band is all "okay calm the fuck down and cut me a break." Lack of any bike-appropriate gear save for a wind-proof soft shell and a pair of Sidis have me/my butt almost sighing in relief when I see a hill around mile 32, even if my knee's freaking out. And sheer laziness had me sneezing and coughing when I got home yesterday because, despite the wind and rain, I didn't want to stop and put on the jacket in my bag [yes, I go on 40 mile rides with a Baileyworks strapped to my back...don't judge].

It was probably for the best though. I have a whole pile of stuff to be cut, sewn, screened, and assembled. Activities that don't involve putting [too much] pressure on my knee. Although, I admit, I did get a little zealous last night with the sewing machine making it go full-throttle Chinese-sweatshop-style with my foot squeezing the pedal [yes, there is one] against the floor.
And I got more done than I thought I would. Nothing's complete, yet, but I'll have an inventory soon. Or at least Cambridge will. And that list of hats already promised will start to get shorter. Even if my rides get longer. And slightly more painful. Because as long as my knee feels like it's going to snap, crackle, or pop, I'll find time to stay up too late working on cycling caps.

I have lots of new ideas too, and custom jobs that have been shelved for months. They're going to be pretty awesome. Even my knee thinks so.
Get excited.

FMK[nees]

I'm sure most of you know of fmylife.com. First sent to me by a friend a few weeks ago, it's had me hunched over my laptop, giggling in the library for those first 20 minutes or so after I roll into school. Creepy? Yes. Worth it? Totally.
I really should be stretching though, because my knees are falling apart. Well, not both, yet, but the right one's been feeling like someone's throwing darts at it.

It's also had me constantly thinking of that South Park episode where Mr. Garrison gets a sex change and Kyle gets a pair of extended legs. You know the one. That scene where Kyle jumps to make a shot and his knees/Mr. Garrison's testicles explode? Yeah, that.
I know, I should probably stop braking so much with my legs [I have more than enough other brakes], but the fun of it always seems to outweigh common sense. So I end up with knees that are looking ugly both inside and out. And with my new tarck bike bleeding me of funds, I really can't afford a new pair of knees.
I have heard, though, that massive amounts of ice cream might help. I think I might give that a try.