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Archives for March 2009

Dealing with injury

03.26.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

Since I began biking almost two years ago, I’ve been lucky when it comes to injuries.  I haven’t had any to speak of.  Oh, I know I’ve griped about my numb toe too often.  (By the way, those new shoes of mine have indeed taken care of that problem.  On a two and a half hour ride last weekend, I had barely a twinge out of it.)  There was some soreness after my crash last fall, but nothing to keep me from riding.

That’s a nice departure from my running days, when I used to develop injuries fairly often.  If I could, I’d run through the pain.  Sometimes that was fine — sometimes, it aggravated the problem.

I bring this up, because I got a recent email from reader Don, in California.  He said:

Last week I injured my back and left hip, I believe it came from having my left foot too toed in while riding, which caused aggravation along the tendon that runs in that area. I took two days off, iced and did Tylenol. I’m fine. But that still leads to the question of how to handle biking injuries? 

We look on with amazement as Lance Armstrong has surgery for a collarbone fracture that was worse than first thought, then gets patched up with a five-inch steel plate and a dozen screws, and is expected to be on the trainer in a week, and back to racing in eight to twelve weeks.  But that’s Lance.

How about you?  What kind of injuries have you had to deal with, and what was recovery like?  What did you do to come back, and how long did it take?

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Categories // Injury, soreness Tags // Injury, soreness

How fast have you gone?

03.24.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 17 Comments

This evening after work, I hit the Veloway for my usual Tuesday night ride.  My friend David was waiting at the entrance, and we started a small ring ride, not particularly aiming for any speed.  We kept up a steady pedal cadence, passed a few bikers, and got passed by more.  It’s a ride I’ve built into my weekly schedule, and I look forward to it.

A Blackburn Delphi 2 from the Nashbar catalog.
A Blackburn Delphi 2 from the Nashbar catalog.

But the ease of the ride got me thinking: What about really trying to go fast?  I’ve found myself in situations on nice downhill grades where I try to wring every last tenth of a mile per hour out of my bike.

For me, anything over 30 mph is fast.  I know I’m on an interesting stretch of road when my speed tops 36.  But once I get to about 38, things get a bit problematic.

My Specialized Allez is a terrific bike, but it can be a little twitchy.  At high speeds, it feels a tad unstable, although that often has something to do with the condition of the road surface.  Oddly enough, getting down in the drops doesn’t seem to help.  I find myself trying to relax as much as possible, and let the bike take over.

The highest speed I’ve ever hit is 39 mph.  I’ve done it twice.  The first time was on an organized ride, and I can’t remember where I clocked that number.  It just registered as the top speed on my cyclocomputer, and I discovered it when I checked it at the end of the ride.  The second time was on a Sunday morning club ride.  We were on a rolling hills section through a nice residential neighborhood.  The street was wide and smooth, and gave us a view far ahead in the distance.  I saw no traffic ahead, and cranked the bike as fast as I could.  I saw the 39 come and go, and thought it was pretty cool.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the fastest I ever go.  For me to attack the speed barrier, I think I’ll need a more stable bike.  My old steel Raleigh was a joy to ride on a quick downhill — it was rock solid.  But I never did get that bike up above 35.  

I’m also at the point where speed is not an important goal.  Hey, I’m no spring chicken anymore, and we tend to get a little more cautious — er, prudent — in our old age.  A blowout last spring on a high speed downhill will do that to a guy.

I’ll continue to enjoy the sensation of speed.  But breaking the 40 mph bar is not on my radar.  How about you?  Do you make a conscious effort to go as fast as you can on descents?  What’s the fastest you’ve ever gone?  What did it feel like?  Is there an even higher speed somewhere inside you?

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Categories // training Tags // speed

What’s for breakfast?

03.22.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

Two weeks ago, we were on a group ride on a rolling hills route.  As usual, the A group riders left me far behind.  Although I felt fine, I turned back early, with another rider who couldn’t keep up either.  His friend tried to stay with the lead pack, but showed up at our Starbucks finish line about 10 minutes behind us.

“I just had nothing left,” he said.  “I could barely make it up that final hill.  I could hardly move my legs to pedal.”

That sounded like a classic bonk to me, and I asked him what he had had for breakfast.

360 calories -- From The Diet Blog
360 calories -- From The Diet Blog.

“An energy bar,” he said.  “How about you?”

“A bowl of Cheerios with raisins and bananas, two frozen multi-grain blueberry waffles, a glass of orange juice and half a cup of coffee,” I replied.

“Man, I wish I’d done that,” he said.

The breakfast topic came up again on this morning’s ride.  My friend David asked me what I’d eaten this morning.  It was essentially the same thing as last time, but substituting toast with jam for the waffles.

“I had two scrambled eggs, bacon and toast,” he said.  “Usually I like oatmeal dribbled with honey.”

Well, I’ve never been an oatmeal guy.  But I learned the hard way last year that you need to fuel up before a bike ride.

325 calories -- From The Diet Blog
325 calories -- From The Diet Blog

The obvious thing is to bulk up on carbohydrates.  My cereal and banana work there.  Lance Armstrong’s training coach, Chris Carmichael, said in USA Today during Lance’s last Tour de France win that his breakfast is a big one: Two bowls of whole grain cereal topped with skim milk and fresh fruit, a three- or four-egg omelet and some pasta, rice or potatoes.

“And don’t forget the two cups of Peet’s Coffee,” Carmichael said.

That might be why I was never in danger of bonking last fall during my century ride.  I stopped at a McDonald’s on the way there, and had two sausage-and-egg burritos, a hash brown potato patty (yeah, I know — greasy — not a good thing) and coffee.  It was filling, and got me off to a good start.

I’ve read that you need about 400 calories for breakfast on ride day.  The breakfasts David and I had this morning should meet that target.  My only problem is, I’d like some variety in what I eat.

What kind of eating strategy do you follow for breakfast?  And what do you eat?  Let’s try to get lots of different suggestions.

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Categories // food Tags // food

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