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How To Join a Bike Club – Part 1

04.06.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount suggests you not join the first bike club you hear about — first, check out several, then decide.

One of my riding goals for this year was to begin doing group rides. Mostly because of my schedule, it’s difficult for me to find time to ride with others. During the week I have work. Sunday mornings, when many groups go out, I have church and I also have young children at home, and a wife.

But I do have a window on Saturday mornings. So I have targeted a few of those a month as an opportunity to get out.

I found that just picking a group and riding with them isn’t as easy as it appears.

I had to figure out what I wanted in a club and as part of that process, I e-mailed three groups within a 45-minute drive of my home.

One of three, the Stanislaus County Bicycle Club I didn’t hear back from for weeks (more on this group later).

The Stockton (Calif.) Bicycle Club got back to me within a few days but said most of the rides they were doing in March were too difficult for people just coming out. One of the membership people sent a followup e-mail: “The SBC rides are often heavy with Type-A’s.  Many of us are retired with time and disposable income. Sometimes the rides are not friendly to the new person but you’re doing the right thing by making inquires … hah!”

He went on: “That’s the other thing — we are mostly in the AARP-Social Security Range. Young riders come out but it’s almost always ‘one and done’.  Can’t blame ’em.”

So it didn’t sound too attractive.

I also received an e-mail from the third group, the Sacramento (Calif.) Wheelmen. This is a large group, its website says it has 600 members. The group usually has three to four rides each Saturday. One of those often begins about a 40-minute drive from my home.

“We hope you can join us. You don’t have to be a member to join us on rides, but if you do, you might decide to join up.”

I did join them for a 40-miler on a recent windy Saturday.

I had a good time in spite of the wind. I was most surprised to see that most of these riders were older than me. One guy was 75 and logged 15,000 miles last year. That’s farther than I drove my car.

When I asked how he managed to do that, one of the others chimed in, “He’s retired!”

The ride leader was 70 years old.

They weren’t hammer heads. I could even hang with the A group, but that may have been because of the wind as they just tried to keep the group together.

I had an enjoyable time riding with them and may look for other opportunities to ride with them again.

I’m not looking to race and I doubt I would socialize much with this group, in part because of the distance from my home. But I found the joy in riding with others.

This experience would become my baseline for comparison when I joined the Stockton Bicycle Club for a ride two weeks later.


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Ramp It Up to Make a Difference

04.04.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

Things can turn around markedly in just a week’s time. Last week, I was concerned that I didn’t finish 65 miles, bailing from the ride at about 56. I was sore, tired, out of water, and moving slowly against an unrelenting headwind.

The DNF made me feel bad though, and over this past week, I’ve redoubled my efforts to get into decent biking shape. The day after the DNF, I did a spirited 25 miles with just as strong a headwind as the day before. On Tuesday, I met one of the club members at the Veloway, and he paced me for a couple laps at an intensity I usually don’t ride. Friday, 20 miles of hard work, including three hill loops of a decent suburban residential street with a grade that used to wipe me out after one climb.

Saturday, Pat and I decided to join the Hill Country Ride for AIDS group on one of their training rides. The route was interesting. One circuit covered 23 miles, a good ride for Pat. However, riders had the option of going around on a second loop, for a 40-mile total. I took that option, and even though the loop had a few longish challenging hills, I felt fresh at the end of the ride. My average speed was 15.9 mph, at the high end of my usual averages.

Sunday, I skipped the club ride because of a light rain. I figured I’d wait until the wetness cleared out in the afternoon. Sure enough, everything was dry by 2 p.m. and the temp had climbed to 82°F (27°C). The brisk wind from the southeast didn’t bother me as it did just a few weeks ago.

When I toted up my rides for the last seven days, I rode 108 miles. That’s nowhere near the farthest I’ve ever ridden in a week, but it’s the farthest I’ve ridden this year, and maybe for months before that.

Clearly, things are shaping up for me. And it’s happened in the course of only one week. What caused the improvement?

I pushed myself. Instead of allowing myself to ride at my usual pace, I made it a point to shift up one gear higher than normal and pedal harder. The hill repeats were never a regular part of my riding. I’ve made it a point to get more saddle time (sometimes to the chagrin of my derriere).

Just riding the way you always ride won’t bring improvement. You have to ramp up the effort. I’ve put in more miles and greater intensity this week, and it’s paying off.

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Convenience Store Food

04.01.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 12 Comments

Whenever I go on longer rides — more than an hour and a half or so — I take along an energy bar, some Nuun tablets, and two water bottles. I make use of them all, but I usually add another source of sustenance: the convenience store.

Often, our informal rest stops happen in convenience store parking lots. It’s only natural to go inside and make a small purchase. But what to buy?

I start out by looking for G2, the lower-sugar Gatorade. I prefer the flavor to the original Gatorade. I’ll knock off half a bottle, and pour the rest into one of my water bottles. If I don’t want the energy bar I packed — usually a Lara Bar — I can always scour the shelves for a substitute. One of my favorites is the good old Pay Day candy bar. It’s a layer of peanuts, wrapped around a caramel-nougat center. The peanuts are a little salty — just the thing to help replace all the sweat I’ve been losing.

I’ve also noticed that Snickers now makes an energy bar of sorts. It’s still a candy bar, but not the Snickers we’re all familiar with. Good for a quick shot of energy, but I’m certain it provides nowhere near the nutrient replenishment of a real energy bar.

Salty snack food might be a good choice, too. Maybe a small bag of pretzels.

Honestly, I haven’t been riding far enough lately to test all of my in-ride junk food urges, but I think that once my mileage picks up, I might be doing it more often.

How about you? Are you a healthy eater while on a long ride, or do you occasionally (or frequently) give into temptation and pig out on some yummy stuff? And if you do, what kind of convenience store food do you prefer? I’m always open to new ideas.

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