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Tour de Florence washout — and sundry stuff

09.12.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

They cancelled the Tour de Florence today.

It was the smart thing to do.  Although forecasts for Ike keep sending it a little farther east, we’ll still get lashing rains and winds of tropical storm force (>39 mph).  They plan to reschedule the Tour for October.  I might be able to use it as my long ride warmup before the century.

So, since I’ll be sitting indoors all day Saturday watching college football, I got in an 18-mile ride this afternoon.  The hurricane is already sending some pretty good wind in our direction, and riding into the north and northeast was a chore.

I had a nice chat with another rider who caught up to me.  He was riding an old bike from the ’70s or ’80s, a British Thunderbird, he said.  But he had taken it down to bare metal, repainted it and rebuilt it.  The paint job was eye-catching: blue top tube and down tube, fading into red for the head tube and seat tube.  He had replaced the down tube shifters with brifters, put on new wheels and better brakes.  It looked like a nice ride, and he could really shoot ahead if he put his mind to it.

Today’s ride was a treat I’d promised myself as a reward for getting my annual physical, which I did today.  Had a bit of a scare in the doctor’s office.  He was looking over the EKG printout, and said, “Don’t put your shirt on just yet — I don’t like the look of this EKG.”  Huh?  He examined it another minute, and said, “Oh.  I see what happened.  She [the physician’s assistant who did the EKG] mixed up the leads.  Where you’re supposed to spike up, it shows a spike down.”

I got hooked up to the machine again, he double checked the connections, and this time it turned out fine.  “With all that biking you’re doing now, your heart should be in better shape, not worse,” he said.  “That’s what got me concerned.”

“So I’m gonna make it?” I asked.

“You’ll make it out the door, anyway,” he replied.

Other encouraging news: An uptick in my cholesterol in my semi-annual check in March may have been a machine error.  He’s trashed the gizmos that read blood drawn by a finger stick — the gizmos that give you your cholesterol figures immediately.  Turned out his machines, at least, were inaccurate by as much as 20 percent.  If the figures from today’s blood drawing are as expected, I’ll cut back my cholesterol medicine to once every other day.

The doc may also have pointed me in the direction of a solution for my numb toe problem.  I’ll have to update that in a future post.

Ike is supposed to barrel through Texas quickly.  We might be able to get out and ride as soon as Sunday.  If college football bores me, I can always clean my chain.

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Categories // Rides Tags // hurricane, Ike, medical, Rides

Sometimes home remedies work — sometimes not

09.07.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

It looks like the cut on the shoe helped the toe numbness — but just a bit. I got the tingling sensation at about mile 24 of today’s ride. I’ve got some additional treatments for the shoe lined up, but whatever I do, it’s going to ruin the shoe in the long run. So I expect that new shoes are in my future at some point. And they’ll have to be wides. By the way, do most bike shoes come in widths? Or do only a few companies make different widths? I really haven’t paid much attention to the different makes and models out there.

Autumn is trying to sneak up on central Texas. The official overnight low was 72°F (22°C), but it felt like the 60s when we started the ride. That made for great riding conditions, and the ride itself was very encouraging. It was the Fitzhugh Road route again — one I enjoy, but one I have had trouble with in the past because of its rolling hills. I had hoped several B riders would join up, so we could ride the rollers without trying to match the pace of the A riders.

But I was the only B to show up today. I told the ride leader I would turn around at Ranch Road 12, where the group takes a break. They continue on for another 10 miles or so.

Son of a gun, when we got out to Fitzhugh Road, I was still in the middle of the pack. The hill routes I have been riding recently must be working. I was mentally patting myself on the back for the next couple miles, when suddenly I looked up — and I was alone.

I don’t know when they kicked it up a notch, but evidently I didn’t get the message. Lucky for me, the ride leader considers it his job to be the “sweep,” and he was off the back of the pack, too. We rode the several miles to Ranch Road 12 together.

The group takes a break at Ranch Road 12. This was where I turned around.

The ride back was routine — heavier traffic on Fitzhugh this morning than usual — and when I got to the corner of U.S. 290 and Fitzhugh I noticed the numb toe thing. A short walk around the convenience store parking lot, a brief break to drain my water bottle, and off for home.

Totals: 33.5 miles, 15.1 mph avg speed. Next week is the metric century warmup for the century ride in October.

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Categories // Equipment, Rides, training Tags // hills, numb, Rides, shoes, toes, training

Biking stats update

09.01.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

Back at the end of April, I took a look at my riding stats for the first four months of the year. Now, the second four months has gone by, so it’s time to update those numbers:

  • May-August: 54 rides
  • Total mileage: 1167
  • Total for 2008:1814
  • Average speed: 14.87 mph
  • Highest avg. speed on a single ride: 16.8
  • Highest maximum speed on a single ride: 39.5
  • Longest single ride: 52.5
  • Monthly mileage
    • May: 298
    • June: 203
    • July: 344
    • August: 322

The biggest difference in the January-April and May-August timeframes is the amount of riding I’ve done. It almost doubled over the second four months. That’s partly to be expected because of warmer weather and more available riding time. The measures of central tendency haven’t changed much, with average speed up only .2 mph. But, I’ve talked before about my preference for just riding over training. What the stats don’t show is that my endurance and strength are better. Despite the occasional dip, I feel like I am a better rider than I was.

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Categories // Records & stats, Rides, training Tags // avg. speed, Rides, stats, training

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