ZappoMan.com - Fitness Blog

What are all these GEARS for?!

March 18th, 2007

Yep, this weekend I went back to a bike with gears… it’s the first time I’ve used gears since last October, and frankly… it’s weird shit man! What am I supposed to do with all these things? And not having to pedal as I slow down? Being able to actually stop spinning my legs? What a strange sensation?

Friday I took my daughter to the swimming pool where I swam laps while she played at the kids center, and then we did a little swimming lesson. She rode the half-bike and since my knee is still bugging me a little I decided to use my hybrid/mountain bike to pull her along. I’ve made some mods to this bike recently reusing the smaller straight handle-bar and padded/road style seat that came with my fixie to trick this bike out a little. Originally the idea was that Tyler would borrow this bike to commute between his house and my house for our strength training sessions. But it’s been too rainy and apparently Tyler is made of salt because he’s afraid to be outside in the rain (I’m pretty sure he’s not made of sugar.) Anyway, I like the new look of the hybrid… with the smaller handle bar it definitely takes on a more aggressive look.

Swimming was fun, Zola is getting much better… I’m slowly moving her up through the TI drills… but she just wants to start swimming like Dad. The problem is that when she turns face down “to swim” she just flails her arms and legs and… you guessed it… sinks! But she’s got awesome form when she’s on her back, with her “hands in her pockets”. And actually when she shifts to her side to be in “sweet spot” she gets very “vertical” or as my TI coach Bob would say “stacked”… She has no idea why this is good form, and she’s very impatient, but I’m really impressed when I see the TI techniques in action with a 4 year old! Wow!

Saturday, was another bad rain day… but that didn’t stop me from riding. This time, I decided to pull out my road bike. Actually, the day started with gray skies and no rain, so I pulled my bike out and did a “spring tuneup” checking out that the chain was nice and clean and lubed up; the tires were in good shape, and all the shifters and brakes were working well. As I ran through the grears on my bike on the bike stand, I knew it was going to be strange riding the bike. Unfortunately before I shoved off… the rain started coming down.

Originally I’d planned on doing the Lake Washington Loop… 51 miles, 2000ft or so of elevation gain… a good 3 hour ride at mellow pace and shorter if you go hard… I was also considering doing my long run for the week as a brick afterwards. But two things changed my mind: the rain, and a call from Ray. Supposedly the gang was heading out tomorrow morning to do the loop. So maybe I’d shorten today’s ride, and do a longer ride with a group tomorrow. The weather looked better for tomorrow so I figured they’d actually make it out. Ok, it was decided… short ride today (only 30miles) and then a run (11.4miles)… and tomorrow morning a longer ride with the gang. Then the rain started really coming down.

I suited up and jumped on my bike… I figured that rain would slow me down a little, but having all these gears, and the ability to brake a little more aggressively probably meant I’d be able to ride a little harder and have a faster average. My first “that’s a strange feeling” moment came about 2 blocks from my house at the a 4 way stop. I actually stopped pedaling as I approached the stop and my brain screamed WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL YOURSELF! And my legs immediately started spinning again. I had to remind myself, “no, it’s ok, you actually can stop pedaling on this bike.” Wow, that was weird!

Anyway, I ended up making it to 10 miles in the first 29minutes, with a 20.7 mph average I had an average heart rate of only 139… for sure, these gears make a big difference! That’s it, I will not be racing with my fixed gear. Ok, I never really contemplated it… but still. I hit 15 miles with a time of about 43 minutes (~21mph), and made a turn around. My heart rate was low, but I was definitely using my legs and pushing a bigger gear than I have on my fixie. It felt good. I don’t have any scientific proof but I do think my fixie training has made my legs stronger.

I was really excited about possibly completing the 30mile ride in exactly 90 minutes… unfortunately at 2 miles to go (with a then average of 19.95 mph) I hit a pack of pedestrians. I didn’t literally hit any of them, but avoiding them pretty much blew my chances of finishing at 20mph or higher. Several road crossing later (all which required me to stop completely) and I reached home with a 19.8mph average.

I through on my running shows and took off my soaking wet bike jersey and headed out for a “slow” long run: 11.4 miles. I ran as slow as I could… and ended up finishing with a 9:10/mile pace and an average heart rate of around 140. I took walk breaks every 2 miles for about 20secs per… just enough to drink a little nuun/water.

This morning I didn’t get up in time to ride with Ray and the gang. Uh, yeah, I can’t blame them… this was all my fault. I was up till about 12:30am… and the idea of waking up and doing a 50mile bike ride after only 4 hours of sleep just didn’t work for me. It turns out that I had much nicer weather when I did my 30 mile jaunt later in the afternoon.

I got to spend the morning with the kids making a huge feast of “Super Cheesey Omelets, English Muffins, Turkey Bacon, and Cantaloupe”. This is one of the two favorite breakfasts that Dad makes for the family. The other (yesterdays fare) is Chocolate Chip and Blueberry pancakes with Fried Eggs. Actually the Turkey Bacon can be served with either… and since I didn’t make it yesterday, they insisted I make it today. Today was an absolutely beautiful sunny Seattle day. So after breakfast, I washed my bikes… since I didn’t want to ride on a sunny day with a really muddy bike. I admit I am not very nice to my bikes… I ride them almost every day, and I don’t wash them every week, let alone after each ride as I should. But if you’re riding around on a sunny day with a muddy bike, you are clearly admitting that you treat your bike like crap… and well… I just can’t do it.

We decided to take the girls for a picnic lunch, and a “bike ride” at the park. The idea was that Saffron would get some “no training wheels” practice, and Zola would get some practice riding with her training wheels. The problem is, when we went out to the wagon (with the bike racks) we discovered that some vandals had decided to smash one of the windows out of our car. MAN! THAT’S LAME! Glass was everywhere, all over the street and inside the car. Amazingly, the car sat out with a broken window most of the night, yet nothing was stolen from the car. Nothing… just random violence. Sad, really. Apparently a police officer came by in the middle of the night and left a note and a blank robbery report for us to fill out. They couldn’t identify the owner of the car because “their computers were down”. Hah! Technology.

Uh… yeah… this post is getting long… but wait there’s more.

So after getting things cleaned up, and heading down to the park within walking distance (instead of the one we planned to drive to) we had a nice little picnic, and both girls got to practice riding their bikes. Saffron has definitely learned all the essential skills of riding her bike without training wheels… but she is still very unsure of the process. ever time she would see someone in front of her, she would take her feet off her pedals and try to stop the bike. Needless to say, this made her wobbly which reinforced her fear of falling in front of an oncoming bicycle… etc. We need to find someplace where she can ride a longer distance without cars, other cyclists, or pedestrians. I am confident that once she has gained a little more confidence she’ll be set.  She did make it two loops around the small concrete patch we were riding on (about the size of a tennis court) without stopping. And so she earned herself a “flashing light” as a reward. I had promised this to her about a month ago when she was making rapid progress on her riding. But the weather has prevented us from practicing for the better part of the last month.

After  we got home I headed out for my ride this today. I did 30 miles again, this time at a slower pace: finishing in 1:40. I also stopped at Recycled Cycles to look for a larger chain ring for my fixie. What?! Yep, I’ve decided that I want to continue to do more training on my fixie, but I need a bigger gear. The 42/18 just isn’t enough! So I found a 48T in the “$5 bin”! Unfortunately like my last $5 project, this one looks like it’s going to start to add up… Tonight when I tried to install it, I discovered that my current chain isn’t quite long enough to fit the new larger chain ring. So, I’ll have to ride my road bike for another couple days until I can buy a new chain (or at least a couple of links to add to my current chain). One more thing to learn about in my DIY bike maintenance self-education. I’ll be a bike mechanic yet!

Week 11 report tomorrow.

Entry Filed under: Living Seattle, Fitness, Triathlon, Ironman, Running, Cycling, Marathons, Friends, fixie, single-speed, fixed-gear, bike maintenance, Daughters, cooking, exercise