The Zen of Biking

Last weekend when I rode my bike to the Civic Center, I was asked how far it was. I responded somewhat apologetically, having ridden just one direction, "only 34 miles."

When did 34 miles become "ONLY"?

I cringed at how that probably sounded leaving my mouth, I didn't mean it in any sort of snobby way. But like a lot of things, the mind and body adapt so what once seemed daunting, becomes just normal. My typical long ride is about 50, but for many other cyclists and regular century riders (100 miles), 50 is short. It's all relative.

I think riding long is largely about finding a certain "zen" state -- the mind are body are relaxed, legs are on autopilot, thoughts become quiet, and the rider is simply in the moment. Time and miles fly by. That's how rides become "only" however many miles. (I should clarify that a different sort of zen state is needed for focused interval and race pace work on the bike.)

Today I also rode "only" 34 miles to and from McCoy Falls at the New River (pictured above). As I went along, I thought more about that response and how four years ago, my pre-triathlete and pre-cycling self could not have conceived of riding to the river and back. How do I view cycling now, versus then?

Well, I don't think about a ride in its totality, as a cumulative effort (math brain is thinking integral - area under the elevation profile, lol). I allocate the time, get on the bike and just go. Cycling has taught me to be very much in the now as the world reduces to the pavement around me, the road ahead, and the sights along the way.

With our rolling hills, it's not 34 miles of constant top-level exertion and intense focus. Most of the time I'm not even thinking about pedaling. The legs just know their job and do it.

Biking provides sufficient low-level tasks to quiet the mental chatter --  shifting, monitoring the road surface, navigating, and staying vigilant for potential hazards -- while leaving room for the more important or creative thoughts.

Staying in the now means you don't fret about what is to come because what matters is the road you can see in front of you. You learn that even if you're headed up a quad-buster, the pain is quickly forgotten on the other side.

Learning to ride for any distance is as much mental as it is physical and going longer just means holding hold that zen-like state longer. It simply requires getting out there and putting in the rides that ask the body and mind to adapt. That automatic adaptation process is one of the most fascinating aspects of sport for me. That's what lets us wake up one day and say things like "only 34 miles" and wonder when that happened!

60 miles is my longest bike ride to date, but I'm getting the itch for some longer "zen"!

Do the Pre-Ride "ABC Quick Check"

Before most rides, I inflate my tires, pick the bike up, and give each wheel a quick spin. Today I did not.

Hmmm, can you guess where this story is headed?

I left the house on "Ace" the road bike to do a short-ish ride with some quality tempo/recovery repeats. The bike was not shifting well and it would bounce up or down a cog. Sometimes that happens, I thought perhaps it just needed an adjustment.

Midway through a grinding section, the pedals stopped dead, crank arms horizontal. The chain jumped the smallest cog and was wedged next to the frame. I got off the bike safely, yanked the chain out, and put it back where it belonged. I figured I'd just avoid that gear.

I headed home and it got worse and worse. As luck would have it, one of our prominent bike advocates in the New River Valley Bicycle Association, Ed, was coming up an adjacent road. I hobbled alongside and he offered to take a look.

He immediately diagnosed that my rear skewer was very loose and the wheel was barely on the frame. A quick tightening and a run through the gears had it back to normal. I was pretty fortunate to avoid a wreck or other disastrous outcome. Had I taken a moment to check out the bike either before the ride or after the chain incident, I probably would have noticed.

I'm going to do a better job with the pre-ride "ABC Quick Check" now. Please do the same and ride safely!

1. A is for air
   • Inflate tires to rated pressure as listed on the sidewall of the tire
   • Use a pressure gauge to insure proper pressure
   • Check for damage to tire tread and sidewall; replace if damaged
2. B is for brakes
   • Inspect pads for wear; replace is there is less than ¼" of pad left
   • Check pad adjustment; make sure they do not rub tire or dive into spokes
   • Check brake level travel; at least 1" between bar and lever when applied
3. C is for cranks, chain and cassette
   • Make sure that your crank bolts are tight; lube the threads only, nothing else
   • Check your chain for wear; 12 links should measure no more than 12 1/8 inches
   • If your chain skips on your cassette, you might need a new one or just an adjustment
4. Quick is for quick releases
   • Hubs need to be tight in the frame; your quick release should engage at 90°
   • Your hub quick release should point back to insure that nothing catches on it
   • Inspect brake quick releases to insure that they have been re-engaged
5. Check is for check it over
   • Take a quick ride to check if derailleurs and brakes are working properly
   • Inspect the bike for loose or broken parts; tighten, replace or fix them
   • Pay extra attention to your bike during the first few miles of the ride 
   
   
   
   

What my "off season" looks like

"Off season" can vary greatly from person to person and there's no single roadmap. I guess it depends on how beat up we are from racing, the other demands of life, and preference. Some people (i.e. me) want a little more structure, some prefer little to none.

I really don't know how most people do their off season. I figured I'd share what mine looks like because I'm curious what it is for others.

The first week and a half was wide open. I swam once, biked twice, ran twice, and hit the gym twice, but it was all fun and low intensity, and several of those days I did nothing workout-y. Coach Jim and I met during that time and reviewed the year, looked at my Training Peaks data to date, and talked generally about the approach moving forward - the training balance among the three sports, volume, and goals for 2013. We'll meet again and talk specifics early next year.

Off-season does not mean a cessation of training. It means training with lower volume (right now at about 2/3 of what it was), more flexibility, and no need for race-specificity. By that I mean, there's no work at dialed-in paces (i.e. 1 mile at 6:20 pace) or defined intervals right now. There's still quality interval-like work, but it's in the form of things like running "ups" (tempo) and "downs" (recovery).  Training still has structure (which I prefer/need) but it has opened up quite a bit.

Off-season also means:

1. More FUNctional training - biking and running as transportation to get somewhere
2. A return to some trail running
3. Riding the road bike
4. Adding legs back into the strength training routine. I had stopped last February with my hip injury and never resumed since I was racing well and frankly it scared me to mess with that.
5. Rehabbing the shoulder that has not been great for probably a year 
6. Enjoying other sports - hopefully some skiing/snowboarding with the kids and hiking
7. Sleeping more (maybe)

Off-season means a chunk of my brain has cleared out, leaving more room to think about other things. That's been both good and bad. My poor boss...I've had this incoming rush of "good ideas" that I really need to filter and organize rather than just doing the impulse Skype IM blurts throughout the day.

Off-season means doing those things that I so easily justified procrastinating for months and months because it was "Race Season." For instance, yesterday I:

• took the compact fluorescent bulbs to be recycled (the ones that have been in my car for four months)
• picked up my kid's teeth molds from last spring to take to the soon-to-be orthodontist
• ironed the white pants and eyelet shirt that I wore early summer, washed, and never wore again because they needed to be ironed for the last many months.

Off-season means more family focus and getting ready for the holidays. And starting on the jigsaw puzzles that await us, unopened. Soon. Very soon. Bring on those snow days!!

Off-season means the diet relaxes some. I managed to pack on a few pounds in New Zealand and the kids and I will do a good bit of holiday cookie baking next month, so in and around that I'll stick to my normal eating to keep things in check. But for sure there will be an allowance for cookies, and wine, and chocolate....

So that's how things look for me. How about you?

2013 Race Schedule

 

The 2013 Set Up race schedules came out November 1. Set Up Events runs the Virginia Triathlon Series that I've raced the past three years, along with race series from Georgia to Maryland and standalone events like Bone Island Tri in Key West, and Beach 2 Battleship. They are very organized, top-notch events, I see my friends there, and the events are fairly close. That helps to minimize cost and time away from the family.

It took me about 15 minutes to come up with next year's schedule. With the "A races" and the Boston Marathon nailed nailed down, I only needed to fill in with VTS races that fit between Boston and Worlds. The date and location for Nationals is still only rumor, but I'm hoping it's true it was moved up a weekend.

This schedule includes 9 triathlons and 1 marathon. I did 9 triathlons and no marathons in 2012 and that was plenty! There's only one pool swim on the schedule (yay) but not nearly enough Olympic races. The few VTS Olys don't work well around the big races :-( I may need to refine this and switch out a race to get another Oly on there.

04/15/13 Boston Marathon
05/04/13 Appalachian Power Smith Mountain Lake Triathlon (sprint)
06/02/13 Salem YMCA Sprint Triathlon 
06/22/13 Bath County Triathlon (sprint)
07/13/13 YMCA Colonial Beach Sprint Triathlon
07/14/13 YMCA Colonial Beach International Triathlon
08/10/13  USAT Nationals Sprint
08/11/13  USAT Nationals Olympic
09/08/13 Patriots Sprint – tuneup for Words
09/22/13  London ITU World Age Group Championships - Olympic and poss. Aquathon

My thought is then to change things up in 2014 and maybe look at trying to qualify for something like the 5150 National Championships or do the Set Up Cup race series that spans all the Set Up series. But for this year, there are plenty of big challenges. I'm glad for my base races to be the familiar.

Ride to the Green Living & Energy Expo

Me with fellow triathlete, Kimberly. We triathletes like sustainable energy!!

This first week back was focused on keeping my head above water. My sleep schedule was a wreck (ooh, midnight! time to get up!), it was Halloween (thank you ebay seller for the kid's costume ordered October 17 that arrived November 1), and of course we had some rough weather from Frankenstorm Sandy (thankfully no power outages). Plus I was restoring order to the family and getting back into work.

But come Saturday, I was feeling some "adventure withdrawal" made worse by having just watched the Phil Keoghan documentary,  "The Ride," about his bike ride across America for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. (I'd highly recommend it - avail on iTunes)

.....So the Green Living and Energy Expo was Friday and Saturday in Roanoke, Virginia and Solar Connexion was exhibiting. I had the great idea that I should ride my bike the 30+ miles to the Civic Center, help pack up the booth (in my bike shoes, LOL), and bum a ride back to town. So that's what I did, despite quite a bit of anxiety about riding to a place in "the city" with the last bit along a route I was just picking randomly from a map.

I said to the hubs, should I do it? He said yes, so I went for it. It was my first non-loop, non out-and-back ride ever.

I figured I'd ride super carefully and conservatively and go. The first 20 miles are my normal country roads. Then I hit some busier mountain roads, then off into urban neighborhoods I did not know. Really, it generally went fine until the last mile or so where I had little choice but to be amidst the four lane traffic, lights, and turn lanes. Though the ride was "only" 34 miles, I had NO desire to ride back through that traffic and was glad for the ride back. Here's the Garmin map/data.

I'm glad I did this, but I'm sad that there are big public places like this that are so scary to get to by bike. The ride itself was not difficult (only the traffic was), and it took me ONLY twice as long, pedaling easy, to get there by bike as by car. I think it's pretty astounding, really, that a trip that is nearly an hour by car was less than two hours by bike.

It was a cool experience for sure.