Cyclist

From Downloads

I’m working my way toward the Senior Olympics in San Francisco. Mike Olheiser planned my workouts for the week to include 5-minute hard-as-I-could-go efforts with five minutes easy riding between efforts. He told me to repeat this five times. That’s a total of 25 very hard minutes of riding. Somehow, I managed to put an extra step in the Garmin program and three of my hard efforts went over the five-minute mark. One of them went for over ten minutes. One would think I should have been aware of going twice the length on a hard interval. Plus, I lost count and actually did seven intervals. Looking back, I can see that I must not have put absolutely everything into those efforts because there shouldn’t be anything left at the end.

I think the awareness problem comes about once a threshold of discomfort gets crossed. Once I’m into that area of misery, I feel like I can probably stay with it for a while. I start panting and wondering if I’ll suddenly run out of fuel. My vision gets a little bouncy and it’s a bit narrow. I really try to keep an awareness of cars and dogs that could spoil my day, but frankly the vision thing is a little impaired, not to mention my ability to count.

Trying to do time trials (TT’s) on a charity road ride may not be the best way to practice, but I did get some opportunities for TT bike handling that I don’t get everyday…certainly not on Redstone Arsenal. Rough roads, hill climbs, curves, and dogs brought a little more of a challenge to the day. Once an interval begins, I must try to keep my effort as high as I can sustain for five minutes. If a dog comes out or a hill or intersection comes up, I try to stay focused and keep the effort going while remaining safe.

Today was especially blessed with dogs. One German shepherd ran in front of my bike uphill during one of my efforts. No way to outrun him, I tried to use my charm on him, but he ignored me. Thank goodness. On a steep downhill heading into a turn on a rough patch of pavement, one large part Labrador and a smaller mutt were waiting in the middle of the road. The smaller dog tried to cut me off. I swerved around him and accelerated to avoid him and his larger cousin, or father, or mother, who knows?

A number of Team Rednecks showed up to ride. Jersey John came back to the land of the living. We’re glad to see him back on his bike. Danielle emailed and said she finished the 45-miler in two hours ride time along with George and Mark. Eze, Mad Man, Hunter, and assorted new female Rednecks took the plunge as well. Rain hit the last five miles or so. My shoes were soaked along with every other piece of clothing, but I finished up with 19.2 average, came home and got out the Warp9 road bike to add a couple of hours of easy riding.

So, where did the title, “Just Ride on with Your Fancy Bike,” come from? The first interval I did I passed all of the fast riders and when I hit the throttle, they all disappeared. They had no idea I was doing intervals. I just looked like an over-exuberant old man passing them on an Orbea Ordu. When I sat up to recover, they eventually passed me one at a time. We came to a decision point on the course and I asked one of the fast group members if this was the course for the 45-miler. He said, “Just ride on with your fancy bike.” I don’t know exactly what he meant, but I think he smugly felt that he’d caught the old guy on the fancy bike. I said, “I would, but I’m doing intervals,” and took off on the shorter course.

The end of a perfect day.
~Dangerous Dave

Doug kindly took us on four of the Five Finger Redstone Arsenal Ride. Early risers, Danielle, Paul, Doug, started out at 6:00 AM. The cool morning and the wild turkey (an actual wild turkey, not the whiskey) on this peaceful, traffic free spin made me appreciative of the freedom to ride in this civilian and military sanctuary. Billions of dollars have been poured into this place. Incredible achievements in space and military technology set this area apart from many other areas of the country. We rode along passing through the guard gate escorted by Doug. Every time I ride out here on quiet weekends, I can’t help thinking about all the challenging work that goes into this place during the week plus its remarkable history (including mustard gas production). But, we get to ride the quiet, protected roads almost by ourselves. I always feel rich when we do this. Here’s the map of Doug’s Four Finger Redstone Arsenal Ride. Stay tuned for the five finger version.

~David

It looks like we made up for the drought the last few years. Generally, most thinking cyclists don’t start out to ride in the rain. We’ll risk getting caught in the rain, but commonsense dictates that you don’t start in the rain. Bikes don’t handle as well in the rain, visibility becomes limited, and stopping on an oily slick road doesn’t leave much room for error when you’re mixed in with automobiles.

If we listened to the weather forecasters in Huntsville, Alabama, we’d rarely venture out of the house, let alone ride a bike. The hype of the TV weather persons featuring dreaded severe weather alerts and warnings raises the anxiety of people with anxiety disorders and makes others overly cautious. Almost all weather forecasts are inaccurate; the question is by how much. I’ve learned to actually look outside in order to determine if I should ride. Yes, the forecasts have some utility, but the radar screens from the National Weather Service let us see if rain may be headed our way. Yesterday, Big George Ritter and I communicated by cell phone as we looked outside and checked the radar. We found a potential break in the rain on radar, watched for the rain to stop and the streets begin to dry, and then headed for an Arsenal ride.

Bouncing Bob Knowling, Big George and I got in about thirty miles before they had to head home for family responsibilities and I went for a river ride. On my workout schedule, Mike Olheiser listed a 3-4 hour ride “keeping heart rate under 130 if possible.” Riding with these two made that difficult, but I kept reigning myself in and didn’t exceed that limit for any long periods of time.

After we went our separate ways, I headed south on the marathon course and found two other cyclists squeezing in a ride. They were gracious enough to let me tag along. I tucked in behind them to keep my heart rate down. When we made the intersection of Cadillac and Lily Flag, a man driving a red Doge Ram pick-up truck swung wide around the turn from Lily Flag onto Valley View Drive. The woman yelled out the window, “Get off the road!” I yelled back, “Get a bike!” My new companions were impressed with my quick thinking and commented how that phrase rhymed with “Take a hike!” I had forgotten that Presidential Assistants sometimes drive red pick-ups.

After we made the turn for home at Ditto Landing, thunder clouds began looming over our heads. For safety’s sake we had to pick up the pace a bit. It turned out we all lived within a few miles of each other and the last rider, Martin, and myself parted company at Randolph School when I split for my ride up the hill to my house.

It turned out to be a beautiful time to ride in spite of the gloomy weather forecast. We got in a good ride and met another Presidential Assistant out to teach cyclists how to drive. The end of a perfect day!

~Dangerous Dave

From Cycling

Darling Downhill Danielle (right, front row) provided good company for the fifty-miler which was part of the Tour de Cure fundraiser. Somehow, without much riding, she stays fit through her other activities managing to climb Cecil Ashburn and High Mountain Road and average 15.5 mph. We arrived at the finish and wondered about our team mates doing the 75 and 100 mile loops. My excuse for not doing the 100 was a Time Trial on Sunday and I needed to keep some life in my legs.

Rednecks gathered in good numbers for the American Diabetes Association’s annual Tour de Cure. Rednecks raised a bit over $7,200 this year, but the Tour was way under the $85,000 target at about $40,000. Perhaps the shortfall represents the economic downturn after the stock market crash last October. Huntsville doesn’t seem that affected, but people may be more inhibited by the economic news. Nothing seems to affect behavior more than negative thinking.

This ride started out as the Four Hills Century and the challenge brought out close to 300 riders the first year (if memory serves). The number may have been around 100 this year. A lack of hills may have taken out the challenge; the minimum entry fee of $150 may have caused some to shy away, and competing race events may have had an effect. Some people said they felt awkward asking people to contribute money so they could ride. Curing diabetes should be enough of a cause to overcome shyness, but people may not really understand what an impact a cure might have on their own lives even if they don’t have a friend or relative with Type I or II.

Close to a quarter million deaths were attributable to diabetes in 2002. Diabetes causes all kinds of risk factors and complications with other medical conditions. According to the American Diabetes Association website “The total annual economic cost of diabetes in 2007 was estimated to be $174 billion. Medical expenditures totaled $116 billion and were comprised of $27 billion for diabetes care, $58 billion for chronic diabetes-related complications, and $31 billion for excess general medical costs.

Frankly, there were races that may have been more fun on the same date, but there weren’t many causes that serve humanity that have a good chance of being solved like diabetes. So, I guess I’ll ride again next year for the same cause, but I’ll step up my campaign and try to bring in more cash.

Dangerous Dave

Frankly, I’ve never used the word Bodacious. It must be a Southern word because I never really hear it except in movies or television programs depicting some unsophisticated Southern individual describing something in a most positive way. Today was beautiful, starting out cool and warming up just around 70 degrees. A bodacious day to ride! About ten of us showed up for a 65+ miler making a Big Loop around New Hope and back into town over High Mountain Road.

Most everybody did a turn at the front which kept the pace pretty high. Eddy and Frances got us out of town pulling us on their tandem. Sitting on the wheel of that tandem is like motor-pacing.    We hit some good intervals, but my favorite is the one we did on Dug Hill Road. Dug hill has a winding, well-paved surface with flats, slight rises and down hills. The rises make the legs burn and the slight down hills make you want to keep the pace high. Great fun! Worn out at the end, the 39 x 23 slowed me way down as I tried to slog over the last hill. We ended the ride with about four of us left as people split off and went to take care of their honey-do lists. 

Tomorrow, we get to put on Huntsville Speedway Omnium. More later.  ~Dangerous Dave    

Okay, the Cardinal came back and brought a skiff of snow. I will offer him some birdseed. Maybe he’ll leave me alone, the sun will come out and I’ll get to ride this afternoon. See his brother’s photo below.

~Dangerous Dave

Cardinal Mocking Me

Waiting here at 8:00 AM to ride at 9:00 AM watching the rain hit the concrete around the pool cover. A fat Cardinal sits on a limb in my back yard. He can fly in this weather, and here I sit hoping for the rain to stop and the roads to dry. Some cyclists with less anxiety about riding in the rain than me get out and make the best of it. I’ll ride in the cold and the heat and the wind. I’ll even ride in the rain if I get caught in it, but I don’t go when the roads are wet. Well there was the exception last year when several Rednecks raced in a 40K Road Race trying to qualify for the National Senior Olympics. I sprinted and won my age group finishing second overall (finishing ahead of racers ten or more years younger doesn’t bear anything but psychological significance). Sometimes you must ride and ride fast in the rain, but only when it’s necessary.

The concussion I received from going down on an oil slick on a wet road soured my attitude on cycling in the rain more than 25 years ago. A neighborhood lady saw me lying in a ditch. “Sir, Sir, are you alright?” She said my eyes rolled back in my head and I lay back down in the ditch. She left and brought her husband back. I vaguely remember directing them to my house. My wife checked out my mental status. She asked me the date. My doctorate in counseling taught me how to do mental status exams. I knew what she was doing. I couldn’t however, think of the date. I said, “Wait a minute, and I’ll figure it out.” That incident taught me to stay off wet roads. Brain damage can happen even wearing a helmet.

I put out an email and said the rain gods took our ride away. I rode the trainer doing three steady state intervals at 90% maximum heart rate. Afterward, the sun came out for ten minutes and the road began to dry. I mocked the Cardinal and put out a new email even though my legs felt like noodles after the hard work out. Let’s ride. Bob, Mark, Freddie, and Scott met me at Grissom. Scott tacked another ten miles or so onto his 35-miler and Mark, Bob and I got a 30-miler down to the river and back. Freddie went on to do a circuit toward New Hope and back into town over Cecil. We got hit with small rain droplets at the beginning. Bob broke his chain as we were headed for the finish and called his sag wagon (read, patient wife). The perfect end to a perfect day. Any bike ride you can walk away from makes a perfect ride.

I should stop poking fun at golfers. I’m just as bad; waiting for a break in the weather; getting out at every opportunity; spending hours out on the road; hanging out with people with similar interests.

~Dangerous Dave

From Bikes Etc. Forty Plus Miler

More pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/david.barnhart6313/BikesEtcFortyPlusMiler?authkey=i3XTYD_HS5Y&feat=directlink

Several weeks ago, Saris, the company that sells CycleOps PowerTap devices, announced a contest. Cyclists could submit a sample of their writing, a link to their blog (if they were already blogging), and if selected, a number of lucky blokes would receive a Power Tap for their bike. In return, the winners would blog their training experience on a regular basis. I thought this would be the perfect match for me. I blog, I keep training data, I am disciplined, and I write well enough.

Maybe Saris would choose an older cyclist. Older cyclists have some disposable income I thought, perhaps I would be chosen. Alas, I have not been selected, yet I keep up my hopes that somebody will see the wisdom of choosing me. This could be the tale of the cyclist trudging back from broken bones to compete in the National Senior Games’ Senior Olympics in San Francisco. Frankly, that story would not attract many young folks. I can’t imagine a twenty-five year old saying, “I want to be like that old man!” Never mind that he may not be able to stay on my wheel. I’m wrinkled and I’ve been married forty years…no young babes hanging on my arms.

The sun came out in spades and the temperature climbed back into spring-like warmth around 60 degrees. Six of us left Bicycles, Etc. and climbed Bankhead riding a 45-mile loop into the country and back into Huntsville. Last week, I went to see my family physician to deal with a sinus infection. Cipro (ciprofloxacin) slowly works to kill the infection, but a steroid shot really helped the way I felt. That dealt with the inflammation and provided a boost in energy. While I didn’t feel strong, I was still able to ride my ten speed over the mountains without extraordinary effort.

Tina, a triathlete, rode strong. A very impressive Army woman, I think she would make Col. Mark proud. Actually, I think he would be inspired to try to keep up with her. I love riding with all of these folks. They get out and work. They don’t stay indoors and whine about the cold weather. Therefore, they get the reward of being in God’s good creation. They can ride 40 or 100 miles, laugh, tell stories and enjoy life. This is the Joy of Cycling, Running, Swimming, or whatever you do. Your body is made to work and that makes your brain work better and helps you manage stress.

~Dangerous Dave

Grissom to Butler Mill

No excuses for sitting home on the couch today. There must have been thirty people start the ride. Here are some pics of the first group to reach the top.
~Dangerous Dave