Where'd my summer go?!?!

I was looking at a friend's blog today and started feeling guilty for not keeping mine up to date. So I'll see if I can post a semi-quick wrap up to my cycling summer.

Obviously, from the lack of an ecstatic victory announcement, I still haven't completed a 100 mile ride yet. And if the weather guessers are right about the winter we have in store, it's probably not going to happen this year. To be honest, I'm not terribly disappointed. If anything I'm pleased with the gains I've made this year. Plus I know I can still come back again next year.

The xylitol issue was resolved by switching to a different sports drink product - GuBrew (formerly called Gu2O). Like Heed, it's maltodextrin based, so it doesn't make me nauseous while I ride. However, unlike most drinks - which use additional sweeteners to try to make the drink more palatable - Gu threw in citric acid instead. The result is a drink that's actual sour instead of sweet. When I first tried it I didn't think I liked it, but after taking it out on a ride I realized that sour is just the thing when you're hot and sweaty and dying of thirst.

Unfortunately, as soon as I'd solved the xylitol mystery, another problem cropped up. The foot numbness that I experienced earlier in the spring came back with a vengeance. It eventually got to the point where my toes started going numb within the first ten miles of every ride. Then, as if that wasn't annoying enough, I started to feel a ridge of pressure inside my shoe right over the main metatarsal nerve bundle. Unfortunately I was a good twenty miles from home when that happened and I had no choice but to complete the ride, foot pain and all.

When I got home, I discovered that the adapter plate set into the shoe to accommodate SPD cleats had broken free. The ridge of pressure was caused by the plate depressing further into the sole of the shoe, leaving the edge of the socket pressing into the nerve fibers - end result is that I bruised the nerves. I eventually solved the problem by replacing both my pedals and my shoes. I suspect that I could have gotten away with just the shoes, but I bought the new pedals before my old shoes had deteriorated enough to let me finally identify the problem so I was stuck with them. Actually, I'm okay with that because I like the new pedals better anyway. I feel like I'm more connected to the bike with them than I did with the Speedplays. Sadly, bruised nerves take several weeks to heal and I wanst able to get out and ride much during the last few weeks of summer.

On top of that, my day job has gotten a bit out of control. I've been working long days and weekends for the last four weeks, so I just haven't had much energy. Not to mention that the stress has left my IBD in a state of almost continuous uproar. The irony is that I know riding would help alleviate the stress, but trying to ride a bicycle when you're arguing with your stomach about whether or not breakfast is going to stay down isn't a whole lot of fun.

All in all, though, I'd have to consider this whole experiment a success. Thinking back to my very first ride almost a year ago, when a mere four miles (actually I think it was closer to three lol) almost did me in, and knowing that 35 mile rides are now pretty much the norm for me, I can't help but feel pleased at my progress. My blood pressure is down to 115/75 and I'm in better shape than I've been in....ever, I think. Sure, I'd still like to get that last 25 pounds off - a 170 pound version of me would be much easier to drag up the hill than the current 195 pound version, after all. And I'd like to be able to get up the hills faster and easier, and maybe get strong enough to do some mountain riding next year.

Of course, I still want to do a full century.

But maybe next year.

Xylitol!

I've been fighting a rather vicious cycle the last few weeks; ever since Elephant Rock, in fact. I'll go out for a longer ride on Saturday or Sunday, and then my stomach condition will flare up and I'll end up sick for several days after. Its been very frustrating and I've lost a lot of ride time because of it. In fact, it looks like I won't be doing that big ride in Helena next weekend because I've lost so much ground on my training that there's no way I could complete it, even if it is one of the flattest Century routes I've ever heard of.

I've been racking my brain trying to find some pattern to maybe indicate why my condition has been so active, without success. Up until this last weekend, I'd pretty much resigned myself to the fact that this was just a bad time for me and there was nothing I could do except grit my teeth and tough it out. But then Sunday night I had a little epiphany. I realized that there was a rather significant change I'd made to my diet right about the time I rode E-Rock.

I've been using, and become a bit of a fan of, Hammer Nutrition's line of sports gels and liquid foods. Their gels are actually quite good tasting and their Sustained Energy product is a good source of fuel for longer rides. And neither of them bother my stomach, which is a huge plus. But at E-Rock, I added a third product to the mix - Hammer's Heed sport drink. Turns out that I liked it so much that I've been using it a lot on rides ever since. Like all of Hammer's other products, Heed is made of maltodextrin, so it never occurred to me to question my choice to start using it.

Sunday night it finally dawned on me that I should check the ingredient list to see if there was something in Heed that wasn't in the other products. Sure enough, Heed has Xylitol. Xylitol is a sweetener that's been used since the '50s, most notably in baby aspirin. A little research revealed that about one in four people experiences GI distress when they consume large quantities of it - as in, the quantities one gets by drinking a couple of bottles of Heed during a long ride in hot weather. And as I've already learned the hard way, a little GI distress can trigger a full fledged IBD flare up which lasts well beyond the little discomfort the Xylitol causes.

In other news......I'm still fighting with the toe numbness issue. Last week I broke down and purchased another pair of pedals, the Look Keo Sprints. I haven't gotten the cleat position completely dialed in yet, but so far I think I like them. They're a little harder to get clipped into - they're one sided which makes clipping in a bit of a coordination test - but it feels like my feet are much more stable and more securely attached to the pedals. It also seems like the new pedals have reduced or eliminated the numbness problem, but I won't know for sure until I get a chance to go out for a really long ride.

Metric!

Well, hmmmm. I haven't exactly kept up on the blog, here, have I? Part of that is because there's really so many ways to say, "I rode my bike today" so I kept putting it off until something interesting happened. And then I sort of forgot to ever come back.

So.....time to get caught back up.

Elephant Rock - June 7, 2009

I went down to Castle Rock, Colorado on June 7 for the Elephant Rock bicycling festival, and I had a lot of fun. My original plan was to attempt my first full Century however at the very last minute I changed my plans. Because of the unusually cold and wet spring we've had, as well as loosing 10 days or so to illness a few weeks ago, I was 2-3 weeks behind on my training. On top of that, I found out the night before the ride that the course had some pretty long and steep hills - much more climbing than I'm used to. So, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and I did the metric Century instead.

It was a good choice. The weather was perfect - clear blue skies, sunny and warm without being too hot. The scenery was breathtaking. With all the rain recently, everything was lush and green. It was also a lot of fun to meet all the other cyclists. All in all, it was a great ride, although there were a few issues.......

Hydration
This was, without doubt, my biggest single issue on the ride. As the weather has gotten warmer, I'm finding that I need a lot more water than I used to, which seems pretty obvious. What's not so obvious is figuring out how to go about carrying that water, and figuring out how to get myself to drink it. The recommended number is one bottle per hour. I thought I was doing pretty well last week, but when I got home and added up all the times I refilled, I drank at least 25% less than the recommended amount. And when you consider that this is Colorado, and that I sweat like a horse when I ride, the bottle/hour recommendation is probably a bit low for me. It seems strange to think that I've got to "train" myself to drink, but it looks like that's exactly what I'm going to have to do.

Stomach Issues
Adding insult to injury with my hydration problem, I've continued to have GI issues when I ride. After E-Rock, I've come to realize that at least part of the problem comes from being dehydrated, but there's also the question of what to eat. I'm still pretty much dependent on Hammer Nutrition's product line since I haven't been successful with anything else I've tried. And even some of Hammer's products give me fits.

Numb Toes
I thought I had this problem licked but it came back to haunt me at E-Rock, mostly on the hard climbs. Putting power to the pedals also puts pressure on the nerves in my feet, causing my toes to go to sleep. It's annoying enough by itself, but there's also the potential for long term damage if the problem isn't resolved, so it's not something I can just learn to live with. There are a couple of adjustments that I can make to my cleats to try to improve the situation, but it's starting to look like a visit to an orthopedic specialist for some custom orthotics is in my future.

Next Big Ride
The next big ride I'm thinking about doing is on July 18, in Helena, MT. I have some friends who live up that way and I'm probably going to go visit them and then do the ride that weekend. From what I've heard so far, it's mostly flat, which is a big plus.

I'd love to do some more around home, but unfortunately most Colorado rides take place in the mountains and I'm more than willing to admit that I'm not strong enough to do a super long ride at altitude. However I'm already thinking that maybe that can be my goal for next year. There's a neat "little" ride called the Triple Bypass - three Colorado mountain passes, all over 12k feet in elevation. The lowest point on the route is at 9500 feet. It'd be quite a feather in my cap to be able to claim I've done that. But that's next year.....maybe.......

Let it snow, let it snow, let it....Hey wait a minute!!

Well, now that spring has officially sprung, it seems that Mother Nature is trying to make up for the "Winter that Wasn't" all in a couple of weeks. We've had back to back snow storms for about 10 days now which has put a severe cramp in my training schedule.

Cleat Fitting
I've been having problems with my toes going to sleep on longer rides so I broke down and scheduled a cleat fitting with the professional fitter at my LBS - Tom Z. at the Bicycle Village in Littleton. Tom took one look at my bike and pronounced the fit a total disaster and then proceeded to do a complete grounds-up refit. In doing so, he determined that while my arches are about normal, they're weak and tend to collapse when I pedal. Oh, and my shoes were too small.

The funny thing was that I didn't think I even had a fit problem, but after Tom worked the bike over I can really feel the improvement, not only in comfort but also in the amount of power I'm generating. The new shoes fit much better as well, and my toes don't fall asleep any more. And the best part is, after doing all that work, Tom only charged me for the cleat fitting instead of making me pay the price for a full bike fitting, and then turned around and gave me a 20% discount on the shoes. I actually ended up saving a couple of bucks vs. the normal price of the shoes. Can't ask for better customer service than that!

The Trip Downtown
A couple of weeks ago I made it all the way from my house to the REI store in downtown Denver. Round trip it was 38 miles in beautiful 65 degree sunshine. Unfortunately, Mother Nature played a bit of a practical joke and threw up a nice thunderstorm just south and a little west of my route. So I got to ride the last 15 miles home fighting a bit of a headwind which turned the ride into a bit more of a workout than I'd planned on. Still, it was a lot of fun and I was very pleased with how easily I handled the long ride and the extra challenge presented by the wind.

A Blustery Day!
I was hoping to increase my base miles even more this last weekend but the weather made that impossible. I headed out on Saturday planning to ride into downtown again, and maybe a bit further, but after hitting my third 6" deep pile of slush in 150 yards, I gave up and went back home.

On Sunday, yet another snow storm was moving in and it was quite windy outside. So I changed my tactics and did a couple of laps around Cherry Creek Reservoir, deliberately riding into the wind. Since I know I need to work on my climbing strength and speed, I tried to maintain a 15mph pace, despite the wind. 20 miles later my legs felt like rubber, but I was elated to look down at my cycling computer and see my average speed......15mph, on the nose!

P.S. You know it's windy out when you're going DOWN a hill, and you're still riding on your small chainring because that's the only way you can keep any sort of momentum.

This and that....

Haven't posted in a while, mostly because I've been busy with both work and training. Also there just hasn't been much to talk about this last week. Still, a few odds and ends have popped up, so I might as well share.

Century - June 7, 2009
I've been tentatively planning on doing my first century sometime in July or August, but just learned that the big Elephant Rock cycling festival is happening on June 6-7, with multiple types of rides, including both a Metric Century (100km) and an Imperial Century (aka. a true Century, although our Canadian neighbors might disagree). I *know* I can be ready to ride the Metric, but the Imperial will be a challenge, so of course, I'm gonna try it. That's just 10 weeks away. Think I can do it?

Newbies vs. Road Warriors
I thought about making an entire post on this subject but realized there just wasn't enough to be said, or rather, that it could all be said in a few sentences. There was a post on one of the cycling forums that I frequent that started out the title, "What's with all the experienced cyclists hating on the newbies?". The poster was a new cyclist, like me, who was feeling frustrated at the condescension with which experienced cyclists often treat the new riders. A bunch of posters chimed in to support the thread's author and talk about what jerks the experienced cyclists could be. And the experienced cyclists took exception to the thread and acted like....well....a bunch of jerks.

After thinking about it for a while, I've come to realize that both sides were right, from their own perspective. Cycling is, for the most part, and individual sport. Unlike soccer or football, you don't need a team to play. For a new cyclist it's easy for "individual" to become "lonely", especially on long or hard rides. For the experienced cyclist, they've gotten so used to having to dodge cars, pedestrians, rollerbladers, skateboarders, dogs, cats, and other cyclists, that they tend to forget that many of those obstacles are also people. So for myself, I've committed to try to remember the human element and to treat everyone I pass with a little extra courtesy and compassion - even if that means slowing down my ride a bit to help someone out.

Ride Fuel
A car runs on gasoline. What does a cyclist run on? Well, food, obviously. The problem is that the human body only stores enough fuel to run about 90 minutes at ride pace. Anything longer than that and you need to look for ways to consume fuel, aka. food, during your ride. Which would be easy except I get exertion induced GI distress, and THAT is frequently aggravated by fructose and sucrose, the main carb found in most energy gels, bars, and drinks. One of the guys at my favorite LBS suggested Hammer Nutrition's Sustained Energy. The main ingredient is maltodextrin - a complex carb. I tried it on my ride downtown this last weekend and it works like a charm. No tummy issues at all. Now if they'd only do something about the taste.

My blood pressure is WHAT?!?!

Yeah. I got a bit of a scare this last week. For unknown reasons my blood pressure shot sky-high. After watching both my weight and blood pressure drop slowly and steadily over the last few months, I was shocked to see it come in at 140/94 on Thursday night. So, I've spent a lot of time at the doctor's the last few days, running a bunch of tests to rule out anything serious. Fortunately, every test has come up negative. Unfortunately that means I may have spontaneous hypertension. Apparently, if you have a strong genetic predisposition to high BP, it's possible for a temporary spike - due to stress, illness, etc. - to get stuck and become permanent.

On the plus side, my doctor is also a cyclist, so he understands what I'm trying to accomplish with my riding and he's very supportive. For now my "treatment" plan is.....more riding :D. If it's still high six months from now, then I'll have to look at medication. But for now, I can continue as I've been doing.


Unfortunately, I didn't get to talk to my doctor until Monday, and the doctor at the urgent care clinic wasn't as sympathetic. He initially told me no riding at all. On Sunday, after it dropped down to 128/92, he agreed I could go out for an "easy" ride. So I did the 24 miles down to the mall and back at one of the easiest paces I've ever ridden at. That was kind of interesting. It was a lot harder - from a psychological perspective - than I would have thought. It was sunny and warm and I really really wanted to open up and fly down the road. But I didn't, and I enjoyed the ride more than I thought I would. And now I have the all-clear from my own doctor, so next time........................

"So, what's it all do, anyway?"

This is the second of what I'm starting to think of as my "educational" series of posts - posts designed for the non-cycling friend or new cyclist.

As I've been gradually increasing my training levels, I've been continuously astonished at just how technical this sport is, and just how much there is to learn. To make things more challenging, most cycling books and websites tend to approach the subject from a broad, high-level view; often leaving out some of the less important details and ideas. For the general recreational cyclist, the missing pieces might not be too important. But for someone like me - someone who's both serious about getting into the sport AND who's also starting completely from scratch - the missing information can really slow down the learning process. As a result, I've found myself scouring websites, forums, blogs, books, magazines, and everything else I can get my hands on, looking for all those key details that will make MY training more successful.

From time to time, I'll be making posts summarizing what I've learned. If I can figure out how, I may even create a separate section in my blog just for these topics. Long term, I'm even thinking about creating a complete website targeted specifically at people like myself, containing all of this information. I may even see if I can get an LBS or two (that's cyclist slang for "local bike shop") to sponsor the site. Maybe.

Today's topic was inspired by a question from a co-worker who was looking at a picture of the new ride. I'm not going to try to cover everything there is to know about every bike, at least not yet. I'll talk about other bikes some time later on. Today I'm just going to focus on MY bike.



First, let's talk about the frame. As mentioned in on of my earlier posts, the frame is made of carbon fiber (aka. CF) rather than steel or aluminum. This provides a very light frame that's as stiff as steel - maybe more-so. That stiff frame helps to transfer energy from the pedals to the tires. A more flexible material like aluminum or lower quality CF will flex more, absorbing energy that could be pushing you down the road. The draw back is that CF tends to be a bit brittle. Damage to a steel or aluminum frame will usually bend or dent it, and sometimes the frame can simply be bent back into shape. That same amount of damage to a CF frame, however will tend to shatter it. Also, CF is more vulnerable to stress fractures from over-tightened bolts, so you have to be careful when you're working on it. Last, note the curvature along the top tube, as well as on both forks. That curvature is unique to this particular model and helps to absorb road vibration making for a smoother, more comfortable ride.


The brake "hoods" here have changed a lot over the last 20 years or so. Having finally realized that the average cyclist spends 80-90% of his time with his hands resting on the top of the hoods, bike manufacturers have added a rubberized cover and changed the design slightly to accommodate the rider's weight better. They've also removed the old horizontal brake lever that used to be standard on older model ten-speeds. Since it's not used that often, removal of that lever saves a bit of weight. (Some riders buy after-market horizontal levers and add them back on.) Last, almost all modern brake hood assemblies have the gear shifter levers built into them, as opposed to putting them in the stem or down-tube like they used to do. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the black tab at the back of the brake lever. That's one of the two shifting levers - twisting it towards the center of the bike causes the chain to move to another sprocket. The other shifter lever, surprisingly, is the brake lever itself. Pull back on the lever, and you engage the brakes. Twist it towards the center of the bike and the chain shifts.


This is the cassette - the rear sprockets. The old ten-speeds had only five sprockets. Five rear sprockets, combined with the two on the front, gave you ten gears. My bike has ten rear sprockets, which in theory, gives me 20 gears. The reality is that I really only have 16 or so, since it's really bad for the bike to allow it to "cross chain". Cross chaining is when you shift your bike so that the chain runs from the outside front sprocket to the most inside rear sprockets, or else from front inside to rear outside. Allowing the chain to run in this position creates some significant horizontal torque on the chain, causing excess wear and stress on your drive train.


This is the front chain-ring assembly. My bike has what's referred to as a "compact double". That means there are only two chain rings, rather than the three that my other bike has, and that the rings are slightly smaller than found on a standard double. This provides for slightly easier gearing and better hill climbing on the low end, at the expense of speed at the high end. For the technical minded, my big ring has 50 teeth - vs. a standard 52-54 - and the small ring has only 34 teeth - vs. a standard 39. That shrunken small chain ring makes a HUGE difference when climbing hills, so much so that some pro's have had custom crank sets built to give them a 54 tooth big ring with that 34 tooth small ring.


These pedals are part of a "clip-less" pedal system. They are designed to anchor your feet to the pedals, increasing energy efficiency by allowing you to not only push the pedals down, but to pull up on them as well. Most clip-less systems work similar to ski bindings. There's a binding bracket in the pedal which clamps on to special cleats that are attached to your riding shoe. My system is set up directly opposite - the binding is on the shoe and it clamps around the pedal.


The tires are referred to as "slicks" and they're a mere 23mm wide - less than an inch. Surprisingly, the smooth rubber surface grips pavement and asphalt better than the knobby tires you see on mountain bikes, especially in wet conditions (although NOTHING really grips well when the road is wet). When fully inflated to 120psi, they're hard as rocks which helps to reduce the amount of energy absorbed by the rubber as your tires roll down the road. One interesting thing that I've learned about tires is that the single best way to increase the energy efficiency on a bike is to lighten your "rolling weight" - the weight of the tires and cranks. The reason for this is because every time you change speed, either slowing down or trying to go faster, you have to overcome the inertia of the tire. A heavier tire has more inertia, requiring more energy to change speeds.





Last, but not least, the saddle. Finding a well-fitting saddle can be harder than you'd think. If the seat's too soft, you tend to slide around just a bit which can cause saddle sores on a long ride. If it's too hard, your sit bones get really sore. Additionally, we guys have a bit of another problem - if you're not careful the nose of the saddle can press against the perineal nerve (ask mom, kids ;-D), causing temporary numbness in our boy-bits. Long term pressure can lead to "performance" issues, which in severe cases can become permanent. This particular saddle came with the bike, and this year's model is the first major new saddle design that Shimano has come out with in a long time. It's getting good reviews from the more experienced cyclists, but I'm not sure I like the fit. I've got some more tweaking to do on the position, but I'm starting to think there's going to be a saddle upgrade in the near future.


As one last final note, I'll point out that while I was looking at bikes, one of the things I tried to keep in mind was what kind of equipment I might want further down the road if I continue to ride. With that in mind, I deliberately put a lot of emphasis on the frame quality and sacrificed a little on the other components to save cash. These components are designed to wear out over time - it's inevitable with heavy use - but the frame will last forever (barring a hard crash). As time goes on, I can always upgrade the components, but upgrading the frame would be prohibitively expensive. I might as well buy a new bike.