Friday Writings for Randos - The way to start a day

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:...

The Way to Start a Day

by Byrd Baylor

in training

I am training for a big ride, my biggest one yet. The key word in that sentence is training (details on the ride to come later.)  I don't use the word training lightly or often. The mere act of stating that I am training for an event seems audacious and not a little bit self-centered - an unnecessary public commitment to a challenging course with an uncertain outcome. The more cautious aspects of my personality would have me just be quiet about it. Don't draw attention to it. If no one knows that I'm training, then only I will know if I fail to train or if my training fails. Plus, why would it matter to anyone else?  Maybe it doesn't, but it's worth a post.

Friday Writings for Randos - Moderation

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:...

Moderation is Not a Negation of Intensity, 

But Helps Avoid Monotony

John Tagliabue

Will you stop for a while, stop trying to pull yourself together

for some clear "meaning" - some momentary summary?

Friday Writings for Randos - nineteen-twenties feeling

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's:...

An excerpt from: 

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -

An inquiry into values

by Robert M. Pirsig

We travel down the eastern shore of Klamath lake on a three-lane highway that contains a lot of nineteen-twenties feeling. That's when these three-laners were all made. We pull in for lunch at a roadhouse which belongs to this era too. Wooden frame badly in need of paint, neon beer signs in the window, gravel and engine drippings for a front lawn.

Beyond ultra - Race Across America

If you ride a bike far enough, will distance cease to matter? If you ride often enough, will weather cease to matter? If you ride through all kinds of terrain, will landscape cease to matter? If you ride long enough will time cease to matter?

This week a handful of riders will take on the Race Across America (RAAM). RAAM is a 3,000 mile bicycle race from Oceanside, California, to Annapolis, Maryland. Some will ride as a part team of riders,  a few will ride the entire distance solo.

Commuter light review - Sigma Lightster v. Planet Bike Blaze 2 Watt - Part Two

 Part Two - 

"Rain" testing

(For part one click here)

To test the rain worthiness of the Sigma lightster and the Planet Bike Blaze 2 watt, I mounted both to a a set of handlebars.

Then sprayed  them with the hose set on "shower"

Test duration = 5 minutes:

Both lights shined throughout. Inspection of the lights at the completion of the test showed no water intrusion.

Both passed the test.

Friday writings for Randos - The Moon and the Mountain

{Friday Writings for Randos - A weekly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This week it's an excerpt from a blog post titled:

 The Moon and the Mountain

 

by Mark Thomas* 

Not my finest hour (or two, or three, or maybe more). By turns walking, riding, throwing up, and sitting on the guardrail trying to settle my stomach, I was making poor progress up White Pass on our 600k brevet Saturday night. Last or near last among the riders on the course, I began to lose confidence that I could finish the ride. Of course, that confidence was at best a thin veneer from the start. "Petrified" was apparently the word I had used earlier in the week to describe to Robert Higdon my state of mind about the 600k. . .

Atrial Fibrillation in endurance athletes

Consider this a public service announcement.

I just read this comment on another blog:

My Polar is going haywire at the moment, with my heart rate suddenly shooting up to an unhealthy 230 for no reason at all. It even plays with my emotions by occasionally being close to what I’d expect, but not quite (popping up 10 bpm then quickly shooting back down, for example), giving me a sense of insecurity about my hill-climbing prowess, or lack thereof.

The commenter thinks that his Polar Heart monitor is having a problem. When I saw that description, I wondered whether he is having an episode of atrial fibrillation (A-fib). 

The Pennsylvania Randonneurs 600K - There once was a man on a bike

  

There once was a bike ride through Limerick

It is about 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and I think that I am finally, completely, awake. Yes - the ride started at 4:00 a.m. Yes - five hours later, the sun is up, over 60 miles have gone by and Yes - I have already gone through two of the ten on course controls. But here and now, reality has set in. I am here. Now.

I waken in the midst of a 20 mile climb toward Promised Land. 20 miles of ever increasing grade - steep, followed by steeper. 20 miles until we reach the highest point on the elevation profile. 20 miles of reminder that this is a Pennsylvania brevet. 20 miles of reminder that I am not built for fast climbing. 20 miles of this is what you signed up for. 20 miles of reminder that I still have over 300 miles to go. That realization now has my full attention.