further on the bicycle journey…

As i biked down the street to my apartment today, i breathed in the lightning quick change of sun and rain that is common to this city, and gave thanks for being here, now. Portland has to be the best city to start a bike trip from. I was on my way back from a Bicycle Cooperative called City Bikes, where i bought two reused-bucket-turned-pannier-bags for the cost of one fancy pannier bag. and these are completely waterproof AND environmentally friendly, AND they will make perfect seats at the end of the day while camping.

exciting. i am also attempting to sell some of my musical equipment. i don’t know how i will ever replace it, but i know that i need the money to get everything i need for this trip.

there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to cheer for animal rights, write my papers, learn to hula hoop with more skill, breakdance, firedance, record my demo cd and be totally prepared for my show on the 22nd, and so on and so forth. why do i place so many obstacles in my path to doing a good job on something by making my interests so broad?

blargh! i don’t want to give these things up, either! i won’t!

off to read about jelly roll morton and then sleep and then class and then the acupuncturist tomorrow. and then a free class on chinese medicine!

bicycle tour

i’m taking a self-sustained bike tour to SF from PDX in may. it is the 16th of march. i have exactly 2 months to get ready.

i need to prepare my bike so that i can carry everything. i need to sell some paintings to help ease the financial hurt. i need to apply for my passport so that i can keep moving. i also need to get everything here in order.

i found this article at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/308288_bikeready22.html
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Ride early and often to prepare for a bike tour

By JACK COX
THE DENVER POST

If you’re thinking of going on a bike tour this summer or have already signed up for one, don’t wait another day to start training.”The key is to get going early,” says Kent Powell, director of the week-long Bicycle Tour of Colorado, one of several multiday excursions on the state’s cycling calendar.

“People need to be riding a good amount each week — 20 to 30 miles in a day, starting now, and kicking it up to 50 miles on the weekend,” Powell says. “By May, they should be able to go 100 miles and get up the next day and do 75. If they can’t do that, they don’t belong on our tour, because our average day is 75 miles.”

Paul Balaguer, director of The Denver Post’s annual Ride the Rockies tour in June, also recommends a gradual increase in mileage. He tells riders to progress from 50 or 60 miles a week in March to 80 or 90 miles a week in April and 100 or 150 in May — as noted on the tour’s site, ridetherockies.com.

“I’ve never had a single person do that schedule and say it wasn’t enough,” Balaguer says. “You don’t have to follow it exactly, but as long as you’re building a base of mileage that’s comparable, you should be able to ride 400 mountainous miles in a week in relative comfort — not that it’s not going to be work.”

The point of going on long training rides isn’t just to improve one’s conditioning, notes Chandler Smith, director of the annual MS ride.

“It’s also an opportunity to familiarize yourself not only with your bike as a machine but with your body — to gauge what types of food and fluid you need, and how much,” Smith says. “This is an element that is equally as important as spending time in the saddle.”

As Balaguer puts it, “None of us is born knowing what we need to go 80 miles on a bicycle. I can tell you to drink a liter of water an hour, but you never really know what that means until you’ve been dehydrated.”

Another aspect of pretour conditioning is pacing, says Kate Mackey, a personal trainer who teaches cycling techniques in Broomfield, Colo.

“It’s important to get your body used to cycling, but you also want to adapt your cardiovascular system,” she says. “If you’re working at the right heart rate, you can create physiological changes that make your body more efficient at pumping blood and at using the oxygen. If you’re going too hard, or too easy, that doesn’t happen.”

So how can you tell, without wearing a heart-rate monitor, whether you’re spinning at the proper intensity?

“You need to be breathing so that you could say a sentence without taking a breath in the middle, but that’s about it,” Mackey suggests.

“I call it the ‘late for the bus’ feeling,” Mackey says. “You’re not going to sprint to catch it, but you’re going to walk fast enough that your heart rate is elevated and you’re breathing hard. That’s going to be 75 to 80 percent of your VO2 max (a measure of the body’s capacity to use oxygen) or about 3.5 to 4 on a 5-point scale of perceived exertion.”

In addition to taking care to pedal at an optimal rate, Mackey adds, it is helpful to do some off-the-bike exercises.

“Your core — your back, abs and side — is very integral to cycling but often ignored,” she says, suggesting crunches and reverse crunches.

In addition, the lower body will benefit from squats, lunges and similar leg-strengthening work. “But make sure you’re working your whole leg — the hamstrings, as well as the quads,” Mackey adds.

Finally, she says, “Anytime you’re riding, always reserve time to stretch at the end. It helps prevent injury, adds to your flexibility and enables you to go longer. You’ve used your legs, back, shoulders, arms and neck, and you need to make sure you stretch all of these.”"