For many people spring arrives with the Salem Bicycle Club’s Monster Cookie ride. It’s the last Sunday in April so the weather can be anything. It’s an event ride I like to do expressly to say hi to bicyclists I’ve met over the years. This year for the second time I rode it with a young couple I know who are both medical professionals. This year also provided lots of lessons for me.
Drop the self depreciating “I’m slow.” attitude. It’s turning into a self fulfilling prophecy. This came to mind as I saw a friend who once stated “maintaining weight loss is harder than kicking heroin.” The friend is still chunky and as I watched his thighs flap in the breeze I wondered about his attitude and how it assists him in avoiding the real decisions involved in loosing weight. In mid-wonderment the epiphany fairy gave me a tap between the eyes. Earlier in the day I’d started the day with a flat tire. This was just over an hour before I’d agreed to meet people at the start of the ride and I was just under 15 miles away. After repairing the tire I set out for the ride start and maintained a pace a full 30% faster than normal for me. This is not recommended. You don’t start a longish ride (I was going for 100 miles that day) by riding without warm up way faster than your normal pace. But sometimes I’m a bit short sighted and dim witted and I did the speed demon thing anyway. I figured I could slack my way through the Cookie ride and go from there. As it turned out the young couple prefers a pace slightly faster than I like to maintain so I didn’t slack through the cookie ride. This gave plenty of time for the epiphany fairy’s lesson to sink in.
Indulge in wild hair moments. The Cookie ride is essentially flat but there are a few short rolling sections where one can rise up to climb for 30 or 40 yards. If you think you’re weak at hill climbing this is a great environment to sprint up short hills to dispel some of that fantasy. I got the wild hair and my average speed on the upgrades was way higher than it was on the flats. I’d pass people climbing and then they’d pass me soon after while I soft pedaled, waiting for my friends. Then another roller and another bit of passing everyone. As I passed one ride for the third time I commented “it’s hill training day,” and we both chuckled.
Feed your head. Late in the ride a fellow rider was slowing down and complained of saddle soreness. We stopped several times to wait for him. I noted his normal sunny disposition was occluded. This looked really familiar. “How much have you had to drink?” The answer came back with a comment about not eat much after the lunch break. This confirmed my suspicion. “That’s not enough, I think you’re dehydrated.” We argued the point for a bit. This confirmed my diagnosis of his problem. He remained unconvinced. Degradation of mental facilities is an effect of getting dehydrated and falling behind in your caloric intake. Later in the ride I hit my typical problem spot mile post. At this point in the ride I expected my mood to crash, my speed to plummet and generally the fun to leave the ride. None of that happened, despite my riding into a 15mph headwind. Five miles earlier I’d consumed 350 calories of liquid nutrition (Ensure Plus) and enjoyed some water. Now I was riding strongly and having fun under challenging conditions. The brain likes to be well fed, it will turn your mind into a foul, obsessed with pain organ of distraction if it’s not well fed. Feed your head.
More later
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