Is Cycling a Contact Sport?

I went to the doctor today -- first to my regular doc, who wasn't able to squeeze me in, and then to the doc-in-the-box at Walgreen's, which seems to be where I tend to end up with my various ailments.  They do a pretty good job.

Good news is that I don't have strep.  Since strep and I don't get along very well, I'm happy about that.

Bad news is that the doc thinks I have mono (plus some kind of secondary sinus problem), hence the staggering fatigue.  I have the swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, sore throat, and tender spleen (WTF?) to suggest mono.  Mono spot was negative, but the mono spot test is rather unreliable, besides which it can take a good three weeks before sufficient antibodies ride to the rescue to show up on such a test -- and that's assuming you have a normal immune system, and not a stupid one that's constantly fighting off terrifying bad guys like dust mites and sweet gum pollen (in fact, after bee and wasp stings, my immune system has apparently identified SWEET GUM POLLEN, of all things, as public enemy number one) whilst dropping the ball every time an actual pathogen rolls into sight, losing the game every time.

Come to think of it, maybe that's why I like Chicago so much.  All of the Cubs players of the past have been reincarnated as my T1 leukocytes or whatever, and are busy losing the pennant, year after year.  (If you build it, they will come ... but they will still lose.)

Now, I realize it's silly to insult my immune system for failing to fight off mono -- that's kind of like blaming some tiny kilt-wearing ox-cart country like Outer East Cannunistan (my favorite imaginary nation) for being subsumed by the tank-happy Soviet Union during that whole weird 20th century paroxysm of ersatz communism.

But still, considering that I spend significant portions of my life feeling crappy, I do feel that I've earned the right to complain at least a bit.

Besides, I slept a total of like 2.235 hours last night and I'm in a Mood.  Hypogonadism (which, oddly enough doesn't mean that one has small gonads, just that they 'no work too good') notwithstanding, I am in fact a giant baby, like most men: literally.  I lack the ability to properly discern when I am tired and/or hungry, and -- to make matters worse -- when I am tired or hungry, long before I realize that I am, I get cranky.  Then I refuse to admit to myself that I am, in fact, tired and/or hungry until it becomes supremely self-evident.  I am like the toddler who sits there with his little fists clenched and waving about in defiance, willing his eyes to remain open with all his might, all the while protesting, "NOT TIRED!  DON' WANNA GO BED!"

Right now, I am that toddler.  Only that toddler also had a cup of coffee at the pharmacy while waiting to pick up some meds, so the toddler in question is also full of jittery energy and thinks he can write or something (I have noticed that, for me, sleep deprivation + caffeine = delusions of grandeur).

Anyway.  The long and short of all of this looks like so:

1. I am off the bike for a bit.  At least 'til the really noticeable symptoms go away.
   
2. Once I'm back on the bike, it will have to be in a limited capacity: in other words, whether or not, I will have to restructure my training program.
   
3. 'Cross season is a huge question mark.  I am definitely out of the running even to train for the next four weeks, due to the possibility of whacking myself in the spleen with a bicycle, tripping over barriers and going ker-splat, or otherwise causing my liver and/or spleen to explode, which would immediately upgrade my illness from 'Really Annoying Setback' to 'Major Medical Emergency RIGHT NOW!'
   
4. I will be taking it very, very easy for the rest of the month, as I still really want to do the running thing on the 20th if I have it in me, and we're going to Burning Man the first week of school.  I would really like to not sleep through all of it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must needs go haul my sorry butt (via TARC) to my therapist's office in order to admit that I do, in fact, completely suck at taking care of myself and await further instructions :)

Does the Future Ride Contra-Flow?

Something occurred to me this morning.

Our Oracles of Darksome Doom (generally known as 'The Media') have taken to predicting $5/gallon gas this summer.

Theoretically, for many who live in range (say, 5 miles or less from work, which seems to be the cut-off for many non-cyclists; I even have cyclist friends who ride a bazillion miles a day but think my 7-mile-each-way commute is nuts), this will represent the tipping point at which they feel themselves forced to transition into bike- or transit-commuters.

For the most part, I think this is a great thing -- it will mean fewer cars and more bikes on the road, and that's good for everyone.  The hordes of new cyclists (yes, I'm an optimist!) will simultaneously help to reduce air pollution and begin to trim America's national waistline, something this country desperately needs.  More importantly, perhaps, they'll be out there actually connecting with life on a very visceral level, and soon they'll discover how much fun it is to roll around under your own power, out in the elements, instead of being trapped in a big, steel isolation chamber and propelled by long-dead plants and animals.

However, as long as there are at least some cars on the road, I am concerned for the squadrons of bike newbies who will emerge, blinking, from their garages on new bikes and old bikes alike.  I am concerned because the vast majority of Americans seem never to have been educated at all about the safer ways of cycling -- with traffic, on the road -- and those safer ways often feel counter-intuitive to newbies who aren't bike-mad and don't spend every free moment reading bike forums on the Innertubes.

I'm worried that we're going to see a lot of new riders tentatively creeping along, going the wrong way down the road, or on the sidewalks.

The obvious solution, to my mind, is to offer bike education classes for free and get really friendly people to teach them.  LBC already hosts a series of League of American Cyclists classes for free -- but I wonder, will folks attend them in anticipation of rising gas prices?  We Americans don't have a great track record for planning ahead (with the exception of a few small groups that are extremely, extremely well-prepared for The End of the World, but possibly not for having to ride a bike in traffic).

If you had to think of a creative way to get folks learning to ride safely, what would you do?

Training Goals for 2011

Overall Goals:
Garner as much enjoyment as humanly possible from riding the bike.
Continue to improve my health.
Don't overdo it.

Long-Distance Goal:
Yes, I'm going to try again for a 200k, if I can find one that isn't, say, the 19th of this month.  I don't think I'm likely to be ready for a 200k by next Saturday! 

If I don't manage to find an organized 200k, then at least one or two organized centuries.

In 2012, I would like to do a Super-Randonneur series, but we'll see.

Racing Goal:
Try new things, have fun, and try to finish races -- but not at the expense of fun!

Work Goal:
Continue to improve at providing fast, efficient courier service throughout CBD's service area.

 O-O

February Goals:

-Week One-

Long ride: 20 miles

Total Distance: 100 miles

-Week Two-

Long ride: 25 miles

Total Distance: 110 miles

Stop. And. Go.

I left late this morning, but I was feeling quite zippy (two weeks off the bike will apparently do that to you — that and make you fatter, if you're not careful). Quicksilver seemed happy to be out and about (perhaps I'm projecting a bit?), and the weather was highly cooperative — about 70 and sunny. All told, it looked like a perfect morning for a nice, fast ride.

Except. For. The. Fact. That. I. Hit. EVERY. Stoplight. I. Could. Find.

Man! Because I was running late, I wanted to go fast, so I spent much of the ride doing what amounted to a stop-and-go interval workout. That strategy was less than successful — it still took me five minutes longer than my best time to make it to work. I did make it to work on time, though.

Likewise, I managed in several instances to time my arrival at the lights so the moment I slipped free of my toe clip, it was time to cram my foot back in ._. I can't really blame anyone but myself, though. I know how it works. Drop the hammer when the light turns green, and all you get for your trouble is another red light.

Perhaps I should revise my attitude and look at this as an opportunity to perfect my toe-clip skillz?

Late in my ride, I encountered a med student (I assume he was a med student anyway — could, for all that, have been a nurse or something) in scrubs on a fixie. He was quite fast. He got away from me at a stoplight, but that was okay. I do wish I'd taken a picture, though. I keep forgetting that I now have a phone with a real camera (OMG, 2.1 WHOLE MEGAPIXELS! lol).

Weather.com is predicting much better conditions over the next ten days than we've had for quite some time. I'm pretty excited about that, since it's been blisteringly hot and ... um ... drowningly humid lately.

In other news, I discovered some neat websites today:
APTA.com: the American Public Transportation Association (self-explanatory)

APTA's 'Telling Our Story' campaign: APTA is collecting stories — videos, pictures, and Word- or PDF-formatted texts — from public transit users. I think this is a great idea, and if anything will improve America's willingness to 'get on the bus,' stories from real transit riders are it.

Public Transportation Takes Us There: Another part of the transit industry's initiative to increase adoption and ridership. This site is devoted to helping Americans get more involved in transit advocacy.

[soapbox]
I'm a big fan of public transit. Not only does it decrease the environmental impact of our daily commutes (at least, at certain levels of adoption), it drastically increases the economic opportunities available to those who, for whatever reason, can't drive.

There's a weird misconception out there that the adoption of better public transit means people are going to be forced to give up their cars. This kind of spin and rhetoric is pretty common right now — e.g., universal health care is equated with the eradication of free choice; closer regulation of businesses that have demonstrated themselves to operate unfavorably without it it is associated, by some kind of magical thinking, with the redistribution of wealth; etc (and before anyone assumes I'm solely a left-wing wingnut, I should also state that I am strictly opposed to any increase in gun control and also to most [probably all] hate crimes legislation — IMO, a crime is a crime is a crime, and they should all be considered as such — so I assure you, while I'm definitely a wingnut, I do try to be a bipartisan, nonsectarian wingnut).

Perhaps if enough of us offer up our transit-going stories, the good people of the United States will realize that those of us who would like to see more buses and trains and so forth aren't interested in the least in taking away their cars (or guns, or Bibles). In fact, most of the people I know who ride bikes and buses and trains everywhere almost all the time like having the option of driving if they want or need to.

I'm hoping that seeing transit riders' stories might help discourage the mistaken belief that 'only poor/disabled/unemployed/underemployed/black/Latino/Asian/urban/young/old/those/other people ride the bus/train' — most people I've known who don't ride transit imagine that all transit-riders are utterly unlike themselves. In fact, public transit in Louisville, at least, is like a bird's-eye view of the community at large: on one bus ride, you can encounter a CEO, a gaggle of high-school freshmen, a disabled veteran, a doctor, a young family, some grandparents... Essentially, people from all walks of life ride TARC (our bus system). The only people who don't realize this are those who've never ridden the bus. Unfortunately, that's a lot of people.
[/soapbox]

In other, other news, my life is about to become ridiculously busy. I have Orientation on Friday, then school starts on Monday. I'm planning to get a cycling club together at IUS — the life sciences department has several bike-happy faculty, some of whom commute by bike, so I don't think I should have any trouble finding a faculty advisor. Choir rehearsal picks up again on the 26th, and of course there's cyclocross... Plus work. Work starts to get busy this time of year.

I'm really glad that I live in a place where I can get everywhere by bike (though I guess, for me, that's a lot of places — I like riding my bike enough to be willing to trek 10 or 15 miles back and forth). It makes finding time to ride pretty easy.

How Not To Train For Cyclocross

This post is, of course, intended solely as a public service, and is not in any way a description of how I am currently training for cyclocross.

Really.

I swear.

Ahem.

How Not To Train for Cyclocross

1. Do not ride your bike.
2. Spend a weekend in DC seeing the sights and stuffing yourself full of DC-specific fare.
3. Do not ride your bike.
4. Spend a weekend in Chicago seeing the sights and stuffing yourself full of extremely awesome Chicago-specific fare*.
5. Develop a sinus infection. Continue to not ride your bike.
6. Spend a week in Florida, in August.
7. DO NOT, under any circumstances, ride your bike**.
8. If anyone asks, tell them you are taking three weeks off so you will be 'well-rested' when 'cross season starts.
9. Do not ride your bike.

We now return to our regularly-scheduled broadcast day.


*Chicago is packed with good restaurants. If you're there, give Vivere ($16-$30/entree) and Cafecito ($5-$6/sammich) a try. Unfortunately, unless you are friends of the fabulous Eric&Larry, you probably won't get to try their amazing baked eggs, since they don't run a restaurant.
**In fact, I plan to ride in Florida, but I do not plan to ride my bike. It would cost at least as much to bring my bike on the plane as it would to simply rent a bike for a week — so instead I'm going to rent a bike, tool around Fort Lauderdale, and try not to get killed.