Finally we are getting our first streak of 70 degree days and, amazing, it's falling on a weekend. I'm going to be able to bike two days in a row for the first time all year. Up to now the most I've been able to do is talk about doing things. Now I can actually do them. One of these things is gardening. I've been to garden club meetings, now I have to actually plant things. Or in my case now I have to get my yard in shape so that I can plant things. I was looking in the back of my garage as a place to plant some more vegetables. What a mess that is. All vines and tree saplings. But because of the emerald ash borer, it now has sunlight. Better get to work.
Wait a minute, now it's 70 degrees and I can go bike riding. Not only is it 70 degrees but there is no wind. I can go as fast as I can. Unfortunately I'm not in shape. On a day when I can bike as much as I want, I can only hope to go 30 miles. (I can tell you that the frogs are in full voice even in the middle of the day. It must be close to prom time. ) I'm looking at the 10 day forecast and there's some more bad weather coming, but the ratio of good days to bad days is much better. It's time for us all to get our training in. We can figure out where we put the lawn mower later, some time in the middle of the week.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Where is spring?
By last Saturday I was desperate. No biking since April 3. The explanation I heard on the radio was that this year March had 61 days. I tried to think that maybe we just traded two weeks in March with two weeks in April. It wasn't working. Since I couldn't bike, I went to a 5 hour gardening class by Earthworks Garden in Detroit. Even that had to be held mostly inside. On my way home, I passed two twenty year old women riding bikes with very under inflated tires. I have a bike pump in my car, so I rolled down my window to tell them that I could pump up their tires. Now think about this from their point of view. While riding by the Cass Corridor, a guy in a car asks you whether he can pump up your tires. What could you expect their response to be? They live there. They let me pump up their tires. One of the bikes hadn't been out since last fall. I told them my sad story: no biking. They sympathized and said that riding with air in their tires was a lot easier.
Sunday it was sunny. Cold, but sunny. Windy, but sunny. I bent the 50 degree rule and went out for a ride. I arranged it so that I went into the wind at the start so that I could gauge how far I could go. I rode through neighborhoods so that the houses could provide some windbreak. I was able to get 20 miles in and it wasn't too bad.
On Tuesday, my normal biking day with my buddies, it was sunny and it got into the 60's. It was pretty pleasant. Should I wear tights? (I've been told that professional bike riders wear something over their knees until it gets into the 70's. It helps their knee joints.) Nah. It's warm and the sun is shining. I took a rain jacket because there was some rain in the west, but I didn't put it on. One thing about where I bike (Detroit and southeastern Michigan): while there are no hills, there is wind. We started out with the wind. Then some clouds rolled in and the temperature started going down. By the time I turned into the wind to come back, I had the rain jacket on and I was cold. Where were my tights? By the end of the ride, the temperature was in the low 50's and the wind was a steady 15-20 mph and another lesson was learned.
Sunday it was sunny. Cold, but sunny. Windy, but sunny. I bent the 50 degree rule and went out for a ride. I arranged it so that I went into the wind at the start so that I could gauge how far I could go. I rode through neighborhoods so that the houses could provide some windbreak. I was able to get 20 miles in and it wasn't too bad.
On Tuesday, my normal biking day with my buddies, it was sunny and it got into the 60's. It was pretty pleasant. Should I wear tights? (I've been told that professional bike riders wear something over their knees until it gets into the 70's. It helps their knee joints.) Nah. It's warm and the sun is shining. I took a rain jacket because there was some rain in the west, but I didn't put it on. One thing about where I bike (Detroit and southeastern Michigan): while there are no hills, there is wind. We started out with the wind. Then some clouds rolled in and the temperature started going down. By the time I turned into the wind to come back, I had the rain jacket on and I was cold. Where were my tights? By the end of the ride, the temperature was in the low 50's and the wind was a steady 15-20 mph and another lesson was learned.
Preparing for Hills
After spending last week riding in Tennessee and receiving a request for suggestions on training for hills (Tennessee is nothing BUT hills), I decided while it may still be early in the season, it might be time to post this.
Training for hills is not much different than training for the flats, except you have to think more about shifting and your power output may have to go up briefly if, or when, you run out of gears. Always remember that your cadence (the speed that your pedals, not your wheels, are turning) is the single most important ingredient in managing long distance riding and hills. You should be maintaining between 70 and 90 RPM with your pedals, irrespective of your speed over the ground. Some folks liken this to always keeping only a light pressure on the pedals. You do this by shifting to an appropriate gear to maintain the appropriate RPM.
As you head up a hill, or even into a strong wind, your effort (pressure on the pedals) starts to increase and your RPM starts to decrease. This is when you need to shift to a lower gear. As the hill steepens, you continue to shift down to maintain the proper cadence (pedal rotation speed) until you run out of gears. At that point, you either tough it out, stand up, or you get off and walk to the top. There is no shame in walking up a hill. Personally, I have walked up many hills. The thing to remember, is to shift before you need it. You need to anticipate the down shift, because once you start to slow down and increase the pressure on the pedals, it becomes difficult, or sometimes impossible, to down shift.
What kind of gearing does your bike have? Make sure your bike is in good shape and sufficient gearing for hill climbing. The number of gears makes less difference on hills than the lowest gear available. A small 22 gear up front together with a large 32 or 34 gear in the back makes for some awesome hill climbing ability. That is what I use.
As far as training goes, realize that the hills on PALM may be steep at times, but are usually short. This means you need to train your anaerobic capacity. This is different from the aerobic training you may be used to. I won't talk heart rate here, but in aerobic training, you put forth an effort that you intend on maintaining for a long period. In anaerobic training, you train for maximum effort that you only intend to maintain for a short time. You can accomplish this by interval training. If you don't have any hills nearby, like me, once you have warmed up for 10 to 15 minutes, you can do intervals by shifting to a higher (that is, harder) gear and stand up to pedal. Presumably, your cadence will remain the same, but the pressure on the pedals and your power output will increase and you will start to breath hard. Do this for one minute then rest at your normal gear and cadence for 4 minutes.
Do five or six of these intervals a couple times a week and hills should become much easier for you.
Training for hills is not much different than training for the flats, except you have to think more about shifting and your power output may have to go up briefly if, or when, you run out of gears. Always remember that your cadence (the speed that your pedals, not your wheels, are turning) is the single most important ingredient in managing long distance riding and hills. You should be maintaining between 70 and 90 RPM with your pedals, irrespective of your speed over the ground. Some folks liken this to always keeping only a light pressure on the pedals. You do this by shifting to an appropriate gear to maintain the appropriate RPM.
As you head up a hill, or even into a strong wind, your effort (pressure on the pedals) starts to increase and your RPM starts to decrease. This is when you need to shift to a lower gear. As the hill steepens, you continue to shift down to maintain the proper cadence (pedal rotation speed) until you run out of gears. At that point, you either tough it out, stand up, or you get off and walk to the top. There is no shame in walking up a hill. Personally, I have walked up many hills. The thing to remember, is to shift before you need it. You need to anticipate the down shift, because once you start to slow down and increase the pressure on the pedals, it becomes difficult, or sometimes impossible, to down shift.
What kind of gearing does your bike have? Make sure your bike is in good shape and sufficient gearing for hill climbing. The number of gears makes less difference on hills than the lowest gear available. A small 22 gear up front together with a large 32 or 34 gear in the back makes for some awesome hill climbing ability. That is what I use.
As far as training goes, realize that the hills on PALM may be steep at times, but are usually short. This means you need to train your anaerobic capacity. This is different from the aerobic training you may be used to. I won't talk heart rate here, but in aerobic training, you put forth an effort that you intend on maintaining for a long period. In anaerobic training, you train for maximum effort that you only intend to maintain for a short time. You can accomplish this by interval training. If you don't have any hills nearby, like me, once you have warmed up for 10 to 15 minutes, you can do intervals by shifting to a higher (that is, harder) gear and stand up to pedal. Presumably, your cadence will remain the same, but the pressure on the pedals and your power output will increase and you will start to breath hard. Do this for one minute then rest at your normal gear and cadence for 4 minutes.
Do five or six of these intervals a couple times a week and hills should become much easier for you.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Weather
Opening Day this year was gorgeous: in the 60's. The next day, Tuesday, was the usual day that my friends and I bike after work. It was supposed to rain. (It poured the Tuesday before.) It rained all around Detroit, but I took a chance and tried to ride anyway. I'm glad I did: it didn't rain and its been the last time the weather has been good enough to ride. The weather has been horrible. On this Tuesday (!) I went to a garden club meeting. It's helped me to face the weather before. The woman at the meeting was apologizing because the cold crop plants that we were supposed to get next week wouldn't be ready intil May. I had to tell her: don't worry about it - it's supposed to snow tomorrow. And it did. My garden is frozen mud. I still can't tell if what is growing are plants or weeds. My feeling is that only a weed has a chance. My daffodils are flat on their faces on the lawn.
The Tigers have been lucky. They were home for three days and then took off for a 10 day road trip and missed all of this. Think about Cleveland. They had six inches of on their field for a week. There were pictures in the paper of their Latin players throwing snowballs and working on snowmen. The Indians had to move their Opening Day game to Milwaukee where they could play in an indoor stadium. Maybe they could rent their own stadium out for the Stanley Cup playoffs. I'm thinking: is it too late to take up a winter sport? And really, what good is daylight savings time anyway? My brother has the right idea: he moved to Missoula, Montana.
The Tigers have been lucky. They were home for three days and then took off for a 10 day road trip and missed all of this. Think about Cleveland. They had six inches of on their field for a week. There were pictures in the paper of their Latin players throwing snowballs and working on snowmen. The Indians had to move their Opening Day game to Milwaukee where they could play in an indoor stadium. Maybe they could rent their own stadium out for the Stanley Cup playoffs. I'm thinking: is it too late to take up a winter sport? And really, what good is daylight savings time anyway? My brother has the right idea: he moved to Missoula, Montana.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Demographics for PALM 2007
I did some breakdowns for PALM 2007 based on the 729 people that we have registered so far. Since we have 22 people whose applications have problems, these statistics are not complete.
Age Range / Counts
There are several things here that may surprise you but are typical for PALM. Notice the large number of people between 10 and 19. We encourage family biking and this is traditionally the first or second largest age group. Notice the number of 20 to 29 year olds is smaller than the kids under 10 and that the number of 20 to 39 year olds is less than the people 70 and over. This shows a couple of things: (1) biking is a great exercise for the long haul and (2) PALM is not an Olympic event but, at an average daily distance of 50 miles, is something within the range of everybody.
Number of PALMs/Counts
A look at the number of PALMs that people have done shows other interesting things. For one, about 35% of the people on the ride are doing the PALM for the first time. This is typical. Last year we did a survey and found that one sixth of our riders have never done a week long bike tour. This is not surprising: we encourage first timers. The median number of PALMs is two, ie, if you add first two totals, it is over 50 % of our total participants. But notice that whole lot of people have done a whole lot of PALMs. As part of last year's survey, we asked people how they heard about PALM. 80% of people said that they heard about PALM either from a friend or from a PALM rider. There is something about PALM that brings a lot of people back over and over and makes them recommend PALM to people they know.
Top 10 Cities/Counts
This year PALM riders come from 242 cities. They are mostly from small towns all around Michigan. Typically Ann Arbor tops the list. Why? Because PALM started off in Ann Arbor and most of the staff originally came from there. This is no longer the case. This year the St. Hubert's youth group is riding PALM and that's why Harrison Twp is second. PALM often hosts groups and family reunions. Last year 4 generations of the same family rode the PALM.
Age Range / Counts
- 0 to 9: 31
- 10 to 19: 165
- 20 to 29: 25
- 30 to 39: 34
- 40 to 49: 98
- 50 to 59: 171
- 60 to 69: 142
- 70 to 79: 52
- 80 & over: 10
There are several things here that may surprise you but are typical for PALM. Notice the large number of people between 10 and 19. We encourage family biking and this is traditionally the first or second largest age group. Notice the number of 20 to 29 year olds is smaller than the kids under 10 and that the number of 20 to 39 year olds is less than the people 70 and over. This shows a couple of things: (1) biking is a great exercise for the long haul and (2) PALM is not an Olympic event but, at an average daily distance of 50 miles, is something within the range of everybody.
Number of PALMs/Counts
- 1 PALM: 255
- 2 PALMs: 149
- 3 PALMs: 86
- 4 PALMs: 36
- 5 PALMs: 44
- 6 PALMs: 18
- 7 PALMs: 24
- 8 PALMs: 23
- 9 PALMs: 8
- 10 PALMs: 9
- 11 - 15 PALMs: 43
- 16 - 20 PALMs: 21
- 21 - 25 PALMs: 13
A look at the number of PALMs that people have done shows other interesting things. For one, about 35% of the people on the ride are doing the PALM for the first time. This is typical. Last year we did a survey and found that one sixth of our riders have never done a week long bike tour. This is not surprising: we encourage first timers. The median number of PALMs is two, ie, if you add first two totals, it is over 50 % of our total participants. But notice that whole lot of people have done a whole lot of PALMs. As part of last year's survey, we asked people how they heard about PALM. 80% of people said that they heard about PALM either from a friend or from a PALM rider. There is something about PALM that brings a lot of people back over and over and makes them recommend PALM to people they know.
Top 10 Cities/Counts
- Ann Arbor: 35
- Harrison Twp: 30
- Battle Creek: 16
- Warren: 13
- Grand Rapids: 12
- Royal Oak: 12
- Tecumseh: 12
- Ooltewah, TN: 11
- Fort Wayne, IN: 10
- Sterling Heights: 10
This year PALM riders come from 242 cities. They are mostly from small towns all around Michigan. Typically Ann Arbor tops the list. Why? Because PALM started off in Ann Arbor and most of the staff originally came from there. This is no longer the case. This year the St. Hubert's youth group is riding PALM and that's why Harrison Twp is second. PALM often hosts groups and family reunions. Last year 4 generations of the same family rode the PALM.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Training for PALM: March
As I mentioned previously, my goal is to start riding three times a week, to start at 20 miles, and to work my up to be able to do 50 miles on one of the rides. You may ask, how is it coming along? Not so good. I rode only three times in March, each for 20 miles. Not very impressive if you remember how much warm weather we've had. (I consider anything over 50 degrees warm enough to ride.)
We're still at the point where we can't pick the days we want to ride, we have to ride on the days that we are allowed to ride. I do a Tuesday night ride with a group of friends all through the summer. We bike by old Tiger Stadium, Mexican Town, the Ambassador Bridge, Renaissance Center, Belle Isle, Eastern Market, and Wayne State. I never plan riding based on the weather forecast. I won't start riding if its raining, but it's got to be raining first. Last Tuesday it was supposed to rain but it wasn't raining when left work to drive down to meet my friends. Then it started to sprinkle. Well, in Michigan it can sprinkle and stop so I kept on going. Then it started to pour. In Michigan when it rains hard, it doesn't rain long so I kept on going. Then it started to mix hail with the rain. It was so loud in my car I thought I was going to have stop under a bridge. In Detroit all the expressways are built in ditches so that stopping wasn't going to be a good idea, so I kept going. It didn't do any good. It rained until dark and we couldn't ride. The thing was Monday was a beautiful day. It was in the 70's and the sun was shining. I should have biked then. I forgot that this time of year I don't get to chose which day to bike on. As I'm writing this, the sun has come out. The forecast is for rain. I'm going to go out riding right now. Get it while you can.
Registration update: I sent out a new batch of confirmation letters. We have 729 people registered so far with 22 more still to be registered when the problems with their applications are resolved. Our cutoff date this year was March 1 so it's taken a whole month to get caught up. Thank you for your patience.
We're still at the point where we can't pick the days we want to ride, we have to ride on the days that we are allowed to ride. I do a Tuesday night ride with a group of friends all through the summer. We bike by old Tiger Stadium, Mexican Town, the Ambassador Bridge, Renaissance Center, Belle Isle, Eastern Market, and Wayne State. I never plan riding based on the weather forecast. I won't start riding if its raining, but it's got to be raining first. Last Tuesday it was supposed to rain but it wasn't raining when left work to drive down to meet my friends. Then it started to sprinkle. Well, in Michigan it can sprinkle and stop so I kept on going. Then it started to pour. In Michigan when it rains hard, it doesn't rain long so I kept on going. Then it started to mix hail with the rain. It was so loud in my car I thought I was going to have stop under a bridge. In Detroit all the expressways are built in ditches so that stopping wasn't going to be a good idea, so I kept going. It didn't do any good. It rained until dark and we couldn't ride. The thing was Monday was a beautiful day. It was in the 70's and the sun was shining. I should have biked then. I forgot that this time of year I don't get to chose which day to bike on. As I'm writing this, the sun has come out. The forecast is for rain. I'm going to go out riding right now. Get it while you can.
Registration update: I sent out a new batch of confirmation letters. We have 729 people registered so far with 22 more still to be registered when the problems with their applications are resolved. Our cutoff date this year was March 1 so it's taken a whole month to get caught up. Thank you for your patience.
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