Is It Time To Take The Next Step In Your Training

Well summer is turning to fall and you have been riding, hopefully, consistently 15 -20 miles a ride. You should be feeling good, you have lost some weight, or more importantly your clothes are now fitting better or too big. You have learned to adjust your riding to improve your skills but work with your body. Now it is time for more.

Even if, like me, you went on vacation and you now feel like you are back at square one and you can’t seem to get back into the grove again it’s only a couple of rides away. Now you will need to dig deep, think of what you have accomplished, what you want to accomplish and start to hammer it out. You will be very surprised that in two or three rides you are back in the swing of things. Not only are you back into the swing of it, you are better than when you stopped for vacation. The human body is a wonderful mechanism that is flexible and can rebound with an improvement faster than you can imagine.

Now you have some choices to make. Should you stick with me, a non-expert, non-professional that is a firm believer in the S.W.A.G. method (For the young, or never been in the military, S.W.A.G. stands for Scientific Wild Ass Guess). Take advice and tips you have acquired from friends, neighbors, and the other cyclists I hope you have been talking to. Taking tips is a very good idea if you are open to and want to attempt change to improve. Remember what works for one does not work for another, but it does not need to be a permanent change to try a couple of times. Are you comfortable to step up and join an organized riding group? Find a compatible riding buddy. Or the big step, find an organized finely written training regiment and group or private coach. You know what you have been doing, you know the improvements you have made and where you need, or better, want to improve. How about a little of all of it? If you have really been working at being a good recreational cyclist, lose weight and just all around feel better, you should have been doing some of this on a smaller scale.

We all have our little things that we want to change or at least improve on. Sometime we become so obsessed by these little things that we forget to look at the big picture. Like I said when I started this blog idea, little steps, little goals, result in big rewards. Most of all you need to make yourself feel good

Next blog I will talk about how my training has been and my deficiencies, well at least those related to bicycling.


Next Post; My Training With S.W.A.G.

Ride Safe Out There, and Don’t Run Me Over (please)

“G”

Things Brought to My Attention

I only made a single blog entry once in July, WOW.

I did ride 355 miles with an average of 24 miles a ride. My smart-alecky fifteen year old now needs to wait for me again so he had to rub it in with some extra rides to total 387 miles, oh to be fifteen again.

It is half way through August and I haven’t made an entry until now.

We had a family road trip (getting to be a lost past time in this instant gratification world) to California. Saw the Grand Canyon, California Speedway (nothing to see there the track is closed to the public), did a walking tour of USC, went to the beach and a family reunion in Ventura. We stopped in Vegas saw a great Summer of ‘69 light show at the Fremont Street Experience and left after a tour around the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is open to the public.

Helmets have been brought to my attention. On a ride yesterday a fire truck, ambulance (Good work South Metro), and two park ranger officers were caring for a cyclist on the path. Besides obvious (obvious due to the amount of the flowing blood and torn skin) head, shoulder, arm and hand wounds there was not a helmet in sight. Helmets are not uncomfortable, they are light and now designed to flow air to keep your noggin cool besides intact. Wear the damn things!! When I say ‘wear’ I mean on your head correctly. You should have two finger widths between the eyebrow and the helmet. That is two finger widths of the wearer not Dad’s big fingers sizing the six year old. The strap should be loose but as you open your mouth wide ( you know that panic of falling yell wide), the strap should tighten, not to choke but not come over the chin. The straps should come together just below and centered on the wearer’s ear lobes (the things holding the large bling pieces). I have seen a female rider on a regular basis that has a desire to have her helmet protect her right ear. How she has been able to adjust it to appear centered over her right ear is well beyond my expertise, I just hope she can aim her fall well. Then we have all seen the rider with the helmet fitted to cover the back bulge of the skull. You can see their full fore head as well as their full receding hair line. They are the ones that usually are wearing them so their children will wear one. Unfortunately the children have them fitted the same way. I have been arrogant enough to offer to adjust a helmet for a child and found that the parent really did not know there was a special way they should be adjusted. Join the movement and see how many kids’ helmets you can adjust in a week.

Next Post; Is It Time to Take The Next Step in Your Training

Ride Safe Out There, and Don’t Run Me Over (please)

“G”