Category Archives: cycling

If it’s cold and rainy, it’s time for cyclocross

From left: Patrick, Papa Beeson, and Eric Beeson

Something about this year made me extra excited for cyclocross season … the way I used to get excited for a new school year. But now instead of looking forward to the smells of crisp paper and bookbags, I’m eager for the smell of wet grass, hearing cow bells and heckling.

And now my brother-in-law is sticking his little toe into the action as a Cat 4. He and my father-in-law made it out to races this weekend.

Patrick and I had decided, just this morning, that we needed to buy a canopy tent so he could train pre-race, regardless of the weather. We all stood under that tent for a little while to watch one of the early races. It was drizzling. There was a camping chair, cameras out, heckling.

When Eric got out on the course, I heckled the hell out of him. “No more resting! You can rest in twenty minutes!” “HAVE FUN! WHY AREN’T YOU HAVING FUN!?!!?”

And Patrick … he got the Spanish treatment. Cheers that he’d know were for him. “¡Vamos vamos vamos!” “¡DÁLE DURO, MOSTRO! ¡DÁLE DÁLE DÁLE!”

El Monstro.

He had a rough race today, but so did everyone. It was nasty and rainy and mud everywhere. There were crashes in every race I saw. Cow bells going crazy. Hecklers getting drunk.

This, of course, makes me more excited for the rest of the season. The plan is to buy a couple more of those camping chairs. To bring a cooler full of Patrick-brewed beer and good food. Maybe I could figure out a way to serve up spicy hot chocolate.

Breath in the cold air, deep. It’s good for the spirit.

on my bike, i think deep thoughts

It’s actually pretty corny … but every time I get on a bike by myself, I find myself stumbling on some new, healthy perspective. These things click usually as I’m climbing a hill and have to dig deep into my will to get through the push.

Recent deep thoughts:

» There is nothing for me to overcome. I rode past a young, chubby girl one day and remembered my own young, chubby self. I was on the verge of thinking something like “look how far I’ve come,” or “push harder for her! For your old self!” But almost immediately I realized it didn’t ring true … because I have nothing to overcome; I have nothing in my past that’s wrong or bad.

My young, chubby self was a moment in time. The moment is passed. I used to prefer sitting all day (and still sometimes do), but that lifestyle is no longer my lifestyle. My present and future are not executed in an effort to undo past moments. They are executed to move forward.

What a weight to be lifted! What a burden to unbind.

» I can climb the mountain if I accept what gear I need to make it up. And it was this day that I let go of the judgments I’d made of my strength: I’d had it in my head that if I could make a climb in a slightly higher gear, it meant I was strong; that if I needed to cut down to the easiest gear, I should be embarrassed.

Terribly wrong. Gears are there to help you do what you can do. So I shifted to my easiest gear in that moment and made a solo climb that felt endless and painful. But I was determined, and I made it to the top of my climb.

I haven’t been ashamed to shift to my easiest gear since, and in fact I find myself adjusting my gears throughout a ride more often. My energy feels more steady from start to finish (and on a recent 20-mile loop I even decided I should add five miles, seeing as I was still feeling so durn good).

» I don’t have to make it, I just have to try. This, on my most recent solo ride, during which I came up to one of the steepest hills I’ve faced. It wasn’t long, but I had no preceding downhill-sprint to give me a boost. It was just gonna be me, climbing.

I saw it coming for a while, and I kept repeating that I didn’t have to make it, I just had to try. Over and over. And then I stood up to start the climb, repeating it. And I cursed and repeated it. And I criss-crossed the climb (to cut down the effect of the incline) and repeated it. And I felt like I was going to fall off my bike and I kept repeating it. And I was at the top. I’d made it.

I had nothing but (less-steep) climb ahead of me once I made it up the initial incline. I had to turn around after a half-mile. But I made it so much further than if I hadn’t tried.

None of these is an original thought. But hell if in finally owning each thought did I not feel some measure of release.

I let go of the negative.
I let go of self-judgment.
I let go of caring if I failed an attempt.

I took up the moment.
I took up the acceptance of what I can do and the choice to celebrate it.
I took up the notion that to try is to succeed.

i might ride my bike into forever

There’s something unbelievable about it: I keep getting on my bike; I keep pushing myself up mountains; I keep wanting to take longer and longer rides.

I’m going to sign up for races.

There clipless road shoes on their way to our apartment.

If I were cool, this would be called my groove.

excited about this weekend

So many things to look forward to on a Saturday morning!

» Firstly, I’m excited that I’m excited on a Saturday morning. I can’t tell you how many weekends I’ve started totally down in the dumps, despite the fact that the preceding weeks were productive, successful, happy-making. The culprit? I’m guessing the end-of-week sugar indulgences and Saturday-morning pancake-breakfasty habits. Score one for making a healthy decision (the week in review & its lessons) and sticking with it!

» Yoga! Actually, Body Flow at the Y, which is apparently a mix of pilates, yoga and tai chi. I’m looking forward to the stretching and core workout I expect I’ll get out of this class. Also, it’s this morning (I’ll finish this blog entry and head out the door!), and I have a feeling it’ll be a great start to the weekend.

» Making more spent-grain bread, which I think Patrick and I should do our darndest to document so we can share it with you all in detail (and pretty pictures). This stuff is so good, I think we’ll make a double batch and freeze the finished loaves that will be in excess. Also? I’ll make some malt syrup from his leftover, unboiled wort! It’s earthy and sweet and I plan to use it in an upcoming batch of buttercream frosting for god-knows-what.

» A “real” bike ride. Patrick’s gonna lead me through my first “real” training bike ride. Meaning it’ll be long (I’ve asked him not to tell me how long until we’re done), and that I should attempt to pedal continuously (Patrick observed in a previous, casual ride that I coast a lot, which is a no-no for group road rides and if I plan to ever compete, which maybe I do …). I’m so looking forward to the challenge, and to spending quality time with Stinger.

» My first “follower” through blogger that I don’t know in real life! Liz Loses! I can’t tell you the little thrill I got at seeing that someone was following my blog who lives in Ohio (where I have never been), and who’s doing the kinds of things with her food and exercise that I aim to do. Thanks, Ms. Liz Loses, for making my day!

a sunday of home work.

I’m excited for Patrick and me today. We have a hike ahead of us (Tinker Ridge to Hay Rock Overlook). We’re going to bake and make (Italian bread, granola cereal, granola bars).

I’m going to find my camera USB chord so I can upload all the food photos I’ve taken this week. I’m going to write some blog entries about our beer-grain bread, about my meals throughout the past week, my goals for the week ahead.

day of indulgent productivity

I believe in a day of rest, but there’s this interesting thing I’ve noticed my past few weekends: I’d much rather get my full-on restfulness out of the way on Saturday.

Yesterday we rode our bikes along the greenway and up Mill Mountain. Then we headed to our first Star City Brewers Guild meeting (for homebrewers and those interested in homebrew). We indulged in lots of scratchmade beer, good food and excellent company.

I suppose we didn’t rest, per se, but we also didn’t do anything that I’d consider work.

Today, though? After the hike, all that baking and making is what we need to stock our pantry for the week ahead. Maybe we should add hummus to the list, in fact. And we *do* have a lot of frozen blueberries on hand (Patrick woke up early this morning to start our coffee and make us delicious scratch muffins). I think I should turn the extras into quick jam.

And I’ll come back to my blog and edit photos, think on the work I’ve done and the work I want to do. I get to steep in thoughtfulness about the lifestyle I’m trying to attain.

I like Sunday for this kind of work because it feels like I’m gearing up for a productive week ahead. I like the fact that restfulness is starting to feel like a chore I know I need to get done (if I don’t take time for rest, I will crash after a few weeks and find myself useless for an entire weekend and in terrible condition at the beginning of my work week).

And I’m not sure how much better it gets than filling a home with the sweet and savory smells of scratchmade food.

hikes & bikes move me.

I’ve written pretty extensively about how much I love my bike, Stinger. I’m excited for the onset of warmer weather so I can climb back on and up some of these mountains we moved into. In fact, Patrick and I might go out for a ride this afternoon.

So it’s clear I love biking.

But after a hike up McAfee Knob with Patrick and my brother-in-law, Eric, last Sunday, I rediscovered my love of hiking.

{thanks to eric beeson for documenting our hike! all photos in this entry are his. see the whole collection from his visit.}

not all movement is the same
I have to drag my ass to the gym. I make myself do aerobics (and eventually I’ll make myself do weightlifting again) because I know it’s good for me.

Maybe I’ll find a groove, or even a love, for these things. But that’s a way’s off. For now, they’re work.

What has never been work, in that mental sense, is hiking. Yes, physically I get tired and sore. But mentally I’m engaged 100 percent. I even enjoy the strain of it: My favorite moments in a long hike are on the stretches of trail that require a little full-body climb, or a steep, lunging ascent. My legs are involved, my abs, my arms for balance.

Engaging these same parts of my body in a gym wouldn’t do much for me. But on a trail? Exhilerating.

And this is what I take from that difference: Movement is very personal, and most people likely have a specific activity that engages their body, but also get their whole self excited. I’m thinking of dancers, soccer players, runners, gym rats. Being physically engaged is only part of the reason they commit to the activity. Or maybe it’s no reason at all they’re engaged. Doing that thing, whatever it is, excites their brains, their spirit.

Hiking is this for me. And biking. These things aren’t easy for me, but I’m not put off by the difficulty.

what do they mean to me?
There’s something similar in hiking a trail and hopping on a bike: I can do both in a pack, but even when I’m surrounded by people it’s perfectly acceptable to exist within my own thoughts. The hike Sunday was full of good conversation, but equally full of a peaceful, easy quiet. When I ride with Patrick we speak occasionally, but I mostly concentrate on the road and my bike.

I know the solitary nature of hiking and biking plays a big part in why I enjoy them. But they’re different in these simple ways (for me, anyhow):

My biking is an exercise in constant challenge. When I first got on a road bike last fall, I was challenging myself. When I first travelled a road by myself, that was a challenge. When I see hills, I dare myself to climb them with as much vigor as I can muster. When I find myself on a straight-away and with reserve energy, I attempt top speeds.

The fact that I even wished to push myself so hard in a physical way was an exceptional surprise. I did that through cycling, and I’ll probably continue to channel my athletic ambitions through a bike.

So, there’s that.

And then there’s this …

{the summit at mcafee knob}

Hiking gets me to a calm space, by way of the ground around me. The views on all the good hikes I’ve done around Roanoke are quiet and magnificent. The work is hard but the pace I choose is steady and easy. I haven’t found a hike yet that escapes sounds of the highway or of planes traveling overhead, but the rest of the soundtrack is crackling and light. It allows me to reach some quiet and very comfortable place in myself that I couldn’t get otherwise.

As I’m working to gain a more healthful lifestyle, isn’t this supremely important? To be at peace with myself, at ease? I think it is.

so incredibly important
And what if I had never discovered them? I would probably make myself go the gym, and exercise would be a chore. Only a chore.

But I did discover them for myself. So I have a chance to experience exercise and movement in a very positive context. And potentially I get to explore it as a means to get to something else in my life. I’ve found a way to tap my ambition and to start to move toward a more peaceful, easy place within myself. Won’t that lead to something?

It feels like it already has, but it also feels like there is something huge looming ahead.

PS: Look at this dog face. We are two lucky folks, Patrick and I …

{saazie knows something we don’t know. i can’t wait till she tells us what it is.}

weekend warriette

We are drinking BEER and eating BARBECUE and buying COFFEE & CHOCOLATE.

Then we are RIDING BIKES & watching WATCHING WILLY WONKA and HAVING MORE CHOCOLATE (thanks to Bike Roanoke and the Shadowbox and chocolatepaper).

I’m excited for the weekend ahead, and intend to be reasonable in my food decisions. I’ll be faced with delicious rich foods, so I’ll just eat less of them. Grab the veggies and fruit when I can. Drink lots of water. Gravitate to any whole-grain options, and vow to enjoy every bite when I *do* reach for the less healthy treats (because there’s nothing more tasteless than a delicious bite of food that immediately trips a guilt complex).

Here’s enjoying a full weekend.

Out, living

I took a little break from this blog, but I wasn’t taking a break from life. Some things I’ve done in the past two weeks:

Rode 33 miles on Stinger, all by myself and exuberantly. I celebrated by getting myself some Chinese food for dinner that night … vegetables, steamed rice, spring roll, wonton soup. And I usually go for duck sauce but opted instead for the mustard. It was delicious, and didn’t add unnecessary sugar to my meal.

Cleaned our house, tip to toe, and kept it all pretty while Patrick was on vacation for a week (so he could come home to a nice, cozy home … I bought flowers, too!)

Made Italian bread, twice

Make strawberry quick jam, from scratch!

Made peanut butter (it’s just salted peanuts, in the food processor … easiest from-scratch thing ever)

Raked the leaves in our front yard … two and a half hours of exercise on a beautiful day, with a dog who went absolutely crazy over piles of dry leaves.

Rode 15 miles on my bike just because, including on a new backroad that was nearly all uphill.

So, some things I realized about me and my bike: it keeps me in the moment; I don’t think about how many miles are ahead of me or how much work I’ve done to get where I am. I just climb hills and speed along straight-aways. Also, I like cycling. It’s the first exercise I’ve ever looked forward to. I’m so glad I found it.

sunday rides are here to stay

Because I love them. Patrick and I headed out to recreate a ride we did several weeks ago, when I still just had a mountain bike at my disposal. I listed it as one of my Stinger goals when I knew the bike was headed for an overhaul.

I’d originally thought a long ride on a road bike would be harder for me; mostly I was nervous about what seems to be a more unstable posture over the bike … and those hand positions: so far from my seat! But honestly — and I’ve said it before — that road position is ultimately more comfortable. And the thin road tires make for a smoother, quicker ride. I find it easier to keep my speed up on Stinger.

ride highlights

Coffee & donuts. By a stroke of good luck, we ran out of coffee beans at home, so just had to stop by Old City Java to get our morning cup. Where we also got an apple spice donut. Fuggedaboutit. Also, a fresh pour of coffee is exactly right before 15 more miles on a bike.

Pedaling along the flats at 14 mph. Half the reason this feels good is I know I didn’t have to keep up a good clip but I did anyway; the other half is that I felt like I was in good shape as I was doing it. It’s not an incredible speed, but it’s faster than I usually rode at zero incline. Progress!

Learning how to shift. I’ve got some experience on bikes, but I’d never ridden one with shifters affixed to the stem. Changing gears means I have to balance my ride with one hand, find my shifter with the other, and keep pedaling as I shift. I’m new enough that this is still a freaking big deal. It’s meant until this ride that I usually spend more time in the wrong gear than I want to, because I’ve not been comfortable enough to make the change. But by the end of this ride, I was feeling a little expert.

Riding down the hill of doom. There’s a slope just after one of the left-hand turns. The first time we did this ride, I turned and jumped off of the bike; it was ominous. I knew it was coming this time and I was nervous but determined. So this time: we turned and I immediately put on my brakes, but I stayed on the bike. Accompanied by screaming and expletives. “Mother flipper [actually said it] I feel like I’m on a f-cking rollercoaster holy sh-t!” Patrick, meanwhile? Laughing. Hysterically. So next time my goal: no cursing. Time after that: let off the brakes.

Riding up the hill of doom. Different hill. When we got back to the neighborhood, I deviated from our normal ride home because, see, there’s this hill. I felt so good from my other feats that I thought I’d at least give this one hill a go. My little monologue: “doesn’t hurt to try; it’s OK if I get off my bike; there’s only one way to know.” I sped through a little downhill that precedes the up, shifted to my lowest gear (!!), then I climbed. And did it. And seriously: huge grin on my face all the way home. I even swayed on my bike.

weekend warrior

Productivity, fueld by coffee (PS: I totally photoshopped myself a clear complexion … forehead pimple! I almost gave myself more eyebrows, too … )

OK, OK. So I admitted to falling down a little with the no-tracking thing. That’s Step 1.

Step 2 is to get back into warrior stance and do some stuff. Including starting to track food again. Hey, wanna see my spreadsheet? I knew you did! I’ll explain how it works in a future writeup.

It’s nearly ridiculous how much focus this tracking thing brings to my food decisions.

I recorded my breakfast, and I’ve already written out my lunch (hummus sandwich with veg and feta). I’ll be going out to dinner with Patrick this evening and I know I have 6 points left for the day (plus a few extra weekly points if I want to use them). I’ll probably drink a beer (3 points) and have a piece of pizza (5 points).

And you know what? I don’t feel deprived. I feel in control and happy to know I’m making good choices.

other plans for the weekend
A nice long walk. I haven’t exercised since our long ride along the Creeper Trail. I could go to the gym or get on my bike, but after such a long absence — and being in need of re-centering — a walk is perfect. I love, love, long walks. I like the fresh air and the time to reflect.

Brewer’s Jam! Patrick and I are going to help man the homebrew club’s booth, and I plan on having fun, drinking beer (counting points, of course), and helping my husband hand out tasters. I also designed the homebrewers’ tab cards, which was a super fun good time. Aren’t they nice?

Write up the next entry in my tracking tools how-to. I can’t just let a series sit unattended! I may even write up the third entry, too. (My first entry in the series, by the way).

23-mile bike ride! It’s one of my Stinger goals, to replicate a ride Patrick and I took several weeks ago when I still just had a mountain bike. When I originally set the goal I’d assumed it would be a big deal to ride that far on a road bike, but after our neighborhood tour a few weeks ago, I think it’s gonna be pretty comfortable. Still, it’s sitting there, unfinished. Oh, and it’d be our Sunday bike ride. Another goal, chipped away!

Here’s to getting up and dusting yourself off …