Resuming Cycling After Covid

 I recently found out that I had Covid, and am now on the road to getting back up to speed.

One of the interesting things about this round, is that the first indication that something was amiss came from my Apple Watch's VO2 Max reading dropping suddenly, which happened on July 1.  It decreased from 38.5 on June 10 to 36.3, and it usually will increase or decrease in increments of 0.1-0.2, so this was a sudden and large drop.

I didn't really think any more of this drop, and continued to ride, both to work and recreationally, for the next several days.  I was a little tired and had sinus issues during this time, but this was my rest week following three weeks of going harder, so the symptoms were not unexpected.  On July 6, I took a Covid test, basically just to rule it out, and was surprised to find that the second line turned dark very quickly - yup, it was Covid.  The symptoms were not nearly as bad as the first time I had the virus, but I did feel fatigued and spacy.

During my break, I found this article and infographic that was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that outlined specific steps in recovery that I thought would be useful.  I'm now a couple of days into the protocol, and feeling pretty good, so I wanted to document this information for my own future reference, as well as possibly helping others.

Since I've now resumed activities, I've also returned to walking and was happy to see that on July 16, my iPhone VO2 Max had returned up 38.1.

Mt. Baker Highway 2024

 I rode up the Mt. Baker highway again this year, after a couple of years off.  It was a gorgeous day, somewhat on the cool side weather wise, which I really appreciated on the way up.

The lower parts of the climb were quite cloudy, and it was not a certainty that the clouds would clear and render the peaks visible.

The pavement was mercifully dry; however, and I set about climbing while trying to limit myself from going too hard too early.  As I made my way up, some blue patches began appearing in the sky.

The road flattens somewhat at the ski area, and even though it's still around a 3% grade, it almost feels like pedaling downhill given the gradients preceding it.

Once past the ski area, the road switchbacks up through and into the snow.

Which gets thicker to the point that the upper reaches of the climb were cleared by snow plow just a couple of weeks prior to my ascent.

North Cascades Highway 2024

I was able to ride the North Cascades Highway all the way to Washington Pass car free this year. There was a much lighter snow pack than normal, so the WSDOT road clearing operation didn't take nearly as long as usual - this meant it was essential to seize the day and get up there. Unlike most of my previous rides up, I knew from the outset that the road had been cleared all the way to Washington Pass, the only question was whether my legs and spring form would allow me to make it all the way.

 

The way is up up up.

The secret seems to be out in terms of this ride being on folks' radar now. The parking lot at the Roass Lake Trailhead was beyond full, and cars were parked on the side of the road going down from the closure gate.  There were many people cycling up on all manner of bikes, from fancy road bikes to commuter e-bikes and everything in between.  Several factors likely contributed to the exceptional numbers:  the shorter than normal clearing operation, the first sunny weekend in a cool and wet spring, and the fact that this was likely the last remaining weekend that the road would remain car free.

It's great that the word is out and so many folks are enjoying the beautiful alpine scenery by bike.

As I crested Rainy Pass and counted down the mile markers during the brief descent to the base of Washington Pass, I figured I might as well continue all the way there.  Though this was further than I had ridden over the spring, I could not pass up the opportunity to keep going.  I was rewarded with a spectacular view of Liberty Bell and the WSDOT road clearing equipment.

I also got to take a picture (drive side out!) of my bike leaned up against the snowbank with the Washington Pass sign in the background.  One of these days, I'll continue down the other side of the pass to Mazama and/or Winthrop in the Skagit Valley on the other side.

The descent back down to the car at the Ross Lake trailhead started out very cold, so I was glad of all the layers I had with me, even though on the way up I was too warm on the parts below the snow line.  It's always important when cycling in the mountains to realize that both the speed and effort differential between the ascent and descent will result in vastly divergent experiences of the same temperature.

Cycling is Good for Your Brain

 This is no surprise whatsoever to anyone who rides regularly; however, it is validating when our self care practices become evidence based.  https://cyclingtips.com/2023/02/outride-research-shows-cyclings-benefits-are-more-than-physical/

Ode to the Underappreciated: A New Chain

Sigh.  It's time to replace my chain.  First was the fact that when I started pedaling hard in my most popular gear combination, the chain is beginning to slip and skip a little.  Further confirmation came from using a chain checking tool.  Yup, it's now beyond spec.

Needing a new chain is no big deal, in the grand scheme of things, but I like to remind myself whenever this happens that I stretched a steel assembly with my legs.  At this point, the discussion could veer off into whether I actually stretched the plates of the chain or rather have worn down the connections between the links so that there is now lateral play in them.  Regardless of which of these scenarios has resulted in my chain skipping and being beyond spec, the fact remains that it is now longer than it should be.

The metaphor here is hard to miss, but I'm going to spell it out for future reference when I'm feeling down.  Consistent work over time enables us to do things that we would not consider possible, a little bit at a time.  If I were to go into a bar and tell my new friends that I could stretch steel with my legs, they would regard me dubiously.  But there it is, out there on my bike, the one that needs a new chain.

Ode to the Underappreciated: This F***ing Headwind

What is it with this wind, why do I feel like it's always pushing me back, no matter the direction I take on my ride?  Why are my legs feeling like jelly, it must be this f***ing wind.  These are questions that sometimes come to mind on a ride.

The best, cheapest, and easiest to access indicator of wind speed, although it is completely subjective, is the volume of wind noise in one's ears (for those not hearing impaired). If the volume increases, I am either going faster, or the headwind has increased, or some combination of the two. Of course, the inverse is also true. Comparing the wind noise level with my cadence helps to isolate if it's my speed or the wind that's changing. If I'm pedaling the same gear at the same cadence, and the wind volume increases, then I have isolated that the wind has increased.

Different volume levels in each ear also help me ascertain which direction the wind is coming from relative to my vector, ie the volume in the upwind ear will be higher. This is useful for anticipating the wind conditions ahead if the course direction is changing.

After years of riding, I've developed an intuitive sense that above a certain level of wind noise, I should be in the drops and small to the wind or I'm just throwing away watts needlessly (and I don't have any extra to spare).

And herein lies the underappreciated aspect of this f***ing headwind.  I can, in the moment, crouch down and get as low as possible to reduce its affects, so I at least still have some small measure of control of the situation in the here and now.  A similar dynamic is at work with climbing and trying not to be so heavy, but this is much less immediate, relying as it does on not having that extra scoop of ice cream, or several beers with friends, or that extra helping of jerk chicken weeks in advance.

An Ode to the Underappreciated - Horizontal Dropouts

 I love horizontal dropouts, to me, they are the epitome of design tweaks over the life of a longstanding product resulting in multiple benefits.

They aren't really horizontal, but the angle of them has evolved to be tangential to the rear brake pad mounting bolt. This minimizes as much as possible the amount of both angle and reach adjustment needed at the brake pads when moving the wheel through the range of the dropout.

The additional benefit of their long evolution is that the ride characteristics promoted by the position of the wheel within the dropout are complementary. If I have smaller, lighter tires on the bike and move the wheel to its most forward position, the wheelbase will be shorter, which generally will promote a quicker handling ride. Again, due to the angle of the dropout, this position also results in the rear end of the bike moving up several mm, both raising the bottom bracket and effectively steepening the head and seat tube angles - all characteristics that will make the bike respond faster to inputs.

Conversely, if I wanted to soften the ride, the first things to do would be to mount bigger tires on the bike and move the wheels back, which will increase the wheelbase, lower the rear of the bike (assuming same size tires front and back), slacken the head and seat angles, and provide for a bit more clearance around the rear brake and behind the seat tube. If keeping similar sized tires, this position also allows for more room for fenders for converting a bike to winter training. Again, changing all of these attributes simultaneously is complementary to the desired result.

Kyphosis Exercises

 Here's a link to 5 simple exercises to prevent kyphosis, 2 of which I've already been doing.

Be Positive

https://pezcyclingnews.com/toolbox/best-tips-to-become-a-postive-thinking-cyclist-during-corona-lockdown/

Single Leg Training

There was recently an article in Cycling Tips that points to evidence that single leg training can be beneficial.  Since the outbreak of COVID-19, I've been spending more time on the rollers and am working this back into the routine.  The feeling when switching from doing each leg independently to pedaling with both legs is that the legs feel weightless as they turn the pedals more fluidly.

Washington Scenic Bikeways

Our WA State House has voted to pass a statewide network of scenic bikeways similar to those in Oregon. The bill just needs to pass the State Senate and be approved by Gov Inslee.

What excites me about this and led me to post is that, "Any person may propose the designation of a scenic bikeway route. The State Parks Commission will provide an opportunity for public comment on the proposed scenic bike route before determining a scenic bikeways designation."

What if this kind of thing leads to some kind of utopia in which some of our state's most beautiful roads have signage acknowledging cycling with education/ecouragement/enforcement for people both driving and cycling?

What routes in WA would you want to see on the list if it passes? Here's the Oregon site for inspiration.

I'd start by nominating the North Cascades Highway SR 20 between Newhalem and Winthrop and will give it some thought over the next days.

Cross Country Ski Trip

I went for cross country ski trip with the family over the Dr Martin Luther King Holiday, driving up to the cross country routes starting from Hyak off of Interstate 90.  It was a gorgeous day, with fresh snow still falling most of the way up.

Getting the car packed up with all the gear is much more of a challenge since having the 2 year old.

Yours truly, still smiling.

As is climbing the grades while pulling Madeline and the trailer on skis.  Whether by bike or ski, this is where I'm most in my element, chugging up hill and pinning myself against my anaerobic threshold.  Fortunately, the bike/ski/jogging trailer we were able to procure from craigslist is very adaptable, and just fits in the wife's Subaru.

Yay!  Fresh powder!

Generally, my motto on the descents while skiing is "fast, dangerous, and outta control," and I was somewhat worried that with all the elevation gained, it would be a difficult descent.  But getting back down was no problem, as the snow was perfectly fresh groomed.  The last time I had been on this route, it was clear and icy, which was too fast for my abilities at the time, but this time the fresh powder enabled me to carve wide curves and get around the switchbacks as needed.

2020 Vision

There are several things I want to accomplish cycling wise over the course of the new year, so I’m boldly setting a marker in what passes for stone these days in the form of this post.

I will be headed to the big island of Hawaii in February, so naturally, I will want to bring my bike with me and try to ride Mauna Kea.  This is one of the biggest climbs in the world, from sea level to ~14,000’ though we are staying at an AirBNB in Waimea, which is on the northern half of the island but not at sea level.  Given my poor form and mileage totals, I will have to ramp up my mileage in a steady and sustainable way early in the year.  I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it all the way to the top, the important part of the goal for me is to try hard enough to be satisfied with the effort and preparation.

From there, I will have to come down from the summit, in the words of Rene Daumal, back to the reality that it will still be cold and dreary February in Seattle upon my return.  However, the days will be starting to lengthen, and after some recovery, I will set my sights on having a good rest of the year riding.  The goals for this being what eluded me in 2019, to build form steadily and sustainably.  I’ve been experimenting with a new tool in this regard, which is taking and logging my orthostatic heart rate each morning to assess how rested or tired I am.  Over the month that I’ve been self-assessing with this I’ve had the orthostatic rate range from a low of 6 when I felt really sick to a high of 40 after several healthy days of rest.  I’m still working on developing the right ranges for myself but it seems like 20 is about the minimum it should be to go out and ride.

I’m looking forward to the challenges of putting this new knowledge into practice in 2020!

2019 Year in Review

2019 had lots of setbacks and challenges for me, and it’s important to me to both acknowledge and learn from them.

I fell short of my mileage goals again this year.  Part of that may be that I had set the bar too high at 5,000 miles, but I also like setting goals that are a stretch for me.  Falling short was mostly due to 4 factors:  having a two year old in the house, remodeling / moving, weather, and a persistent hip / hamstring issue.  While the toddler is pretty self-explanatory in terms of limiting time on the bike, the other factors combined to make the year less than ideal from a cycling perspective.  In February we had a very unusual for Seattle weather where there was snow on the ground for most of February.  This resulted in not getting a winter base of training that increased steadily into the spring and summer.

I was also remodeling our home during the late spring, doing much of the painting myself, and finally moved in during the early summer.  The painting, moving, organizing, and arranging also took a toll, using energy that I could have used riding more.  By June, we were finally moved in, and this saw my mileage increase rapidly, as I had been aching to get more time on the bike up until then.  At first, it felt great to be getting the miles in finally; however, by about mid July, I started having tightness in my hamstrings that wasn’t just temporary soreness.  So I missed some of the best riding times of the year in August and September while alternately trying to rest my legs and get out there again.  Finally, in October, I began seeing a PT and bike fitter, who showed me that my glutes weren’t activating fully.  He prescribed me some exercises and refitted my #1 bike, but also suggested that one of the reasons was a lack of cross training.  Thinking back, in prior years, I had done different activities, such as hiking, cross country skiing, basketball, and tennis which balanced out the time riding.  Since having my daughter, I had come to concentrate only on cycling to the exclusion of these other balancing activities.

There are some great lessons in here for my overall health going forward, and I will follow up with another post later this week on my 2020 goals which will include these lessons learned.

Bike Fit

I’m a bit embarrassed, actually, as yesterday, I discovered that the seat post height on my #1 road bike had dropped about 5mm.

The backstory is that this year has been a struggle to gain consistent form, as the demands of having a two year old child and doing a large home remodel, combined with some very unfavorable for Seattle weather in February have left me unable to ride as much as I usually had in the winter and spring.  Finally, over June and July, I was able to get to an average of about 120 miles a week between my road and commuting rides – it felt great for a while, and I really started to feel back to myself.

About a month ago; however, I started noticing increased tightness and pain with my hips/glutes/hammies/low back.  I continued riding about the same mileage for a little while, adding stretching, massage, and foam rolling to my routine.  I’ve also had to reduce my riding to close to 0 and have added core strength exercises to the routine as well.  I took a test ride last week after feeling a bit looser, but the original spots of pain and tightness returned within about 3 miles, so I shut it down again.

Yesterday, immediately into my first ride back/another test ride, I noticed the seat felt low and turned around to investigate.  I discovered the 5mm discrepancy, set it to the correct position, and did about 12 miles, feeling much better than I had previously.  My legs today don’t feel any worse than they did yesterday, and I’m hopeful that with the bikes’ setups now matching at the correct values, I can begin upping the mileage again without the negative consequences.

I’m surprised with myself for not noticing the differences in saddle height, but the bike fitting lesson in this to me is that when something doesn’t feel right, check to ensure everything is set up right first.

In the meantime, I’ve scheduled a bike fit with a recommended PT/Bike Fitter, which I still think I’d like to come in for, as I’ve aged 5 years since the last one, which was coincidentally about 5 years ago.

Riding Lots is Good for You

According to researchers, it turns out that heeding Eddy's advice to, "Ride lots" is good for you.  From the paper, "Increased Longevity among Tour de France Cyclists", the major finding was that "repeated very intense exercise prolongs life span in well trained practitioners. Our findings underpin the importance of exercising without the fear that becoming exhausted might be bad for one's health."

How to Enhance the Chances of Being Seen

I came across this article from Trek on the ABC's of Awareness, which, of course, is meant to sell product.  There is, however, lots of useful information that cyclists can use to improve their chances of being seen by the average motorist.

To summarize:

"A" stands for Always On, meaning that daytime running lights should be used.

"B" is for Biomotion, which has shown that the human perceptual system is hard wired to notice things that are alive and moving in ways that animals do.  The most dynamic part of cycling in relation to biomotion would typically be the legs/feet/pedal, which is where always on or contrasting colors should be based for maximum visibility.

"C" represents Contrast, and basically represents that something that contrasts with the surrounding environment will tend to be noticed more than something that blends in.  Basically, the idea being to go flouro during the day and reflective when dark.

Though I'm usually loathe to wear bright colours, some yellow shoes with reflective patches may be in my future. 

Mount Baker 2019

I rode up the Mt Baker Highway SR 542 to Artist’s Point this week.  It had been a couple of years since I’d ridden it, and I mistakenly parked an extra 5 miles out from the summit.  There is a parking lot for the ski area I also had forgotten how far up the climb continues past this point.

I set my second to slowest times on the climb, but had some PB’s on the descent, indicating that I’m *rounding* into form nicely.

3-D Printing at the Public Library

I just found out from a Bike Forums Mechanics Tips and Tricks post about someone's public library in San Diego offering 3-D Printing, so of course, I checked to see if Seattle Public Library offered something similar.  It turns out they do, and they had a link to Thingiverse, which has all kinds of drawings that could potentially be used.

A quick search on the Thingiverse site for 'bicycle' revealed several potentially interesting projects:

A holder for Ortlieb panniers.

A bicycle Stand.

Bicycle work stand clamps.

I need to run down to the library and find out more before I get too excited.

Global Bicycle Cities Index 2019

I saw this article published which ranks the top 90 cities worldwide based on their overall cycling conditions.  It was interesting to note that Seattle is ranked 49th worldwide, but 3rd within the US.  Also interesting that the top 3 US cities are west coast, hilly, and not known for great weather, all of which must handicap them somewhat as weather is factored into the rankings and all would seem to discourage cycling.  The top US city, San Francisco is also only ranked 39th worldwide.  Another point of note is that Los Angeles is the only US city to make the grade that is known for good weather.  No Phoenix, Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, etc.  Seems that one could argue that cycling conditions are largely cultural vs environmental based on these results.