Fin de la saison?

   Because I planned to throw a little more French at you, I felt that I should add an appropriate title, in this case translated as "End of the season?" In an attempt to remove some of the guilt of Thanksgiving indulgence the last couple of days, and also take advantage of this unbelievably mild weather, Sue and I decided to do one big "final" ride into Philadelphia (that's not Rome or Athens in the picture above) this afternoon. The weather forecast predicts a sharp drop in temperature next week, so I don't anticipate getting many more breaks like we have had the last couple days.
   In the last blog entry I talked about my transformation into a puncheur, one who excels at short, steep climbs. However, during this ride I was acting more of the rouleur, a rider who can go a long period of time over level terrain at a consistently high effort. These are the guys who drive the peleton, keeping the pace high while the team leaders tuck in safely behind, saving energy. Not that Sue rides at a pedestrian pace, but I get a far better workout when I am riding at the front, and it does help her to not have to fight the wind the whole way.
   We started at Betzwood Park and rode the Schuylkill River Trail into the city. Saturdays are a bit annoying with so many people on the trail to weave around (Do you have to walk three across?), but if you give enough warning, it's not too bad. Sue usually hates the trail detour through the hilly Manayunk area, not to mention the traffic in the town's tight streets, but the Christmas decorations, which are definitely not a normal sight during our bike rides, helped to ease her pain!
   What really annoys me are the poseurs out for one last hurrah on the roads with their expensive looking clothes and equipment, bobbing and weaving all over the place on the trail or road. Understand that I am always glad to see anyone out on a bicycle instead of sitting around on the couch watching TV, but I don't like being passed by people of obvious lesser ability, particularly when they aren't doing so safely. Believe me, there are plenty of club riders who blow by me and make me feel like I'm going backwards, but they usually give a quick "On your left" or "Passing" - I know that I can't hang with them, and I've (slowly) come to accept that, but at least they're courteous! 
   I also know that sometimes it is a matter of a cyclist riding a much shorter distance than I have and that they just have more left in the tank, and I have no problem with that. However, the guys who sprint by Sue and me, and then run out of gas a hundred yards or so in front of us, drive me crazy. It never fails that when we reel these bozos back in, there will be a jogger, a parent riding along with their child or someone walking a dog coming the other way, so that we have to slow as we pass them back, completely ruining our pacing. 
   One particular poseur magnifiques, all decked out in his pro cycling kit, cut between us at a bad intersection in Manayunk, causing Sue to come to an abrupt stop, made worse by the perilous clipless pedal exit/entrance in traffic. He passed me when I slowed to look back to make sure she was still safely following, and she was, with plenty of head shaking and soft cursing. Moments later we were passing him on a slight incline, and we struggled to keep our composure while (somewhat) politely advising him to ride less agressively. My wife and I would rather arrive home in one piece after our workouts!
   Sue has been swimming regularly in the mornings before work, since it gets dark earlier and doesn't leave her with time to ride afterwards. She was a competitive swimmer and is considering trying some triathlons of the shorter, sprint variety next year. Although no one would accuse her of being a gifted runner (she actually HATES to do it), she should be able to make up for it with her strength in the other two disciplines. She has been reading a lot about "tri" training and has a schedule all planned out for the spring.

   Carrick and I had planned to do a ride into Philadelphia last week, although not the 45-miler that Sue and I regularly take on. Unfortunately he has had a bad cold, so I promised we'd try to squeeze it in when he recovers. I purchased some cyclocross tires for him to put on an extra set of wheels I had in the shop, and we'll slap those on his bike to ride the Wissahickon Trail. Our route will be just over twenty miles long and will start just west of Chestnut Hill. We'll ride on the crushed stone surface of Forbidden Drive, so named because in the 1920s cars were banned from it, down through the ravine of Wissahickon Creek. The scenery is beautiful, and the park includes many interesting old homes owned by notable locals, and the famous Valley Green Inn.

   We'll connect with Fairmount Park at Wissahickon Falls to follow part of the route Sue and I ride along Kelly Drive and around the Philadelphia Art Museum. After riding up the new trail extension into the city, we'll loop back and return via West River Drive to cross back over the Schuylkill at Falls Bridge. I know Carrick won't enjoy riding up the ravine quite as much, but it isn't a difficult grade. I'm hoping to have something interesting to write about from that trip, but keeping in mind the ride includes my sometimes wreckless son, maybe no news would be good news!

Turning Back Time

   Most of us have pondered the possibility of going back to our teenage years with the knowledge that we have now. A couple days ago I was discussing with a fellow cyclist how turning back the clock just ten or fifteen years would allow me to make better use of what I’ve learned about riding my bike and how to take care of my body. Over the last couple of years I’ve noticed how my legs and upper body have changed, partly because of the loss of some muscle mass as I get older, but mostly due to the type of cycling and offseason training I practice each year.

   I grew up playing baseball and football and ran track, constantly being in the weight room to develop muscles and maintain my sprinter’s legs. Later into my adulthood I played ice hockey and kept a similar workout routine, although much less intense without all the coaches around! I took up cycling seriously in college, mainly because it was better for my worn out knees, but also because it used the same leg muscle groups as skating.

   My rides back then used to be fairly short, maybe only 10-15 miles, and as flat as I could find. I used to make a habit of finishing every ride with a flat-out sprint near home – oh, the need for speed! Any hills I encountered along my regular routes involved a slow-drag pedaling, thigh-burning survival exercise from which I would recover slowly as my ride continued. When we moved to the very hilly Schuylkill Valley, I complained for years about how I missed the gently graded farmland areas of Pennsylvania in which I had lived previously.

   To illustrate my point about the nature of the Valley’s topography, there are FOUR different Ridge Pike/Roads within 14 miles of Royersford. Each one involves some nasty, steep climb of misery somewhere along its route! Unfortunately some of my favorite places to ride are either over or actually along the top of said “ridges”, and avoiding them all would leave my selection of routes around here very small and ultimately very boring.

  I've always had a cycling body more like that of a sprinter, and I learned years ago that all that muscle was just added weight to drag up these hills. I no longer play league hockey, so needing the strength to fight off defenders isn’t an issue. As a result, weightlifting has become merely an alternative exercise when trapped indoors during the winter. However, I now use lower weight with higher repetitions, so as to not build muscle mass. That said, it still takes a tremendous amount of time to shed muscle naturally, and changing my riding style has had more of an effect in that regard.

   My regular routes are now two or three times longer than they used to be, and I concentrate on spinning a consistent pedal stroke. I wouldn’t say I actively seek out hills, but they certainly can’t be avoided around here. I now attack slopes, getting out of the saddle more often and focusing on maintaining a comfortable tempo. I’ve never been big on the heart rate monitors and such, but I’ve learned to focus on my breathing and have a good idea of the pace I can maintain without “popping”. I find that even though I’m riding longer, I have an average speed as fast as or faster than before, mainly because I’m riding the hills at a quicker pace.

   I know I’ll never have the sub-150 pound body of mountain goats like Alberto Contador or Andy Schleck, and at my height, I think I’d look rather sickly. Besides, it’s not like I have to tackle peaks like those in the Alps or Rockies around here in Royersford. I see myself more in the mold of what the Euros call a puncheur, one whose body type allows him to excel in rolling terrain with short steep climbs of about a mile or so. This would be ideal in the Schuylkill Valley and when facing the inclines around the nearby Perkiomen and Skippack Creeks.

Now if I could just hook up with a genie to get me back to 1990 (I’m not greedy) – with my cycling brain intact!

Indian Summer...or Autumn...or Winter

   It seems that every year I am uttering the phrase, “I’ve never ridden this far into (insert month)”, but it’s getting to the point that I’m not sure what month that will be this year. I certainly would not consider myself a cold weather cyclist, having painful paperboy memories of finger-numbing, early winter mornings on the bike with windburned cheeks and watering eyes that produced frozen tears on my face. I also find that once the first snow falls the roadsides are pretty much wrecked with cinders that, if I’m not getting pelted with from passing cars, cause punctures or dangerous wheel slip when making turns.  

   Each year as the warmer temps start to disappear, I begin to lament how I am in such good form and that all my training will soon be going to waste. Until I invested in a good windtrainer on which to keep in reasonable shape over the winter I used to just pack away the bike and suffer the consequences of starting from scratch each spring. About a decade ago, October used to signal the end of my cycling season with maybe an occasional mountain bike ride, but now I’m wondering if I’ll be on the roads this year humming Christmas tunes. That might drive me crazy - I hate it when I get a song in my head when riding!

   I realize that this extended spell of mild autumn weather may have been brought about by the Greenhouse Effect, and as a conscientious Earthling I am concerned about some of the potentially catastrophic changes to our planet that it causes, but I’ll admit that I’m guilty of enjoying the extended cycling season. I used to be a strictly cold weather person, mainly because I don’t like the brutally humid summers we have in Pennsylvania, but also because I so much enjoy the holidays and winter sports, particularly when I can find a frozen pond on which to play hockey with my boys. I also have chronic sinus issues that just respond better to the cold, dry winter air that has the added benefit of lacking pollen!
 

   I’ve found November to be a fantastic time to ride, although it takes the leg muscles a bit longer to warm up and feel like they are functioning properly. It is an understatement to say that I don’t miss the sweatbox-like conditions of the summer that leave you completely dehydrated. In fact, except for the moments when my throat is a bit dry, I have to constantly remind myself to drink when out for a spin. I often laugh to find my bottle half-full when I return from a ride, with a refreshingly cool drink inside – definitely not the result in the summer!

   There are also some wonderful aesthetic elements to an autumn ride, if you can avoid the intermittent clumps of dangerous wet leaves or the cough-inducing cloud produced when folks are burning them. I have to admit that I do enjoy the (light) smell of a wood-burning fireplace that hangs in the air when it gets chilly. I also love shadows of the leafless trees and the incredible orange color of the low sunlight in the late afternoons - although that may be caused by pollution, but I’ll choose to ignore that nasty fact.

   A benefit of riding among the bare trees is that I can see much more of my surroundings, such as the creeks and rocky hillsides so common to my regular routes. I can also view the beautiful farms and other architecturally interesting houses that are normally obscured by foliage. Seeing chipmunks, squirrels and even the occasional deer running through the woods is also pleasant, as long as they aren’t crossing the road in front of me!

    I’ve also seen plenty of people out working on their property, not just raking but taking care of all types of maintenance projects. Perhaps they’ve procrastinated, but with the unbearably hot, then incredibly damp weather we had this summer, maybe the autumn was the best option for getting the work done. They often yell out a hello and a “How ‘bout this weather?”, knowing that a two-wheeled visitor is pretty rare this late in the year. Some hunters even popped out of the woods yesterday to provide some directions when a detour forced me off course, and a VERY steep hill prevented me from wanting to backtrack!

   By this time of the year I have usually turned to strictly mountain bike riding, taking advantage of the slower speed and tree cover that slows the biting wintery winds, but I think I’ve waited too long. Leaves on some of the area’s mountain bike trails render them useless, mainly because of the loss of traction, but also because their routes become completely camouflaged. Guess this means I have to stick to my ‘cross bike on some of the better-marked rail trails or, dare to dream, stay out on the road.

Schuylkill-Thun Trail Highs and Lows

   During these cooler autumn days I have been putting plenty of miles on my repainted Motobécane, the reason I started this blog. One of my favorite rides has been along the river on the Schuylkill-Thun Trail west from Pottstown to Reading and back. I have previously explained my love of railroads and how I enjoy combining my rides with exploring some of the former railroad lines around the country.

   I understand that reclaiming some of this land decades after it has been abandoned by the railroads can be tricky, and often involves some inconvenience when trying to re-route the trails. However, I don't feel putting cyclists in danger is necessary when making these adjustments, and I felt compelled to bring such a situation to the Schuylkill Trail organization with the letter below:

 I immediately want to point out how much I enjoy the Schuylkill -Thun Trail and believe it is a wonderful asset to the region in the way it promotes healthy lifestyles and advertises the natural beauty of our area. I also believe the trail to be a great alternative mode of transportation in our ever-increasingly congested highway corridor between Reading and Philadelphia. I am an avid cyclist who rides two thousand miles a year on the roads and trails in our area, and I feel that I have a good amount of pedaling experience from which to draw upon, both positive and negative.

   I want to bring your attention to a very poor situation where the Schuylkill-Thun Trail crosses over Route 724, just east of the intersection with Main Street, near the town of Monacacy Station. Because of the height of the trail with the respect to the road at this location, I assume the former Pennsylvania Railroad line had a bridge crossing the road here decades ago. I understand re-installing a bridge for the trail would have been costly, but I believe the steep approaches that now lead to the road crossing are a major problem.

   With all of the riding I do, I consider myself to be in excellent shape, yet I still find it very difficult to ride up these short, steep grades. I can’t imagine how the casual cyclist deals with them! More important, however, is the danger coming down these short, steep slopes into the busy crossing with Route 724, particularly with sight lines to the east being very bad. Cars routinely come around the westbound curve leading to the trail crossing at 50 mph, and I doubt they would have opportunity to stop if someone surprised them by coming down across the road.

   Having plenty of experience with bicycle repair and maintenance, I help many of my friends and neighbors to keep their bikes running in proper working order. I have seen the condition of the average person’s brakes and I am concerned that with the steepness of the approaches to the grade crossing at Route 724, that someone is going to be unable to stop and will end up being hit by a vehicle. I keep my bicycle working at an optimum performance level, and I am always surprised by the effort I have to make to come to a complete stop, in control on this decent without locking up the wheels.

   I understand there would be cost to consider for any answer to this problem, but what price should be put on preventing a severe injury or death? I know there would be height issues involved for a bridge to be re-installed over the road, but perhaps a simpler and less costly solution would be to lessen the severity of the grade. The abrupt decent is just too steep, even for someone to dismount and walk the bike safely down, and the washout of debris down the slope occasionally creates slippery cinder piles as well. I can’t imagine some of our older riders negotiating such movement easily, and I also don’t like to think about very small children attempting this maneuver when their parents will have the own bikes to handle.

   I think a very appropriate and necessary step, at least in the short term, is warning signs in both directions for cyclists approaching the crossing to the steep descent.  I have to admit that I am not familiar with the road markings in that area, but I assume there are signs warning drivers to the trail crossing; however, I’ve seen the speed at which drivers are passing by, and they aren’t getting the message!

   If someone is needed to help spread the word and gain support for funding a project to solve this problem, please feel free to contact me. I intend to use the Schuylkill-Thun Trails often in future years and want to help improve and make it safer for everyone to enjoy.