Cadence Counts!

Posted February 8, 2010 by tracywilkins
Categories: Cycling, Running, cadence

Tags: , ,

If you’ve read anything at all about cycling, you know that cadence gets a lot of discussion.  In a nutshell, it’s generally more efficient to spin at a faster cadence at lower resistance than it is to mash the pedals at a higher resistance.  Lance Armstrong is probably the most well known proponent of spinning at a high cadence and has obviously been quite successful at it.

Based on what I was reading, I decided to begin practicing spinning at a high cadence shortly after I started cycling several years ago.  It didn’t take long before it became very natural for me.  Now, quite simply, I’m a spinner.  I can spin along at 90-100 rpm for hours, but give me a high resistance and slow me down to 75 rpm and I’m toast in a matter of minutes.  When we first started riding the tandem, this was something of an issue for us, as I was a spinner, and Pam was still a masher.  It took nearly the first full year of tandeming before Pam slowly worked up to the point where she no longer had to implore me to gear up and slow down!

Before I digress too far, Pam and I have signed up for a running class.  Our first session was last Saturday, and unlike what you might expect, this class actually doesn’t involve a lot of running.  The first class was spent videoing our form for analysis and talking about proper running form.  One of the most interesting aspects that we learned is there is an optimum “cadence” for distance running.  

Studies have been made of elite runners at distances ranging from 800 meters to a full marathon, and the common characteristic of every one of these runners is that they run at a cadence of 180 footfalls per minute, regardless of distance and speed.  How is that, you say?  How can you maintain a constant candence of 180 footfalls per minute regardless of speed?  Well, the answer is about the same as how you control cadence on a bike.  When you upshift or downshift, what are you actually doing?  You’re changing the number of gear inches  or forward gain for each turn of the pedals.  By downshifting, you decrease the number of gear inches and by upshifting you increase the gear inches. 

Well, when you run you can’t adjust your gear ratio by shifting gears, but you can adjust your forward gain.  It’s called your stride!  To increase your cadence, you decrease your stride, and to decrease cadence you obviously increase your stride.

To wrap up our class time on Saturday, we went out on the track to check our cadence by counting footfalls.  Our goal was to count 90 steps with our left foot in a minute.  The instructors gave us fair warning that it might seem pretty impossible for most of the group which consisted of some seasoned runners and a lot of folks just getting into running.  How do you think I did?

My first attempt netted me 80 touches per minute, but that was pretty screwed up by getting caught in a pack of slow runners for most of the minute.  On my second attempt, I was able to get to the front of the pack and I ran it pretty normally to set a better baseline.  I counted 85 left foot steps during that minute.  On my third attempt, I nailed it!  90 counts of the left foot or 180 footfalls for the minute!

We stopped to report our findings and to my amazement, I was the only one who had achieved the desired 180 footfalls per minute.  They sent us back out for another attempt, and in the next two passes, I ran at a cadence of 188 and 180 footfalls.  Again, I was the only one who could achieve that cadence.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I don’t consider myself a runner by any stretch of the imagination, and I’m not trying to toot my own horn.  I run in the winter to maintain my fitness and cardiovascular system so I can hit it hard and come up to speed quickly when real cycling weather rolls back around.  What I think I learned is my preferred cycling cadence of 90-100 rpm has probably trained my muscles to “spin” at that speed even when I’m running.  Therefore, while I run to make myself a better cyclist, the cycling has made me a better runner!  Who would have thought?

God bless…

TW

If you’ve got 19 minutes to spare….

Posted February 6, 2010 by tracywilkins
Categories: Cycling, tour de france

Tags: ,

Click the picture below to browse over to RatTrap Press and check out the video about the 1962 Tour De France.  Totally fascinating!

rattrap press

God bless…..

TW

Half the battle….

Posted February 4, 2010 by tracywilkins
Categories: Bike Commute, Cycling, Fitness, Running, bicycle, cold weather cycling, rain

Tags: , , , , , ,

I had to drive yesterday due to a funeral and opted to sleep in so as to not disturb Pam, so I didn’t get any real exercise at all.  By evening, it started to show – Pam even had to warn me that I was starting to get grumpy!  Based on that, I was bound and determined that I had to get the endorphins flowing again today!

In spite of the doom and gloom forecast for today and tomorrow, while out on my run this morning I decided I was going to thumb my nose at Ted Keller and ride my bike to work.  After all, in spite of the weather radar showing moisture above us, nothing was falling from the sky and the temperature was above freezing again.  As usual, things changed almost before I could get “spittin distance” from the house!  About half-way up the hill toward Blackman Road, I noticed a few little pellets of sleet hitting my jacket and face.  That continued until I got within a half-mile of the office, then it changed over to a really light sprinkle. 

The bike was rewarded with a warm and dry place to wait today!

After showering, I was heading for my office when a co-worker asked in that incredulous tone of voice, “Did you ride today?”.  My response was “Of course.  At this point, I’m here and there were no problems getting here.  Half the battle is won!”.

By quitting time, however, the tide had turned and I lost the other half of the battle.  It was just a light steady rain, but at 33 degrees, I was really cautious and slow on the way home in case the temperature dropped enough that ice started freezing on the streets.  I was glad to have my rain pants, and made it home without incident. 

According to the forecast, it looks like I’ll be driving tomorrow and maybe the first part of next week as well.  Come on Spring!

God bless….

TW

Thanks for missing the forecast!

Posted February 2, 2010 by tracywilkins
Categories: Bike Commute, Cycling, Fitness, Running, bicycle

Tags: , , , ,

On the way home from work last night, I looked at the streets very closely.  With all the snowpiles everywhere and the forecast for mid-twenties overnight, I expected to rise this morning to a bunch of glazed ice. 

Thankfully, when I got up, the Weather Channel on my Iphone said it was 33 degrees and my patio thermometer read 34.  I confirmed on my run that the streets were wet but not glazed, so when I got back I hurriedly threw my bag together and set off on my bike to look for groundhogs on my way to work.

Sadly, I didn’t see any, so I guess they had all hurried back into their holes for another six weeks of winter in spite of the clouds and drizzle.

God bless…..

TW

Bike Parking at City Utilities

Posted February 1, 2010 by tracywilkins
Categories: Bike Commute, Bike Locker, Cycling, Fitness

Tags: , , ,

004 I had an interesting conversation today with CU’s facilities guy.  It took a while for the real reason for the conversation to surface, but eventually I found it.

We’ve got a co-op/intern working part time down in the Mapping Department who rides his bike to work.  He has a pretty nice mountain bike that he must ride a pretty short distance to work because he never needs a shower (or so, I presume…he’s never in the locker room).  For some reason, he takes his bike up to his cubicle on the second floor.  Apparently, his taking the bike upstairs has raised a few eyebrows among management.

Anyway, the facilities guy was basically asking me where I parked my bike and what someone would be looking for in a designated bike area. 

I’ve mentioned before that CU has an enclosed courtyard at the back of our Training Center, and a locker room with showers just inside the door you can see over the top of my bike in the picture above.  There is a wave style bike rack out there.  The security guard is really good about unlocking the gate to the courtyard for me every morning before I get there, and after I park my bike, I just pull the gate shut so it locks behind me when I go around to the open entrance to the building.  Because the bike’s locked in, I don’t even bother locking to the bike rack, opting instead to just lean it against the wall to the left of where you see it above.

My response to the query was that our courtyard was a really awesome place to park my bike because I felt it was both secure and out of sight.   The only thing it lacks in my mind is protection from the weather.  There are a couple of overhangs that you can tuck your bike into when it’s wet, but both of those have a door that opens outward from stairwells coming down.  I’ve never seen anyone use those doors, but the first time I thought I would be smart and use one of the overhangs to protect my bike from the weather, I’ll be darned but somebody came out and of course knocked my bike over.  That taught me real quickly that using the overhangs isn’t an option, so when the weather is inclement, I usually take the bike inside and put it into the vestibule room that feeds the men’s and women’s locker rooms.  It used to have treadmills and a couple of other pieces of exercise equipment in it, and is basically an empty room now.   I mentioned to him that an ideal situation would be to put a couple of bike lockers out in the corner of the courtyard.  He knows what they are because CU actually has some at our bus turnaround facility, and kind of nodded with me that in the scheme of things they weren’t that expensive ($1,000-$4,000 for two bikes). 

He kind of alluded that he was thinking of installing a new bike rack out under the overhang in front of the building.  I pointed out that doing so would address my weather concern, but that I would probably continue using the courtyard because even when chained to a rack, there is stuff on my bike that is easily removed (lights and computer) that could be taken in a flash.  I like the idea that my bike is safely out of sight behind a locked gate. 

As we concluded the conversation, I wondered if anything would really come of it.  After all, when you think about it, we’ve got a perfectly acceptable situation (at least in my mind) that the guy would probably be content to use if somebody asked him to.  Since he’s just a co-op, he may not even know the courtyard exists! 

Maybe I should go introduce myself to him someday….it would probably be the right thing to do.

God bless…

TW

Fresh Spokelites

Posted January 31, 2010 by tracywilkins
Categories: Bike Commute, Cycling, Spoke-Lights, bicycle

Tags: , , ,

006

Last Monday morning as I headed to work, I noticed that my rear SpokeLite was dead.  By the time I got home that afternoon, the front had also stopped functioning.  I guess that’s what happens when you always change batteries at the same time. 

I picked up new batteries for them after church today, so this afternoon I brought them in, cleaned them up (they were absolutely black with filth) and installed four new batteries.  Now I’m good to go when the crud melts off the streets!

By the way, does anyone besides me think that bicep muscle on the magazine in the background is Photoshopped?  That  just doesn’t look right!

God bless…

TW