Today in training to bike for the Clean Air Challenge I took it up a notch. Literally.
I love to finish my bike rides with yoga. It can be hard to find a class that starts at a time that compliments a bike ride, so this year I am tending to make my bike schedule around yoga class schedules. If I can bolt out of work at 5:00 (never seems tohappen), be biking by 5:30 (never happens), I can get in about 1-1/2 hrs of saddle time in before yoga. What is really happening is I have about 45 minutes to-maybe-if-I’m-lucky 1 full hour of riding time. It is making me quicker, as I am trying to get mileage in before May 6, the D-day of Clean Air Challenge. Which at 3 weeks away, is right around the corner.
The two yoga class types I focus on to follow a ride are: Deep Stretch, to lengthen out all those muscles that have been flexing and tightening; and Relax and Restore, which allows all the muscles simply let go, rest, and reset. This is a practice that everyone should do after a workout, in my opinion. Yoga vinyasa, or flow, also offers great cross training benefits to any sport by strengthening those necessary smaller muscle groups that are so often neglected. Practicing yoga has helped me by eliminating pain in the back, shoulders, neck, and hands. Yoga balances the whole body, and trains all the muscles to do what they were intended to do, and be the best they can be.
So after getting a full 45 minutes of biking in today touring around the Anchorage International Airport, I went off to yoga. I was bummed I didn’t get more time and mileage in, but class tonight was an exception to my Deep Stretch/Relax and Restore “rule”. Tonight was AIReal yoga with Anchorage Yoga. It is fun, but don’t take that to mean it is an easy class. It makes me sweat. AIReal yoga requires a lot of balance, core, grip, and an empty stomach. The class combines some vinyasa with aerial silks, taking traditional poses to a different level and adding inversions that are not possible without the support of the fabric.
Tonight was the first time I felt strong enough to have a workout prior to AIReal, and I was successful! Adding a new inversion pose, full star, was another first.
Please consider donating to support my ride in the Clean Air Challenge; everyone deserves clean air! Here is a link to my fundraising page:
Arctic Cycles (AC) is an Anchorage based bike club that focuses on road riding and racing. AC offers training rides in the spring, inviting non-club members to participate, specifically advertising to the Clean Air Challenge (CAC) riders. I am a CAC rider. So of course, I feel I must participate. It is in my best interest, after all. I also convinced my friend Diana that it was in her best interest, too.
Today, Sunday April 10, was the second AC training ride of the 2017 season, affectionately called “Tom’s Tax Day Ride”. Tom confessed he has not yet done his taxes. Maybe he will get them done tonight. This ride takes place in Palmer; about 1 hour north of my home in Anchorage, where snow tends to disappear from the roads a little faster. Start time is set for 11:00am. So, my Saturday evening focused on preparing for my first road ride of the year with my cyclocross, Joe Black. This means trying to determine:
What clothing will be appropriate for the day?
Palmer = wind; Temperature range = ice at the start of the ride, and puddles at the end
Should I use the bar mitts? What shoes, helmet, and lenses for glasses? What jacket?
While being cold is miserable, overheating on a ride can be beyond miserable.
What tires should be on this ride? I have 4 different types of tires for Joe
Studs
Knobbies
Slicks
Trainer
Which brings me to the fact that Joe has been on the trainer, with the trainer tire, an extra skinny slick. This is not something to take out on the road, and definitely not on Alaska roads at this time of year. See photo showing typical condition of rocks and snowmelt run off. In the morning I am grateful for the rocks providing traction, but by afternoon I wonder why it hasn’t been swept already as rocks are flung by bike tires. Single file biking is necessary along a road, and if the person in front of you has fenders everything is ok. If not, well, no drafting with the bike in front of you.
Having readied everything from my clothing layers, snacks, and the kit, I enjoy a new SNL and head to bed. I mean, I change tires, that will take me about a half an hour. I’ll get up at 7:00, finish changing the tires, and Diana will pick me up at 9:30.
Sunday morning I am working on the tire change over to knobbies, hoping there won’t be any ice by the time we are underway. It was strangely easy to get the trainer tire off. I managed to get one side of the new tire on the rim, tube in, and I am not able to get the second side on. I mean, I’m really not able to get the second side on. I’m red in the face, sweat is running down my forehead and dripping off my nose. I have changed these tires before, what is the problem? Diana arrives, it is already 9:30. I only have half of the rear tire changed. She jumps in to help with the last 3-4” on one wheel, and I look at just pumping up the front and keeping the slick on. As soon as I touch the valve stem the core jumped out and landed 3 feet away. Now there is no going back, I have to at least change the tube. Same story as the first tire, I got the knobby seated on one side of the rim, but can’t get the last 3-4” on the second side. We decide it is best to play damsel in distress and see if someone else participating in “Tom’s Tax Day Ride” can get these tires on. To get to the ride we now had to unload Diana’s bike to put Joe inside her car, because you need a rear tire in place to load a bike in her rack. We shove Joe, his two wheels with almost-mounted tires and my gear into the back, reload the rear rack, and are on the road to Palmer.
At the gathering point for the ride I ask the first gentleman I see if he could help with these darn tires. Generously, he proceeded to work on the rear tire. I brought out my tire levers, and he asked “Are these new tires?”. “No, they are at least 5 years old” I replied. He tried taking the entire side off and start it over again, and still was not able to get the last 3-4” of bead on the right side of the wheel rim. Now a second gentleman joins in the fun and tackles the front tire, while the first is still working over the rear tire. And that is when my tire lever broke. More bikers are participating now, offering tire levers, all while asking “are these new tires?”. Somehow the front tire is in place, and it is handed to me with a comment “I don’t know, I might have pinched the tube”. I try to pump it up, while 3 people are now working on the rear tire. 3 people, and one tire. I’m starting to feel a little better about the fact that I was not able to get these tires on myself. And that is when I realize that the front tube will not hold any air. I turned down offers of spare tubes knowing how painful it would be to get that tire off and reseated, again. I thought about going to the local bike store to have them finish the tire change over. If that was successful, would I be able to meet up with the other 20 riders on the road? It’s cold and windy, I don’t want to delay anyone’s ride.
It slowly set in. I simply was not going to be able to ride my first road ride of the season today. Instead: I met wonderful, generous, bikers, and I am humbled by the community that exists here in Southcentral Alaska.
Please support my ride in the Clean Air Challenge by making a donation, via this link to my site: http://action.lung.org/site/TR/Bike/ALAMP_Mountain_Pacific?px=4659966&pg=personal&fr_id=14890
On the way to Palmer, Jack gets to ride inside.
Loose gravel left behind when the snow melts.
One person on each tire not doing the trick…
Three on one tire. The tire won.
Writing this post while I wait for the riders to return
It was not a typical Saturday. Up at 5:30 to pick up my friend Diana at 6:00am, we were on the road headed north to take on our first bike ride to Knik Glacier.
I had a fat tire bike, and this would be the first full day ride with it. Diana decided not to rent a bike, which meant she would ride her mountain bike with studded 26.5” tires. Not having ridden for at least 6 months, taking on a 24+ mile round trip ride on a frozen river in 8* weather was going to be a task, and we both knew it. Solid research of the ride from others that have done it told us where to start, and when to be stopped. Start at Hunter Creek just past the wooden bridge, near the end of the Knik River Road. Get off by 1:30, before the warm sun starts to soften the crust snow. Neither Diana or I had driven down Knik River Road, and we were enjoying watching the daylight come up. The drive was about 1-1/2 hrs north, and we were the first ones to be at the parking lot. Just for fun we drove to the end of the road and learned there is a beautiful lodge and individual cabins, Knik River Lodge. It did not appear open at 7:30 in the morning, so we made a note to check it out on the way back.
Sitting in the car fueling our bodies up, we debate the final determination of gear: what to wear! It is always a challenge. I’ll try not to bore anyone here, but you want to be the right temperature. It is an art, figuring out what to wear when biking in Alaska. As you move fast in cold air you can chill like a wine bottle, but if you wear too much you can overheat, or worse you can become covered in sweat, and end up with hypothermia due to your clothing layers not wicking. The saying “there is no bad weather, only bad gear” is true. So is the saying “the odds are good, but the goods are odd”, but that is not for this blog post.
So we step out of the car, dancing around to try to stay warm while we load our bikes. Diana has a back pack and a small seat bag. I don’t like long rides with a backpack, so I have water proof paneers. One contains camera gear and padding for the jostling, the other one contains a picnic to enjoy at whatever point we see is beneficial.
Finally getting down onto the river and starting the biking portion of the day’s journey, Diana is understandably nervous. No one recommended riding a mountain bike tire on this ride. This ride became popular with the development of fat tire bikes. It always had popularity with 4 wheelers and snow machines. I know that if anyone can do this ride on a mountain bike, in these perfect of perfect conditions with “good” temperatures to keep things frozen and a bluebird sky full of sun, it is Diana. Taking it slow is just the nature of the terrain.
Biking on the wide, braided, frozen river, following snow machine tracks that wind through alders, and back in the open, we start to see other people. A braided river offers many paths, but all lead in a single direction of the Knik glacier. Each person we see this early in the morning asks us if we know the path. None of us have been before. The day has a great feeling of camaraderie and purpose.
Diana riding her mountain bike to Knik Glacier
At one point we stop and chat with a couple of women that Diana knows, scoping out which path we should take as we can see others are biking close to the opposite river bank, more than a football field away. I suddenly see that what I thought was a rock is actually a moose kill, and hurry us along. I didn’t want to hang out long enough for photos, so there aren’t any. They would not have been pretty anyway.
About 3-1/2 hours after we started we were enjoying the amazing landscape created by calved glacier icebergs. Finding a place behind an iceberg to be out of the wind coming off the glacier, we stop to have our picnic. The bottle of
Diana enjoying our picnic
Merlot, vegan cheese by Myoko, and crackers were a great way to celebrate the accomplishment. But remember my earlier comment about chilling like a bottle of wine? The merlot was the coldest I have ever had a red wine, and a bit longer it might have turned into a slushie. We were chilling down ourselves by sitting still, so we wrapped it up and started to head back. As we were leaving it looked like all of Anchorage was biking in.
Grateful we left when we did, the ride back was faster due to having a
Friends arriving as we are headed back to the car
tailwind and gradually getting warmer as we were further away from the glacier face. We did not return on the same trail, and ended up coming back through a neighborhood. At a stop sign, there was a recent handmade sign “bear in area” that immediately had me thinking of that moose.
After finding our way to the car, we took a look at Knik Glacier Lodge. It was open. Sort of. Food service was not available for 2 more hours, so we decided to eat in Palmer. But we will be back. It is a beautiful lodge in a beautiful place. And it was such a beautiful day.
See the Photo Gallery tab for more images from the ride to Knik Glacier.
This was my first official outdoor bike ride of the year, to kick start my training for the Clean Air Challenge. Please consider donating to my fundraising efforts via this link: http://action.lung.org/site/TR/Bike/ALAMP_Mountain_Pacific?px=4659966&pg=personal&fr_id=14890
Neither Diana or I had driven down Knik River Road, and we were enjoying watching the daylight come up. The drive was about 1-1/2 hrs north, and we were the first ones to be at the parking lot. Just for fun we drove to the end of the road and learned there is a beautiful lodge and individual cabins, Knik River Lodge. It did not appear open at 7:30 in the morning, so we made a note to check it out on the way back.
