Bicycling in Bloomington

Friday March 14, 2008 

This was spring break week at Indiana University. For many people, spring break is a trip south. For me, spring break was a ride to the south end of 446. We take what we can get. 

This week, the weather has improved in Bloomington. I was able to commute Monday to Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, I rode Old 446, a standard morning ride. I decided that I would take a little time off to do the ride - my spring break. 

Spring break has another meaning to me. It is time to think more about riding outdoors. Since Indiana started DST two years ago, it’s hard to get out in the morning before work. But, every so often I can arrange something. My preference now it to ride outside instead of on the trainer but I will be on the trainer until late April. 

I reviewed my training log for the year. It’s pathetic. I had two rides by January 6 and Wednesday was the first since then. Only about 80 road miles. Also, I’ve commuted to work only about 10-12 times. (I often forget to include commutes in my log.) Most years, I might not be able to commute about 20 or so days from January through spring break. This year has been awful. 

I was not able to commute the past two days because of a minor injury that I think was the result of an attempt to do a strange yoga stretch.  

I estimate that I have 35 hours on the trainer so far this year. And, I have reasonable number of running miles. (I estimate that I did about 50 hours of yoga and tai ji.) But, as much as I like the diversity of working on the trainer and running, I don’t enjoy them as much as outdoor riding. However, both are more efficient forms of exercise. When I’m riding outdoors, I don’t focus on training but focus mostly on all that’s going on around me. Some days, like Wednesday, I use the ride to think about work or other issues. 

Spring arrives next week and I expect that my riding time will improve substantially. I’m looking forward to it.

 This week, I was able to commute only once. While I did not get out much this week, I was able to ride indoors Monday - Thursday. Today (Sunday), it was cold (16^o in backyard) and windy at 8:30 AM when it was time for me to go out, so I decided to ride indoors.

Riding indoors is not as much fun as outdoor riding but it’s at least as challenging for me. Most DVDs that I watch use some form of interval training. Reps range from 20 seconds to about 2 minutes. The videos have a variety of sets of high speed spinning, one-legged throws, pyramids, builds, and other forms of intervals. The sets range from tolerable to very challenging. I have a couple DVDs that are more than 40 minutes but most of those I do range from 30-40 minutes. That’s a reasonable amount of exercise time in the morning.

I have one DVD that is a simulated ride of about 17-18 miles. It’s similar to riding with a Testosterone Tom, so there a no breaks. The uphills are done in the big ring and small cogs; the downhills are high speed spins in more reasonable gears. But, there is no rest for the entire ride. The video is about 50 minutes.

I’m starting to miss riding outdoors but I believe that I will be in reasonably good shape when the weather improves.

 My January riding was more than usual but less than I hoped for. I rode at least 81 miles but almost 60 miles were done on two Sundays early in the month. However, I don’t think I recorded all my commutes, so the mileage was a little higher. While the mileage wasn’t high, I rode indoors on 21 days. Usually, indoor training is more efficient than outdoor riding but it’s not nearly as much fun.

More rides were possible in January but I chose alternate activities. For example, the past two Sundays (my long exercise day), I ran for at least 75 minutes. This morning, the temperature averaged 25^o on my two outdoor thermometers, so I chose to run. I have often gone for rides at that temp, but I’m trying to do more running this year.

I generally ride as early in the day as I can. During the summer, I try to get out at first light. In the winter, I try to get out as close to 8 AM as I can. This morning, I would have experienced a lot of ice on the roadsides if I had gone for my typical winter ride. I could tell because I ran along some of the route. Later in the day, the same ride would have been much more pleasant.

Winter weather in Bloomington generally is not too bad and many days, it’s nice after the sun has warmed the air. For those who ride in the afternoons, it’s possible to ride comfortably through most of the winter.

 It was a cold weekend in Bloomington, so I did not ride outdoors. Saturday is typically a rest day for me. Sunday, it was zero at 8 AM, so I trained indoors. I did two DVD sessions over 1.25 hours. The second session was rated 9.5 on a 10 scale. It was challenging but it’s often fun to be challenged on a bike.

Today (Monday), it was cold again, so I trained indoors. I was going to commute to campus by bike but I had so much stuff to bring in that all of it didn’t fit in my backpack. I had to drive. I’ll be away until Thursday, so not much riding this week.

Saturday morning, I attended at presentation by “walkability expert” - Dan Burden. He designs Walkable Communities. He included a fair amount of information about bicycling in his presentation. His suggestions for improving transportation flow included creating narrow lanes for car traffic, slowing speed limits, and creating more bike lanes. However, his bike lanes are different from those in Bloomington. He recommends 6″-7″ depending on the roadway and parking. Wider bike lanes would also mean the road debris might get moved farther to the right, and allow safer use of the lanes. Changing  the roadways to slow speeds and improve traffic flow and at the same time, increasing bicycling and pedestrian use is a very good goal for all cities.

During his presentation a thought came to me - why do we consider biking, walking, and mass transit as “alternative transportation?” It would be better to consider car and truck traffic as alternative transportation.

 My guideline for bicycle and bad weather is 15^o as the minimum when sunny and dry and 35^o when raining. Today, the average temperature on my two thermometers was 34^o and there was a rain and snow mix when I wanted to go out at 9 AM. Usually, I would run when I can’t bike but I’m resting a small injury to my calf, so I rode indoors.

I like riding indoors for a few reasons. First, it gets me on the bike. But, mostly because it’s so efficient. For a long time, I had a trainer but didn’t use it often or like it much when I did. Last year, my daughter bought me a Troy Jacobsen DVD for my birthday. After using it a few times, I learned to like riding indoors with the direction that comes from a DVD. Since then, I’ve accumulated 4 additional DVDs and each works well for me under different circumstances.

Today, I rode a virtual reality ride - 17 miles in about 50 minutes. The ride starts relatively easy where my HR was in the 120s. After about 15 minutes, my HR went into my lactic threshold that I assume is between 135 and 140. For most of the ride, my HR was 145 - 160. At my age, my max HR is less than 160, so this was a demanding ride for me. It would be very unusual for me to ride that hard outside. With the warmup and warmdown, it was a good hour of riding.

Similarly, when I ride indoors in the morning, I can choose among workouts that range from about 35 - 50 minutes. Each is a little different and each emphasizes different aspects of riding. For example, a couple workouts have one-legged spin sets that I would never do on my own. For a day with limited time to exercise, a 30 minute hard spin session on a trainer is very efficient.

Generally, Bloomington has reasonable weather for riding but for those days when the weather is bad, when I have to exercise before sunrise, or when I just want to spend my time most efficiently, training indoors with a DVD works for me. Of course, nothing beats a nice day outside on the bike.