[cvcalhoun]

What’s bizarre is that if I upload miles to Garmin, and upload the same miles (from the same Garmin) to Strava, it always shows more miles on Strava. I’m not sure how the same file can be parsed so as to result in two different mileage counts, but it’s happened many times. This does not give me great confidence that either service is accurate down to 0.3 to 0.5 miles.

@PotomacCyclist 88380 wrote:

I think I’ve been undercounting my miles on most trips. I usually ride CaBi. I’m familiar with the routes and I’ve tracked them many times before with the Garmin. But this year, I don’t always feel like wearing the Garmin on CaBi so I estimate the distance, based on all of those former Garmin downloads. Then I decided to wear the Garmin a few times this week. I’ve been undercounting the miles slightly, by about 0.3 to 0.5 mile per trip.

I don’t know how many times I’ve taken that exact trip. Maybe not too many, so the total undercount may not be too significant. Probably less than 5 miles total. But I’m a bit disappointed that I’m ripping myself off of those hard-earned miles. Who knows if that extra 0.5 mile would have been the lucky charm that could have won me a year’s supply of toilet paper?

[cvcalhoun]

Alternatively, you could think of it as a very wide, well paved bike trail on weekends–which unaccountably allows cars on weekdays.

Seriously, though, Rock Creek Trail is lovely out here in Montgomery County.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5949[/ATTACH]

@americancyclo 88131 wrote:

Maybe they mean the times it’s closed to cars? Then it’s just a road.

[cvcalhoun]

I saw “Edge of Tomorrow”–in spite of its starring Tom Cruise–just so I could avoid biking home during the downpour.

[cvcalhoun]

Yay! I’d sent a Facebook message inviting her to join. But Facebook messages from nonfriends get dumped into an “Other messages” tab that few people ever read, so I don’t know that she even got it. I’m really glad someone managed to find a way to get her onto the team!

@Rod Smith 88338 wrote:

I got Andrea Matney to join our team!

[cvcalhoun]

When I left for play rehearsal tonight, it was merely hot and humid. When I started home, it was raining a little. By the time I got home, a) my bike was making a wake on the road, and b) the thunder and lightning were coming so close together I was mentally trying to calculate my chances of being struck by lightning. Sorry, but even as a rule #5 devotee, I’d just as soon arrive home alive!

[cvcalhoun]

I’m 60 years old, and regularly lift my 64-lb. bike up onto the bike rack on my car (which is pretty high, since I have a minivan), and onto the bus racks. I just figure it provides a bit of strength training to go with the cardio.

@vvill 88100 wrote:

That said, in terms of practicality, an overweight bike can be a burden if you need to carry the bike on stairs, on vehicles, or say, lift it up to store it alongside 5 other bikes.

[cvcalhoun]

I know I’m in the minority on this board, but I have never actually understood how a road bike is practical–and I’m far from a “beginner.” Some reasons:

• I bicycle at least once a week on the Georgetown Branch Trail, which is unpaved, subject to erosion, and generally not suitable for road bikes.
• I want to be able to bike with my granddaughter in her bike trailer.
• I want to carry my purse with me at all times, and be able to pick up groceries while I’m out. I keep a rack and a couple of large panniers on my bike for these purposes. (About half the weight of my bicycle come from them, and from what I keep in them.)
• I want to be able to look around at the scenery while I’m riding.
• Going slowly and looking ahead of me makes me safer.
• I want a bike sturdy enough so that I almost never have to deal with repairs. I don’t even bother to carry inner tubes with me, since it’s been years since I had a flat. Having the latest and greatest bike would be no use to me if it were broken when I needed to get somewhere. (And I don’t have the money or the storage space to keep multiple bikes as spares for this purpose.)
• My wrists are already what gives out first on a long ride. There is no way I want to be putting more of my weight on them.

I suppose if I had an interest in racing, or even long recreational rides, I might feel differently. But I use a bicycle primarily for transportation, and seldom need to go farther than my hybrid will take me. And every time I start thinking I want a road bike, I ask myself what I’d use it for–and go back to my trusty overweight hybrid.

[cvcalhoun]

Now to wear toe socks under toe shoes, for the ultimate in dorkiness!

@Tim Kelley 88007 wrote:

How pricey do you want to get?

Kevlar reinforced toe-socks, with PVC injected soles: http://birthdayshoes.com/swiss-protection-socks-review

[cvcalhoun]

My wife is Welsh (not to be confused with English!), but has been here for 14 years. Most people here still think her accent is British. But one time when her cousin came to visit, and she turned practically incomprehensible for a couple of hours, I realized just how much her accent has changed due to being in this country.

The good news is, Americans tend to believe that all accents that sound British to us (and that includes Australian accents) are high class. This is a continual source of amusement to my wife, whose accent derives from the coal mining area of south Wales.

@APKhaos 87933 wrote:

That’s funny. After living here for 20 odd years I’m a bit over being asked if I’m British, which is doubly galling since I’m Australian. In Oz, they are confused but generally assume its an American accent from an obscure corner. Linguistically stateless.

[cvcalhoun]

Yeah, I am consistently jealous of the Arlington riders. For me to go anywhere, I have to go uphill for about 3/4 of a mile just to get out of my subdivision. I then have a choice between downhill toward downtown Bethesda and DC, or uphill toward Rockville. Flat is just not a choice I have in my area!

@consularrider 87598 wrote:

Yesterday evening I decided to risk riding in the rain and heading into DC for a couple of happy hours. It sure made me appreciate the easy commute I have in Arlington.

[cvcalhoun]

For the record, I’ve had plantar fasciitis. It is a risk if you wear shoes without side support and without a heel, particularly if you are older and/or overweight. However, it is considerably less of a risk with bicycling in such shoes than with walking (or worse, running) in such shoes. What causes it is repetitive impact on the heel, particularly as the padding on the heel gets thinner with age. And of course, when walking or running, the heel gets jarred more if the person is overweight. However, bicycling doesn’t tend to involve a lot of jarring of the heel. When I had it, walking a few blocks could be excruciatingly painful, but I could still bike as far as usual without problems. And at 20, she’s at low risk for it anyway, particularly if she is not overweight.

@PotomacCyclist 87906 wrote:

Other than the possibility of stubbing a toe, one concern might be the flexibility of the sole, but only if she rides a lot. I’ve heard of some people developing plantar fasciitis (irritation or inflammation of the fascia on the bottom of the foot) while riding. PF usually affects runners, not cyclists. Whenever I hear or read about this, I ask what type of shoes the person was using. The answer has always been soft-soled, flexible shoes, such as running shoes. I would think there could be a similar issue with sandals if she rides a lot.

[Note that some researchers now believe that PF is actually a set of minor tears in the fascia or foot muscles. I don’t know myself. I’ve heard of people continuing to run through PF, as long as several years, but while having to deal with excruciating pain.]

At the same time, calf tightness and lower leg tightness or weakness is also associated with developing PF. I ride on CaBi bikes a lot (probably the majority of my rides this year and maybe over the past few years as well) in running shoes and other shoes with flexible soles. (Occasionally in Reef sandals.) I’ve never had any problems with PF. I do light stretching after every run and after some tougher bike sessions. I include bent-knee and straight-leg calf stretches, bottom of the foot stretches and shin stretches, along with other stretches. I’m familiar enough with the routine by now that the entire series of stretches only takes me a minute or two, even without rushing. I only hold each stretch for a few seconds. I’m mostly working on the muscle fascia. I don’t care as much about developing extreme flexibility, which actually isn’t good for running. I also focus on strength training in the off-season and occasional maintenance strength workouts during the rest of the year. I try to do lower-body strength exercises in bare feet (unless I’m in a gym where that’s not allowed). Doing that helps to strengthen all of the various small muscles in the feet.

When people say that they have tight muscles somewhere, the real issue is often muscle imbalances or weakness. If one muscle is weak, an opposing or interacting muscle can pull on it, causing muscle aches or tightness. If the imbalance isn’t fixed, then an injury can occur. A common case is “tight shoulders” or more accurately tight trapezius or upper back. This usually results from weak lat muscles, which most people rarely use unless they workout regularly. They also sit at desks and use computers often. Weak lats and too much sitting causes the traps to get very tight and sore. Stretching provides a temporary fix, but the muscle imbalances need to be fixed for a true fix. (I had a severe case of muscle imbalances more than a decade ago, when I was very inactive and weak. Long story, but the summary is that an activity, piano playing for rehearsals, caused my traps to get very tight while my lats were weak from lack of use. After a month of this, one of the traps ripped when I stood up. Most painful experience of my life.)

PF seems to be easily avoided. And just like with any injury, it’s far better to avoid it than to have to deal with it once it develops. If you visit running forums, you’ll find thread after thread of people asking about dealing with overuse injuries. Mostly because runners tend not to follow certain smart practices: preventative work, not doing too much too soon, treating an injury properly before it develops into a chronic condition or a serious injury. When strength training is mentioned, many of them go on and on about how “Kenyans don’t strength train” and/or they continue to think that strength training is the same as bodybuilding or powerlifting (which it isn’t). Then they continue to develop the same overuse injuries that runners keep developing every year, over and over again. Cyclists tend not to develop as many overuse injuries as runners do, because of the lower impact of cycling. But plantar fasciitis is one issue that I’ve read complaints about several times, nearly always with people who do a fair amount of riding/training in flexible running shoes.

PF is not considered a serious injury, but it can be very painful. It can also be very difficult to treat once it develops, because of the difficulty of resting the foot muscles and fascia. Prevention is far better than trying to cure it.

So I’d say, for short, infrequent, low-intensity rides, sandals probably won’t be an issue. For longer, more frequent and higher-intensity rides, the flexible soles could become a problem, especially if she also has tightness in the calves and Achilles, or other tightness/weakness issues in the calves, shins and feet or muscle imbalances in the lower legs. Bike-specific sandals, like Keen and Shimano, are other options. Those sandals have hard soles. (I wear Keen sandals sometimes, but I don’t know why they are so heavy. They are heavier than my regular bike shoes. Maybe because they don’t have fancier lightweight materials. But the MTB shoes don’t have carbon fiber and even those are lighter than the Keen sandals.)

[cvcalhoun]

There are actually several bike coops in the DC Metro area, although none near Rockville. WABA has some links. I’d potentially be interested in using a bike coop if one were formed in this area. (Unlike the existing bike coops, Rockville would be easy to get to by Metro if my bike were not rideable due to the need for repairs.) Unfortunately, my schedule at this point is such that I couldn’t be a regular volunteer.

[cvcalhoun]

For some reason, my morning commute was a bit slower than usual today. It was worth it, though!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5821[/ATTACH]

[cvcalhoun]

For some reason, my morning commute was a bit slower than usual today. It was worth it, though!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5820[/ATTACH]

[cvcalhoun]

Sorry, misclicked and picked up the wrong number. Fixed it now.

@consularrider 87415 wrote:

Is that all they gave me credit for? I logged 1010 miles and 29 days on Endomondo. I wonder where the sync went wrong.

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