A May Of Many Activities

Today is the last day of May and I didn’t come close to any cycling records this month. I did, however, finish the month with a 27-mile ride to bring my year-to-date total to an even 700. That’s 365 miles behind last year’s pace, but it’s not the end of the world. I can make up the deficit. Summer is almost here and it won’t be long until I’m cranking out 200-mile weeks.

Today’s ride completed a nice streak: I walked or rode outside every day this month. Since I started using Garmin Connect in March 2013, this was the first time I filled up the calendar:

That’s 16 walks and 15 rides. Not included on the calendar are 11 upper body strength training workouts, which I don’t track with Garmin Connect. The eight Garmin Connect badges I earned in May were all for walking or cycling:

I expect to complete seven more badges in June, including one specifically for hiking.

Doing a variety of activities is great, but don’t be misled: my big goal for June is to run up my cycling mileage. I am still very much in a base-building phase, trying to increase fitness and decrease belly fat to prepare for racing later this year. I’m interested in cyclocross, of course, but there are a couple of WEMS races and other events that could be tempting if I can whip myself into shape.

The 2022 WCA Cyclocross Calendar

Am I Gross?

Yesterday, one of the Korean cyclists I follow on YouTube posted a video of her very detailed helmet cleaning routine. When I became interested in Korean culture a couple of years ago, I noticed an attention to cleanliness that seems to be an essential part of the Korean personality and not just a good show while the video camera is running. No doubt, some of this extreme dedication to being tidy comes from living in dense urban areas like Seoul and Busan. For many Koreans, there simply isn’t enough room to permit a mess. Living quarters are small but efficient, tasteful, and neat as a pin. For the Korean cyclists I follow, neatness naturally extends to the bike, and it’s something of a social media sensation when a ride on a wet day turns a normally pristine machine into a muddy embarrassment. Schmutz that you or I would wipe away with a trace amount of spit and one stroke of a forefinger merit entire videos or Instagram photo collages in Korea. There seems to be almost a sense of disbelief that dirt could attach itself so readily to a bike that is maintained so meticulously.

The helmet cleaning, though … it got me thinking. And maybe it’s a wonder that I still can think, given all the filth that must surround my noggin on every ride. Perhaps the only thing that has saved me is my skullcap, which I never ride without. The skullcap has always been my defense against sunburn on a head that a more merciful God would have left covered with hair, and it’s generally effective against sweat running into my eyes. Actually, I have a few skullcaps, enough to have a fresh one for each ride. They get laundered, but the helmet itself gets only occasional and cursory cleaning. If it becomes spotted with mud, then I wipe it off. If the straps turn white from salty perspiration, then I clean them with a Clorox wipe. Disassembling the helmet to restore it to factory freshness never occurred to me.

Training partner Jeff Wren says that he takes his helmet into the shower. I’ve never actually witnessed that and I don’t want to, but I’m sure he’s telling the truth. So, that’s at least three different approaches to helmet hygiene, all of which seem satisfactory. If you have a better method, then post it in the comments below.

Get A Grip!

After 8 years and almost 25,000 miles, the right-side brake/shifter hood on my BMC road bike finally wore out. It wasn’t a catastrophic failure; it was gradual but irreversible. What began as a small tear grew into a fissure large enough that the hood was no longer stable. I could feel it moving beneath my hand. Not comfortable. Not safe. After yesterday’s ride, I couldn’t live with it anymore.

Today I installed the new one. It’s an easy do-it-yourself job, but one that I had never done before on any bike. And it’s a job that a lot of people have screwed up. It’s not impossible to tear a new hood, and then you’re right back where you started but with less money and more anger. So, I pass on to you the lessons I learned from others:

• Make sure the hoods are warm and malleable. You have to stretch them over the braking/shifting mechanism. Trying to stretch them when they are cold is likely to cause a tear.
• Use a generous amount of rubbing alcohol as a lubricant. It will quickly and cleanly evaporate, but in the meantime it will help the rubber hood to glide.

I got the new hood seated without any difficulty. It looks as good as new. And it should: it’s a genuine SRAM replacement part. But trust me when I say you don’t want to get this wrong. Sold in pairs, these are a little pricey. I paid almost $37 and now I have a spare left-side hood that I might never need. Oh, well. It’s hard to be dissatisfied.

West Bend’s Warmest May 12

It was a record-breaking day in West Bend: 90° for the first time ever on May 12, topping the 88° we reached on May 12, 1900. The average high on this date is only 65° and we’ll see temperatures like that again early next week. For now, I’m enjoying the warmth. After coming close on Tuesday, today was our first 90° day since last August 28. In some calendar years we don’t reach 90° even once. I know I’m in the minority, but I hope this is the first of many in 2022.

Warmer weather is having a good effect on my cycling season. April was dismal: I rode outside on only 6 occasions for a total of 142 miles. Today’s ride was my 6th so far in May. I have covered 203 miles this month, bringing my year-to-date mileage to 449. By the end of May 2021, I was approaching 1,100 miles, year-to-date. I’ll need a small miracle to challenge that number this year. It’s probably not something that should worry me. But as I have said here many times, I ride better as I ride more, and each season I don’t really hit my stride until I have about 1,000 miles in my legs.