I Hereby Rando-Resolve: Balance!

Randonneuring is what many might--and some do--call an obsessive sport. It's certainly not relaxed touring with no itinerary. It's time bound, and time-demanding, and culminates in a once-every-four-years event. If a randonneur plans to participate in Paris Brest Paris, that randonneur had better be planning and training and visualizing and...well, obsessing.

At least that's my working assumption from a newbie's vantage point.

In a previous post, I related a few New Year's Resolutions I had successfully adopted, and I edged toward making yet another. So here it is: I hereby resolve to seek balance in all things randonneuring as I obsess my way to Paris in 2011. The formality comes from attending too many Robert's Rules ordered meetings.

Really, I'm not kidding. I will indeed focus, but I intend to be very mindful of a balanced focus. This applies to randonneuring items big and small. For example, I want to move from obsessing about finishing toward a place of preparedness and full effort without the worrying about what could go wrong. So, on a brevet, I will do my best to stay in the moment of the world sliding by as I cycle, and not in the moment of continuously recalculating my ETA for the next controle. At least I hope so.

More obviously perhaps, I want to be sure to balance the rest of life, like family and friends. Reaching Paris in 2011 is of no value if in the process I'm shrinking from those I love. One tip I have here, even as the newbie I am, is to recruit your spouse to randonneuring. I did it (or did she self-recruit?), and it works like a charm! What once seemed like an obsession is now a balanced joint activity. Right, Dartre?

On a grander randonnuering seasonal scale, I today plan to enter some of the longer brevets even if I'm uncertain of finishing so that I gain the experience of the longer brevets. Not that I won't give it my all, but I also don't want to forego the ride entirely for fear of not finishing. A balanced view in this case means that I'm focused on my ulimate goal--finishing PBP--and not fussing over intermediary status- or pride-oriented needs. Wait, maybe that is obsessing still? Tricky, this business of balance.

Anyway, I almost immediately dismissed this resolution because it is not as measurable as others I've done, nor as well-defined. But then I decided that it is exactly in this exploration of what balance means that I discover my intrigue with it. The notion of balancing an obsessive series of activities pulls me in.

So there it is, pretty vaguely. We'll see what balance means for me, and I'm surmising, what unbalance means. In both events, I anticipate the awareness.

Finally, part of the way I got to balance is by my recognition that the previous post on resolutions felt self-congratulatory: Look what I've done. Truth is that eating or not eating certain foods hasn't been too hard for me. Not that that is a testament to my will or strength of character, but rather the opposite. For me, it hasn't been a big challenge, even as I recognize it is for others. This just proves how one resolver's ceiling is another resolver's floor.

So...that leads to the question of what then would be more challenging for me and therefore worthy of resolve? The answer became balance. It could be that I'm inclined toward randonneuring precisely because I am fully capable of obsession. Could I then explore being successful, and balance that out so I stay a little more present?

In the end, I sure don't want to miss Paris. I don't want to miss it due to not qualifying. I don't want to miss it because I don't finish. And I also don't want to miss Paris, or the getting-to-Paris, because my mind is elsewhere obsessing along the way to Paris!

Wow! Even my writing about balance is obsessed. Egads!!! My use of italics is obsessed. I am going mad right before your crossing eyes!

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OK. I just visualized balancing on a bottle of champagne (courtesey of the pic above that I copped from Wikipedia again), and I'm fully back...here. Now about that next controle, if my derailleur broke again and I'm fifteen kilometers away....

Keep it ti peeK

CurioRando

Still More Randonneur Cross Training: Woodchopping!

Here is my stepson, Janak and SingingCyclist when he posts here, learning to split some kindlin'. Good stuff that woodchopping. Better be bending the knees. Twisting. Core. Like cycling, you've got to be moving from a stable platform or core. Otherwise, much energy goes wasted instead of into the pedals or between the woodgrains.

As you can see from the reproduced page below, we've even invented an exercise called the Woodchopper since fewer folks chop much wood these days. The page is from the book Cycling Anatomy which I reviewed here. There is also a previous post where I referenced the Medicine Ball Throw from the same book.

Keep it trained on that precise point where the grains meet,

CurioRando

I Hereby Rando-Resolve...

I've kept a few resolutions over the years. Well, three. And all about the same topic. I resolved first to no longer eat meats. I still eat fish and eggs, just not meats. It all began when I went to India for the first time. My traveling companions, DartreDame and the SingingCyclist (the former now my wife and the latter now my stepson), did not eat meat. We left in mid-December, and I decided I wouldn't eat meat while in India since I was told they had such a vast array of veggie choices.

Indeed they do. In fact, at a buffet in India you'll find a small "Non-Veg" section rather than the small "Vegetearian" section we find here. Such are their expectations, at least where I visited.

The hitch in my newly and temporarily vegetarian gittalong came right after I made my pledge. We visited old family friends of Dartre's in Bombay on the second evening for dinner. The family friends didn't imagine that Dartre and Singing were vegetarian assuming them to be fully Americanized, and wanting to be hospitable they brought out a heaping--and I mean heaping--tray of chicken legs. When the friends realized that Datre and Singing wouldn't eat them and I saw the mortified look on their faces, I quickly broke my day-old vow and ate and ate and ate those drumsticks much to our hosts' delight. Yum!

It seemed to me a noble giving up on my first food vow. Next day, I went back to veggie for the rest of my time in India, and on returning I stayed veggie (Dartre's and my version allows our eating seafood and eggs). That was three years ago, and it was my first vow.

Next was sweets. I just realized what I always knew: if I am serious about being healthy, then why eat them? So I don't. Not candy, not baked goods. None of that. I'm sure I get lots of sugar in lots of other foods, but I choose not to have foods that are considered "sweets". Haven't missed them either.

As it stood then, I was "no meats, no sweets". I felt I needed something else that rhymed with "meats" and "sweets" and that covered fried foods. When I landed on "frites"--as in fried--I knew I had a good combination: "no meats, no sweets, no frits". I've come to like the symetry of my unholy trinity, and it suits and serves me well.

How strict? Well, I simply don't eat meats though I might if I hunted them myself (I did that years ago). I don't eat sweets, though as I said I get plenty of sugar in other ways. And as for frits: I've lately eaten fries and I love calamari and it mostly comes lightly fried. But, as a whole, I don't eat fried stuff.

What I find generally about my eating is that I eat most healthily when I'm exercising the most. Just not tempted then. If I stop exercising, I go back to some less healthy choices even though I still hold to the vows.

Now, about that "Rando-Resolve": I hope you don't feel betrayed if I can't conjure up my next vow just yet, but I began this post figuring that after I recounted my resolutions history my next resolution--this one is going to be about randonneuring--would come to me easily. Alas...it hasn't.

So, rather than halfheartedly choosing something for the sake of posting, I'll pause to give it more consideration. I think because these others I've described were so well-considered, they stuck ("frites" rhyming with "meats" and "sweets" may not seem well-considered, but to me it was inspired!).

So while I'm pondering on this most important of questions, how about you? Got any resolutions for 2010, especially any rando-resolutions?

The picture above is from Wikipedia, and is from an early 20th century New Year's card.

Keep it,

CurioRando

More Randonneur Cross Training: Snow Boarding!

Now this was a first for me: Snowboarding. Had it not been for my son, Mike pictured below, I'd have never tried it. We took my stepson up to Snoqualmie for his first ski lesson, and Mike and I decided to take a Snowboarding lesson.

Wow! I can tell you I am sore today. I bet I fell at least 30 times! By the end of the day I was getting the knack of it. Not competent, but clearly getting the idea of it and the feel of it. What fun! I gotta imagine it is good for the legs. I like skiing too, and DartreDame (my wife, Pramila) skiied with my stepson, the SingingCyclist or Janak, after his lesson.

Mike was visiting for the holidays so it was great to get him out despite a rather dismal day of snow sports in the rain. Apart from a few brief moments of snow, it pretty much rained constantly. Not great for Mike who lives in Colorado. As one guy on the lift told me: you can pretty much dust the snow off of you in Colorado, but here it just soaks you. But wet or no, it was good to be outside with Mike, home for the holidays!

Wet we were, but whetted were the appetites too...for more adventures in the Winter season. And if you canted your head just so and squinted at just the right time, you could even discern the slightly longer daylight. Ah anticipation!

Keep it leanin' uphill,

CurioRando

Skiing as Randonneur Cross Training

 

 

 

Keep it aimed downhill,

CurioRando

Snowshoeing as Randonneur Cross Training

Fox? Saw a Red Fox nearby a while back. Later I found these tracks crossing rabbit tracks. Cross Training?

Keep it crossed, and who knows where you'll end up,

CurioRando

Giving Cycling for the Holidays

Whatever your holiday, I'll bet you can give. An idea for giving about something you care about is Bikeworks in Seattle, or a similar organization in your town.

Bikeworks is the non-profit local bike shop/education center/donator of rehabed bicycles/kids' bike swap organizer/and more in my neighborhood. In fact it is so in our Columbia City neighborhood I can literally hop on my bicycle outside our front door and coast all the way down to their door.

But the reason they and other non-profits like them deserve your giving is they put bicycles into the arms of children or homeless adults or other folks who can't afford their own. Now that is good giving.

Bikeworks also happens to be the shop that Kent Peterson, cycling blogger of all cycling bloggers and author of Kent's Bike Blog, hangs his mechanic's tools. The place is just a good cycling place to be.

Whatever you do, we wish you all the best this holiday season, and we wish it for your health, your family, and for your cycling soul.

If you'd like to give directly to support the fine mission of Bikeworks in Seattle, please go here and you'll find plenty of inspiration and opportunities for giving. Check it out if only to learn about the amazing work they do.

Thanks for all you do to keep cycling alive and full of passion in your community!

Keep it giving to fill your soul,

CurioRando

Audux-Style Wolves and Out-and-Back Ants

Background for newbies or the otherwise uninitiated about "Audux-style" randonneuring from the Randonneurs USA (RUSA) website:

Audax (oh docks) - A style of group bicycle touring found mostly in France, but also in Holland and Belgium to lesser degrees. A steady pace is set by a road captain, who is in charge of a group of fellow club members. In modern times the pace is usually about 22 km/h between stops; the itinerary and resting places are planned in advance. Audax groups often ride about 16-20 hours per day until they reach their pre-arranged sleeping point. In the case of Paris-Brest-Paris, each group's objective is to finish inside the 90-hour limit with all its riders together. ("All for one, one for all" is their motto.)


In the U.S., we follow a more individualized style where one goes at one's own pace or joins up with others, whatever the pleasure. The Audux-style or in-line version has always intrigued me due to its collective nature, but I also very much enjoy the individual freedom.

Now to the wolves: this past summer, DartreDame (Pramila, my wife) and I took a two-day cyclotour of the the mountains, from Joseph, Oregon to Halfway, Oregon and back. I posted about that here.

I mentioned then that some Elk hunters who gave us water told me about how in bugling in Elk they inadvertently bugled in a wolf pack...twice. I'd heard that wolves had moved into the area, but some were skeptical. This video proves it.

I especially enjoy how the last wolf--the mama?--swishes her tail as she turns back after checking out whoever was checking them out. Classic canine disdain, but here not in a domesticated dog but in a wild wolf.

Hail the wildness!!! Welcome back, wolves.

Did you notice their Audux-style manner of randonneuring up the mountain? Methinks wolves have a captain and a bunch of followers, and so it appears from the video!


And how about those out-and-back ants? Did you catch the story on NPR about the "pedometer" ants that count their steps? Apparently, some scientists tested the theory that the desert ants count their way out to their food source from their nest and repeat the count to get home.

The scientists experimented by cutting short the legs of some ants and Super Glueing pig bristles onto the legs of others to make their legs longer. This proved it is the steps they count, not the distance they measure. To fully grasp the ingenuity and the hilarity of this you have got to watch the video I reference below.

Just like us randonneurs on an out-and-back ride who use our odometers, these ants count their way home. Crazy ants. Check out the NPR website that has an animated video as well as actual photos of ants with pig bristles glued to their legs. The animated video is not to be missed!

Which is the weirdest? Wolves who walk in line, ants who count steps, or randonneurs who don't know when to stop?


Keep it wild at heart,

CurioRando

Cycling Proselytizers

Think you're a committed cyclist? Hardcore in any weather and all? You do your R-12 events every month for a year (that's at least a 200k every month), and think that is something?

Well, move over bub. Let me introduce you to some cyclists that even RUSA record-breaker Vincent Muoneke (and a hearty Congratulations to you, Vincent!) would be obliged to respect.

Meet Byron Ramos, Couper Millar and Bradley Gabor, pictured above l to r. These three missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are on a two year, seven days a week in all weather door-to-door campaign on their bicycles throughout south Washington State. They cycle from house to house proselytizing for JCLDS. Their mission is for two years, and is unpaid.

I spied this trio in Milton-Freewater, Oregon a town I posted about when we did the Oregon Randonneurs 300k last summer. They were outside a restaurant, and I picked them out by their natty clothes and ties. I figured who else would ride with dress clothes on a nasty day but somebody on a mission, and I was right!


Byron, Couper and Bradley were very patient with my incredulous questioning, and I thank them. Can you imagine riding every day of the week for two years? As I motored away I couldn't help but imagine the reactions they got from all the folks whose doors they knocked upon. The bicycle is a disarmer. From my limited touring, I've learned that most folks respect that you've earned your way to the very spot at which you've met them on your bicycle.

So, these three got me thinking about other ways to visit the world by bicycle. I hope they now realize that they've inspired me to think bigger about the possibilites of the bicycle. Not to mention my respect for their commitment. Awesome.

Having said all that, I just got to say that the JCLDS position on California's Prop 8 is one that I find very disturbing. Keith Olberman does a fine job of stating my failure to understand why some insist on perpetrating their values on others when no harm to others would occur. It just baffles me, and I believe such discrimination against any of us divides us and pits us against the loving world we all seek and need.

Nonetheless, you just have to admire Byron, Couper and Bradley. There is much to learn from such commitment. I wish them all the best weather with friendly door knockees, only downhills, no flats and no dogs! And when that doesn't all work out, I hope they know they've earned the respect of this curious cyclist!


Keep it loving and inclusive of all, every day in all weather and any circumstance,

CurioRando

Laughing at the Weather!

My previous post about riding a cold weather permanent was pretty dour as I look back. I think my brain must have still been submerged in a cold-induced torpor of some kind, and my post reflected the fact that the sense-of-humor sector of my brain had been frostbitten. The comments to that post--and not to be an ingrate, thank you very much, commenters--were all a bunch of attaboys. No doubt because I was giving off intense "poor me" vibes.

Incidentally, it is now known that the lower frontal lobes are the humor generating sectors of the brain. It all makes sense now. The wind chill combined with the cold (remember I said it was cold and windy), numbed my lower frontal lobes--the very most exposed sectors of my skull while riding with that helmet cover I referenced--resulting in a serious and hopefully temporary (you'll be the judge) loss of my sense of humor. I know: many will argue that is impossible...it must have happened years ago!

Along those lines, the photo above is not a photo of my very brain sitting in a jar as some would also argue. No, it is actually a Wikipedia pic of the jarred brain of a chimpanzee. So there. Insert your humorous comment about my brain and a chimpanzee's brain and a priest's brain all sitting on barstools here: _______________________. HA! That was a good one!

In any event, for a genuinely funny look at cold weather randonneuring from a blog I just discovered, go to sagittandy. He's got a great self-made cartoon that's a real hoot.

Thanks, sagittandy, for thawing out my lower frontal lobes!


Keep the lobes in mind,

CurioRando