Though May is Bike Month here in Sacramento, I haven’t had many opportunities to go on long training rides.  In order to compensate, I’ve been taking the “long way” home on my daily bike commute, and that’s given me a greater appreciation of bike shorts and food.  In the meantime, I haven’t had any specific things to blog about, but there are a few small items I can whip together…

Less training, more commuting

For starters, my normal daily commute takes me through about a half mile of city streets, connects in to an offshoot of the American River Bike Trail, and that takes me to within a quarter mile of my workplace.  All told, it’s 5.3 miles, but I can add four miles each way if I instead ride through midtown into Old Sacramento, then take the American River trail the whole way up, bringing it up to a 9.4 mile ride.  Since I often come home for lunch to feed and walk the dog, I’ve logged back-to-back 30 mile days easily (long way twice, short way twice), and I’m thinking of trying to take the longer route for lunch, too, to push for 40 mile days.

Spandex

Of course, this riding is giving me a lot more experience with bike shorts, too – those form-fitting bits of lycra and spandex that make everyone look silly.  I never thought I’d see the day I happily wore spandex, but I learned my lesson a year ago on one of my first longer rides (25 miles) that even with comfortable shorts, cotton boxer shorts are a recipe for chafing and discomfort.

At the Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen’s bike swap last month, I picked up a couple of pairs of discounted lycra shorts from Voler to add to the pair of Pearl Izumi shorts I’ve been riding around in since last autumn.  And it’s a good thing I’ve been testing them out: the Pearl Izumis wear quite comfortably, as do one of the pairs from Voler, but the other – an older design, it seems – gets a little bunched up.  I think I can still wear them on the ride, but I’m going to have to be careful about it.

Food

Food’s been on my mind a lot lately, too.  I know my normal daily commute burns around 500 Calories, but I hadn’t thought about how much more I’d have to eat when I’m commuting three (or four) times as far.  I just got in the habit of eating a hefty breakfast, getting hungry for lunch around 10:30,  and then devour half the pantry when I got home.  Now that I realize that a 40 mile day requires a whole ‘nother person’s daily requirements, I’m going to make sure I get the food in me to make it up.

I’d intellectually understood that I was going to burn 4,000 to 8,000 Calories a day on the LifeCycle ride, but it hadn’t sunk in that this was a lot of food to eat.  Bicycle storyteller Willie Weir likes to say that the great thing about riding a bike often is that you can eat anything guilt-free.  I’m happy to say I understand that completely, now.

Fundraising

I’m proudly now $250 away from my goal.  With another two weeks of fundraising ahead of me, I’m pretty confident that I’ll make it.  Fortunately, the SBK team, myself included, is getting some help from Rick Houston of the Tweed Houstons, and Chris Davis-Murai, the bicycle chef behind Bicycle Chef; they’re putting on a pancake breakfast fundraiser this Sunday for us!  More details here.