Cycling With Susan

It probably goes without saying, but properly inflated tires are essential to an enjoyable ride.  Overly-inflated tires are dangerous and under-inflated tires make me feel like I am biking through sand, expending way too much energy for the results I am getting.   Both of our bikes have a maximum inflation pressure of 100 psi, so based on our bike shop recommendation, we inflate to 70-80 psi. We also wanted something that would easily inflate both Schrader and Presta valves without a lot of effort.  Thus began our search for an inflation device that would make me happy. With floor pumps you typically need to choose between pumping to high pressure with many strokes, or low pressure with few strokes.  Sadly, low pressure means something less than 70 psi and would not be a good option for us (something like the Topeak JoeBlow Dualie for about $60, below left).  A high pressure pump (such as the Shimano Pro Team HP for about $75, below right) would work, but a...

  Susan and I love the serendipity that accompanies cycling a new trail: a surprising and amazing view of the water around a bend, a section of trail with unexpected quick dips and turns, a little shop on the trail that caters to cyclists, a home that has stacked water cups beside a cooler on their front porch on a hot day, or wildlife scurrying across the trail. But sometimes the serendipity comes off the trail.  We had gone into the High Bridge trail having done plenty of research.  We knew the length of the trail, locations of the trailheads, and had looked at a lot (and I mean a LOT) of photos of the High Bridge.  Especially important since one of us is terrified of heights.  (For the record, the other one of us is terrified of hills, but  that’ll have to wait for another post.)  By the way, looking at pictures of the High Bridge did nothing to lessen the anxiety.  But all this is to say, we knew what to expect from the ride and by and large, ...

Susan and I are both teachers with close to fifty combined years-experience teaching high school mathematics, so you know that we love what we do.  We work long, hard hours during the school year, but also recognize that we are blessed to enjoy a summer vacation that is much longer than most professions allow.  It is during the early morning hours of these days that we enjoy cycling the most.  The heat and humidity at dawn in Tidewater, Virginia is like a promise from Mother Nature that she will bake you by midday, but at that time of the morning is intoxicating.  And while mid-August brings a certain excitement to our lives as we gear up for our students, there is also a certain amount of sadness as we lose the freedom to bike whenever the weather is favorable, regardless of the day of the week.  We still have some days left, mainly on the weekends, and will try to bike into October, and those dates—because of their infrequency—will become even more special....

With an app for just about everything, there are many choices for cycling to help keep track of your rides, and Strava is one of the best.  As I understand it, Strava got its start as a cycling app and has branched out into other activities.  Keeping with my philosophy to not pay for phone apps (seems like a can of worms to me), Susan and I only use the free version of Strava.  However, it comes with a load of features including tracking mileage, time, rate, and recording a map of your trip.  It also recently added a “segments” and a “legends” feature to allow you to compare well-travelled routes against other cyclists.  The app has always run smoothly, syncing seamlessly with my Garmin app and Susan’s FitBit app without any glitches.  I really am considering a subscription because I am getting so much value out of it and feel like I owe it to them. In July 2020, Strava and Trek teamed up for the Trek Century Challenge: bike 100, 500, or 1000 mi...

I had been thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know) that sometimes what Susan and I really need is a little adventure in our lives.  And what could be more adventurous than a bike trail that is home to a large population of black bears?!  Time to go to the Great Dismal Swamp Canal Trail in Chesapeake, Virginia.  Susan did not consider the prospect of trying to out-pedal black bears an adventure; in fact, she thought it sounded pretty foolish.  But I talked her into going anyway.  She’s a good sport.  Besides, she pedals faster than I do.  You know the old joke… Before our ride,  I did a little research on the canal itself only to find that its history is as long as the founding of our country itself.  It would be a grave omission to write about the canal and the trail without acknowledging its origins. The canal itself was created to (indirectly) link the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia to the Albemarle Sound as a means of transporting goods.  ...