The Spoke 'N Word

It’s December 29 and I am just now getting around to writing this end of year message to all the readers of The Spoke ‘N Word.  The holiday season certainly has been busy and there have been moments when I have wondered why everything gets so crazy.  Just the other day I was ready to throw in the towel and give up on all the baking, cooking, and shopping.  Instead, I took a deep breath and thought about all the wonderful family and friends we have spent time with during the last month.  A calmness spread through me as I remembered the look of delight when a gift was opened or the laughter of guests around the table.  After a few minutes the holidays didn’t seem so crazy after all.  I hope you all have been enjoying the magic and wonder of the holiday season.

As 2011 draws to a close, I want to say THANK YOU to all of the volunteers for their efforts in keeping the club going.  Thank you to the board members – you guys are all great and I am amazed that you find the time and energy for all that you do. From the administration of the club to organizing events to being ambassadors in our community, you have all been an integral part of the team. A shout goes out to all of the ride leaders – after all, the purpose of our club is to provide members with a venue to get together and ride.  Our summer calendar was filled with regularly occurring rides keeping us out on our bikes.  The Tuesday Night Mulligan Ride and the wide variety of Saturday Rec Rides are some of the regular rides which kept us pedaling away. A challenging Head for the Hills Ride was added for our more ambitious members. It is only through the consistent dedication of our ride leaders that these rides happen. So muchas gracias ride leaders – you are the best!  In addition to the Spring Warm Up and Fall Fling, we added some special rides this year including Cindy’s Ride to Cameron Pass, The Cinnamon Roll Ride (all that sugar!), and The Wild Animal Sanctuary Century Ride this past October.  These rides were all well organized and gave us a chance to participate in a shared interest as we rolled along.  A special thank you to all that helped to organize these awesome and fun rides.

The winter ride season is upon us and I hope all of you can find ways to enjoy being out on your bike.  This is Colorado and the weather fluctuates greatly – we have many Spring-like days throughout the winter months (today is one of them).  Throw some knobby tires on your bike and at least get out on the trails for a few miles!  Your body and your mind will thank you.  As always, be careful and make sure you dress accordingly (layers) and have your bike in good working order.  Lights are a cyclist’s best friend as twilight comes early these days.  (The hope of spring is around the corner as we are beyond the Solstice).

Our next member meeting is scheduled for January 19 and we will be kicking off 2012.  An announcement about the meeting location will appear on the club website.  First up on our agenda will be the Spring Warm Up Ride scheduled for May 5^th. We are in need of volunteers to help in the ride organization and plan to organize functional teams to make it easier for volunteers to participate and ensure a great ride for all.  Our club is volunteer organized and operated and we need our members to help.  I think there is some kind of saying about the hands of many making the task seem smaller.

I look forward to another great year for our club and wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Keep the rubber side down!

Cindy

Amy in her award-winning riding costume (she managed to avoid any incidents with her tail and spokes), refueling with Eric and Kimberley.

On October 22, fourteen riders met early at Spring Creek Park for the start of the Wild Animal Sanctuary Century Ride.  The promise of a sunny day nipped at the heels of the chilly morning start.  Riders’ spirits were lifted as they headed out on this late season century ride. Previously known as “Kimberley’s Century Ride” and hosted by our very own Kimberley Malone, this is a low maintenance ride with a lunch stop as well as sag support provided by Kimberley’s husband, Carl.  (We should note that Sag by Carl is some of the best sag in Northern Colorado.  Carl is a massage therapist, so not only does he protect riders from vehicle traffic at intersections, he also works magic on tired muscles and aching joints so riders can make it to the finish line).

Building the walkway at the Wild Animal Sanctuary.

In the spirit of giving, the 2011 ride was organized as a fund raising ride to benefit The Wild Animal Sanctuary.  Riders enjoyed a great day of cycling while contributing to a great cause. Fourteen riders started at Spring Creek Park, one rider joined the group in Johnstown and a few riders decided not to complete the route.  Ten cyclists finished the 100 miles and a total of  $505 was raised for the Wild Animal Sanctuary, which will place a commemorative bronze plaque along the “Mile Into the Wild” walkway that is being built at the sanctuary. The plaque will read “Members of Fort Collins Cycling Club 2011.” Riders and club members visiting the Sanctuary can be especially proud knowing they have made a difference in the life of a magnificent animal. The Wild Animal Sanctuary saves animals who are victims of America’s “Captive Wildlife Crisis.”  The Sanctuary rescues captive exotic and endangered large carnivores who have been abused, abandoned, exploited or illegally kept.  Animals have been rescued from over forty-two states, as well as Mexico and Bolivia, from dreadful circumstances.  One of the Wild Animal Sanctuary’s main purposes is to give rescued animals a life of dignity and respect, and make their life like it would be if they could choose it.  Rescued animals are brought back to live in large acreage habitats where they have plenty of space, exceptional diets and proper veterinary care, for as long as they live.  The Wild Animal Sanctuary also works to educate about the causes of and solutions to the Captive Wildlife Crisis.

The Wild Animal Sanctuary is located in Keenesburg, CO (east of I-76 off Highway 52 in Weld County).  For more information and to plan your visit, go to www.wildanimalsanctuary.org.

In addition to a glorious day of cycling, participants received some fun prizes including the following:

Wild Animal Sanctuary Pass for Newest Bike – Ben Jeffrey

Wild Animal Sanctuary Pass for Oldest Bike – Eric Erslev

Wild Animal Sanctuary Pass for Furthest from Spring Creek Park – Sue Hewitt

Wild Animal Sanctuary Pass for Most Prepared – Roy Halpern (He brought the clearance towelettes)

Mom’s Cookies for Most Coordinated – Amy Ehrenberger (she perfectly coordinated to the theme of the ride with her tiger ears, tail and whiskers)

Champion’s Edge Performance Tuning (Best Laser Therapy) for Most Hardware – Brien Buell (that’s the most hardware IN the body)

Winter Park Ski Pass Drawing – Nancy Nichols

The Wild Animal Sanctuary Century was a great ride and served a great cause.  Everyone who participated had a wonderful day!  Announcements for the 2012 end of season century ride will be made later this year.  Stay tuned and make sure that once the date and information are available you mark your calendar for this fantastic ride!

I recently had an opportunity to sit down with David Kemp, or “DK” as he’s known to friends and cyclists around Fort Collins. DK is the Bicycle Coordinator for the City of Fort Collins and has been in that role for about five years. I talked with him about past achievements, current projects, and future plans for cycling around our city.

JT: How do you see your role with all of the different cycling groups in this area?

DK: It’s been a very organic process. I’ve really tried to find common interests with the groups over the years and then bring them together. I see my role primarily as connecting and coordinating. A good example of that is BPEC, the Bicycle Pedestrian Education Coalition. That was formed to address bicycle safety. We had a lot of groups doing bike safety in the city and Northern Colorado, but there was no cohesiveness. And so I worked with a few other folks to rally people together and start holding these BPEC meetings. What I typically do at the beginning of a group like this is to step in as a facilitator, and then help to grow and bring life to a program. It’s kind of like what I did with the Tour de Fat. I developed the program and I got it to the point where I could find leadership within the group, and then they become the leaders and the group becomes self-powered. It’s really about maturing the culture and the human dimensions of the bicycle community. That’s a big part of what I’ve done since beginning the city’s bike program. That, along with the encouragement programs like the Bike to Work Days, hosting the Bike ‘N Jazz at Gardens on Spring Creek…

JT: So awareness and visibility for cycling in the city is a focus of yours?

DK: Definitely, and a lot of work with the media. That’s a big part of my job. It’s really about keeping cycling ever-present in the face of the media.

JT: Businesses, too?

DK: Oh yeah. The Bike to Work Days have been great in that area. Also, we partner with Climate Wise. We do a lot of co-events with them. Being a bicycle-friendly business adds points to their certification program. So again, it’s encouragement, coordination, and education.

JT: Looking back on 2011, what would you consider your top achievements?

DK: 2011 was a really big year for us, especially with facilities and improvements. Implementation of shared lane markings was a big deal for us this year. We found external funding for it through an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant, which is a federal grant that cities can apply for. We inserted three transportation projects into that funding package. First, we concentrated on Mountain Avenue, extending the bike lanes on both sides of the road from Meldrum to Howes. Then we installed the shared lane markings, 27 of them or so, east and west along Mountain Avenue all the way to Riverside. Then we put in signal actuation at Riverside in the bike lines on both sides, as well as signal actuation at College and Mountain. That project was a big thing for our city.

Also, this year we implemented our first green bike box, at the intersection of Shields and Plum. The bike box is something cyclists can use as a safe place to wait while the light is red, and when the light turns green they’re the first to leave the box as the cars wait. What it does is prevent the “right hook,” which is the second most common type of crash with a car and a cyclist. It’s a European design that Portland implemented five or six years ago because they had two or three fatalities due to the right hook.

But I can tell you that I probably do more work internally within the city now, than with external programs. I have to be very persistent and constantly work with the traffic planning department to make sure that biking and pedestrian safety issues are top of mind when planning city traffic projects. The green treatment for the pavement markings is a good example and installing that bike box I just described is another example and is a good test pilot program. One of the things I enjoy most is seeing a tangible product or result come out of my work. Something we can point to and say “Yes, we did it!” and then move on to the next project.

JT: Fort Collins is a gold standard League of American Bicyclists community. There are only three platinum status cities. What does it take to go from gold to platinum, and is that a goal of yours?

DK: Heck yeah. We’ll have it in 2013. We could apply for it in 2012, but I’m being strategic with our application. There are a couple big projects I want to get done before we apply. We’ve been doing really well with our safety work and programmatic stuff, but there are a couple of on-the-ground facilities projects that I want to complete. Mostly, it has to do with parking. We’re working to contemporize our city code in regards to land use and marrying the percentage of car parking to the percentage of bike parking that’s required. What we currently have just doesn’t make sense any more, it just says 5% of all car parking must be bike parking, which is not developed enough or complex enough.

But the big project for 2012 we’ll be working on that will help us get that platinum level is a complete update to the bike route network for our city. Right now, we’ve got a pretty good bike map. However, it’s an inventory map, it’s not a user map. So as a cyclist, if I want to get across town, west to east, or north to south, it doesn’t tell me what are the most bike-friendly ways to get there. So we’ll take the current bike routes, we’ll update them on the ground, and we’ll begin to show people the best routes to move across town from their location. So what’s on the ground will be emulated on the bike map. We’ll have wayfinding, we’ll note facilities, and the map will note specific routes with names like “the Blah Blah Blah Express” or “Bike Boulevard.” College students will really benefit from this and also tourism.

JT: So are there specific plans for the trail system in the year ahead?

DK: There’s approved funding that will continue our expansion of the bike trails in 2012. The funding comes from a variety of sources. We apply for grants through the lottery fund, there’s a .25% sales tax that goes to natural areas and they put money into the trail system, and the parks department also applies money through their general fund. We connected Cathy Fromme to Spring Canyon Park this year and what a major connection that is. Our next big connection is under the railroad to connect Cathy Fromme to the Mason trail. That’s going to be a fantastic connection. I just get giggly about these projects because they help with everything from recreation to commuting to just improving quality of life. We’ve now replaced nearly all of the existing trails with concrete, since the original trails were all asphalt. Trails cost about $450,000 per mile to build, but what a great investment for our community.

Another program to mention for 2012 is our new Recreational Trail Safety & Etiquette program we’ll be implementing to increase the safety on our trails. It goes with an investment in new signs along the trails. We’re taking some of the antiquated signs and updating them to be consistent with new safety messages and highly visible images. We have over three decades of signs along the trails, so that’s a big project. We’re also implementing bicycle slow zones near high traffic areas and areas with lots of children, like near the parks.

JT: What are some examples of ways you help with tourism and economic development?

DK: That’s another great project I want to mention for 2012. We have a big project now in partnership with CSU. It’s the Economic Impact of Cycling study that we’re funding through CSU and Dr. Martin Shields, who is the Director of the Regional Economics Institute. We’re isolating the role of cycling and building the case that cycling has a role in attracting and obtaining the creative class, people who have jobs and income, own homes, and care about their city. You hear it all the time, “I moved to Fort Collins because people are into cycling.” But we’ve never been able to quantify that and assign a value to it. So hopefully this study will help us do that.

JT: What do you consider the most rewarding aspect of your job?

DK: That’s easy. Seeing a smile on someone’s face because they’ve started biking and they have their full gear set up and they changed their life, then having them come back and tell me that because of the encouragement in the community they feel empowered to do this and how it’s benefited their life. “I’ve sold my car” is the best thing someone can say to me.

- contributed by Jerry Touslee

It is winter and instead of lying about the couch surfing the net or watching mind-numbing television, you have decided you’re going to make a commitment to indoor training.  Visions of yourself climbing up Horsetooth ahead of the pack fill your head as you swing your leg over the bike you have set up on your trainer.  Clipping into the pedals you start spinning away with a smile on your face as you think about that first early season event you just completed the registration for.

You start pedaling away, spinning through gears to simulate flats and climbing.  You’re settling into a rhythm and beginning to work up a sweat.  Suddenly, your smart phone vibrates indicating receipt of a new e-mail.  You answer with a quick reply, after all, it is not like you are really on a bike and why not multitask if you can?  Setting your phone down, you realize your pedaling has slowed and you find yourself distracted.  You fight to get that rhythm back but instead you are thinking of all the other things you could be doing.  Your distraction turns to boredom, I mean heck, riding indoors just does not cut it when compared to a real ride outside.  As you stare at the timer on your heart rate monitor, you hope you can hit thirty minutes without going insane from the monotony.

If the above sounds anything like your indoor training routine, keep reading.  In the next few sections, you will find some helpful ways to keep your commitment to training indoors from being derailed by boredom.

1. Try a Cycling DVD – there are a wide variety of cycling DVD’s that offer structured as well as virtual riding.  If you want a structured workout, industry standards include Spinervals as well as Carmichael Training Systems (CTS).   I have been using the Spinervals Aero Base Builder for a couple of winters and I find each fall it is like hanging out with my old cycling buddies once again.  As Coach Troy says, professional athletes know that some of the best and most efficient training they do is indoors because you can really focus.  For those of you who would prefer beautiful scenery that makes you feel like you are riding along the coastline or screaming down a hill, try epicRides (www.epicplanet.tv) or the Bike-O-Vision series.  These virtual ride DVD’s provide great inspiration and you will feel like you are out on the road.

2. Use the descending ladder or pyramid strategy to pass the time.  Descending ladder means that you start with a ten minute period of hard effort followed by two minutes of easy spinning for recovery.  The next interval is eight minutes of hard effort followed by two minutes of easy spinning.  Each interval you step the duration of the hard effort down by two minutes (and also slightly reduce the intensity).  The last interval is two minutes of hard effort.  Follow this with a cool down (and make sure you did a brief warm up before starting) and call it a day.  The pyramid strategy is based upon gradually increasing the period of hard effort, reaching a peak (the top of the pyramid) and then decreasing the effort.  You can choose different variables such as load or time to increase and decrease.  For example, you could pick a steady cadence and go to a smaller rear cog every two minutes until you reach your highest gear (most effort) and then work your way back to the largest cog (least effort).

3. Do some climbing on the bike.  You can simulate climbing by placing a solid structure that is two to four inches under your front wheel – having the bike in an incline will make you feel like you are heading up a hill.  (Make sure whatever you are using is solid and the wheel will not slip off.)  After warming up, find a gear that increases the load enough so that your cadence drops by about 20 rpm.  Sit back in the saddle like you would on a long climb and maintain this workload for as long as you can.  Shift to a lower gear to recover and do another set.

4. Mix it up entirely and try something new.  Yoga and Pilates are great ways to train your core and increase your flexibility.  There are several “drop in” studios around town where you can buy a punch card and take a class without being a member of that particular club/gym.  Both of these practices will help you to lengthen and strengthen your muscles.  An added bonus is the awareness these practices bring to breath.  You might even find yourself more relaxed and focused in other areas of your life as a result of doing this bodywork.

5. Increase your core strength.  Do a Google search and you will find numerous YouTube videos that demonstrate the correct execution of core exercises including boat pose, plank, and ball crunches.  Come up with your own fifteen minute routine and do this three times a week.  A stronger core will reduce lower back pain, ease stiffness, and build strength.  A strong core leads to improved endurance and efficiency in the saddle.

6. Find a training buddy.  In the summer, you meet your friends at a designated ride start and time to keep yourself from bagging it if it is a bit cloudy or you want to make sure you get out of the office at a certain time.  Move your indoor cycling trainer to the basement and have your training partner set up his rig next to yours.  Commit to a Tuesday/Thursday evening ride.  Find a friend and commit to starting with five sets descending ladder and pyramid a couple of times a week and bet on drinks.  The guy who fails to report his progress each week buys the drinks (you might need to find an impartial witness to verify each workout for this to work).

Hopefully these tips will help you to spice up your indoor training.  The payoff for your hard work will be a great start to the season once you are back on the road this spring!