Sick

And Tired of It

Skokie Lagoons: One of My Favorite Stretches

I just learned that Lindsey Graham, who should bloody well know better, said, We did Iwo Jima, we can do Kharg Island. Iwo Jima cost us 6800 dead, and we were in a very different situation, strategically and industrially. We also had competent people running that war, men who understood we could loose, and so had thought about what victory required. These men are depraved, egotistical incompetents who, because they cannot conceive of defeat, take victory for granted. Many years ago, I had an Air Force colonel piss me off and I just looked at him and said, deadpan, “Sir, we haven’t won a war since the Air Force became a separate service.” You can criticize the archaic tone and the racism implicit in much of T. R. Fehrenbach’s book This Kind of War: The Classic Military History of the Korean War, but he was absolutely correct to write, “Americans in 1950 rediscovered something that since Hiroshima they had forgotten: you may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life—but if you desire to defend it, protect it, and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men into the mud.”

All this said, given the editing I am doing on my own work, I cannot write much about the state of the world right now. And also, I feel like another voice screaming into the void. So right now, a lot of my writing will be about this cross-country bike ride / fundraiser I am training for. In its own way, it is political: for much of human history, girls have been raised into women being taught we are too weak, stupid, and cowardly to do much more than keep house and bear and raise children. The description is a lie, of course: these activities are the basis of society and human flourishing, and of course childbearing is the most damaging, demanding, and dangerous thing ordinary people do. And tedious as housekeeping is, traditional women’s work created the fields of chemistry (think food and dying), mathematics (spinning, weaving, knitting), and medicine (I hope this is self-explanatory).

So for a woman looking at 60, to write about her preparations to to something incredibly physically and psychologically demanding, in a way other women can use is indeed political. Because the regime that thinks it rules us is determined to reduce women to human animals for male usage, until we are used up and dead.

So. I have whatever virus is going around and still I ride. To give the lie to men like the rapist and racist SSoW Kegsbreath, who have no basis to talk about standards.

Because I have a century scheduled for 31 May, immediately followed for 5 days straight, 40 miles each. My theory is, if I can’t do that, I should not try to ride across country. And the only way to safely build that base is consistent conditioning. Especially as I have a small tear in my meniscus. No surgery scheduled, but it does need to be carefully managed, and that includes strength training.

What it does not need is me hammering on my cranks.

Although I don’t use power meters, I do use a heart rate monitor and a cadence sensor, and I pay attention to the data when I ride. The most important number to me is not current speed or average speed, although both matter to me. The most important number to me is my cadence, or how fast I turn my cranks. I’m looking for a range of 75-85 rpm, with good forward momentum, because a sustained average in that range is much easier on the body (especially your knees) than bogging down in say the 50 rpm range. Right now, 60s is beginning to feel sluggish to me.

Thursday’s work showed good improvement in terms of speed and distance over Tuesday’s. I rode appx 2.24 miles further, .6 mph faster, and felt pretty good doing it. But the heart rate data shows a different story: my average (heart) beats per minute Thursday were 149 vs. 134 on Tuesday. So even though I did not actually feel I was working harder, I was. My max heart rate was 180 bpm, 20 bpm higher than my theoretical max heart rate, and while I had no dizziness, chest pain, or breathlessness during, after I had cooled out I was very tired, tired enough to need a nap, which is highly unusual for me, and I slept very late this morning. This is a clear indication that while I am not training hard, I am having trouble taking in enough oxygen.

So when I ride on Saturday and Sunday, I will be careful and gentle with myself. The motto of the American Endurance Ride Council is, To finish is to win, and it’s just as applicable to humans as horses. By the way, finishing means, passing your vet checks, including the last one across the finish line. Your horse should be fit to go on.

Data from 26 March 26