Urban biking: south Raleigh

Over on NewRaleigh.com the question was posed,

"When you’re perched above two wheels and coasting through the crisp fall air, what path, official or unofficial, do you find yourself drawn to?"

When I lived in Raleigh, like many cyclists, i reveled in the night ride home from downtown, which was a bit off-route, as i worked in an office over by Cary. On a good winter night, I'd warm up climbing Glenwood fixed, turn R on Hillsborough, L on Boylan. Enjoying the view from the railroad bridge--even more with the extra lights leading toward Christmas--while a freight banged and groaned through the "wye", below. Then on into Boylan Heights where odd stickers and obscure stencilings festoon the back sides of the stop signs. After a tip of the hat at the Mayor's home, turn R onto Cabarrus and down past the yard with the perennials, then the one with the urban chickens--if i'd had enough beer, i might crow like a rooster--past the glasswerks studio and through the narrow under the high trestle where the Amtrak from Richmond crosses in the early evening, and a few yards on the foot path.

If the state was killing a man that midnight, then one needed be ready to brake for a small handful of solemn vigil-ers huddled around candles against the chill, on the path just outside prison grounds, closely watched and kept at a safe distance, lest their prayers comfort the condemned. Nowadays, they do executions at 4am, because midnight wasn't cold enough to discourage prayers, i guess. Flash them a peace sign and cross Western Blvd. Only on execution nights will there be a chain stretched across the dark entrance--in case the post-middle-aged pray-ers charge the empty soccer field at midnight?

The quiet, straight run through darkness between the cold steel RR tracks and empty soccer fields was a great place to sprint, or enjoy the cool widespread glow of a full moon on the empty landscape at the edge of the old, but not yet entirely abandoned, Dorthea Dix mental hospital. L on campus, crossing high over the vines and RR tracks, then R, and along the edge of grassy "nut hill" while down below giant boilers howl up their stacks and huge white steam clouds erupted into the dry black winter sky, carrying the starchy aroma of sanitized linens. R under the thick boughs of the hospital's old oaks, and L before the hill bottom to exit campus past the unmanned fuel depot and the closed for the night drug rehab facility where, at noontime, students stretch their legs and reflected on program material over a smoke on their daily lunch walk to and from burger king. This cross-campus cut avoids traffic and also avoids the hill near the north end of Lake Wheeler Rd where one of the businesses (laundry?) seems to often vent enough ammonia to make one's eyes almost cry.

R, back into traffic on Lake Wheeler Rd, crossing and finally saying "good-night" to the RR tracks--them pointing to Rocky Mount and Richmond, and me headed home--past the fenced yard were a thousand gray cement lawn statues stand silently beneath a dull sodium lamp, their fantastic array of forms--angels, deer, women and dragons--made all but invisible by the camouflage of a uniform dull gray color, past the bright digital marquee of the now silent farmer's market the road dips slightly crossing the damp, ill-defined flood plain of tiny Walnut Creek, where they air is always ten degrees cooler--a welcome treat in the summer, and a grit your teeth and pedal plunge in the winter, then the steep climb up over I-40, with its own red and white light show. Lake Wheeler Rd narrows after the interstate and the NASCAR-mad "American Owned" convenience store where the clerk with the .38 on his hip sells Hugo Chavez's gasoline.

R on Sierra, into residential, past the 1960s-era single-family homes--each of unique architecture, unlike the new cookie cutters just ahead in my neighborhood--a cyclist through here earlier in the evening would smell a variety of suppers cooking in family-sized batches. Some nights now the windows and storm doors of these homes rattle violently with the joyous thunder of Salvation Music booming from the new Pentecostal mega-Church someone built just outside of this usually quiet neighborhood, or at least they often did in the first months after church construction--I imagine the parties involved must've discussed noise ordinances by now. R on Lineberry, spin downhill past the scads of new apartments where the woods used to be--dwellings attracting convenient city transit buses now, instead of wild deer. Up the last and biggest climb to turn left at the HOA-maintained sign on Isabella and carry me home on a trusty pair of stainless-steel spoked twenty-seven inch wheels.

—Adrian "la Paralysie" Hands

Phun Physiology: Don't Blame the Turkey for that Thanksgiving Post-Dinner Nap

Ever planned to do a little cycling Thanksgiving day, but just couldn’t get going after one of those family sanctioned annual food eating contests?

You feel like lying around on the couch. The fireplace glow puts your eyelids at ease. Lions and Cowboys run around on TV. Lost in reverie, you count drumsticks on John Madden’s Thanksgiving bird.

An involuntary twitch and you awaken. Did you say, “Bicycle ride?”

Forget it. You might as well enjoy another round of turkey alongside cranberries hemmed in with a wedge of dressing topped off with a slice of sweet potato pie before lapsing once more into a food coma.

We’ve all heard that turkey makes you sleepy. Some claim it’s an enzyme. Others say it’s tryptophan. Either way, I’m sorry to inform you that it’s nothing more than just another urban legend.

It’s true that L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid, is found in turkey. It’s also true that tryptophan is a precursor both to serotonin, a brain chemical that helps us relax, and to melatonin, a brain chemical that makes us sleepy. Moreover, it’s true that tryptophan can be purchased over the counter as a sleep aid.

But personally, between you and me, the only straightforward indication I’ve ever found connecting tryptophan with sleep are the glassy looks people get when they’re presented the chemical pathway of tryptophan.

Take it from my friend, specialist and spokesbird, Tommy Tee, here, who explains the real cause of sleep following that Thanksgiving dinner: overindulgence.

“In the first place,” Tommy Tee explains, “tryptophan is no more concentrated in turkey than it is in chicken, ham, hamburger, or cheese for that matter. And none of them are blamed for sleep.”

Tommy Tee adds, “You got no right to pick on us turkeys!”

I’ll pick it up from here. Tommy Tee gets way too agitated on this subject.

Second, as a sleep aid, tryptophan must be taken in pure form on an empty stomach. This ensures that it is the only amino acid available to the brain. This is not the case when we eat meat which normally contains 20 different amino acids all vying for brain access. Tryptophan’s somnambulant effect decreases when we eat a slice of turkey compared to popping a tryptophan pill.

On the other hand (or, drumstick, if you prefer), let’s take a closer look at Tommy Tee’s overindulgence hypothesis as the cause of after dinner sluggishness. Thanksgiving dinner consists not only of turkey but an endless provision of carbohydrates and lipids.

Carbohydrates play a huge role in promoting sleep. In fact, without carbohydrates, tryptophan cannot make us sleepy. Carbohydrates—the starches and sugars from dressing, sweet potato pie, cranberries, rolls, and so on—cause a gush of insulin. Insulin in turn induces muscles to absorb amino acids from the blood with the notable exception of tryptophan. The result is a relative increase in blood tryptophan, which can now exert greater influence on the brain. In fact, the more carbohydrates we consume, the greater tryptophan’s influence on the brain.

What about fat? What would Thanksgiving dinner be without dressing or collard green drippings? Fats take even longer to digest than carbohydrates or proteins. In the process, they divert even more blood for digestion and away from the brain dulling our senses.

What about seconds? The more helpings we consume, the more blood we need for digestion, again, leaving less for the brain.

Did I mention sipping on an adult beverage, which acts as a nervous system depressant?

So, while it is true that tryptophan promotes sleep, a dinner consisting solely of turkey cannot make us sleepy. We could just as easily invite sleep by eating ham, hamburger, or chicken as long as we pile our plates high with plenty of carbohydrates and fats. Any holiday dinner will do!

What is my advice for cyclists this Thanksgiving?

Personally, I wouldn’t think of missing Thanksgiving dinner. Nor am I going to hold back on the goodies. My buddy, Tommy Tee, and I are going to stick to our game plan. “Gobble, gobble!” he says.

Think of it this way: Thanksgiving dinner is a wonderful opportunity to carb load in anticipation of December’s R-12. After all, most of us should be awake by then!

NCBC riders on TV

Keep an eye open for this spot on your TV. Keen observers will notice local randonneurs Lisa R and Sridhar S, with Sridhar sporting his spiffy NCBC jersey. Thanks to both for riding back and forth countless times, saying the same lines over and over. And oh yeah- you'll only catch it here and on WTVD ABC 11.

Phun Physiology: Thought of a Heart Cramp Shouldn't Cramp Your Cycling

If you’ve ever experienced a leg cramp, you may have wondered if you could get a heart cramp. A leg cramp is one thing. But a heart cramp would be disastrous.

A search of “heart cramp” on the Internet reveals a few self-reporting individuals who are convinced they’ve experienced one. Even more amazing—they’ve lived to tell. We need to remind ourselves that self-diagnosis is tricky, hence the time-honored admonitions of seeking second opinions and physicians not treating themselves.

Repeating the Internet search, substituting highfalutin synonyms for heart cramp, “cardiac tetanus” and “cardiac tetany,” one is introduced to a world of medicalese.

The result? Great news for cyclists! The heart does not normally cramp unless one considers the administration of electrical shock or hypoparathyroidism normal. At least that is what biology and medical students are taught nowadays in the halls of academe.

Danesh and Dao at the UC-Davis School of Medicine assert: “Tetany is not possible in cardiac muscle because of the prolonged refractory period.” In the textbook I use in my human anatomy and physiology class, the authors Marieb and Hoehn write: “The long cardiac refractory period normally prevents tetanic contraction, which would stop the heart’s pumping action.”

For non-physiologists, refractory period is the time after a muscle cell is stimulated and contracts before it can be stimulated to contract again. Because skeletal muscle cells have a relatively short refractory period, constant or rapid-fire stimulation can cause nonstop whole-muscle contraction known variously as a cramp, tetanus, or tetany. But the long refractory period of cardiac muscle discourages tetany.

True—cardiac muscle can undergo tetany with the application of electrical shock, a phenomenon reported by Burridge in 1920 in an article entitled “Cardiac Tetanus” in the Journal of Physiology. But as long as cyclists don’t get zapped by lightning or step on downed electrical wires this shouldn’t be cause for worry.

Extremely low blood calcium levels can also cause muscle tetany. This is the connection with hypoparathyroidism and cardiac tetany. The parathyroid glands are stuck to the back of the larger thyroid gland. When blood calcium levels are too low to maintain proper nerve and muscle function, parathyroid hormone release restores calcium levels.

But hypoparathyroidism, or too little parathyroid hormone release, results in chronic low blood calcium levels, or hypocalcemia. This puts skeletal and cardiac muscle at increased risk for tetany. However, someone is more likely to experience hypocalcemic-induced neurological problems before experiencing muscle tetany.

Halpern and Wang make this point writing on the various health ailments associated with hypothyroidism: “Cardiac effects are limited because cardiac Tetany [sic] occurs at levels of hypocalcemia lower than those causing neurologic effects; therefore, the patient usually comes to medical attention prior to the onset of cardiac disturbances.” In other words, those suffering from hypothyroidism are likely to have non-cardiac-related health problems that would tend to curtail if not prevent cycling.

One hypocalcemic malady for example is the bone disease known as rickets. I am aware of articles in British Medical Journal and Indian Pediatrics which have reported the rare occurrence of cardiac tetany in children suffering from rickets.

It is important to note that heart cramps are not the same thing as either angina or heart attack. Any cyclist who senses some sort of chest discomfort should get checked posthaste by a medical expert competent to distinguish between heart burn and a true heart malady.

My purpose here is to assure cyclists that a leg cramp does not necessarily portend anything more sinister relating to the heart. Rather, leg cramps prevent further physical exertion. Leg cramps may also motivate cyclists to try to determine their possible cause.

My advice to cyclists? Don’t let the thought of a heart cramp slow you down.

Ummm. That's why they invented fenders...

From The State (Columbia, S.C.)

Bicycle Friendly press conference canceled

A press conference to talk about the city of Columbia's new designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community has been canceled because of forecasted bad weather this afternoon.

The press conference has been rescheduled for 3 p.m. Nov. 20 at the Rosewood Market and Deli, 2803 Rosewood Drive, on the outdoor patio.

Columbia is the second city in the state to receive the designation.

The Bicycle Friendly Communities Campaign is an awards program that recognizes municipalities that actively support bicycling. A Bicycle-Friendly Community provides safe accommodation for cycling and encourages its residents to bike for transportation and recreation.

Holy Smoke & Pig on a Bike

We went to a book signing tonight for friend William McKinney, co-author of a new barbecue book, Holy Smoke. Barbecue is akin to a religion here in North Carolina, and people speak of it in hushed tones, usually over a basket of hush puppies. There are two main sects -- the devout followers of Piedmont style, and those heathens who prefer eastern style.

The signing was held at the Pit, Ed Mitchell's [oxymoron alert] upscale barbecue joint in downtown Raleigh, just out the back door from Anthony Ulinski's Dovetail Studio. There was a sizeable crowd on hand, including a lot of newspaper types who, born with the ability to sniff out a free meal from two blocks away, wandered over from the N&O headquarters. There were also several owners of other barbecue restaurants featured in the book. Ed put out two heaping trays of barbecue, slaw and sweet tea. And did I mention banana pudding?

I've never left a book reading with more food in my belly.

The painting at the top of the page, Pig on a Bike, was done by Tisha Edwards, who is also the restaurant's hostess.

Bikes are okay for exercise....

but they're no match for the Hawaii Chair...

2 Days / 2 200Ks / The Great Escape

I needed a weekend out of the house, so I settled on a two-wheeled escape. This is a shot from Saturday's 200k -- Joel Lawrence's Sauratown loop, which rambles from High Point up to Virginia, passing near Hanging Rock (pictured, I think, in the gold coat of Autumn), Sauratown Mountain and Pilot Mountain, which is visible from one of the controls. Thankfully, you don't have to climb any of those peaks, but there are still plenty of hills.

Four of us -- me, Branson, JoeRay & Wes -- managed to escape the showers that rolled through in the early morning hours, but there wasn't much we could do about the wind on the way up. It would turn in our favor as we neared the Virginia line. It was a glorious day to be on the bikes, but unfortunately Wes developed knee problems just past the 100 mile mark and Joe ended up fetching a car from a nearby relative and sagging Wes in. But the route will be there for them another day.

Branson and I finished just after 5, and I celebrated with a double shot of espresso at the finish. Bad choice. That kept me awake half the night. I could have used the sleep because I got up early, escaping from a day of leaf raking, and met Byron and Geof (also known as Team Bianchi) for a Lake Loop. Both of those guys blog. Check em out. Geof is here and Byron is here. If Saturday was all about Fall, Sunday was our first taste of winter, with lines of fair weather clouds and a northwest breeze that chilled down considerably in the afternoon. This was Geof's first 200K of the year (!) and we rode along at a pretty leisurely pace, which suited my legs just fine. He was in fine form and finished with a big smile.

Below are pix. Joe and Branson from Saturday, the rest from Sunday.

Bicycle Sharing in Europe

When we were in Paris last year, the Velib bike program, where bikes can be rented from dozens of locations around the city, had recently been launched. The program has been a huge success, and other cities are following suit.

In increasingly green-conscious Europe, there are said to be only two kinds of mayors: those who have a bicycle-sharing program and those who want one.

Over the past several years, the programs have sprung up and taken off in dozens of cities, on a scale no one had thought possible and in places where bicycling had never been popular.

Here's the full story.

Mountain Scenery

Capn Ende went out for mid-week ride today and sent along these pix. Those leaves are spectacular....wait...what the?....

Quote of the Day

"What an inspiration. He is the first truly global U.S. president the world has ever had. He had an Asian childhood, African parentage and has a Middle Eastern name. He is a truly global president."

--Pracha Kanjananont, a 29-year-old Thai sitting at a Starbuck's in Bangkok.

Fall Foliage: Tappahannock 200

This past weekend, I ventured north to Ashland, VA, to meet Bob O and ride this year’s Tappahannock 200 sponsored by the Randonneurs of the Mid-Atlantic.

The sign at the edge of town boasts that Ashland is at the “Center of the Universe.” No doubt it is. After all, this is where the brevet starts and ends. And if further proof were necessary, it should be noted that this college town located on US 1 has an Amtrak station. Most persuasive, however, is the fact that Bike Route 1 runs through it. I rest my case.

This was my first randonnée with our northerly neighbors. So I didn’t know quite what to expect. But I was put at ease upon learning that our hosts and new-found friends honor one of our traditions back home: coffee. In fact, the Ashland Coffee and Tea Co served as the first and last controls, where locals stack their personal coffee mugs in full display in a wall cupboard.

In spite of a chilly start we were rewarded with spectacular rolling fall scenery of farms and forests on the northeasterly loop connecting Ashland and Tappahannock.

Bob O provided the lead-in picture, which is actually upside down. It was that kind of special day: water bluer than the sky! You can visit Bob’s blog, Tidewater Randonneur, where he sets things straight in his ride account. A link can be found in the right-hand margin.

Special thanks to RBA, Matt Settle, for hosting the event.

Better than a Handlebar Bag

I saw this floating around on a site I check occasionally. From a 1940 Popular Science magazine.