The Bike Path Pokey

This blog was supposed to be about how strong I’ve been feeling since I restarted my season.  I’ve had some great rides and done good workouts that are paying off.  Yep, the plan was to write about how my strength is coming on faster then those stupid cyclist tan lines that we all know and love.  And then, I went for a ride last night that changed everything.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am feeling very strong these days.  I am back to my old climbing habits.  Even better, I seem to have my descending mojo again.  For instance, Saturday’s ride had 12 miles of climbing that totaled almost 4,000 feet in elevation gain.  I actually did the first 7 miles of climbing in the middle ring and felt great.  Then we got to come down.  I felt I was in complete control as I bombed down the descent.  In the end, I waited nearly two minutes for the rest of my group to arrive (to be fair, they tend not to bomb descents).

With that as a backdrop, I started out last night to ride speed intervals.  Leave it to a great coach, like Coach Tim, to change things up just when you’re feeling good.  After weeks of hill repeats where I was feeling nice and comfortable, he throws in speed intervals.  No worries other then I do expect feel the difference when I am done.

I get home and get ready to roll.  My first issue is that I am absolutely brain dead.  I spent the day working on a rather tedious project that just seem to suck the life out of me.  I was in definite need of Miracle Max but since he wasn’t around a ride would have to do.  The other issue was heat.  It was 91 when I headed out and I do not like the heat.  I choose to head out along the bike path since it is nice and shaded.  My plan?  The path would provide a nice 20-minute warm up and once out of town I would start my speed intervals.

It never happened.  I think somewhere in my mind I always knew it wouldn’t.  The longer I was on the path, the more I settled into a nice scenic easy ride.  As I neared the end of the first path and starting rolling to the second path I realize that I was doing the Bike Path Pokey.

The Bike Path Pokey is the kind of ride where you purposely stay on as many bike paths as possible.  Why?  Well, they’re called bike paths but the truth is there are a lot of other things on them.  Things like joggers, walkers, kids on bikes, kids on skateboards, commute riders, dogs on and off a leash (sometimes with or without people), etc.  This means you can’t ride hard and remain a courteous cyclist.  So in essence, riding the bike path forces me to stay slow while allowing me to blame my slowness on the other people using the path.

As I was meandering along, I decided if I was going to call this ride The Bike Path Pokey, I needed to create new lyrics to that childhood tune we all know and enjoy.  Here they are.

You turn your Gamin off
You throw your plan out
You clip your shoes in and you slowly move it out
You do the bike path pokey as you slowly roll along
That’s what it’s all about.

I could go on but I won’t.  I think you get the idea.  I also created a dance that focuses mostly on moving your shoulders around since your legs are busy.  Now, I never expect The Bike Path Pokey dance to get air time on MTV or reach the level of popularity as the shoulder rolls from the Palmer Girls in the Addicted to Love video but it’s still fun to do.

When it was all said and done I finish with a good 21-mile tempo ride.  It was perfect! Not only was it a good workout but it also gave me the opportunity to enjoy another beautiful evening.  And that’s worth singing about.

Ciao!