Monday, May 25, 2015

Bikey Problems and Problem Solving

Well folks, the wet weather continues here in the Mile High city. Seriously, I think we've seen 2, count 'em TWO days in May without rain. Lordy! We are NOT used to this sort of thing here in arid Colorado.


I have to say the gray skies are a real bummer. But... we can't complain about the water - we need the moisture, so it's all good.

I have to admit though, that I'm starting to understand certain behaviors that previously baffled me like delaying spring plantings because the soil was muddy (I've never seen this level of mud in my yard before!) use of indoor lighting during the daytime, and frequent washing of bath towels - who knew that towels don't air dry completely in an hour or so when you have humidity near 90% all the time!


Anyhow, time on the bike has been limited. We've been able to get out and dodge the rain a few times, but portions of our beloved bike path are... well... let's just say not conducive to riding.

South Platte Bike path at Evans Avenue - taken May 17, 2015
This photo is from a ride last week - the river levels are actually higher now.

Here's the view of the swim beach at Chatfield reservoir taken on the same day... it's under there somewhere!


For perspective, this is what it's supposed to look like:


Soooo... when I haven't been riding, I've been working on solving a few bike related "issues."

First up, hydration. Those of you who read my A-Z posts in April might recall that I came up with a recipe for homemade electrolyte drink that is working pretty well. The only problem was that I still hadn't figured out a way to fit more than one bottle on my bicycle. For some reason, the little holes that you screw the bottle cage into on the diagonal "down tube" were just an inch or so too low for two bottle cages to fit - let along have room for a pump as well. Grrrrr...

How it's supposed to work
But, as I was trying to work the geometric puzzle to find a way, I realized that my beloved Klean Kanteen water bottle is actually slightly smaller around than the standard bottle. So... instead of trying to be frugal and use the plastic bottle that I already had as a second bottle, I went ahead and purchased an additional Klean Kanteen and voila! It all fits... just barely, but it fits! Woo Hoo!

Success!!! 
So now I can bring along two 27 ounce bottles of water/electrolyte drink on each ride. It's not really necessary now since we've barely had temps out of the 50's this month. But this summer when the temps climb above 90, it will be really nice not to have to go looking for a source of water on every ride.



And then, we have the old food issue. Long time readers may recall that I suffer from a peculiar and not well understood medical condition called food dependent exercise induced anaphylaxis. Basically it's a severe allergic reaction that is triggered by the combination of eating something I'm allergic to and exercising. The tricky part is that the food causing the reaction might cause no reaction at all if I eat it and don't exercise afterwards. Sooooo... finding foods that are safe for me to eat during and before a long bike ride has been tricky.

I had been trying to get by eating a big meal about an hour before a ride, but about 3 hours into a long ride, I would just start to feel absolutely famished!


Since potatoes and eggs were some of the few foods on my "safe list" I experimented with bringing a hard boiled egg and a baked potato along. It was messy, but functional.

But... I've been slowly working on adding foods to my safe list, and can now eat oatmeal, milk, raisins and cashews before a ride. Woo Hoo! So it occurred to me that I could actually use those ingredients to create some sort of an oatmeal bar that I could bring along on the ride which would be much easier than trying to pack a potato for each ride.

I did a bit of research and landed on this recipe. I made an ultra simplified version using only oatmeal, milk, eggs, raisins, cashews and salt and I have to say they turned out downright edible! I made a big batch and froze them so I can just grab one on my way out the door.

Frozen Oatmeal Bar
Being able to eat something when I'm out on long rides has made a HUGE difference in my stamina and I am totally thrilled!


Anyhow, cross two problems off of my bike list. Now if we can just get Mother Nature to cooperate!


So tell me, how's the weather in your neck of the woods? What have y'all been up to lately?



22 comments :

  1. Just yesterday, I was part of a conversation where people said one of the reasons that it would be great to live in Denver would be the weather. I then remembered all of the ups and downs with it that you have shared over the last couple of years and said maybe not. But they could not be convinced that you had anything buy moderate, cool, mountain weather.

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    1. Ha! Well, there is much to love about Denver's weather - we generally have 300+ days of sunshine per year. But "moderate" and "cool" are not terms I would use to describe it!

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  2. I'm glad you got your bike problems sorted out, and sorry you've been unable to ride because of the rain. Just think how grateful the plants are though this may be their life saver during the hot summer to come.
    We had a cold start to the spring but it has warmed up nicely and I've been able to get a lot of planting done.......but we could use some rain now :)
    Marieann

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    1. Feast or famine where water is concerned - isn't that always the case? Anyhow, I'm almost done putting the hardware cloth on my hail house - I want to get that done before I plant because if I try to do it after the plants are in, I'm sure I'll trample them. Plus, our temperatures are starting to warm a bit, and with all the moisture in the atmosphere, that generally means severe weather is on tap!

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  3. I am having a heck of a time posting comments on everyone's blogs today! Trying this again ... anyway, I am interested in your baked oatmeal recipe, as I have tried a different recipe and wasn't thrilled with it. Is yours a soft bar or more granola-bar-ish in consistency? I am hypoglycemic and always on the lookout for new snacks.

    Hope the weather improves for your biking!

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    1. I'm sorry Blogger is such a pain with comments. I've seriously considered switching to Disqus, but I think that if I do, I'll lose all the comments previously posted, and I just can't bear to do it.

      Anyhow, the link in the post takes you to the recipe. I didn't alter it much - I just left out the seeds, cinnamon and vanilla. One word of caution though - the recipe as printed is VERY salty... like WAY too salty. And I'm a salt-a-holic, so if I think it's salty you know it's rockin' some serious sodium! Next time I make them I'll probably use half or a third the listed amount. The other thing I might do is add a bit of oil - even with the parchment paper I had a bit of a problem with mine sticking... that could also be the cooking time though - nothing ever comes out quite the same as the recipe here at 6000 feet! :-)

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    2. I think Firefox was my problem today, since I had problems posting on other blogs as well. I switched to Google Chrome and, tada, success! Thanks for your recipe comments. I checked out the link to see the recipe. I don't like a lot of added salt, so that's good to know ... and the problem I had with my other baked oatmeal recipe (it used canned pumpkin) was the stickiness--it tasted ok, but since I wanted a low-mess snack for the kids for a road trip, being sticky was a problem.

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    3. Oh... and they're chewy, not crunchy. :-)

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  4. Well, I don't want to brag, but our weather has been uncharacteristically lovely lately. It was cool earlier this week (no AC, yay!), but this weekend has been in the 70s and low 80s and no rain. Perfect for completing a big gardening project. But the rain is supposed to start later today and keep going all week. Our turn, I guess.

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    1. I'm laughing at your definition of "cool" - by summer standards I'd agree, but seriously, we've had highs in the 50's and low 60's most days - with a few highs in the 40's for good measure! But... there is a strange yellow orb out in the sky at the moment so I am hopeful that I might get to either ride or plant today. Of course, clouds are building to the west again... but maybe we'll get a few more hours of nice weather before the rain hits!

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  5. We are not getting all the rain you were getting. Started raining today finally.

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  6. We are having lovely mild autumn weather at the moment. We do experience high levels of humidity in Queensland in summer which causes and on going battle against mold and mildew.

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    1. I'm starting to understand the whole humidity thing - not sure I could take it long term!

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  7. I am impressed that you make your own electrolyte drink and snacks and yout bike so much. I am just in awe of you.

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    1. Not sure any of that is worthy of awe... I'm basically just cheap & I like to goof around on my bike rather than being a productive member of society! :-)

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  8. We had a wet winter and spring with one week in April when it rained every single day. Then it stopped raining for four weeks and started getting hot (upper 80's - 90). Then last week was very low humidity and cool nights (50's). And yesterday it finally rained again - a big old summer thunderstorm, first rain since April 28. And everyone and their gardens were glad to have it. Isn't weather fascinating? As long as it's not actually hurting you - Texas, you're in my thoughts.

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    1. It is fascinating. I think I'm gonna be a meteorologist in my next life!

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  9. We missed some great weather here in AZ, and are unfortunately just catching the tail end of it. Temps will top 100 by this weekend and I think we'll finally cave and turn on the AC. :(

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    1. Oy! Perhaps I'll stop complaining about our temps in the 60's now...

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  10. The oatmeal bar looks good! I love cashews, but I'm allergic to them, so I'm jealous.

    We were hot and dry for a while, but seem to be getting into the phase where we have thunderstorms every afternoon. I don't enjoy the storms, but at least the garden gets watered.

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    1. Well... cashews are one of the few nuts that I'm not allergic to, not to mention seeds, so I feel your pain.

      And why can't it just rain quietly at night when it won't bother anything? :-)

      I actually think the big storms are fun, but only when they don't do actual damage!

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