Do The Laws Of Energy Apply To Cyclists?

Today, dear reader, I’m going to ask you to help me to solve one of the mysteries of the universe. 

All right, I was exaggerating just a bit.  But there is still something I haven’t figured out after more than three decades of cycling.

Here’s the dilemma:  Yesterday I rode for less than an hour, on flat roads.  Yet I felt more tired than I did after my ride to and from Connecticut last week.  In fact, I was so tired that I didn’t write last night. 

I don’t think I’ve lost any of my conditioning (such as it is) during the past week.  And, I don’t think the fact that I rode my fixed gear yesterday rather than my geared road bike (which I rode to Connecticut) should’ve made a difference.  If anything, my fixie is lighter, simply from having fewer components on it.  Otherwise, they are similarly built Mercians:  the geometry is slightly tighter on the fixie, but they are both built of Reynolds 631 tubing.

And I undertook both rides about an hour after eating breakfast/brunch.  Yesterday I ate a mushroom-and-onion omlette with corn tostadas and salsa.  If I recall correctly, I ate the same thing, or something very close to it, last week.

So why did I have enough energy after last week’s ride to make dinner but, after yesterday’s ride, I had some Chinese takeout and fell asleep shortly afterward?

Where In The World Is Justine Valinotti? Not In San Diego, That's For Sure!

Where in the world is Justine Valinotti?

You never know what worlds she’ll find when she leaves a gated community:

She might encounter all sorts of dangers.

Hey, she might even go to San Francisco!

She gets giddy and her imagination into overdrive and she starts talking about herself in the third person when she does crazy things—like seeing how many hills she can climb on her fixed-gear bike.

Don’t ask what possessed her to do that.  The sky was clear, the day was warm (though not overly so) and the humidity was low.  So we can’t blame the weather.

Maybe it has something to do with getting a new bike.  She’s waiting on a couple of accessories, and it will be complete.

So where was Justine Valinotti?  She wasn’t in San Diego, that’s for sure.

She took the first photo at City College in Harlem.

The “tiger” reigns over a community garden in a vest-pocket park at the end of Convent Avenue, a few blocks from the City College gate.

The downhill street is actually in North Bergen, New Jersey.  Yes, she went to all of those places today, on her bike.

Edvard Munch Comes Along For The Ride

Poor Edvard Munch.  People like me take a couple of Art History classes in college, and all we remember of him is one painting.

And that is the work I recalled when I came across this during my ride today:

Now, I don’t know much about his life.  So what I’m about to say is pure conjecture.  Somehow, because he painted “The Scream,” I don’t think he would have been averse to seeing something like this:

It’s a photo I took by the World’s Fair Marina, which is near Citi Field and LaGuardia Airport.  I saw that scene on my way home from Manhasset, in Nassau County, where my ride took me today. 

Why do I say he could enjoy that scene because he painted the scream?  Well, when I think of Munch, I can’t help but to think of another famous Norwegian who lived during his time:  Henrik Ibsen.  I think that Ibsen, because he was the sort of person who could so vividly portray hypocrisy and despair so well in his art, craved something better.  Literally and figuratively, the bleakness of the northern winter he portrayed made him crave the sun, if you will.  So it’s no surprise that after he wrote A Doll’s House, he spent most of the rest of his life in Italy.

I think Ibsen and Munch would have appreciated this, too:

However, I’m not so sure they would have wanted to accompany me on my ride.  In their day, cyclists rode “high-wheelers,” which could make even the slightest crack in the ground seem as if it had its own ZIP code and telephone exchange.  The streets in eastern Queens, near the Nassau county line, were more like washboards in some spots.

Anyway, it was still a nice ride at the end of a nice day.  Who could ask for more?

(The “scream” photo was taken at International Meat Market on 30^th Avenue in Astoria.)