Games you play...

[Edogawakikkoman]

What little games do you play while riding?
It gets boring just 'riding' so I often try a few little games to keep me improving and to pass the time a little faster.

Some things I do:

#1
When I'm at my half way mark and feeling guilty about not riding hard enough:
I check my average speed, point my bike home and the game is to ride above that average all the way home and see how high you can increse the average by. The trick is to make sure you don't push the average up too high too fast or you won't be able to complete the game. As the average increases you have to ride a little faster.

#2
A similar game: About 10km from home I check my Max speed. Hopefully it's not too high. (If it is too high reset it to zero and start out at about 25... For the next 10km you have to beat that max before the end of the next kilometer. Also you have to be careful not to go too fast too soon. It's almost impossible to stop the max at 1kph over the previous best.
It's easy to bump up over 2 or 3kph an hour in the beginning and therefore it gets even harder to beat the max. As the speed gets higher you need more of a run up to get the speed limit. Try and get the speed up in the first 200 to 500 m so you can rest for the next 500m. ( I got to 58kph yesterday playing this with the wind and 44 against the wind) I couldn't beat the 44 on the last km as I ran out of time and energy.

#3
On the roller start out in the easiest gear, (warm up for ten minutes) then do every gear for 2 minutes each at 100rpm cadence, sliiping up to a harder gear every 2 minutes. First all on the small chain then all on the large ring...(the final 2 minutes is very hard).

#4
Take one foot out of the pedal and ride with one leg for 2 to 5 minutes each then switch legs. You'll find a big improvement in your full pedal motion.

etc..

Any other ideas out there?

 

[Ash]

Interesting...

1. Ride exactly on the white line for as long as possible (presuming there is one to follow by the side of the road.) This takes my mind off going uphill sometimes.

2. Counting (on severe slopes) I try to turn the pedal 100 times counting one leg and then the same on the other.

3. Controlling the speed at exactly the same rate for 1km and then raising it by 1kph for the second kilometre and so on...

4. Thinking about women or beer (not necessarily in that order...)

 

[WhiteGiant]

Traffic games...

Most of the games I play involve the cars (traffic) around me;

#1. Check out the number-plate:
When you see some guy in a car pass you (usually in a "BMW" or "Mercedes"); check out how may sets of traffic-lights it takes for him to drop you! - depending on the traffic, you may even drop him & never see his car again.

#2. This is a follow on from "#1" - Going past:
Whereby, when you actually do pass a 'noticeable' car, see how many km's it takes for him to pass you again - usually once the traffic has thinned out - and then see how far you can hang with the same guy (car) in the traffic.

#3. Motor-scooters:
These guys can be fun to mess about with - (Note: It won't work if you have a head-wind!).
They have a top-speed of 50km - even on "down-hills" - so if you have the wind behind you, and you're going down a hill, you can nearly always go past them, while they're thinking, "What the [email protected]*K?"!

#4. Drafting:
It can be very beneficial sitting behind trucks & buses (especially when you're tired) - but it's DANGEROUS, so I won't advocate that riding-style on this site.

ie. Get to where you're going as fast as possible. and try to stay alive!!!
Rubber-Down!
Travis

 

[kiwisimon]

(1) when I get tired I sometimes try to see if I can stretch as many places as possible while staying on the bike. Arms and shoulders are aesy back is also not too tough calves not to tough but after that the contortions get you funny looks from any observers.
(2) bunny hop lamppost shadows
(3) no hands as long as possible
(4) on my beater bike, try to pass posers on sports bikes.
(5) track stands at lights
(6) no brakes on downhills
(7) spitting between mates main triangle without hitting his legs, I'm still trying to get this perfect.
(8) weaving white lines on the road

Ok some of these are dangerous so do at your own risk.

 

[Edogawakikkoman]

A guy in our club does a TT every Saturday morning 60km up and down the river. I usually see him fly by along the river.
The last 2 weeks I've decided to follow him and try and catch him. He is much faster than me too. The TT for me is only 40km so I should be able to catch him and pass him providing I start without delays.

2 weeks ago I couldn't get any where near him so last Sunday I left about 10 minutes early and I saw him closing in on me as I turned at the half way mark. He didn't catch me.

Since then I've decided to time myself and try and improve the time each time I ride. Monday I went out at a leisurely pace and came home 1 hour 20 minutes.
Tuesday, I thought I'd see how many minutes I could cut it down to and came home at 1:17. This morning I took the kids to McD's for lunch and I had one of those Megamac sets, ice cream when I came home and that was on top of quite a large breakfast. I didn't feel like riding in the heat so waited till the afternoon. I still only wanted to take it easy as I wasn't feeling good from that lunch so I thought I'd go hard the first 20km and then come home slowly.

All that sugar made me fly along with a bit of a tail wind and my average speed was about 35kph to the half way mark. Seeing as I had a good warm up, was feeling better I decided to have a crack at beating the 1:17, so I worked out that all I had to do was try my best to go 30kph all the way home. The head wind was not helping... I managed to get home at 1:16.

There are 2 roads to cross and a lot of old people walking dogs or chatting along the path so I often have to almost stop...

The goal with this game is to one day do the 40km in one hour. (need to drop about 15kgs from my waistline for that). Under favorable conditions even now I think I could get it to 1:10. I'm only really pushing it in the last 4kms... The rest is just getting in a rhythm and watching the time or average speed....As I get more data I'll set up 5km time checks to see how I can pace myself better...

I do a similar 1 hour game on my way to work. It's exactly 25km but half of it is in traffic. No matter what happens I try and arrive at work in exactly 1 hour. Sometimes I do it easliy, some times I have to push hard for the last 10 minutes to get there. 53 minutes when I want to get there in a hurry).

Some time of the year there are these grubs that are out in force crawling along the cycling path. I used to try and count them and one day got to about 780. I don't play that game anymore...

 

[Wolfman]

maths games with car plate numbers....

 

[Phil Harris]

Road Games

I bike around town a lot getting to and from wherever I have things to do. I indulge in unofficial races. If some one passes me, I speed up and overtake, then leave `em behind. If I spy a bike ahead, I overtake and fly-by!
Only bikes on the road - the sidewalk doesn`t count.

Route 16 between Kogane-Cho and Tsurugamine, and Route 40 from Tsurugamine to Atsugi are my turf and as of yet I am undefeated.

Since I`ve been counting, 24 victories to date...though some of those were....obachans on mamachari

 

[jam]

Nerdy

I find myself doing math. Differencing the current marker from my home
marker (12.5 on Edogawa) then dividing the distance remaining by my
current speed, times sixty for minutes, then add that result to the
current time to get an ETA. Then I do it again at the next marker. If
my ETA is drifting, either my speed is unsteady, or something is out
of calibration. Since I trust my watch and speedo, you can bet it's my
performance that's shaky.

If I'm feeling good (didn't go far enough up-river or the wind is calm)
then I might also figure the drift (differentiate for delta-T) and project
a corrected estimate.

If I went too far or the winds are menacing, my brain will do the best
it can; which usually means looping that song from the Meow Mix
cat food commercial back in the '70s ala Homer Simpson:

Meow meow meow meow,
meow meow meow meow....


- jam

 

[WhiteGiant]

My two cents worth...

Tuesday is my lucky cycling day!
I leave home at 9:30, and arrive at Kita-Senju just before 10am for my 10:30 class - 30 minutes to dry off.
When I finish there right on 12pm, I have to be in Urawa by 1:00! That's 21km, door-to-door - 12km along Arakawa, and then 9km along Rte.17 in traffic...
I can usually make that trip in under 50 mins.

I finish in Urawa at 4:15, and my next class is in Hirai at 6pm; but I always aim to be at least 30 minutes early - 5:30 arrival.
29km (8km further than Kita-Senju) , in just over an hour!!!
Recently though, the wind blowing "up" the river - wind from the South - has made things a little more difficult, which means I have to "haul-arse" with everything I've got just to make it to work on time.
It's hard, and it hurts! But when I get there at 5:20-something, I really do feel good about it.
When I can hold a constant 28-31km/h into a nasty head-wind, I know I'm doing OK;
And come the winter months when the wind is blowing from the North, I'll probably have an average speed of over 40km/h - which will see me in Hirai a lot earlier.
This is my only TT training, but I really enjoy it.
T

 

[Phil]

Like a lot of you, I find myself racing anything and everything... cars are the best, especially when you know there are going to be a series of traffic lights ahead. Sparrows and wagtails that you startle at the side of the road are good for a quick sprint race until they veer off; I once flew alongside a Japanese pheasant for 20 meters or so before it turned into the woods. Any bikes ahead immediately become targets, no matter that they are mama-charis ridden precariously by 90-year-old baachans at 4km/hr--I pass them with authority and in triumph . However, when I caught myself trying to race alongside the passenger jets coming into land at Narita I realized that the game was probably getting a bit too silly...

 

[Edogawakikkoman]

With my little down tube mirror I can see riders playing games with me approach from behind. I let them get to about 50m behind me and then put in a little sprint...after I do this about 3 or 4 times they stop trying to catch up with me.