Titusville

We wanted a few days of biking in an area that was new to us. We decided to give Titusville a try. Why?

• It's an easy 3 1/4 hour drive north of Miami via I-95.
• Trails. We've been reading about the trails in the area, but we hadn't given them a try yet.
• Merritt Island. It is right across a fun bridge over the intercoastal from downtown Titusville.
• Lots of cycling routes are available on Ride with GPS. (Inland routes though the refuges, wildlife sanctuaries, and forests; coastal routes; and loops through Merritt Island.)

We picked an inland route through the refuges and wildlife sanctuaries for the first day's ride. The GPS route let us navigate through the quiet streets of residential neighborhoods as it linked the highways that wandered through the conservation areas west of Titusville. A very satisfying 60 mile ride.

The second day we picked a loop that used both the SJR2C (St. Johns River to Sea) and ECRRT (East Central Regional Rail Trail) cycle paths before swinging over to Merritt Island and a return to Titusville. Fabulous trails, much lovelier in my estimation than the busy urban trails in Orlando, Tampa, and Inverness that we've ridden so often over the years.

We will be back!

Inland ride

Trail

Trail

We liked this restaurant so much we ate breakfast there three days running!

I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee. (Flash Rosenberg)

Sometimes you just need a change of scenery. Not a big vacation. Just a simple mini road trip. So we headed up to Lake Okeechobee, just a couple of hours north of home in Miami.

Lake Okeechobee covers 730 square miles and is the largest freshwater lake in Florida. In fact, it is the eighth largest in the country. Ninety years ago hurricanes made direct hits on the lake, killing thousands in the flooding caused by the overflow of the lake's waters. As a result, the state and the US Corp of Engineers designed and built levees around the lake for flood control. The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (the LOST) was later built atop the levees.

During the hot summer months, using the trail is a formidable undertaking. The bugs are plentiful, large, and vicious; the weeds are overgrown in unpaved sections of the trail; and the unpaved portions are often muddy. But in December, the bugs are few, the trail's pretty dry, and the weeds are under control. Of course, just to keep things interesting, the levees are currently being rebuilt and repaired, causing segments of the LOST to be inaccessible to hikers and cyclists. Meaning detours to nearby roads.

We accessed the trail from the park on the northern shore near the small city of Okeechobee. You can do a metric on paved trail heading east. We headed west. The first few miles is paved with views of the lake to your left, then you pop off the trail to cross the Kissimmee River by road, and when you pop back to the trail on the other side of the river, the trail is unpaved, somewhat rutted double track. Here you can't see the lake from the trail, just a low flood plain covered with vegetation on the left and, of course, the wide canal that surrounds the entire lake on the right. We followed the trail until we hit one of the segments under construction and were detoured down a hard packed sand street to the highway. We circled back following roads, sliding back to the trail on the east side of the Kissimmee River.

A totally satisfying ride, even if the only place for coffee was Dunkin Donuts. Not the weapons-grade caffeine we get in Miami, but it did the trick.

Of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the most. (Ozzy Osbourne)

My work continues, to return to cycling after surgery on both my feet. Time to try some gentle hills. After all, the closest thing to hills in Miami is a bridge or two.

Central Florida has hills. A nice variety of hills. And in October it has the Gainesville Cycling Festival. Saturday is a group of event rides (century, metric, gravel, family) benefiting the local Boys and Girls Club. Sunday the rides move south of Gainesville to the Ocala area and horse country. Sunday has delightfully scenic routes, assuming you love horses and all that.

Since the surgery on my feet I've had to make some changes.

1. Studded flat pedals only. No more clipping in. (But I still use stiff-soled bike shoes. They are much more comfortable.)
2. No pushing through the ball of the foot when pedaling. (I've gone back to the pedaling style I used decades ago for off road rides on my mountain bike. Keeping the foot flat on the pedal with the axle of the pedal about an inch behind the ball of the foot.)

High cadence pedaling is difficult unclipped. There's the definite possibility of wounding yourself if a studded pedal gets away from you. (Those studs are wicked.) Higher resistance and bigger gears are what I'm doing lately, while keeping a constant eye on my power meter so I don't blow myself out, especially when I'm riding with companions who are faster. (Which is all of them these days.)

Bottom line: climbing is (ahem) interesting. I wouldn't call it more difficult. But it is slow, frustrating, and demoralizing since I can remember how much faster I used to climb clipped in. I'll get a bit faster as the muscles get stronger so I can push my average power higher on climbs, but I think I'm just going to have to suck it up and accept being a turtle on climbs.

But back to the Gainesville Cycling Festival. The bigger hills were the most fun. I got left far behind by my riding companions on the way up, but (have I mentioned I love descending?) I could catch up with them as long as there was a nice descent on the other side of the climb. The highlight of my ride: my power meter readout. After the first half hour I knew my numbers to assure that I'd keep up and make it to the end of the ride in OK shape. (Three cheers for power meters! Worth every penny you spend on them!)

It was a great weekend. The Gainesville Cycling Festival is a weekend of riding that's well worth the drive to Gainesville. Lovely hills, and great routes to ride. A winner.

Attention is a limited resource, so pay attention to where you pay attention. (Howard Rheingold)

It was time to put the bikes on the car and head to a laid back bike event. A gentle introduction to riding metric centuries again. We headed north past Tampa to Inverness, Florida, and the annual Withlacoochee State Trail ride.

Years ago when I was learning another sport, they told me where to focus my attention: keep my head up and my eyes looking down the course. Where you look is where you'll go they said. Look down and you'll go down.

For weeks I've focused my attention on my feet and pedals. That had become a bad habit. I had too narrow a focus of attention. To ride well and safely, I needed a broader one. Eyes up. Attention focused ahead and around me.

Figuring out where to focus my attention (and doing it) made everything go better. My pedaling was smoother and stronger. I kept up without feeling stressed. Best of all, I got to enjoy the scenery: oak trees draped in Spanish moss, wild flowers, lake and river views, birds, tortoises, and other critters.

I limped slightly on my way to the snack table at a rest stop...and it made me smile. I'd been paying attention to the trail and surroundings rather than the minor discomfort in my foot. I had an extra cup of trail mix to celebrate.
.

Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough. (T.S. Eliot)

Finally. I'm riding my bikes again.

Like it or not sometimes stuff needs to be fixed. Like joints that are messed up from arthritis. This spring I had changes made to 5 joints in each foot, joints that run across the ball of the foot. Which, of course, is right where feet and bicycle pedals come together. For months I watched my bikes gathering dust, waiting for things to heal.

Starting with a puny 7 mile ride at the beginning of August, I've gradually worked my way back up to 50 mile rides. In a month, I'll increase the rides to metrics (62 miles). I'm doing it Old School: Do the miles; speed will come. 

Surgical fixes are always a trade-off. My "new feet" work really well. A big improvement. The trade-off? I'll never be able to do downward facing dog again in yoga, and I can't get a lot of force when pushing off with the the front of my feet. I'll never miss that yoga pose, but it sucked big time when I figured out acceleration on my bikes was toast, at least until I learned a new way to pedal.

Every problem has a work-around. I'm learning how to compensate. Changing how I pedal. Placing the ball of my foot in front of (rather than over) the pedal axel. Using gears just a little differently. Tweaking my riding position on the bike. And toughening up some. It takes a while to make a new style of pedaling a habit. But it is coming along. After all, I've got friends I want to ride with. And, when cooler weather comes to Florida in a few weeks, Al and I have places around the state to visit and explore by bicycle.

If you want something bad enough, things have a way of working out.

What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise. (Jerome K. Jerome)

Since March I've been on a vacation from cycling, traveling, and running about in general. All is well, and I'll be back riding my bike in a few months.

This is my current footwear. Not highly fashionable. And not sensible for cycling. I've got arthritis, and the feet required some renovation work.

Before getting into this, I tried taping, orthotics, and bracing. I tried changing pedal systems. I finally understood that either:

• I had to give up the kind of cycling I enjoyed, or
• I could suck it up and have surgery on my feet.

I'll be back cycling in September. The surgery has renovated the front of the feet. The changes needed for the rest of the feet and ankles are going to be dealt with through orthotics and braces. (Luckily, I'll take a great bike over great shoes any day.)

The good news is that I may (may) get new cycling shoes. I have not been able to wear standard cycling shoes in decades. l plan to see if the surgery has changed that. That said, I've gotten very spoiled by my current cycling sandals, which I've found to be more comfortable in heat, humidity, and rain than any of the cycling shoes I wore years ago. But that's still a few months down the road.

So, my friends, this explains my lack of blog posts. I'll resume posts in Florida by Bicycle in September. Until then, I'm spending my time planning rides for the coming year and daydreaming about builds for my next bike. (And there's always a next bike.)

Running Away From Home on a Bicycle: Miami to Key West and Back

We take a week-long bicycle trip every year at the end of February. This year I wanted to do a leisurely tour from
Miami to Key West and back.

This is a very popular touring route. It's adaptable to a variety of different touring approaches. We've done it by ourselves a number of times, but we've done it with groups, too. Key Largo to Key West is an amazing century ride with a good tailwind. The most common approach to the ride is to do it with an overnight stop along the way. Some use sags or rental cars to return to the mainland from Key West rather than pedal back. And there is the option of taking a ferry to the west coast and taking the pleasant overland route to Miami.

What I wanted this year was a leisurely tour up and down the Keys. I was in the mood to be a tourist. 50-55 miles between motels. No hurry. Use the trail system when possible rather than riding only on the highway. Stop and explore. Enjoy the scenery.

We rode our slower multi-surface bikes with 1.75 inch tires. It's 162 miles from our home in Miami to Key West. I picked older, colorful tourist motels at three points along the route (Key Largo, Marathon, and Key West.) An extra night in Key West just because Key West is a lot of fun. Riding back with stops in the same areas, but different interesting tourist motels. I'd picked motels that all had a beach, dock, kayaks, paddle boards, and a pleasant waterfront tiki hut for sunset watching. Like I said, a leisurely tour.

If you are planning to do a lot of bike touring, buying special bike luggage gear makes sense. But, if you do only short trips occasionally, any bag that works is just fine. Our "travel gear" consists of two small gym duffle bags with colorful backpack rain covers to use on them just in case. I stiffened the bottoms of the gym duffle bags easily and cheaply by making a bottom insert from foam board (the stuff used to make exhibits for school projects) and covering the insert with sealing tape. Voila. Not fancy but serviceable bike luggage.

We've had bike bags of every shape and kind over the years. I try to stick to rear rack bags. I truly hate panniers. I am short. My bike frame is small. I have never had a pannier setup that didn't provoke torrents of colorful language during tours. There are excellent bikepacking seatpost bags. But, again, I am short. They just don't work for me. I weighed my bag before we left home: 9 pounds for a week's worth of traveling.

With just one road running the length of the Keys, there's always a lot of traffic on the highway. Like I said, there's a pleasant trail system that is partially in place. Slowing down and using it makes a big difference in your experience of riding through the Keys. In many places the trail has its own bridges. In other areas, the trail moves slightly inland but parallel to the highway.

Here's a sampling of the trail's views along the way to Key West:

One of the trail's bridges.

Another trail bridge, this one was once a rail bridge.

A good distance from the water, a small boat remains by the trail, a reminder of the 2017 hurricane.

A beautiful view of mangroves growing in shallow water along the trail on Summerland Key.

The trail winds under the highways close to Key West.

The Keys are filled with tourist treats. Here's our favorites:

The southernmost point is a Key West favorite. 

Our favorite part of the ride: the Seven Mile Bridge south of Marathon.

An eye-catching monster lobster in Islamorada.

Even when it's cloudy, sunsets in the Keys can be amazing.

The trip was wonderful. Good weather. Headwinds several days were balanced by tailwinds on other days. Who can ask for more?