lilies
The Living Force
Couple days ago, before going shopping, I checked my bicycle tires pressure by hand and found that I could quite easily press my thumb into both tires. OMG, these are way too soft and probably have been steadily deflating! While visually the tires weren't flat at all. They just felt so soft under my squeezing fingers.
Immediately I remembered the increased amount of broken glass pieces [booze] on the side-roads at a couple places days ago. I must have ran over them and the tiny glass shards probably made tiny punctures, so I was already planning to go to the bike-repair shop to have both rubber tubes replaced.
Just to test, how fast the tires deflate, I pumped air into them, until they got "hard enough" and went shopping on the bike. Since I use a 30 year old bike & probably an even older pump, I never had any air pressure gauge at all. Last year the repair-shop guy tried to convince me to buy their pricey air-pumps with built-in gauges and scolded me telling about "bikes should be ridden only with precise tire air pressure values", I just laughed. I did beautifully for 30 years biking without precisely measuring air-pressure..
However this time I had difficulties pumping the tires, "until they got hard".. Didn't matter, how much I pumped, I always could press my thumb into the tire rubbers.
Impossible!
Also I was afraid, I would over-pump these old tires and they would blow out..
So I settled on a reasonably weird rubber tire "hardness", which I couldn't really determine by hand, because both tires remained strangely way too soft. So in the end I just let it go..
I even got suspicious, for this weird 'confusion about muscle strength fluctuation' occurred couple times already in the past years. Feats of strength - while working outside - I didn't even notice: people just asked me confused "How did you do that?"
So I tested my fingers strength on a wooden plank and while it bent, I clearly couldn't break it. So I concluded, I didn't develop anomalous temporary strength. Probably it was just high blood sugar..
Days later, - this Monday - I hand-tested the same tires - that I never pumped air into again since the incident - and they felt rock hard. Cautiously I felt them and it appeared I couldn't press my thumb into the rubber again. Both tires seemed properly pressurized. Then on Tuesday and today I tested again with my hand and the same tires were rock-hard holding their air pressure. Now, in the warmer weather. Compared to winter, when they were always rock hard. The same pumped up tires that felt way to soft = easy to press my fingers into like 5 days ago are felt rock-hard now without pumping any more air into them..
I always pay attention to ride my bike with adequately high air-pressure all the time, since the repair-shop guy showed me that he pumped the tires super-hard to a precise gauge-value and he declared this insane hardness is the baseline.
I even remembered that I brought these same tires back to the shop like a year ago, telling the repair guys: "they felt soft and I couldn't pump them up." The guys there pumped the tires with a gauge to a precise value and sent me home.
Was it high blood-sugar that made my fingers stronger temporarily?
During exercises - doing the very same number sets and same running distances for years, I noticed fluctuating endurance levels on occasions earlier, but didn't pay much attention.
Immediately I remembered the increased amount of broken glass pieces [booze] on the side-roads at a couple places days ago. I must have ran over them and the tiny glass shards probably made tiny punctures, so I was already planning to go to the bike-repair shop to have both rubber tubes replaced.
Just to test, how fast the tires deflate, I pumped air into them, until they got "hard enough" and went shopping on the bike. Since I use a 30 year old bike & probably an even older pump, I never had any air pressure gauge at all. Last year the repair-shop guy tried to convince me to buy their pricey air-pumps with built-in gauges and scolded me telling about "bikes should be ridden only with precise tire air pressure values", I just laughed. I did beautifully for 30 years biking without precisely measuring air-pressure..
However this time I had difficulties pumping the tires, "until they got hard".. Didn't matter, how much I pumped, I always could press my thumb into the tire rubbers.
Impossible!
Also I was afraid, I would over-pump these old tires and they would blow out..
So I settled on a reasonably weird rubber tire "hardness", which I couldn't really determine by hand, because both tires remained strangely way too soft. So in the end I just let it go..
I even got suspicious, for this weird 'confusion about muscle strength fluctuation' occurred couple times already in the past years. Feats of strength - while working outside - I didn't even notice: people just asked me confused "How did you do that?"
So I tested my fingers strength on a wooden plank and while it bent, I clearly couldn't break it. So I concluded, I didn't develop anomalous temporary strength. Probably it was just high blood sugar..
Days later, - this Monday - I hand-tested the same tires - that I never pumped air into again since the incident - and they felt rock hard. Cautiously I felt them and it appeared I couldn't press my thumb into the rubber again. Both tires seemed properly pressurized. Then on Tuesday and today I tested again with my hand and the same tires were rock-hard holding their air pressure. Now, in the warmer weather. Compared to winter, when they were always rock hard. The same pumped up tires that felt way to soft = easy to press my fingers into like 5 days ago are felt rock-hard now without pumping any more air into them..
I always pay attention to ride my bike with adequately high air-pressure all the time, since the repair-shop guy showed me that he pumped the tires super-hard to a precise gauge-value and he declared this insane hardness is the baseline.
I even remembered that I brought these same tires back to the shop like a year ago, telling the repair guys: "they felt soft and I couldn't pump them up." The guys there pumped the tires with a gauge to a precise value and sent me home.
Was it high blood-sugar that made my fingers stronger temporarily?
During exercises - doing the very same number sets and same running distances for years, I noticed fluctuating endurance levels on occasions earlier, but didn't pay much attention.