My girlfriend's in town this week, so I've just began, but I am taking the week off to be with her. She's not into biking and I think I am going to wait until after we're married for her to become a bike widow. ;) Actually, we are enjoying ourselves way up in Santa Fe. Tonight we had vegetable sushi with Mariela, who runs the restaurant Vegan Santa Fe, and now I must say I am quite full and warm from good company and the Santa Fe atmosphere, which just happens to be 32 degrees Farenheit right now.
So, are we over the shock and surprise that I have no bicycling adventures to report at the moment? I didn't really want to start talking about biking to work and leaving the gas guzzlers behind before I was even able to bike halfway to work, but this, I think, is an ideal time to think about why I have the goals I do. I am mainly addressing myself when I discuss these goals, as I think we must all make our own decisions for improving the Earth. I am sharing them with you because I think even though an individual effort does matter, if I can encourage a collective effort, all the better.
Here's my goal/ideal/fantasy: I basically only want to use my car for out of town excursions and in emergencies. Anything that is in town, I want to figure out how I can get there by bike and make that the way I get there. I already know two other people in Albuquerque who do just this, so I know it is possible.
But why? Gas prices are down now, so what does it matter? I am not worried about the price of gas at all. I am worried about the methane emissions on the atmosphere. If you know the basic laws of energy and matter, you know that whatever you emit into the air does not just disappear. You also know that whatever we put into the air has some effect. You also know that methane is not breathable -- by plants or humans, so how can it possibly be good to be filling the air with these gases? So by now, you've guessed that I think Global Warming is a real phenomenon. I've already cut a large amount of my carbon footprint just by eliminating meat, milk, and eggs from my diet -- but that's a different blog. Now, I would like to eliminate my carbon emissions from driving too.
Oil is a limited commodity, but we have a greater abundance of human energy than we could possibly use up. Lots of Americans are fat and I am one of them. I've got a nice reserve of energy right around my waist just eager to fuel my rides to work and excursions to fun places. Not only that. If I start cashing in on that energy reserve, I reduce my chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other diseases that affect overweight people as they age. Pretty much, your health depends on how much you use your body, so why not bike?
Biking improves my other activities. Let's just say that it improves your blood flow, and builds muscles that are useful for tasks other than biking.
Biking also improves my connection to my environment. If I ride far enough, I am rewarded by seeing prarie dogs. I could even bring some old produce to feed them. They love nuts too, but you should only feed them unsalted nuts.
These are all reasons that I want to bike. I think if everyone biked, we'd have a cleaner, healthier world.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Back on the face of the Earth...
So, the answer to the Oreos, which I must say I do not think would make a healthy snack for this frog are the Chocolate Fudge flavored Clif Bars. I am not saying they're much healthier than Oreos, but I like them almost as much and the center won't melt on your ride inside your satchel bag. Unfortunately, I do not yet have a satchel bag. (*cry*) 
Where was I last time? I still haven't gotten a tune-up for my bike as suggested in my comments, but my bike definitely needs one. My bike has a defective gear shift, or after talking to a gentleman over at Stevie's Happy Bikes, maybe it's not my gearshift but my cable. The cable and the labor is really cheap and I bet they'd even let me watch. Just in case you're wondering, they're out along Corrales road just a bit past the Flying Star and Sunflower Market as you're coming from Albuquerque. Do any other bloggers find the periodic saves while typing annoying? How about the tiny window they give you to type in?
Well, just because I stopped blogging didn't mean I stopped biking. For this blog, though, I might as well have since I am back at square one with my 2.5 mile goal to get started. I read a biking book that said you should progress each week with only a 10% increase, so I am going to be building slowly for a while. No century rides this year! ;)
Actually, my 2.5 mile goal is because I live on a hill. There's a much more interesting and flatter ride at the Nature Center, where I am going on weekends. I took a ride there this weekend to test out what a reasonable goal there should be. It turns out that 6 miles per time is reasonable there. I remember I was doing 15s and 20s over there last year. To encourage myself, I put together a chart for this year of increasing by roughly 10% increments. I was quite overjoyed to see that as I got past the 10km mark, 10% was finally another kilometer, and it just kept increasing from there. Slow start, then progression gets faster quickly. The initial slow progression seems realistic, though I am already starting to really push beyond my goal each time I go out. The larger increments as I get up higher seem like a big relief, but I am not sure when I am going to plateau and find them unrealistic. Hopefully it's not before I can ride to work and back each day.
Because towards the end of last year, it was starting to get dark on me in the evenings before I came home, I got myself some safety gear. I get this set of fancy looking lights for $30 or something. I am uninitiated, so the red back light and front light both had fancy names like "the beamer 3000" and "rocketdock 5500", now all in one package! Uh, they're bike lights. I mean, they have a strobe function which I really like because it lets cars know I am there and that's exactly what I was looking for. I found out though that my front light is not a headlight. It's too dim. I still need a headlight. I also bought a bright orange shirt to bike in. It looks reflective, but I don't think it is. It's just a sports jersey. It's good for daylight.
ETA: I just realized that it's actually been 2 years, not just one, since I've posted on this thing. Last year, I actually had some issues with motivation. I actually bought a bike book -- Bike for Life by Roy M. Wallack and Bill Katovsky -- last time I flew to visit my girlfriend up in Seattle. I buy and read books to motivate myself, and this was a particularly good one, it seems. It has a lot of advice in the areas of setting goals, yoga and weight-lifting for cyclists. It goes into what muscles you don't build when you cycle -- so it seems you can overbuild your quads while your hamstrings are not hardly exercised at all. It goes into nutritional information which I generally agree with, but don't always necessarily agree with their first suggestion as to how to fulfill that nutritonal need.
Oh yeah... I guess I do have more to share than starting the season and being out of breath by short rides. :D It was just around my neighborhood, but I actually dared myself to get out on the road with cars. Remember, I am taking baby steps slowly here. I am not just crossing the street with cars waiting on me. I actually stopped at a stop sign, had a car stop for me and crossed as the car waited. I also rode in front of a big ol' pick up truck and let it stop in back of me. and rode in front of it for a short distance until I got home. Next week's goal is learning to tie my shoes. No, seriously. I am trying to get these rudimentary, very basic steps down before I finally start riding outside of my neighborhood in the bike lanes on busy streets. This is ultimately what I need to be able to do for moderate stretches if I want to be able to ride my bike to work.
I planned out a route to work on a bike map that's hanging on the wall in my bedroom as a motivational goal. Work by car is 7 miles away, but by bike, work will be 10 miles a day, meaning that in my riding, in addition to being both confident and competent on the road, I also need to be able to ride 20 miles a day without a problem. For some, this might sound like a long bike ride (others ride 35 miles or more several days a week as a matter of course) but to me, this sounds like a dream come true. I will still have my car, but for many occasions, there will be no need to actually drive it, saving me gas, further reducing my carbon footprint, and helping me stay fit. I will still have to continue to ride other routes too because the body adapts and actually can use less muscle to perform a set task than what was originally required. This is a good thing, but in terms of building muscle and getting fitter, you have to vary your exercise.
Where was I last time? I still haven't gotten a tune-up for my bike as suggested in my comments, but my bike definitely needs one. My bike has a defective gear shift, or after talking to a gentleman over at Stevie's Happy Bikes, maybe it's not my gearshift but my cable. The cable and the labor is really cheap and I bet they'd even let me watch. Just in case you're wondering, they're out along Corrales road just a bit past the Flying Star and Sunflower Market as you're coming from Albuquerque. Do any other bloggers find the periodic saves while typing annoying? How about the tiny window they give you to type in?
Well, just because I stopped blogging didn't mean I stopped biking. For this blog, though, I might as well have since I am back at square one with my 2.5 mile goal to get started. I read a biking book that said you should progress each week with only a 10% increase, so I am going to be building slowly for a while. No century rides this year! ;)
Actually, my 2.5 mile goal is because I live on a hill. There's a much more interesting and flatter ride at the Nature Center, where I am going on weekends. I took a ride there this weekend to test out what a reasonable goal there should be. It turns out that 6 miles per time is reasonable there. I remember I was doing 15s and 20s over there last year. To encourage myself, I put together a chart for this year of increasing by roughly 10% increments. I was quite overjoyed to see that as I got past the 10km mark, 10% was finally another kilometer, and it just kept increasing from there. Slow start, then progression gets faster quickly. The initial slow progression seems realistic, though I am already starting to really push beyond my goal each time I go out. The larger increments as I get up higher seem like a big relief, but I am not sure when I am going to plateau and find them unrealistic. Hopefully it's not before I can ride to work and back each day.
Because towards the end of last year, it was starting to get dark on me in the evenings before I came home, I got myself some safety gear. I get this set of fancy looking lights for $30 or something. I am uninitiated, so the red back light and front light both had fancy names like "the beamer 3000" and "rocketdock 5500", now all in one package! Uh, they're bike lights. I mean, they have a strobe function which I really like because it lets cars know I am there and that's exactly what I was looking for. I found out though that my front light is not a headlight. It's too dim. I still need a headlight. I also bought a bright orange shirt to bike in. It looks reflective, but I don't think it is. It's just a sports jersey. It's good for daylight.
ETA: I just realized that it's actually been 2 years, not just one, since I've posted on this thing. Last year, I actually had some issues with motivation. I actually bought a bike book -- Bike for Life by Roy M. Wallack and Bill Katovsky -- last time I flew to visit my girlfriend up in Seattle. I buy and read books to motivate myself, and this was a particularly good one, it seems. It has a lot of advice in the areas of setting goals, yoga and weight-lifting for cyclists. It goes into what muscles you don't build when you cycle -- so it seems you can overbuild your quads while your hamstrings are not hardly exercised at all. It goes into nutritional information which I generally agree with, but don't always necessarily agree with their first suggestion as to how to fulfill that nutritonal need.
Oh yeah... I guess I do have more to share than starting the season and being out of breath by short rides. :D It was just around my neighborhood, but I actually dared myself to get out on the road with cars. Remember, I am taking baby steps slowly here. I am not just crossing the street with cars waiting on me. I actually stopped at a stop sign, had a car stop for me and crossed as the car waited. I also rode in front of a big ol' pick up truck and let it stop in back of me. and rode in front of it for a short distance until I got home. Next week's goal is learning to tie my shoes. No, seriously. I am trying to get these rudimentary, very basic steps down before I finally start riding outside of my neighborhood in the bike lanes on busy streets. This is ultimately what I need to be able to do for moderate stretches if I want to be able to ride my bike to work.
I planned out a route to work on a bike map that's hanging on the wall in my bedroom as a motivational goal. Work by car is 7 miles away, but by bike, work will be 10 miles a day, meaning that in my riding, in addition to being both confident and competent on the road, I also need to be able to ride 20 miles a day without a problem. For some, this might sound like a long bike ride (others ride 35 miles or more several days a week as a matter of course) but to me, this sounds like a dream come true. I will still have my car, but for many occasions, there will be no need to actually drive it, saving me gas, further reducing my carbon footprint, and helping me stay fit. I will still have to continue to ride other routes too because the body adapts and actually can use less muscle to perform a set task than what was originally required. This is a good thing, but in terms of building muscle and getting fitter, you have to vary your exercise.
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