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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