After a couple of days off the bicycle, I began riding daily on October 11, 2019. Every day since then, I’ve mounted my trusty steel steed Sophie, the Fairdale Weekender Archer to go places. Some days just a few miles were traversed; most days it’s closer to 20 miles, and a few even more. There have been no true rest days, as I am still walking and doing yoga daily, and now I’ve added an occasional lap swimming into the mix. It’s all rather exhausting, even if a particular ride isn’t taxing. The cumulative effect seems to be taking its toll. What’s A Dude with no car and #BikeGoals to do? Take the bus? Pshaw!

Rest would be the obvious answer; I’ve blogged about it, and even the pros do it. Yet there’s no rest for the wicked, or is it no rest for the weary? In my case, the overweight, or as I prefer to think of it, under-tall. (I didn’t invent that but it’s clever and simple at the same time.) As a personal comedy icon and free speech hero George Carlin did invent, “I’m in shape. Round is a shape.” Since I have places to go, it’s not really much of a choice at the moment. A car could fall in my lap at any moment, but boy would that hurt if it did!

If it weren’t for the the desire to shed my body of some of my excess fatty baggage, I wouldn’t mind stopping for a while. There’s a good argument to be made for doing less. Exercise is an attempt to atone for my dietary failings, even though that seems unlikely after 20,000 miles just over four years. That well-known phrase “Abs are made in the kitchen” may be true, but after two plus years of eating no bread or related processed grain foods, with only few exceptions like rolled oats and bean chips, I’ve experienced zero weight loss. A day will probably have to come soon when I’m back in the 8-5 grind of a day job, greatly restricting my ability to do, well, most things. That’s a sobering and sad thought, but unless you’re rich you’ve got to work. I’ve been fortunate to live frugally, but reality bites.

The thing about my regimen is that it’s possible for many people. Even when I had a day job, I often managed 100-mile weeks in addition to the daily yoga. Now that I’ve added walking and writing, that’s even less free time. Nowadays in Austin, like many places in the US and around the world, it takes a lot more money to pay for rent and the cost of living than it used to, so many people are working more than one job. I consider my blogging, book-writing, bicycling, walking, yoga to be jobs that just haven’t paid yet. So I will have to get a lot better about my time management. That means: read less (bad) news, watch less boob tube, sleep more, reduce my mileage and maybe actually take some rest days off the bike. At least until I strike gold as a published author raking in the big bucks. The future is not written.

Meanwhile, today it’s grey and cold with a light mist falling in Austin. I’m wearing tights and thick socks in my walking shoes. I’ll put in my 30 minutes, bike around to do some errands, read, write and job search. It’s discount Tuesday at the cinema, so I also plan to go watch the Oscar-winning film Parasite. I should cook a bunch of bok choy that’s going bad and try to get to bed early although I usually fail. Then, it’s time to get up and do it again.

What are you up to?

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