Now that we’re 90 days from the end of 2021, it’s time for my third quarterly report. July, August and September are the hottest months in Texas, and that heat and stupidity tend to slow most dudes and dudettes down. (I meant humidity, which with the heat tends to make one stupid.) But, I never claimed to be smart, so I have gone on a bicycle ride every single day of the pandemic (and for a while before that). Regular readers know I’m like only 50% of that Cake lyric: “He’s going for distance, he’s (not) going for speed.” On top of that, I take a walk, do yoga, and got myself into some other daily activities, practices aka habits. Sure, it was stupid hot (though not as bad as last year), and I do not bike fast. However, although I don’t get a cent from it, you could say I’m in the bicycle riding business. And business is good.

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Combined walking and bicycling for July was 595.2 miles, August was 502.1, and September was 511.8, totaling 1,609.1. That’s averaging 536.37 miles a month, 122.43 a week, and 17.49 a day. For the year, I’m over 4,100 miles bicycling. From the left image above you can see I spent 86 hours between the two activities and the elevation I covered was 13,888 feet. The longest ride was actually 35 miles, not 30.1 as in the middle image. You can see a big gap where I forgot to start my Garmin watch, so I added in a manual ride later. The orange chart shows time spent on biking, walking and yoga. Not that exciting a stat, but as Nathan Lane says in the movie Birdcage: “One must have a hint of color.“

My leisurely walks of 30 minutes are usually about 1.2 miles, sometimes more. That adds about 40 miles a month, or 120 per quarter. Additionally, I’m still doing yoga every night for 30 minutes. I have been adding five minutes of foam rolling to it quite religiously since March, I think. After that I do five minutes of guided meditation; it’s not much but better than nothing.

I’m still eating a salad daily as I have since spring, save for one day I missed. I think I should let go of this habit if it is too late at night. But so far I’m continuing it because if I skip too many days it would be easy to quit altogether.

That’s what I did with tracking calories on MyFitnessPal. It just became too tedious and wasn’t delivering sufficient results. By this point I’m fairly well resigned to the fact that I will probably remain a fathlete, unless I get diagnosed with some major medical malady. Many days that feels like it could be any day now, but hopefully not and that’s just fatigue talking. I keep up all this activity while I can because to not would surely invite weight gain.

The other thing I started and gave up was resistance bands. I was doing them too late and that was not good for getting into bed. Constitutionally, I’m not a morning person, so jumping out of bed to do anything physical is also not in the cards. Maybe this one will make a return if and when gymnasiums are ever safe from the 2020’s version of the plague.

I’d hoped to start swimming again, at least in an outside pool, but just have not felt up to it. That’s still an option, or maybe indoors as it gets colder. That’s tricky, what with lots of people still exhaling a killer virus – 18 months later. I’m on Team Science, meaning I took the vaccine, and believe it works virtually all of the time. It’s the many, many unvaccinated and unmasked other people that still concern me a bit.

Finally, I continue my other practices which are more on the artistic side: reading, writing, and playing flute (at least 30, 30 and 15 minutes) every day. All these things keep me busy, somewhat healthy and if not happy, at least moving in that direction. I suppose I should add watching television to this section, because I do it most days. Other people’s stories are interesting, and unless I have something better to do, I enjoy watching them. I’m American; TV is the law.

So, there you have it. A Dude Abikes keeps on keepin’ on. One pedal stroke at a time. Any moment it all — or parts of it — could come to an end. A guy’s gotta eat, and this guy enjoys throwin’ groceries down his neck, a roof, air conditioning for the heat, running water, plumbing, and such, which means getting more jobs. I’ve had them before and managed to bike 100 miles and do most of the other stuff.

Like my brother says, “Perfect is the enema of the good.” Or something like that. So if you’re not (and can), get your butt moving! There are still 90 days left in 2021.

How did you do in the third quarter with any activities? Are you reaching your goals or sticking with your new years or monthly resolutions (if any)? Keep on truckin’!

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