A statue epitomizing equanimity during a rare recent snow
Today’s blog is a writing exercise. A Dude wants to see if he can write 500 words in 30 minutes. He can tend to be long-winded, and while that may appeal to some readers, it may dissuade others. Since I intend to write daily for some period, perhaps even the whole of January, it behooves me to be brief.
It’s refreshing to hear from people who read my blog recently. One is a fellow cyclistwho bikes in the winter — in Finland! Thank you all! This blog was intended to be an experiment, and I have a lot to learn about doing it well. New Year resolutions being what they are – much sound and fury signifying nothing – I’m not making many hard and fast rules for myself right now. Continue reading →
About 11 years ago, comedian Jerry Seinfeld(if you didn’t know it already, A Dude loves the Sein!) was said to have revealed the secret of his success. It was four words (five if you don’t count the contraction): Don’t Break The Chain (DBTC). By that he meant writing jokes for 10 minutes a day, no matter what. Seeing the red x’s accumulate on the big all-year wall calendar would supposedly motivate him to keep going. Eventually the jokes would get better. Turns out that was bogus; he didn’t invent it or really do it. But he sure did work hard and continuously to become one of the most successful comedians ever. Plus, he walks and bikes to work, how cool is that?! If you haven’t already, check out his documentary,Jerry Before Seinfeld, on Netflix.
4,714 miles in 2017 and 5,306 in 2016 total 10,020 miles — that’s what A Dude Abikes bicycled in two years. The numbers don’t lie (if you believe my Garmin vivoactive hr, Strava and GeoPositioning Satellites, that is). But I don’t need technology to tell you that I definitely biked 40% around the equator (all the way is 24,901 miles). Any way you look at it, it’a alot of damn miles. Not easy with my various challenges. But I did it.
So what, you might ask? Lots of people ride farther and faster. True, but I ain’t them, and they can get their own damn blog. I often wonder why, too. In one sense, it’s just what I do. Also, I’m approaching 13 years of being car-free. (Not care-free — I wish!) So if I want to go anywhere, biking is usually the most efficient way. Cars are expensive and pollute. Lastly, the only race I’m in is the human one. Continue reading →
Wrecks, injury and fatigue are just some of the distractions that have kept A Dude Abikes from biking and blogging as much as he would like since his personal best doing the MS 150 back in April. There have been devastating hurricanes and other natural disasters, the unnatural disaster of a president stoking things like possible nuclear war, elimination of health care benefits for millions of people, arrest and deportation of many immigrants who came here as children, and plenty more scandals. The shooting in Las Vegas. Bombings all over the place. The never-ending parade of humanity in all its sick splendor and glory gory. Of course good things happen all the time too. Riding my bike with a few hundred others, in my case 65 miles, to raise almost $1,000 for breast cancer charities is a positive contribution. You can and should make such a contribution yourself here: http://Fundraisers.MammaJammaRide.Org/ADudeAbikes.
My Texas Mamma Jamma jersey. I’m not a Top Fundraiser yet! Help me get there by donating!
One day A Dude Abikes was sitting in a doctor’s office (ear, nose and throat Doc Slaughter, as I recall). We’re talking bikes, since he rides a bit. Apologetically, he leans in, with a whisper, and says, “This is gonna sound a little wrong, but it’s a good thing. It’s when you ride your bike alot, it’s called ‘Time In The Saddle.'” I must have cocked my head to the side with a quizzical look on my face like some befuddled beagle. He grinned conspiratorially, and said, “Think about the acronym.” He waited a second for me to figure it out. I must have grinned back a little, because he relaxed when I realized what it spelled and wasn’t going to nail him for being a MCP (Male Chauvinist Pig). (Remember that phrase?)
My final tally from the BP MS 150 ride from Houston to Austin – 202 miles in 2 days!
We Raised $2,167 for MS Treatment and Research!
A Dude Abikes would like to give his whole-hearted thanks to the following for their magnificent donations, large, medium or small. It’s the act of giving as much as the actual amount that made my supreme effort of 202 miles in two days on the bike back on April 29-30 have any meaning. With the 9,000+ other riders, we raised over $13,000,000 for the cause: for the National MS Society to treat people with Multiple Sclerosis and drive research into better treatments and someday, a cure. Here are the beautiful souls:
The short answer is this: I don’t know. That’s the first thing that comes to mind a month after my personal best on a bike. It was definitely a peak life experience. But it sometimes seems like I imagined the whole thing. I mean, who does that distance in a car or motorcycle on an average weekend, much less on a friggin’ bicycle? There was wind, heat, hills on day one, and wind, cold, rain, and hills on day two — repeat riders say it was the hardest in a decade. There were 9,000 other people out there (I never claimed to be special.) Yet there are GPS maps proving I did it, and well, Strava doesn’t lie. So when I think back to the entire experience – the rolling community of all kinds of people with all kinds of bodies on all kinds of bikes, the lush, rolling, green countryside, and of course, the sweaty, serene and sometimes serious suffering – it seems surreal. But I definitely, most certainly, indubitably did it. I have witnesses. Here’s how I did it. And many of you can too.
The MS 150 bike ride is here! It’s April 29-30, 2017, from Houston to Austin, Texas. I On a bike. Without a motor. Unless you count my legs. Which I do. Anyhoo, it’s first about the fundraising: last year, 13,000 cyclists inspired donations of over $16 million dollars for research and treatment. But it also promotes awareness ofMultiple Sclerosis. I first signed up for this ride as a logical next step in my amateur bicycle riding journey, and because a fellow rider Bill offered to donate since he couldn’t ride. But I wanted to learn more about the cause, so I became connected with a Bike MS Champion.
Doug, pointing out his own featured Bike MS Champion bio
The Champions program aims to communicate “why we ride” by highlighting the many different faces of MS and the different ways the National MS Society meets the needs of individuals living with MS through the generous support of Bike MS participants and fundraisers. So A Dude Abikes was connected with Doug. Here is the first message he sent me: Continue reading →
Previous readers (but old and new are all welcome) know that in 2016 I biked5,306 miles, which was nothing short of incredible, especially to me. That’s because I’m not a young, thin, professional cyclist. (Or use PED’s [performance enhancing drugs], although I do take my share of vitamins and supplements to get me through the rides.) But more than a few people say I’ve inspired them. Like my good buddy from high school Jeff, who’s no slouch and climbs rocks, plus donates money. There’s a guy on Strava in Florida I’ve never met. My dear lunkhead brother said he began walking more on account of all my bicycling. Co-workers, friends, family, and strangers on line in the grocery store have in various ways said my efforts were, well, to paraphrase my fellow Jewish brohim Adam Sandler’sThe Hanukah Song — “not too shabby”. So when I decided to retire from long-distance cycling, especially the charity fundraising rides, I thought I would go back to my car-free life and do more walking, swimming and weight-lifting. No more 10 hours a week getting my 100 miles. Not having to ask for money.
New Jersey for the MS 150
But then Bill (there’s always a Bill in these sort of stories, isn’t there?), an inline skate marathoner (!), fellow bike rider and nice guy who helped me get through a tough patch in the Mamma Jamma Breast Cancer Ride in 2015 and then donated to both my AIDS rides, said he couldn’t do the MS 150, but if I did, he would donate. Then I won the new bike (see my previous blog post), the weather got warmer, I found myself riding more, so I said yes: I would bike from Houston to Austin April 29th and 30th to inspire people to donate to help sufferers of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) with treatment and research for a cure.
This super-exciting event started with a routine administrative procedure. Last November I renewed my membership to Austin’s biggest advocacy and educational bicycle organization, Bike Austin. A merger of the former League of Bicycling Voters and Austin Cycling Association, BA came to my attention due to a past landlord (who shall remain nameless and faceless, at least until I can unearth a photo he okays). I finally joined, began volunteering, entered a raffle and voila! I won a BRAND… NEW… BIKE! Continue reading →
4,714 miles in 2017 and 5,306 in 2016 total 10,020 miles — that’s what A Dude Abikes bicycled in two years. The numbers don’t lie (if you believe my Garmin vivoactive hr, 
A Dude Abikes 
If you can walk to work or take your bike on a daily basis, I think that’s just about the coolest thing that there is.
-Jerry Seinfeld, on a 2015 Reddit Ask Me Anything thread