balance

Getting Back on the Bike After a Break: It’s Like Riding a You Know What

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 10 Comments

After the last month and more of too much work and especially of driving a car, I finally managed a day off. Fortunately, on Sunday nights there’s a group bike ride called Bike Curious, about which I’ve previously written. The ride itself is usually pretty mellow, but in this case we had a substitute leader who picked some roads that were a little dicey, hilly and sandy. Still, overall the streets flat and familiar and the pace was slow. It was a good way to ease back into biking. Today I’m a little sore and tired, but the hardest part was actually just getting myself out the door. If you’ve ever been in this situation you will relate to this post.

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1,213 Miles: First Quarterly Report of 2019

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 1 Comment

This is a summary of my bicycle riding statistics on the Strava app for January through March.  It shows my total miles biked so far for 2019 is 1,213.  At 13.47 miles per day over the first 90 days, that isn’t bad.  It’s only slightly off the pace of 13.75, which will put me at 5,000 for the year — IF I’m able to keep it up.  That’s always the question.  By the way, virtually all of these miles are being done on Sophie, the Fairdale Weekender Archer. 

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When a Job Gets in the Way of the Work of Writing

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

“I have one of two choices – stay in the post office and go crazy … or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve.

-Chatles Bukowski, from Jay Dougherty, Introduction to Charles Bukowski

The other day I wrote about my take on the perennial struggle that many writers and other creators of art face: how to pay the bills while making their stuff. Well, today, that arm wrestling came into stark relief as I reported for duty at my new, albeit temporary, job. As a result, I’m getting to this blog quite late, later than usual even. Aside from throwing a wrench into my schedule, and reducing my bicycling time, I still did my walking and yoga. But the job had some positive things about it, too. Maybe you’ll relate.

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What’s Going On: My Life is Biking, and Biking is My Life

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 11 Comments

Today I took an intentional rest day off the bike, the first in 21 days. It rained alot, so I got a ride, took the bus, and got another ride. There was a doctor’s visit that was important to figure out an issue that has been affecting my quality of life. There’s my birthday on Thursday; for the last three years I have ridden my bike around one mile per year of life to get free stuff, so I’ll probably do that again. (Gmail me if you live in Austin and are interested in joining for all or part.) I’m spending time on Strava, giving kudos, making comments, letting people on flybys know that I write this blog. I spend a lot of time fundraising for the Mamma Jamma breast cancer ride, which led to another $150 in donations today. I did my yoga and walking as usual, to keep me limber for my riding. I’ve been thinking about the blog advice I got this weekend from a fellow cyclist. There were conversations with people about what’s going on with Bike Austin. (Short answer: transition. Again.) Writing this blog. And book. Etc.

So yeah, there’s a whole lotta biking stuff going on.

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12 Years (NOT) a Slave to Cars

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

One year ago I wrote about my anniversary of not owning a car when my car was hit on January 25, 2005.  So now it’s another year, and I suppose A Dude Abikes is a little bit proud about that accomplishment.  In last year’s post, I referenced Trump’s hair, Star Wars, real war, the environment, love and of course, bicycling.  Well, what a year it’s been!  Yes, the nightmare of a proto-fascist becoming president has come true.  But so has resistance come alive; A Dude Abikes attended the March on Austin with 50,000 friends, where he experienced a great deal of hope.  We’ve had another Star Wars movie, Rogue One, which if you think about it was about suicide bombers.  War in Syria and other places, probably some love somewhere, the hottest year on record, threats to re-open pipelines, etc. ad nauseam.  But most interesting to me, the biking.  So much biking.  ALL THE BIKING!  Did I mention I biked 5,306 miles in 2016?  I’m STILL sore!

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A Dude Abikes attended the March on Austin with up to 50,000 people, including that guy with his bike in the photo

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