bicycle

Slow and Steady: Six Days of Strava Stats in October 2019

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 9 Comments

Over the last six days I’ve biked 112 miles, including my abbreviated, rainy-cold-windy birthday ride. I haven’t been very fast, but that’s always been true and is to be expected coming off of driving a car for work for the last while. It’s been an adjustment from having the luxury of a automobile to having to make the effort to get the legs going on the bicycle. Being in between jobs makes it far easier to find the time, although I frequently did 100+ miles per week with a full-time job. Cooler temperatures (on some days) have also helped. So if you’ve been in a similar spot, you probably know that it’s not easy. But is possible to get back in the groove. Remember the tortoise and the hare: fast and furious may be fun, but slow and steady wins the day.

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Using Setbacks to Keep Moving Forward

~ A Dude Abikes ~ Leave a comment

Roadblocks happen and make you go in a different direction. Frequently, the efffing Force is just not with you, friend. Sometimes, schtuff simply happens. When life hands you lemonades, you’ve got two choices: Make lemonade or lie down in a corner drinking water. In other words, roll with the changes, or they’ll roll over you. You get the point. My thesis is that there’s only so much time and one person can only do so much, and doing your best sometimes mean stepping back.

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Birthday Bike Ride 2019 – 36.64 Mi / 58.97 Km

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 17 Comments

Birthday. The word strikes joy in a child’s heart but apathy or fear in adults. As we age, it seems more and more people care less and less about celebrating birthdays, either theirs or others’. Presents, gifts and cards dwindle. After just ending a very tiring job earlier in the week, and with rain and wind arriving as part of a cold front the morning of my special day, I had not made many plans.

But I still wanted to set out on my now fourth annual quest to bike my age in miles while collecting freebies. While I didn’t hit my goal, I did manage to complete my longest day in the saddle since August 15th (about when the job really kicked off) and my longest ride since June 30th. What follows are some images and info about my day.

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This Blog Post Is Tardy. Because, Fatigue.

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 5 Comments

I began writing this blog last night. But I just finished working a job that was thoroughly exhausting physically, mentally taxing, and emotionally stressful. I worked 400 hours in 11 weeks, driving over 2,700 miles in the process, enduring the hottest September on record, and numerous other challenges I won’t even get into. So yeah, I’m pretty bushed, and being late on a blog post is ok. Hopefully you’re not too tired to keep reading.

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Commerce and Creativity: The Struggle is Real

~ A Dude Abikes ~ Leave a comment

Arriving home, I caught a new article on Wired, “Jack Conte, Patreon, and the Plight of the Creative Class.” Earlier this year, I heard Jack’s talk at South by Southwest, a sort of origin story cum sales pitch. Many of us would love to get paid for blogging, and I’d love to get paid for editing and publishing my book in progress. Yet the struggle between having to work a job and pay the bills is one that’s been going on for a long time. Ever since the first caveperson started drawing on the walls instead of hunting, I would imagine. How to be creative in whatever your endeavor(s) may be keep a roof over your head and food on the table is an ongoing issue. Spoiler alert: I won’t solve it here today. But maybe you’ll relate to some of my thoughts and have some comments.

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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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Writers Block: Real or an Excuse?

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 9 Comments

You’re staring at a blank screen. The cursor blinks at you, tauntingly. Thoughts scurry across your mind like (insert whatever scurrying thing comes to mind here). Nothing seems good enough to press publish, interesting or worth writing about. Yet, you have a deadline, external or self-imposed. It’s time to blog and nothing comes to mind that is blog-worthy. What do you do?

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Shoal Creek Bike Lanes: Wheels Are in Motion

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 5 Comments

The Austin Transportation Department has made good on plans to enhance bike lanes on Shoal Creek Boulevard. This may not be earth-shattering news considering how the US — currently led by a sociopathic, deranged lunatic — may go to war with Iran at any moment over bombing Saudi Arabian oil production facilities. We may not be able to do much about that, but riding one’s bicycle down a safer street with a protected bike lane reduces dependency on those polluting, (ex)pensive petroleum products that seem to bring out the bellicosity in people. Let’s focus on the good news about the bike lanes, shall we?

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Bicycling Magazine’s Article: “I’m a Fat Cyclist—And I Don’t Need to “Fix” My Body”

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

I just saw this September 13, 2019 article in Bicycling magazine by Kailey Kornhauser. Since I routinely refer to myself as a fathlete, I couldn’t pass on sharing and commenting. Subtitled “My weight doesn’t need to change. But the bike world’s attitude toward me does,” I think she nails the point home that overweight people can and do ride bikes and deserve respect. She puts the fat-shamers in the bicycling world on notice that their discriminatory views are harmful, outdated, unacceptable, and actually damaging to the sport. A Dude has dealt with plenty of unspoken and spoken anti-fat discrimination, so it’s high time this issue gets the attention it’s due. Let’s talk about it.

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