If you missed the belated edits to my last post, 10/10/2024: What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been: 5 Years of Consecutive Daily Cycling Tomorrow, please go check it out first. I’ll wait. (Cue the Jeopardy theme music.) It was written the day before my big annual ride. The spoiler version is that I managed my 59.59-mile bike ride, and I’m still doing the deed daily. Although I’m biking slower for various reasons. Extra weight from high stress and low sleep and also after stopping a gig where I walked five to seven miles a day. Biking 100+ miles a week might have something to do with being tired. Whatever, each mile counts. And the only race I’m in is against myself. Or maybe Death. And we all lose that one, eventually. But not today, Death. Not today.
Continue readingchallenge
1/1/24: 5,308 Bicycled + 496 Walked = 5,804 Miles in 2023
Year Eight of my journey since I began this blog is in the books. This annual post looks at the statistics recorded by my Garmin vivoactive 3 watch and Strava fitness tracking app. They show the numbers of what I did bicycling, walking, and doing yoga (with a few swims). Beyond the data, it tells a story of being active as I age and despite my efforts, remain a fathlete. Let’s take a look at how I did whe compared to 2022 (which you can read about in this blog post). Spoiler alert, I beat every year except 2020 and 2021. Not too bad, comparing myself to me, which is the only way to really do it.
Continue readingDecember: The Last Month to Work on Your Goals for This Year
‘Tis the season, it’s that time of year. For some, the hap-hap-happiest. For others, a terrifying hellscape of war, poverty, and all the rest of humanity’s ills. For the fortunate, life goes on without as much suffering. For the able-bodied, it’s the last 31 days to strive toward whatever fitness goals you may have. That includes this dude, for whom it’s time to put the hammer down and finish what he started. (Seriously, why am I holding this hammer?) After the holidays, another new year is looming. When the tidings of comfort and joy, forced capitalist present-buying and the same old songs are over, there will pressure to make another batch of New Years resolutions. With all that is going on in this out of control world, maybe all that one has control over is moving your body, even if it’s in small ways. How have you been moving and grooving yours?
Continue readingOctober 2021 Strava Stats
Somehow, summarizing September Strava statistics seems skipped since… Sorry! I just ran out of “s” words. But I bet you haven’t seen a whole sentence, fragmented as it was, starting with the same letter lately. So, points to me. I guess I get a little tired of reporting my fitness activity numbers, and more than one reader does, too. Yet, this is (predominantly) a blog about bicycling, so producing posts pertinent to that topic is important, I suppose. Some people claim that if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen. And since Strava’s colors are black and orange, just like Halloween, it seems like a good time to start doing this report again. So, posthaste and forthwith is all the data you’re dying to digest about how much I walked, yoga-ed, and bicycled last month. Shall seeing said stats satisfy some subconscious salaciousness ?
Continue readingWhen Things Fall Apart: Fitness Goals and Life
Lately I’ve been slipping a bit with my exercise and health practices, and even writing this blog. It reminded me of When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, a book by American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron. I can’t recommend it because I’ve never read it; it’s sitting in a box in storage. At one point I may have even owned two copies. But the title speaks to me now after a mostly pretty shitty day and last few weeks. Even within the Tibetan Shambhala community, things fall apart. As with many religious, business, and entertainment leaders with unchecked power, last year their figurehead was accused of and apologized for sexual misconduct. It went on a while, but he’s still there.
However, reports suggest that Chodron as a senior leader and teacher may have enabled or ignored it. She even told a woman reporting abuse years ago that she didn’t believe her. So she’s not perfect, and she has resigned in protest but maybe also as an act of contrition although she wasn’t the abusive male with all the power. Point is, life doesn’t always or even often go the way we want it to. Defecation passes. We’re all humans here, right? Certainly there are more important things than fitness goals, but like the saying goes, “At least you have your health.” Well, what if you don’t, despite your best efforts? I guess you do your best.
Continue readingMajor and Marginal Meliorations in My March Machinations
After bad ass and boss blogger Sorryless said he was starting his New Years resolutions on February 1, and with the spring equinox approaching, I decided to renew my vows so to speak and add more to some of my many healthy habits. I’m pleased to report, for those who care to read about and take whatever inspiration they may from them, that I succeeded by accomplishing all four objectives. That’s what’s up with what one person said was a lifestyle blog. Who me? An influencer? I hardly know her! (Ha! That’s an old Vaudevillian comedy trope.) Let’s get right to the details of what I did and some tips on how you too can add some healthy habits, if that’s your jam. Or preserves. Or other type of tasty fruity spread. Anyway, yeah, I did some stuff and it wasn’t that hard, either. Kind of like how George Costanza on Seinfeld claimed he was the architect who designed the addition to Guggenheim. Yes, exactly like that.
Continue readingHow Yoga With Adriene’s 30-Day Program Can Help Start or Improve Your Yoga
Each January Austin, Texas yoga teacher Adriene (Mishler) — personal friend of mine (a quote from somewhere, though I did meet her once) — puts out a themed set of videos for the New Year. Smartly capitalizing on the resolution crowd, she also uses the opportunity to earn more adherents. With 9,000,000 followers now on her YouTube channel, Yoga With Adriene, clearly she has a recipe for success. During the coronavirus global pandemic, even more people are turning to stress-reducing practices and at-home fitness. Whether you currently have a practice like old A Dude Abikes here (seven years every day as of this past Christmas), used to but quit yoga due to lockdowns, or maybe have always wanted to try it, well, I recommend you give young Ms. Mishler’s current program — BREATH – A 30-Day Yoga Journey — a try. I’ll tell you why I am doing it, and why you’ll be glad you did if you do, too.
Continue readingAustin Bike News Roundup for October 15, 2020
Here are some things going on in the bicycling world of Austin, Texas that might interest you.
Continue reading622 Miles Biked in July 2020: This Dude Is on Fiyah!
Alright, alright, alright. I don’t literally mean on fire. But it is a quote from Matthew McConaghey as Woody Wooderson in the Austin-area film Dazed and Confused. Matt is apparently one hell of a dude, citizen, University of Texas at Austin professor (really!), and he happens to live up the highway from me. Oh yeah, I guess he won an Oscar or something for acting in Dallas Buyers Club. That’s all a seque, because alright is how I performed on the bicycle in July of 2020.
Continue readingA Dude, an Esthetician and a Monoplegic Get Into a Hot Tub…
I bet you didn’t expect to read that sentence today! I didn’t expect to write it, either, but that’s pretty much what happened at the gym last night. Life isn’t like a box of chocolates, because you do know what you’re going to get: chocolate (aka choccy as they say Down Undah, right Missy?) But going to the gym you never know who you’re going to meet. (True story, I once met Meatball, the rock legend. But that’s another story. Although I will say that he introduced himself as Meat, and I said, without missing a beat, “As in, Mr. Loaf?”) To be honest, I didn’t meet the man with one functioning arm. He was in the pool though, and I did chat with a skin care professional. Interesting people abound!
Continue reading
A Dude Abikes 