exercise

When You Can’t Get Your Drug of Choice: Bicycling

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 5 Comments

A really nice guy I know was recently riding to work when was the victim of a hit-and-run crash. The driver was at fault and fled the scene in classic cowardly fashion. No cameras or witnesses and the cops could not care any less. My guy’s clavicle was broken, he had some road rash, not to mention his quality of life is severely reduced for at least a couple of months because the sling his arm is in. After a successful surgery permanently implanting a lot of metal into his shoulder, he’s okay, and never had too much pain. He said he’s not in physical pain but he is bummed because bicycling is his drug of choice, and the doctor said he can’t ride for a couple of months. That sucks, because he can’t get his (endorphin) high. What’s a cyclist (runner, swimmer et al.) to do?

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Summer with Sommar: Bicycling in the Hottest Season Ever in Austin

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 13 Comments

“Hot times, summer in the city,” indeed. Mother Earth hates humans for polluting her earth, sea, skies, and creatures great and small. She’s getting payback with wildfires in Hawaii, tropical storms in “It never rains in” Southern California, hurricanes in Florida, and incessant, exhausting, and murderous heat waves worldwide, including here in Central Texas, USA.

Your dude has been either doing 10-mile rides outside late at night on Sonnie the GT Arette, or hiding out indoors in the life-saving air conditioning riding on Sommar the Fuji Finest with the occasional venture out. Today it wasn’t quite so hot, so I braved the elements mid-morning and survived a 33.47-mile ride. So, here’s my biking story lately, told mostly in pictures, because a third of a century takes a lot out of a dude even after a shower and nap.

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Austin Bike News Roundup for August 1, 2023

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

It’s been a while since I did one of these roundups, and since a new month is starting, I figure why not? Like many places around the northern hemisphere, Central Texas is suffering through a record red-hot sweltering summer. We just passed 22 days in a row of temperatures of 100 F or over and are on track for an all-time record of 30 consecutive days. So far this summer we’ve had a total of 41 days in the triple-digits… and counting. It’s enough to make you want to stay inside in the air conditioning.

Which is exactly what the doctor(s) ordered for this dude. So, I’m mostly biking inside on the boring, loud trainer to avoid the soul-sapping sultriness and the very harmful ultraviolet rays. Bicycling may be a solution to pollution, but not if you’re collapsing from heat stroke and getting skin cancer. Don’t do that. I’ve learned the hard way that we need to over-hydrate and slather on that sunscreen. Still, bike news in Austin continues, so here’s a little of that.

New Bike Polo Court

Credit ATXBPSC

According to the local NBC station KXAN, Austin got a new bike polo court. Thing is, it was exactly on the site of the previous place where bike polo was played. A little like The Who’s “meet the new boss, same as the oldboss.” The Austin Texas Bike Polo Social Club asked for a grant for the City to upgrade it, and that’s what happened.

I’ve been by to watch them players a few times, and it’s entertaining. A special bike like a BMX helps, and you need some excellent bike-handling skills, a willingness to get hurt, although it’s certainly tons safer than street cycling. Abs of steeel don’t hurt. After the games there are celebrations with libations, often the case with cyclists of all stripes.

Here’s a shot from ATXBPSC of Israel Tellez on the old court, who was going to the world championships in 2019.

Battle of the Bike Lanes

While individual short sectoins of road or intersections are still getting improved thanks to the 2016 bond money, there’s stll a ton of dangerous and missing infrstructure. There was going to be an agenda item at a recent City Council meeting on the ATX Walk Bike Roll plan. Axios Austin and others reported on this in relaton to an increase in cyclist deaths (four in 2023) and a lot more pedestrian deaths. Word from an informed source said there was likely going to bee a postponement.

The goal is to build 1,200 miles of lanes, but they are only at around 415 miles. At the rate they get built, something like 50 miles a year, we’ll all be dead before they’re installed. Especially if there’s not enough funding. Or the roads are melting or Texas is under an ocean again due to global warming. I wish them luck, but I’ll file this in the “I’ll believe it when I see it department.

Mamma Jamma Time

The ride to support women with breast cancer took a hit during the pandemic. It has downsized and relocated an hour north to Taylor, Texas. Instead of eight Austin agencies, the proceeds all go to the Big Pink Bus which conducts mammograms for underserved and uninsured women in Central Texas. It’s still a grat cause. I did three of these rides myself. If you’re around and want to ride, register here, or wherever you are, you can donate here.

Bike Texas Annual Member Appreciation Gathering

I don’t have much to do with these folks but I once went to their Cyclists in Suits lobby day, which was kinda fun. Their annual meeting is coming up on September 10, 3-5 pm. It’s a members-only appreciation event. They closed their office and now have a trailer on a lot on Springdale Road, so let’s hope it’s less hot outside. The meeting will include:

  • Meet and greet BikeTexas board members, staff, and fellow Texas bicyclists
  • Check out their new donor appreciation wall
  • Admire their beautiful new mural by our own Faith Schexnayder
  • Enjoy beverages, light snacks, and plenty of shade
  • Share what’s happening for biking and walking near you
  • Hear from folks who are making a difference for Texas bicyclists

Go to this link to register.

Mellow Johnny’s Moving Sale

SALE.png

It’s your last week to save with the MJ’s Moving Sale. The long-time shop owned by Lance Armstrong is moving into a newer building closer to, ironically enough, the Lance Armstrong Bikeway after many years on 400 Nueces Street.

This summer is shaping up to be too hot to pack up EVERYTHING in the shop and move it to their new spot. So they’re having a moving sale with their best prices ever on all in-stock new bikes, clothing, helmets, MJ’s branded gear, sunglasses, and more.

Through August 6 save 10, 20, even 30% on bikes. Every bike is on sale. All accessories purchased with a new bike are also 20% off (normally 15%). All MJ’s branded gear–kits, tees, gloves, socks, bottles, and more–all of it is 30% off. All clothing is 30-40% off. All sunglasses are 30% off. Car racks are 15% off. All helmets are 25% off. And all bags are 30% off.

Shop early for the best selection! Sale prices are for in-store, in stock items only. No special orders. No combining offers or discounts. (For example, no Mellow Bucks on sale items, no club discounts.) Discounts applied at register.

That’s all for this edition. Remember the three Hy’s: Hydrate, Hyde from the Sun, and Hy-Tail it to your indoor trainer.

Copyright 2023. A Dude Abikes. All rights reserved.

7/7/2023: Forget France! Ride The Tour de YOU & Fight Climate Change

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

It’s July and sunflower season, so that means it’s Tour Time. That is, Le Tour de France, that grueling 3,000-kilometer bike race and tourist advert. Sure, there are two other grand tours: the Giro d’Italia in June and La Vuelta de Espana later in summer. But France is the big dance. I used to be an avid watcher of it, then stopped for a while due to a certain disgraced US rider who was based here in Austin, Texas. I began watching it again, and then stopped again. Mostly because of the huge time suck involved watching andn not knowng many of the new crop of riders. I kinda miss it, but I’m just trying to make sure I get on my own bike every day. The spectacle of the Tour is captivating and the stories are interesting. But what if we got curious and made our own stories more interesting? What if we could find fascination in our short rides to the store, or the commute to work, the weekend jaunts on the trail, and more?

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3.5 Years of Daily Cycling & 2023 1st Quarterly Report

~ A Dude Abikes ~ Leave a comment

Way back B.P. (Before Pandemic), I started riding my bicycle every day. Today marks three and a half years, or 42 months, or 182 weeks and five days, or 1,278 days in a row. Also, I’ve walked daily with very few misses and many extra miles in five plus years, and I’ve done yoga daily (moreso nightly) over nine years. I continue to reflect on that, and it’s time to review my Strava activity stats for January-March 2023. Let’s take a look.

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12/12/2022: Slow, but Still I Go — Biking, Walking, Etc.

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 5 Comments

Another month has gone by since my last post, and just a few weeks are left in the year. As the weather cools and holidays and a new year approach, thoughts turn inward, toward retrospection, and to the future. There’ll be time for a review of the year come January, though. For now, what has gone on since 11/11? Work, for one. It has involved a lot of walking, which has been surprisingly exhausting. Seven or eight miles when you’re used to the equivalent steps of three miles, and standing for long hours in between, is a change. Other things like rain, health stuff, and perhaps some existential ennui have slowed me down, too. In the past month, I’ve alternated between 80-110 miles per week riding my bicycle. Not great, but not horrible.

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9/9/2022: Sookie Shares with Sonnie; Autumn Approacheth; Failing Fast Forward

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

In this installment I’ll try and fail again to summarize what I’ve been up to for the last month. There’s too much to pack into one post. It seems the more I work on my book, and read other books, the more I realize that the art of writing is as much about what gets left in as what gets taken out. In his intriguing novel John Woman, Walter Mosley touches on this idea by having his eponymous protagonist (a professor with a checkered past and a troubled present), explore the deconstruction of history. His professor believes many things about his field, the main one as I understand it so far, is that it is not absolute. We are constantly creating history, our own and the larger world’s, Professor Woman teaches his students.

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8/8/2022: Biking While the Heat Is On in Austin

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

We’re on track to have the hottest summer EVER in Austin, Texas. (Climate science deniers ought to move along right now.) Texans are accustomed to the heat, but not like this. In 2011 we had 90 days over 100 F. So far in 2022, we’ve had 58 of those 100+ days. May, June, and July were record breaking hot. August is the worst month. Also, it’s barely rained, so we’re in an extreme drought. Many places from France and the UK to California are experiencing extra high temperatures. The hotness makes bicycling, as well as other important activities like standing up, breathing, and putting on pants a bit challenging.

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5/5/2022: James Clear Is Killing Me With His Atomic Habits

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

At the end of last’s month’s post, Blog Post #666: The Blog In Which I Announce My Retirement from Blogging*, was a little-noticed * aka asterisk. Only one astute reader followed that to the denouement and figured out the meaning in these words, hidden in plain view: “Respectfully submitted on 01.04.22*, ADAB.” That’s European formatting, day first, month second. That reader was the ever-sharp Half Fast Cycling Club (say it out loud — it’s a fun pun) up in Wisconsin. Not only has he (I’m deducing that’s his pronoun) ridden his bicycle across most of the US (and he’ll correct me in the comments if I’m wrong about that), he’s fixin’ to do it again — at almost 70 years of age. Oh yeah, to do the trip, he’s resigning his hospital job as a literal lifesaver of COVID patients (mostly the ignorant “I did my own research on Facebook” variety). So kudos to Half Fast, and to the rest of you (except if you are in other countries where this peculiar American prank day is not celebrated), I say this: APRIL FOOLS, suckahs! Strap in, it’s going to be a long post.

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