Unless you’re a nun, the word “habit”–like making going to the gym a habit–may send a chill down your spine, send you burrowing into your bedsheets, or make you want to throw up a little in your mouth. We may want to do something that we know is good for us but is hard and not fun. This dude has made much ado of making daily habits, particularly yoga, walking, and bicycling. I’ve been keeping those and several others every day for several years, and the yoga for over 10 years. I first alluded to these streaks with a mention of “Don’t Break the Chain” in a post referencing Jerry Seinfeld. Type “habits” in the Search bar of this blog, and you’ll easily find some helpful posts on the subject. The experiment to see how long I could keep things going has been interesting, and I continue with those three daily practices. But with other habits, it was only a matter of time before life intervened. It turns out that I’m only human, after all. Assuming you are too, I hope there’s something in here about habits that will resonate for you.
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How Writing Has Helped My Bicycling
It’s Leap Day, 2024. Let’s jump right in. I have kept a journal for most of my life since being a young teen, encouraged by my maternal grandmother. There have been plenty of long gaps and since starting this blog in 2016, many days that I skipped both to work on my bicycle memoir. Writing is a way to express your feelings, and in a journal it’s private. Blogging is sometimes an online extension of that, depending how personal you want to get. Either way, helping to clarify thoughts, process emotions, outline goals, and refine motivation are all good for your health. Which in turn is both what one needs for any sustained exercise habit or practice and a benefit of the same. The fact that I’ve written a whole book (or two, since it’s too long–even as I try to revise it a third time, what it really needs is funding for an editor) is another way I’ve expressed myself, usually about all my biking. Sure, I could still ride a bike without writing, but both are entertwined and part of my daily do’s, and so far as I’m able to continue, I plan to and hope I will.
Continue readingBiking and Other Goals — When Will Power Isn’t Enough
Five months of 2023 are gone with seven to go. One may wonder–quite reasonably–where has the time gone? What have they accomplished thus far, and what’s to come? The year is almost half gone, so what is there to show for it? Only you can answer for yourself (and only YOU can prevent forest fires). In my case, it’s the usual, which is more than nothing, but it’s less than I’d like. Reflection can be good up to point (not great if you’re a vampire looking into a mirror). Action is what propels us forward. Into what, though? The breach? Good trouble, or the other kind? We can hope for the former, be realistic, and remain vigilant that bad luck may find us despite our best efforts to avoid it. We humans try to keep reevaluating and chipping away at our goals. But sometimes will power isn’t enough. Spoiler alert: I don’t have all the answers, but I think it has something to do with doing your best.
Continue reading5/5/2023: 5 Things You *May* Want to Do in Bike Month
It’s that time of year in the USA when the sun has come out, the snow has thawed, and the flowers have bloomed. Basically, it’s the best time to, as Queen sang, “Get on your bikes and ride!” In Austin, Texas, it felt like 97 degrees thanks to the humidity coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. Your dude just managed to ride eight miles to the post office before a storm blew in some lighting, thunder, and rain. Summer in Austin often feels like you’re wearing a hot, wet blanket while you bicycle, but sometimes it’s nice after the rain with a breeze. Regardless of weather, biking is what we do here at ADudeAbikes.com, every damn day for over 3.5 years. Like they say, a rolling stone gathers no moss. By now, you MAY have gathered that National Bike Month is here, so here are five things to do in Austin but also beyond, if biking is your jam–or you want it to be. (Mmm, jam.)
Continue reading12/12/2022: Slow, but Still I Go — Biking, Walking, Etc.
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.
Continue readingSome Notes About My Daily Walking Practice
It’s been bikes, bikes, bikes at A Dude Abikes lately, and well, that tracks, because that’s the main pillar of this blog. For a change of pace, let’s talk about walk(ing). I’d love to be talken about Walken (as in Christopher), but I got nuthin’ to say about him except I like his acting. But yes, walking. I’ve been doing it regularly with only a few days missed for almost four years now. I don’t do power walking, hiking, or any crazy stuff like that. I just get out there, rain or shine, and perambulate for 30 minutes a day. That’s not too remarkable; many, many people walk daily, and for many, many more miles. Even having a streak isn’t that big a deal. But comparing myself to me, it’s an important thing to do. You might assume it’s an easy thing for me to do, but you’d be wrong. So I’m going to talk the walk.
Continue readingMy Salad Days: Streakus Interruptus
Two weeks shy of 180 days, almost six months after I began a daily habit aka streak, something completely shocking happened: I forgot to eat a salad. At first I was incredulous, like “How the hell did I let that happen?” But it realitiy, it is not that big a deal. I mean, the country of Afghanistan just lost its government and is now being taken over by an army of pissed off religious zealots with some beliefs that are culturally very different to mine, like girls shouldn’t go to school. I’m among the majority of people in the US who are for getting out of that fruitless $85 billion, 20-year old war i.e. quagmire. It’s not our country to run. So yeah, there are more important things than some dude’s salad streak. But this is a lifestyle blog of a fathlete, so I’m going to get back to my lane and stay in it. And if you don’t like it [insert a salad-centric insult popularized by comedian Chris Rock here].
Continue readingMy Strava Stats for July 2021
This post looks at my monthly stats from all my activities in July 2021 courtesy of Strava. As you can see from the images below, I was active all 31 days of the month, for 93 hours total exercise. Of that, 37% was biking, 31% walking, 30% yoga, and 2% swimming. I had hoped to do a lot more of the latter, but there is limited access to the only outdoor pool my gym has in town. Also, I don’t like sharing a lane, since I’m a lousy swimmer I need a whole one to myself. That and my ongoing energy deficit made it too difficult to get in. At least I got in the water twice. I’ve realized they have water aerobics, so I might consider that. But the struggle is real, and it continues.
Continue readingMay 2021: Mid-Month Biking, Etc. Report
Despite a growing weariness — probably the rarely heard of eyelash cancer — I continue to fight the battle of the bulge. Like with most battles, however, I lose because I’m a lover, not a fighter. Anyway, here’s a check-in on things that I did or that happened this week and so far this month in my so-called life (a TV show I never watched).
Continue readingFoods Fueling a Fathlete’s Fitness Frenzy
Fat — the word — makes a lot of people uncomfortable. If it’s in your food, it’s delicious. But too much of it on a human body is not cool. It’s stigmatized by many, from celebrities to cyclists, and even in the nutrition field, even though it’s one of the three macronutrients along with protein and carbohydrates, and our bodies need it to survive. (Don’t EVEN get me started on carbs. I’m a carbon and water-based life form; how about you?) But back to fat. (Made you think of back fat there, didn’t I?) So we use euphemisms like overweight, heavy, chunky, plus-sized, big, cuddly, and my favorite because it’s Yiddish: zaftig. I like fathlete (fat + athlete), even though I didn’t coin it. And as Strava told us in my post before last in their MEDIA ALERT: Announcing Strava S.O.F.T., “If you sweat, you’re an athlete.” If I may paraphrase Kermit the Frog, my point is this: It ain’t easy bein’ lean.
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