health

A Walk a Day for Almost Two Years

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

My daily walking habit began on January 1, 2018, and I haven’t looked back since. I may have missed one day but I often do more than the allotted 30 minutes. I make sure I hit 1.5 miles, and some days it’s 2.0 or more miles, or even two walks. I don’t write about it much because it’s not that remarkable, but to me it’s a good habit for life that I wish I’d established many years ago. It’s not easy when you’re busy, sick, tired, injured, it’s cold, windy and wet outside. Somehow, I have found the discipline. And what the rewards are subtle, they are worth considering starting your own walking practice if you don’t have one.

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What If It All Came to An End Tomorrow? Buddha’s Five Remembrances

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

Being away from home and my bike for a day has put me in a contemplative mood.  Mysterious recent health challenges have made bicycling harder than it should be.  It’s already hard enough, in 100 degrees, being a fathlete, trying to not get dead by distracted drivers, not having a light bike with 27 gears anymore.  For 19 months I’ve had the luxury to do daily walking, writing in my book or this blog, and doing yoga every day (the latter for much longer).  And on most of the days of my life for the last 14+ years, but especially since 2015, I have ridden my bike.  Over 20,000 miles since 2005, by my count. What if it all came to an end tomorrow?

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Minor Mishaps, Major Moments and Medical Mysteries

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 10 Comments

From the things that make you go mmmmmm department: 

Mishap #1: Trash Cans, Trash Talk

Riding down a sidewalk of a busy four-lane road without bike lanes, I swerve to avoid recycling bins, miscalculate, and Sophie the Fairdale’s very wide handlebars catch them.  I go down like a Christian thrown into the gladiator ring trying to save the lion with talk of Jesus.  (Translation:  Quickly.)  But unlike those unlucky folks, I bounced right back up, apparently unharmed.

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Random Thoughts from the Life of a Car-Free Bicyclist in Austin, Texas

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 11 Comments

Sometimes there’s no one unifying theme to a blog post, but even then, there is still a framework. Today, it’s that many factors affect my cycling, and also that there’s more to life than cycling. (Impossible, I can hear some of you saying!) Here are a few of those thoughts. As to whether they’re Deep Thoughts, you’d have to ask Jack Handy, which is an old Saturday Night Live skit. Basically he had short quotes that were inane, so I’m not claiming any wisdom. I am just sharing my experience in hopes it educates, inspires or at least amuses you as one of my millions of followers (any day now). Read on, it’ll be good, you’ll see. After all, I’m not The Dude, I’m just A Dude. And A Dude would never steer you wrong. That would be very un-Dude-like.

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Summer Is Coming: Surviving Cycling in Sunny Central Texas

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 8 Comments

If I had seen a second of that program about dragons and stuff on the Home Box Office channel, I could continue the allusion. But I haven’t so I can’t. But I can however tell you that the hotter-than-hell-fire breathing dragon that is summer in Central Texas is starting her terrifying approach. Temps are already topping out at the low 90’s in Austin, Texas. People, get ready, a lack of rain is comin’. I share my tips on how to deal. Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor in real life or TV. I’m just telling you how I deal with the heat. If you have or may have a medical condition that makes being outside dangerous, ask a real doctor, not a dude. This goes for everything on my blog. If my experience helps, great. But always use common sense, take responsibility, and you do you.

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Brahmacharya: The Yogic Practice of Moderation

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

The philosophy of yoga as handed down over thousands of years continues to be valuable and available to those who wish to study it. It may be lost on some if not most modern-day, lycra-clad, booty-tightening students and teachers alike. Yours truly does not often crack open the ancient texts for some light reading. But I did spend a summer at a yoga center, and after over five years of daily (well, nightly) practice, I still consider myself essentially a beginner. Lately, I find myself struggling with one of the branches of the practice in particular. Surely I’m not alone, so here’s a little post about brahmacharya.

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The Science of Exercise: Sugar, H.I.T.T. & Stuff

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 11 Comments

This is not a scientific post. I’m not dropping any science on you. It’s a topic of interest to A Dude and probably to many. Tonight on the way home from an errand, I ran into another bicyclist (he’s OK). Turns out he’s a student at the University of Texas. He was a super nice guy who had just come from a soccer game and wasn’t wearing a bike helmet. He was stopped at the sign near where Anthony Diaz was killed by a bus driver, and I asked him what happened to the ghost bike. He didn’t know, but guessed it was an upcoming marathon.

That mystery unsolved, the conversation shifted to him talking about his work in kinesiology. Which if you don’t know is the study of kinesi (whatever the heck that is). But seriously, he works on measuring oxygen in the blood, studies how horrible sitting is for your metabolism, what is more efficient for muscle-building, and so on. I learned some stuff in layperson’s terms since I frequently am fighting gravity and aging and other sciencey things. I figured I’d share with all 12 of you who might actually read this. Because he’s getting a master’s Degree… in SCIENCE, he actually blinded me with …. SCIENCE! Or maybe that was his bike light, I’m not sure.

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Mmm… A Melange of Musings on Monday

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

Sometimes there’s no one theme that presents itself for a post.  Instead, a mixture of many motifs manifests.  (Alliteration apparently attracts A Dude. )  I’ve noticed myself thinking about three main topics:   1) creativity, especially the art of writing, and the necessity of commerce; 2) all the bicycling I do (and to a lesser extent, walking and yoga), and 3) issues about nutrition and health.  Of course I also consider weightier things like the temporary end of the federal government shutdown, the sad passing of a former neighbor, and the goings on in the lives of friends, family and my town.  So I’m gonna touch on the three themes, and perhaps we’ll stumble upon some insight or wisdom useful to you.  But sometimes, a blog is just a web log of what’s going on, and its not going to change your life.  To quote the farmer in the movie Babe, “That’ll do, pig.  That’ll do. Continue reading →

Eight Days a Week… Off the Bicycle: Viewing Setbacks Through a Buddhist Lens

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 1 Comment

It’s been eight days since I’ve ridden a bicycle.  Why?  Heat.  Illness.  Lastimas. Life.  (Lastimas is wounds or injuries in Spanish. So that spells H.I.L.L, doesn’t it?  I meant to.)  When thought of in this way, it’s another set of obstacles, another rise in the road to climb, something that tests you but also makes you stronger.  Part of me is relieved, and lucky to have use of a car.  Another part of me is pissed off that I’m losing whatever fitness and form I had.  Another is panicking that I may not get it back, or get back to it, or even be able bike at all without more injury or at least pain.  Breathing in deeply, I notice I am not riding my bicycle.  Breathing out, I notice that I am writing a blog post about not riding my bicycle. Continue reading →

Keep Walking Even if It’s (Apparently) Not Doing Anything for You

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 6 Comments

Do the Walk of Life

walk of life
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Today I went on yet another 30 minute daily walk.  I try to go early because it’s so friggin’ hot and humid here in Austin, Texas in late June. Summer came early this year (thanks, global warming!).  While there are strategies for dealing with the heat that I outlined in a previous blog, acclimation – getting used to it – is inevitable if you want to keep up a fitness routine.  (Thanks to Julie78787 for reminding us of this important step.)

But I’m finding my walking is getting a little stagnant.  I’m not a morning person but that’s the best time to go to get some Vitamin D without too much harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.  It’s not led to any weight loss, noticeable gains in strength, or huge uplift in my mood.  But I keep doing it because I believe that it will pay long-term benefits.  Here are some: Continue reading →