suffering

An Imagined Chat with Sophie, My Fairdale Weekender Archer Bicycle

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 11 Comments

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Hello?

What? Hi, who’s talking?

It is I, your Fairdale Weekender Archer bicycle sitting next to you, leaning on this pile of boxes.

Oh, really? I had no idea you – or any bicycle – could speak!

Well, I can’t. It’s really all just in your head.

Am I going crazy?

No, not at all.

Then what’s happening? What’s this about?

Well, I’ve been sitting here for a while, very patiently I might add, and I just evolved into having consciousness and telepathic ability. And I guess I’m just wondering something.

Yeah, what’s that?

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543 Miles in May 2018: My Next Best Month on the Bicycle Ever!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 5 Comments

To say that I rode my bike alot in May is an understatement. 543 miles is 125 miles per week and almost 18 miles per day. My activity app Strava, paired with my Garmin GPS watch, are fairly accurate. Believe me, I feel it in my bones. Also, this was the hottest documented month of May in Central Texas ever. So I’m feeling pretty happy about that accomplishment, seeing how my original goal for this year was 50 miles per week. It could all change in a moment, and there are some things on the horizon which may mean I’m spending less time on the bike. But that’s all fine. For now, I’m satisfied that I still have some legs. Oh, and I also walked 45 miles. Today is a well-deserved rest day, so let’s dig into the stats a bit, shall we?

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What the Super Bowl Teaches Us About Sports Cycle-ology

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 5 Comments

10 Commonalities Between Football and Bicycling

Holly O and A Dude, reunited (and it feels so good – it’s a song)

A Dude Abikes is not a huge football fan since the days when he parked cars for the Dallas Cowboys as a Boy Scout.  He’d get in after the first quarter to watch “America’s Team,” but then they started doing drugs and he lost interest.  But it’s a sport, so I appreciate everyone’s efforts.  So when Holly O, a bad ass cyclist friend who is not on Strava whom I met on the “Don’t Fear The Finger” Prostate Cancer One-Day Ride in August of 2016 invited me south of downtown to watch the Super Bowl, I said sure, why not?

More than a few comparisons can be made between football and bicycling: Continue reading →

My Journey Toward Being a Little Less of a Fathlete (Day 5)

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.

— Theodore Roosevelt

Bike Life Is Hard; The Struggle is Real

Bicycling on average of almost 100 miles a week for the last two years, totaling 10,020, was damn hard. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to really put in words what I went through to accomplish it. Yes, there’s much more serious suffering in the world, and I’m not comparing war, poverty, disease, accidents or having to even look at or listen to US President #45. However, when I put “suffering” in my posts as a key word, I am not kidding. I often truly suffered while biking. But I’m grateful for making the choice to push myself far beyond my limits or expectations of others who believe people with excess adipose can’t kick some serious ass. Wrong!

Some people say biking IS suffering. Strava has a “Suffer Score.” From saddle sores, to wrecks, muscle pain and cramps, nearly getting hit, maimed or killed by shitty drivers every single day, cold, wind, rain, snow, 100+ degree Fahrenheit Texas summers, and hills – gott im himmel, the hills! – and of course being on a bike for 10 hours riding 100 miles in a day four different times, twice back to back — is super [expletive] challenging. Even more so when you’re overweight, not so young anymore, and a full-time desk jockey until I was laid off a few months ago. (Anyone wanna hire A Dude?) So yes, the struggle is real, as those who do any sport at some distance and intensity know. But it’s nothing to be afraid of: Suffering forges you into a better, tougher, fitter you. And that’s way (weigh? whey?) more important than a number on a scale.

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4,714 Miles Bicycled in 2017 = 10,000 in 2 Years! A Recap of My “Epic Velocimania” (Day 1)

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 23 Comments

Whole Lotta Bikin’ Goin’ On

2017 Strava stats4,714 miles in 2017 and 5,306 in 2016 total 10,020 miles — that’s what A Dude Abikes bicycled in two years.  The numbers don’t lie (if you believe my Garmin vivoactive hr, Strava and GeoPositioning Satellites, that is).  But I don’t need technology to tell you that I definitely biked 40% around the equator (all the way is 24,901 miles).  Any way you look at it, it’a alot of damn miles.  Not easy with my various challenges.  But I did it.

So what, you might ask?  Lots of people ride farther and faster.  True, but I ain’t them, and they can get their own damn blog.  I often wonder why, too.  In one sense, it’s just what I do.  Also, I’m approaching 13 years of being car-free.  (Not care-free — I wish!)  So if I want to go anywhere, biking is usually the most efficient way.  Cars are expensive and pollute.  Lastly, the only race I’m in is the human one. Continue reading →

Distracted Biking: When Life Gets in the Way, Finding Ways to Just. Keep. Pedaling.

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 1 Comment

Full Catastrophe Biking

Wrecks, injury and fatigue are just some of the distractions that have kept A Dude Abikes from biking and blogging as much as he would like since his personal best doing the MS 150 back in April.  There have been devastating hurricanes and other natural disasters, the unnatural disaster of a president stoking things like possible nuclear war, elimination of health care benefits for millions of people, arrest and deportation of many immigrants who came here as children, and plenty more scandals.  The shooting in Las Vegas.  Bombings all over the place.  The never-ending parade of humanity in all its sick splendor and glory gory.  Of course good things happen all the time too.  Riding my bike with a few hundred others, in my case 65 miles, to raise almost $1,000 for breast cancer charities is a positive contribution.  You can and should make such a contribution yourself here:  http://Fundraisers.MammaJammaRide.Org/ADudeAbikes.

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My Texas Mamma Jamma jersey.  I’m not a Top Fundraiser yet!  Help me get there by donating!

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My New Custom Jerseys Are Here! Just In Time for the Mamma Jamma Breast Cancer Bike Ride. Order & Donate Today!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

Here’s my link to donate.  Please give as much as you can.  Thanks!

http://Fundraisers.MammaJammaRide.Org/ADudeAbikes

Origins:  A Dude Walks Into His Doctor’s Office…

One day A Dude Abikes was sitting in a doctor’s office (ear, nose and throat Doc Slaughter, as I recall). We’re talking bikes, since he rides a bit.  Apologetically, he leans in, with a whisper, and says, “This is gonna sound a little wrong, but it’s a good thing.  It’s when you ride your bike alot, it’s called ‘Time In The Saddle.'”  I must have cocked my head to the side with a quizzical look on my face like some befuddled beagle.  He grinned conspiratorially, and said, “Think about the acronym.”  He waited a second for me to figure it out.  I must have grinned back a little, because he relaxed when I realized what it spelled and wasn’t going to nail him for being a MCP (Male Chauvinist Pig).  (Remember that phrase?) 

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Thanks to All My MS 150 Donors; Please Give NOW to My Texas Mamma Jamma Ride to Treat Breast Cancer Survivors!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 1 Comment
MS150 progress final
My final tally from the BP MS 150 ride from Houston to Austin – 202 miles in 2 days!

We Raised $2,167 for MS Treatment and Research!

A Dude Abikes would like to give his whole-hearted thanks to the following for their magnificent donations, large, medium or small.  It’s the act of giving as much as the actual amount that made my supreme effort of 202 miles in two days on the bike back on April 29-30 have any meaning.  With the 9,000+ other riders, we raised over $13,000,000 for the cause:  for the  National MS Society to treat people with Multiple Sclerosis and drive research into better treatments and someday, a cure.  Here are the beautiful souls:

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202 Miles in 2 Days: How I Bicycled from Houston to Austin & Raised $2,000 for MS

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 15 Comments

The short answer is this:  I don’t know.  That’s the first thing that comes to mind a month after my personal best on a bike.  It was definitely a peak life experience.  But it sometimes seems like I imagined the whole thing.  I mean, who does that distance in a car or motorcycle on an average weekend, much less on a friggin’ bicycle?  There was wind, heat, hills on day one, and wind, cold, rain, and hills on day two — repeat riders say it was the hardest in a decade.  There were 9,000 other people out there (I never claimed to be special.)  Yet there are GPS maps proving I did it, and well, Strava doesn’t lie.  So when I think back to the entire experience – the rolling community of all kinds of people with all kinds of bodies on all kinds of bikes, the lush, rolling, green countryside, and of course, the sweaty, serene and sometimes serious suffering – it seems surreal.  But I definitely, most certainly, indubitably did it.  I have witnesses.  Here’s how I did it.  And many of you can too.

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My First Century: 104 Miles Biked for AIDS Charities

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

Friday, April 29, 2016, 10:16 am – The Day Before

It’s less than 24 hours to the biggest bicycle ride of my life, and A Dude Abikes is rushing around in order to relax. I’m getting a massage and reflexology treatment with my friend Richard. First I have to go to work to borrow a car; I’m not biking the day before, especially in the rain. Later, after the painfully pleasant massage, mostly on my legs, Richard offers to discount the rest of his fee if I’ll pick up a used recliner at a second-hand store. The lure of easy money is irresistible, plus I like to help. With the savings I pick up two necessities at a bike shop on the way — a rain jacket for the downpour forecast for the morning, and sunproof arm sleeves for the hot and sunny afternoon predicted to follow. But being stuck in Austin traffic stresses me out, and undoes alot of the relaxation. Whatever, my legs feel great, like heavy weights have been lifted from them.  Little did I know how important the session would be for my lesgs, tight from 1,600 miles of training since January.  Something major is coming.

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