RTAWW #8 The Touch… The Feel… Of saANd, The Story Of Our Lives

      I woke up at 5 this morning as I’ve been doing for the past few weeks and went for my morning walk.  I walk/jog 3-4 miles depending on what I feel like doing, or really it depends on how good the book that I’m listening to is or how bad I want to get through it. I’m not too excited about the book that I’m listening to so the walk was shorter, besides it was windy. It was windy all night and was still windy when I went walking. I’d say the winds were something like 10mph probably stronger, but I’ll keep my guess safe as the actual speed in my area – the weather at the airport recorded wind speeds of 20-40 miles an hour at the time of my walk and it’s not more than 10 miles away (point being it was windy). Took a trip to the Asian market, which is always fun, and got a few things for several soups that we like. Have I mentioned I like soups? When we got home, my mother in law had prepared some…guess what…soup! Some pea soup. It was delicious!

      The highlight of this day again was riding with my kids. We went out again and they were much more confident today than yesterday – maybe a bit too confident.  My oldest son face-planted into some sand. He came roaring down a hill and I imagine he thought that he would be able to go through the sand or slow down easily in it because yesterday the sand was a bit more wet from rain and he had gone through some short patches of it, but he went about 10 ft started took a swerve left, corrected right in the shifty sand and KuhFWAhP! It took a few seconds for the pain to set in of having his handlebar jabbing him in the abdomen but it did. Luckily my wife and mother in law were strolling around in the park when it happened and came to calm him down. After spitting out all of the sand in his mouth and getting it out of his hair and off his face he calmed down and in a few minutes he was riding around again – but now making sure to steer clear of the sand. Big time kudos to him for get back on and riding. Earlier he had told me that he fell off somewhere that I hadn’t seen but said it was not big deal because stuff like that happens in life, but you just have to get up and keep going. I do believe that is pretty sound advice from a child.

      Mostly we’ve been riding around on grass, which I know is difficult to ride on, but I’m thinking about the long term here – they’re building up some great strength pushing those pedals to trudge through the grass so once we do hit up some bike paths and easy dirt roads, it’s going to be super easy for them.  They actually know that it’s harder (they first learned on blacktop), but I think they feel more comfortable on the grass for now. Plus it’s more fun to go fun to go up and down hills. As long as they’re having fun, I’m having fun!  And having fun on a bike usually means that I’m not going to be stressed or depressed or gaining weight. Bada-bing Bada-boom.

      Time for a recovery sleep – got to do some drivin’ tomorrow that I wasn’t expecting.  Ride on!

RTAWW #7 - Riding is Miraculous and more!

Bikes are just amazing.  It's thrilling to ride, fun to challenge yourself or try something new, and a great workout.  It's even better when you get to do ride with your family. Today I ventured to get my kids riding bikes again.  They had learned over the summer and had gained a bit of confidence, but after school started, colder weather set in, and their bikes got roasted, they fell out of the rhythm and it was difficult to get them going. They were both super excited to get new bikes for Christmas (which was a miracle in and of itself because their bikes were a gift from a family that we don't even know that decided to 'adopt' our family for Christmas - we're so thankful for their kindness, words can't really express it but seeing my kids smile as they rolled down a 80-90 ft hill with 25% grade and then ride around a lesser incline to get back to the top at which point one of them, my older son, let out a "YAHOOO!").  It took a few balancing games and some push starts but they got the hang of it and I know that they'll get better and better. They already want to go out and ride tomorrow, but they want to leave earlier so we can ride longer! Our ride was described as "epic" and I had to let them know that there's lots more where that came from and riding just keeps on being epic. It was fun to have my wife out riding too. I guess the point of all this is to say that bikes are miraculous, amazing, epic, and make you go "YAHOO!" Ride on, Eat less, Move more, and Keep breathing...and drink more water. 

RTAWW # 4 - Maybe a few thoughts on Zwift and Strava

     So, the header to my blog disappeared. I'll have to figure that out sometime, but I don't think it's on my super important things to do list.  I was wondering what I should write about today - maybe my love for soup (I had some miso soup today), or about writing to several bike companies and their responses, or about the new (used) bike that I got a screamin' wicked good deal on, but I think I want to talk a little about some thoughts on Zwift and Strava. I got to thinking about this while I went on a walk today at Upper Bidwell Park - here:

      For those who don't know, Zwift is a like a computer game that you are able to attach to your bike trainer so you can spin on your bike at home and race/ride in various places (in the world?) on your tv screen.  It's a nice way to make spinning a bit more fun and interesting.  Strava is an app that tracks your riding/running which is shared with people who "follow" you. It also has many other little features which help you track progress and such. 

       I was thinking about Zwift because someone I know was asking if/how/why people like using Zwift.  The overall consensus that I'm taking from reading the replies is that people who use it like it.  I've never used it and don't have the money to buy a nice "smart" trainer to make the gaming experience accurate and worth your time.  I'm not sold on the idea.  I think it is cool that you can kind of interact with other people and the best feature is that it is great for getting in a ride (spinning) with little time because it's done in the convenience of your home and can be done in any weather.  The down side is, in my opinion, that it may detract from people taking the time to get out and getting that fresh air and actually interacting with people and nature. The other thing is that in my experience with spinning is that most people don't publicly share their spinning sessions.  I don't think that they need to - I pretty much never have (maybe a few times by manually entering the activity into Strava). This aspect of sharing activities is what made me think of Strava. I've had mixed emotions about using Strava for a while now.  I don't really use it much anymore. But I think that's about to change. The reason that I will start using Strava again is because, I think it is important to share your rides. I like seeing that my friends were out for a ride. I get ideas on places where I can ride. I get to see the sites that they saw (if they share a picture or two from the ride). And maybe most importantly, I get inspired to get out and enjoy a bike ride myself. 

     The connection of the two - Zwift and Strava - is that I see Zwift as a potential to detract from inspiring others to get out and ride your bikes where people can see cyclists. Not only does getting out and riding in public healthy for you, but it can inspire others to ride, and help the public image of cycling (for commuting or health or fun) - especially if you obey the law by not running stop signs or using hand signals and so on. 

     The short story is that I think both programs have their place, but I think it is important for people to get out into the fresh air where they can see others and others can see them so maybe more people will want to ride and enjoy life on two wheels. Ride on!