Bike for a Better Future

Upon my hours of wandering through the world wide web, I stumbled upon the 2 Mile Challenge hosted by Clif Bar. Basically it's calling people all over the world to join hands and start a...I mean ride their bikes instead of driving. There are some pretty interesting statistics - apparently 40% of trips taken are less than 2 miles and 90% are taken by car. If we make the effort to reduce our short trips by riding a bike instead then we could reduce carbon emission by 25 million tons a yr. That's a lot.

Personally I'm advocate of biking instead of driving. It's so much more fun, promotes activity, and is very green. Actually being able to do it, takes some effort. For one you have to change your comfortable habits, and second you have to face the weather. The first thing will take time, but can be done once you figure out how to make bike trips efficient and effortless for you. Going on bike rides used to take me 30 mins to get ready for, but now I can be out the door in less than 10. The weather is another beast. Especially living in a hot/humid city like Houston. The Summer is brutal and unforgiving. The Spring and Fall are short and sweet. The Winter isn't bad, but few Houstonians know how to exercise in the cold.

Sometimes weather is just a mental hurdle you have to man-up and jump over, but there are legitimate occasions where a car is needed. Examples include grocery shopping day and avoiding getting your work clothes dirtied in the commute day, which is coincidentally every work day. Of course if you have the means to get around these hurdles - a big basket on your bike/not that many groceries or a shower close to your work place - then you should definitely consider buying a commuter or hybrid bike. I think you will find that the feel good result of riding a bike outweighs the comfort of the car and is totally worth changing your habits.

Anyway, check out the 2 mile challenge. Clif bar is donating money to 3 charities that help advocate and work towards bike riding for all. You can pick the one you like best, sign up, and log your miles to help that charity win even more money.

I joined the Red Team.

Ithaca

So this past weekend I took a flex trip to go see my brother who's doing his PhD at Cornell. It was a good weekend. I love the 4.5 day work week that comes with traveling. Fridays are practically half days and low stress, so it makes the weekend feel long and relaxing. I can't remember the last time I felt that I had so much time on my hands I didn't know what to do with myself.

Anyway, there was plenty to do in Ithaca and the town has already grown on me. It takes about 10-15 mins to get anywhere you want to go, and you can pick from star gazing to farmers markets, to downtown. It's that small and complete. You can walk down the street to get food and ride your bike out your front door. I didn't do a good job taking pictures, so you'll have to be satisfied with photos from google images.

I think the visit did a good job stabilizing my mental health. I liked the small community feel, the intelligent conversation and the green culture. Not to mention being able to ride out the door for a good hilly ride.

Now these hills are not like Austin at all. Think a mixture of the Bechtel challenge and Austin city hills. Then double the height of those hills. There was also one really really steep hill. I didn't go on that one but it was there inviting me to. All the other hills were manageable, just tall. My brother's friend lent me his Felt, which thankfully had a triple chain ring. His lab mates took me out for a 20 mile ride complete with a tall hill and some nice flats. It was a good ride. Before that was pretty crazy tho, I had a flat the day before while riding the bike back to my brother's apt and then two more flats before we really got on our 20 mile ride. 3 flats! on my back wheel! so now I'm much better at changing flats. Woo!

Contemplating the Tri

So I've been posed with this question a few times,

"Why don't you do a triathlon?"

And the answer was typically,

"I hate swimming. And swimming hates me."

The last episode was when I went snorkeling off the coast of Zanzibar. (Yes Zanzibar is a real place.) I couldn't even keep myself a float for long and my friends had to help me not die. I saw like one fish. And drank plenty of salty water. Awesome.

But now I'm kind of considering it. I would def have a lot to work on. Speed, endurance, speed...swimming, swimming fast. It's a lot. I'm not a speedy person. I can go for a long time, but speed is not my thing.

I dunno, still contemplating. We'll see.

Poor Form

Since the MS150 I’ve only taken my bike out a few times and every time has not been so fun. It’s been kind of miserable actually. Within 2 miles of being on the bike I get pain right between my shoulders. Like a sort of inward crunching pain. Makes cycling not so fun to do. So I haven’t been going for very long. I consulted some forums and friends and I think the consensus is poor form.

My Jamis’s bars were a little taller than where I sat, so I could rest my upper body on it without much pain, reach a little, and not have to engage my core. In fact I never used my core to hold myself up. I was always confused when I would read about how important your core is, but never figured out why I was never sore there. Now I know. My Pinarello’s bars are on the same plane if not lower than my seat height. So that gives me a better race position, but since I spent a year on my arms, it’s coming back to kick me in the face…or jump on my back. I feel like I have to relearn how to ride my bike! I have to work on using my abdomen more, put little to no weight on my arms, keep my elbows bent and hips tucked.


A professional fit might be in order, too…which would be cool but they are expensive. I will try fixing my form first. If that doesn’t work, then off to the professionals. Good thing is that my stem is still about 50mm so I have a little bit of room for adjustments if need be. I am still more comfortable on the bars than the hoods.

New Gloves and the Giro d'Italia

Today I headed over to Performance for new gloves. It's been over a yr since I got ones and the gel in the ones I have now are pretty shot. I decided on the Pearl Izumi Select Women's glove. The gel felt good and it has a really thin mesh top. There is a lack of sweat/snot wipe though. Not sure what I'm gonna do come winter...maybe shoot snot all over the road.

Anyway the problem you usually see with any glove is that getting off is annoying. Most have this little tab at the wrist, but unless the glove is thin enough it only comes half off. And most of the time it inverts. I liked my Serfas gloves because they had loops between the fingers for clean removal.

However these Pearl Izumi's have a tiny tab on the ring finger. That allows for seamless removal.

I have to say this is better than my Serfas gloves. Fit is great, the mesh is light and comfortable, gel is in all the right places, and the removal tab is a hidden plus. 4.5 Stars on design Pearl Izumi. We'll see how the snot thing goes.

On another cycling note, the Giro d'Italia is starting tomorrow in Amsterdam and ending in Verona. If you follow cycling, it should be on Universal Sports tomorrow morning. I feel like I need to decide on a favorite rider, but really I have to learn more about them and the teams so I purchased a year's subscription to Cycle Sport America. This looks like a much better magazine than Road Bike Action. I'll tell you when the first one comes in. The Giro d'Italia Cycle Sport America edition is out on stands if you want a good look at the stages and what it entails.

Also I know I haven't been blogging. I got tired of listing every time I ran 3 miles or went to a step class. I'm sure you were tired of reading those. It also got tiring feeling like I had to write. There isn't always a constant flow of creativity in me, so when I don't blog you can tell that my jar is low and I need time to refill. However with all my free time on the bench I took time to surf YouTube and found a lot of fun/interesting channels including KevJumba and WongFu Productions. And I decided, why can't I do a video blog? So I've been trying to video tape events and stuff I go to. I did get a lot of good vid of the Sugarland Crits, so those will be up as soon as I figure out this editing software and am satisfied with my editing job.

Thanks for reading and watch the Giro.