Training site prepared

So finally, after meaning to get at it for almost two months, I've taken the extreme step of getting ready for the LiveStrong ride by...

putting a bike in the trainer.

Yeah, I've been a wee bit lax in getting prepared, but since the ride isn't until July 12, so it's not like I have to be ready tomorrow.

This will be essentially the same set-up I used a whopping three times in Baltimore before the boredom drove me batty. There are a few things working in my favor this time:

• Need - when I was in Baltimore I was training to train. Now I not only have the LiveStrong ride where I want to make a decent showing, but being in the Bay Area means that I have a number of cycling friends who aren't significantly overweight, which really tells in the climbs.
• Desire - I'm making what will hopefully be the last attempt to get my weight back under control. I worked with a group in the area before I took a lot of weight off, and I plan to sign back up. Roughly put I've got about 75 pounds to peel, and it's going to take significant changes in food and exercise to get there.
• Entertainment - the way I had things rigged up in Baltimore I think the bike/trainer was too close to my VCR/TV antenna, because when I would try to tape things the tapes came out sketchy. I'm not taping now and I'm on cable (for the moment) anyway. Also, I've recently found a couple of new series (Primeval being one) and with the bike at the window I'll be able to enjoy.
• Removing tech - I've only got one computer and it's on my Trucker. I'll be training for the first few weeks at least purely on time in the saddle, and will be basing my training time on how sore my hind-parts are and whatever I have from Netflix.

As I move forward I'll be doing a weekly weight/training update, focused mainly on time spent per day. I hope to be commuting by bike again soon, and will be adding that info in as well. Oh, lastly, I'm a member of Team Fatty for the San Jose LiveStrong Challenge ride, and if you want to donate or just wish me well, follow this link.

San Diego cyclists

I'm in San Diego for the week for a work thing, and have been both excited and disappointed by the cycling that I've seen. I've seen heaps of commuters, walking between my hotel and the hotel where the conference is, and last night hitched a ride with a new (10 days) pedicab "driver" who was absolutely ecstatic about his job. From what I can see there's decent infrastructure in place for cyclists, including decent bike lanes and some nice MUPs with some separated areas (tagged for bikes to go on a specific route). Oh, and bike lanes that apparently allow planes. Nice.

So why am I disappointed about San Diego cycling? Because I'm not doing any of it. I still haven't gotten a case for my LHT (which has the S&S setup to let me pack it) and the one time I've tried to pack it with a rented case I couldn't figure it out (the rear deraileur was to long). So I'm walking and looking at all these lovely cyclists riding through perfect weather, without being able to participate.

Something new

Two somethings actually. First, I'm making my first attempt to use pictures taken with a camera phone. Second - bike racks at a local hospital. Sure, that may not be new, but the racks at this hospital are fairly new.

I was over at a local hospital last weekend to see someone and noticed the bike cage in the new parking garage. The hospital (John Muir, Walnut Creek Campus) is doing a heap of renovation work and part of that was building a parking garage, and it's great to see the bike parking. When I was there on Sunday the cage was locked, but the presence of a lot of locks on the rack makes it clear that the cage gets used. I guess it's set up for staff and not visitors (but I also didn't ask anyone about access).

One thing that makes the really great (in my mind) is that the hospital sits right next to the Ygnacio Canal MUP, which means there's easy access to some off-street biking. Great to see this sort of thing being included in new developments.

Still here

My work schedule went pot, and I'll be pulling long days for the next few weeks. That means little time to ride and very little awake time at home. Hopefully I'll get some posting done soon.

Simplicity

When I first started this blog I intended to write not just about cycling, but about Zen (as I see it) and some politics. This is the first of what I hope will be a series of periodic posts on Zen (as I see it). I am adding the modifier to indicate that I have no formal training in Zen, and will be writing about the path as it appears to me, not according to doctrine.

Simplicity of life is one of the tenets at the heart of Zen practice, and one of the things about it that most appeals to me. Interestingly, there is now an active movement, that I encounter mainly through other blogs, on ways to simplify your life. Something I find interesting about much of this movement is that the way towards simplicity expounded is often by adding complexity. The most visible form of this is the Get Things Done way of thinking. At its heart this involves adding small things to your life which enable you to more-effectively use your time, sounds good. However, many of the practitioners I've encountered talk about convoluted systems where there is a specific time to do everything that you can conceive of, which doesn't sound very simple to me.

I am a fan of achieving simplicity by removing the things that make life complex. What got me thinking about all of this was doing yard work. This is the first time in many years that I have lived in a house that had a yard which requires maintenance. I have small front and rear yards, with lawns to mow and plants to trim. As I was working on the yard this weekend I found myself thinking about how much more sensible it would be to have a "native garden" type yard. Simply put this is a yard planted with native vegetation and allowed to grown more naturally. All told it means less work, less water use, better habitat for local wildlife, and an extension of the local wilderness into your yard. Given that my rear yard backs up to a creek, going native would allow me to incorporate some of the creek wildlife into my yard. However, since I'm only renting there is little I can do for now.

Another way I strive towards simplicity is biking and walking rather than driving. I don't imagine that I am rare among car-free commuters to find it more mentally relaxing to walk or ride rather than drive. As I continue working towards a more simple life I will continue to post the little things I find that help. My goal is not to create some artificial zone of emptiness around me, but to have those aspects of my life I have control over to be as stress-free as I can make them.

And that includes not adding stress by overdoing the attempt to simplify.

A different spin on car-free

Continuing in Monday's vein about car-light living, I bring you this:

That is a pedal-powered roller coaster from Japan, the Skycycle at the Washuzan Highland Park in Okayama to be precise. I first saw it written about on the Everyman Triathlon blog, as a way to actually combine the very disparate concepts of "endurance training" and "fun". The post there has more information and pictures, as does this one from Geekologie, from March of 2007. Finally, there is this page, linked to in the Geekoligie article, which has a lot of details on the Skycycle.

I don't know about you, but I would love something like that to play on. I mean, I live in the SF Bay Area, one of the most dedicated liberal/green enclaves going, and we don't have a human powered roller coaster? What are you greenies thinking?

The self-perpetuating nature of car-light

One thing I have noticed since moving into my new house is that living car-light is a self-perpetuating thing. I chose a house that was close enough to transit (BART) that I would be able to take it without biking or driving to the station. When I was staying with my dad I was far enough away that I had to bike/drive, and various things meant I was driving most of the time. Now, I'm a short walk away, and the truck sits in the driveway five of seven days by default. What I've been noticing more though is that I avoid driving on the weekends. 

When I was in Baltimore I would avoid driving because of parking issues - I lived in neighborhoods with street-parking only and it was often a fight to get a place. Now, I have a driveway that could hold two or three cars without issue and I still avoid driving. As I was thinking about the around-the-house chores I need to take care of this past weekend I realized that I was avoiding some (yard work) because I need to go pick up a few things from the hardware store, and the distance/roads means that I have to drive there. I am actually excited about some of the work, but the idea of driving to get the implements (and it's not expensive stuff, brooms, dustpans, and a new ribbon for an edger) has me turned off.

Funny how something that most people think is the easiest way to get around, driving, is actually preventing me from going out.