fitness
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You Can’t Play Pickleball By Yourself
As many readers know, in early December 2023, Felkerino was in a hit and run while cycling. Since then he has been recovering and healing. Our 2024 plans dissolved after his crash. Instead, we focused on medical appointments and managing the crash’s aftermath. Felkerino wrote an excellent summary about his experience here. While Felkerino mended,… Continue reading
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Things to Do During Your Taper
Ah, the taper. Time to back away from the long efforts, rest the legs, eat good meals, and ready for the big day. What’s a person to do with all this new-found spare time? Continue reading
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Spreadsheet Ruminations: Are You There, Legs? It’s Me…
Three months ago I ditched the spreadsheet I used to document my bicycle lifestyle, opting instead for a non-quantitative approach. There’s more to life than counting up the miles, I told myself. I want to explore it. Over the last three months, I have documented many rides with journal entries and taken photos along the… Continue reading
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Throwing Away the Cycling Spreadsheet
A funny thing happened to me at the end of April. Funny to me, anyway. I lost interest in tracking my cycling miles, and stopped caring about the number of days I rode each month. Instead of fighting that feeling, I’ve just gone with it, especially since this sentiment has been growing over the last… Continue reading
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Goals versus Plans
In one of my 2013 roundup posts I noted that I had not written down any goals in 2013. However, I did make a variety of plans and spent a great deal of time making sure they came to fruition. I see my plans distinctly from my goals. For me, plans are generally more concrete… Continue reading
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2013 in Review: Goals, Mileage, Rides, and Runs
At the beginning of this year I committed to having a different kind of year than I had in 2012. At the end of last year I had started to feel burned out, as though I had been doing the same thing over and over and not enjoying it. Felkerino and I agreed to back… Continue reading
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The Furlough, Fall Events, and a Marathon Taper
Taking the topic away from coffeeneuring for a moment, I wanted to post some thoughts about three separate, yet interrelated, topics: lions; tigers; and bears. Or really: how I spent my furlough days, the impact of the furlough on the fall event plans, and my marathon taper. It also gives me an opportunity to post… Continue reading
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Fall Events and an August Wrap-Up
August passed in a herky jerky fashion. I had trouble getting into a rhythm with my riding and I ventured infrequently to the weight room. As a result my cycling miles were down and I probably have reduced my pushups capability for the moment. Who knows what miserable state my core is in (kidding… I’m… Continue reading
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What Does Health Mean to You? Laying the Groundwork
This week the WordPress Weekly Writing Challenge, a blog that essentially gives bloggers voluntary writing assignments, encouraged people to reflect on health and what it means to them. I have been thinking a lot about my health over the last year, in part because I turned 40, which really had me in a prolonged existential funk.… Continue reading
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2013 In Progress: Kept the Spreadsheet and Changed My Story
Now that we’ve reached one month beyond the halfway point of 2013, I wanted to take a snapshot of July as well as the year so far. Continue reading
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Endurance: What the Research Doesn’t Tell You
When mainstream media picks up a thread about the effects of endurance pursuits on health, I usually hear about it. The most recent one I know of was covered in the Wall Street Journal. The article’s focus was “extreme exercisers,” and how they may experience some health benefits from their activities, but likely put their… Continue reading
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A Peak, a Valley, and a New Ascent: May by the Miles
May turned out to be an exciting month around the edges with a big blah and some good lessons learned in the middle. Numbers-wise, it looked like this: 1 Marathon 91 miles run 0 Brevets 485 miles on the bike 11 trips to the gym for general weightlifting workouts First, a peak: The first weekend… Continue reading
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Adios, Spin Classes
This past month I canceled one of my gym memberships. It’s sort of a long story, but I had maintained two gym memberships since switching jobs in October, and a cost-benefit analysis led me to the decision to keep only one. I was surprisingly sad to cancel my membership, but I could not rationalize keeping… Continue reading
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From Fun to Focused: an Update on the Gym
It’s been two months since I shook up my gym routine with a more focused workout plan. Since that time I’ve been trying (mostly successfully) to go to the gym twice a week to do my customized workouts. Outside of the gym, I’ve stayed active on the bike and somewhat active with running. I logged… Continue reading
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Becoming Vulnerable to Change
For the past several months, whenever I have ventured to the gym for a weight workout on my own, I’ve repeated the same routine. A routine that works the basic muscle groups, I have felt locked into doing it because it’s what I know and I was at a loss for how to switch it… Continue reading
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I’m Not Training; I’m Having Fun
Earlier this week I read a brief but informative article in the New York Times called “Training Insights from Star Athletes.” The Times interviewed three elite athletes who discussed various facets of their training, including the importance of making it focused and structured. When Felkerino and I agreed to ride Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) in 2011, I… Continue reading
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Looking Ahead Without a Spreadsheet
As mentioned in a previous post, I track the miles I run and ride. I keep tabs on the number of days I do each activity. Bike ride? Check. Trip to the gym? Check. Miles ridden or run? Write them down. I usually take great pleasure watching the trips and miles add up over the… Continue reading
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Benefits of Tracking the Miles
I grew up watching my dad, a runner, track his miles. He always took the time to note how far he ran, the day’s temperature, wind direction, and a few other details about his run. It seemed only natural, then, when I started running (and later riding) to keep a mileage log. I recently read… Continue reading
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I Get By with a Little Help from My Gym Friends
When I first started going to the gym, I did so because I wanted to strengthen myself for cycling. Then I wanted to strength train because I completely freaked out about getting older and realized the importance of weight-bearing activity. Later I continued my gym visits because I enjoyed the challenge to my body and… Continue reading
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We Interrupt this Commute for a Spin Class
Welcome 2012! Brrr! If you’ve been out and about in D.C. the past couple of days you know that we’re being treated to some fine winter weather. Temperatures in the teens, and highs barely eking above freezing. There should be a winter law where all the traffic lights in the city go to flashing red,… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 