Monday, March 9, 2009

Biker Dude, or... a Bike! Dude.

I'm not even close to being a biker dude, but dude, I got a "new" bike. It's a 21 speed street bike that I'm storing for my youngest daughter. She recently inherited it from her grand-dad who passed away this summer. Ken, my former father-in-law, was an amazing guy: retired teacher, photographer, wood worker, volunteer, dog lover, and bike rider.



Well, I've lost my racquetball partner to injury, and I've been looking for a way to burn some fat calories and still have fun. I've discovered I can do a 15 minute "lap" around the neighborhood without crossing any major streets. It's fun, safe of the joints, cheap, easy on the schedule, and invigorating. It also burns 15 calories per minute. (Yowza!)



I live in a flat area, but on the "home stretch" of my route, I get cranking at 30 mph for about 5 seconds, then I warm down for the last five minutes of my "trek."

I've been riding for about a week, once a day during the week, and twice a day on the weekends. Just enough to burn a few calories, get the metabolism up, and have a bit of fun in the process. (I also get to see what "wind chill" feels like. Brrrr.)



And although I've lived in this tract of homes for 25 years, I've traveled on a few streets last week that I never have before.
I even studied Google Maps to find the longest route. Having fun in my own "backyard." Who knew?



(Actually, my youngest daughter, she knew. Yeah, she did.)

4 comments:

  1. Dude, 27 speed? Soon you will need an engineering degree to ride a bike. HA! Back in the day, it was one speed, then three. Then five. Remember the cool kids that had a five speed? Then ten....then 12.....now 27. (no, my first bike did not have stone wheels). :-)

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  2. CIS, small correction: 21 speed (7 gears in back, 3 in front -- the 10 speed bikes had 5 in back, 2 in front)The cool part, is the gear shift is built into the handlebars.

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  3. Gotta love a good bike. Just think, if you keep up all this hard work you might be able to make the trek back to Iowa to ride RAGBRAI this summer. Have fun! :)

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  4. If I keep up the hard work, maybe I can ride for 30 minutes at a time and not 15! (Fagetabout RAGBRA... ain't gonna happen. Maybe you?)

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