Naturally we think of doing group activities in the evenings, after work, or over the weekend, when we’re free for the entire day. Some people take the opposite approach. They wake up early to go for a morning sunrise run or a croissant loop bike ride.
The concept is simple. Instead of waking up for work, you wake up early, and you do an hour of sport between 0700-0800. In so doing you get your bike ride or run, before your day of work.
I set the alarm for 05:30 this morning and when it went off I was tempted to ignore it and sleep more. I had the self-discipline to get up anyway, shower, and then dress for a bike ride. When I was ready to go the watch told me “sunrise in 10 minutes” and I set off then.
On the way to Nyon I was beeped by a car for not using the cycle lane.
Two days in a row I participated in activities that pushed me physically. On sunday it was a 60km ride with 900m of climbing and a 25km/h wind and the next day it was a 9.4km walk which is pushing my endurance further than usual. I found myself thinking that I should participate in hikes because hikes are easy. I’m used to walking. Walking and hiking were my specialities.
Regular Challenges By cycling on Sunday, despite the wind, and running on Monday despite the fatigue I pushed myself, and I remained true to my word.
Yesterday before the ride I could hear the wind playing with the shutter slats. I could also hear it against the combes, or roof, if you prefer that word. I looked outside and I could see that the wind was moving branches around. I also looked at the temperature and thought “Do I really want to go for a bike ride in these conditions?” Of course, as this was a group ride I did.
In the last two days I ran 8.7 and 7.6km. I also walked 7km and 6 or more kilometres. I’m also recovering from a cold. That’s why yesterday I broke a fundamental rule, by catching a bus.
For clarity, I am opposed to buses because their frequency is low, and at 3 CHF per trip per direction the bus is an expense I don’t need, as I am happy to walk.
The Cycplus AS2 is a pocket sized inflator that can easily be taken while cycling with a group or alone. It doesn’t have a display and it doesn’t tell you how much battery but it does inflate a tyre within seconds with minimal effort.
I tested it at home first, to get used to its use. You press it against the valve and then you press again and it starts to inflate.
Today, for the first time during a bike ride, I had a tyre puncture. I suspect that it wasn’t a tyre puncture but rather that I over-inflated the tyre, and that due to the wet, gravelly conditions of the roads, the inner tube eventually failed.
The irony is that it’s because I checked the tyre pressure that the incident occured. By checking the tyre I inflated it, but when I saw the pressure was fine I decided to inflate once or twice more.
I know, without a doubt that if I ride with one group, especially if there are only 25 people, that it will be hard. It’s because of how hard I know the ride will be that I am not keen to join that group. despite this I still considered going for a bike ride this morning, until noisy neighbours made it impossible for me to have an early night.
There is a bad habit among alcoholics that they need to make noise at night without considering that others may want to sleep.
The biggest improvement you can make to walking and cycling mobility is to avoid having cyclists, and pedestrians blocked by car traffic. This can include traffic lights but also busy roads where it is impossible to cross. If you’re on a walk, or a bike ride, and you get blocked by cars, then the temptation is not to walk that route, or walk a shorter distance.
Millions are being spent to make roads more cyclist and pedestrian friendly but they’re making changes that look good on paper but do nothing for cyclists and pedestrians.
Yesterday I went for two walks. The first walk was after lunch because I had something to drop off at the post office. Usually I would have printed the label at home, rather than doing this walk. I desired to go for a bike ride but the chore was more important. In the process I learned something.
If you need to print something, you can go to the post office, and via an app you can print the label for a package there and then.