Exploring

Another thing I love about my bike: I love love love love LOVE exploring.

Today I explored one of the bike paths here in town. I went from start to finish. I rode through the Nature Center that this path runs through, from the Home Depot to the rich business area on East **st, from the business area past the movie theater area, to the suburb area that the path ends in. It really is a nice little path.

I rode a total of 32 miles on this trip. It's really been a while since I've gone on a very long bike ride, and I obviously didn't eat enough before I left, so I came close to passing out several times on the ride. I came back and ate like a pig and automatically felt better, ha.

I read somewhere that with my current weight, in order to be able to undergo such a long ride I'd have to consume somewhere near 3000 calories a day. I'm a fatty, and as a fatty I eat like one sometimes, so normally that isn't difficult for me to do. However, when you're poor and don't have many food options to choose from and must sometimes ration your food, it's hard to accomplish that. Maybe I'll research how I can get the calories I need for biking when I have such a small budget. Hmm...

Catch Up

I haven't written in a while. That's because nothing significant has really happened to me.

Fall season has come on full storm. And by the word storm, I mean that almost literally! Tuesday and Wednesday morning I was unable to ride my bike. You see, it was raining. Now, rain doesn't bother me. Really. All I have to do to adapt is wear some clothes that I don't mind getting a little wet. But, when there's cold WIND to go along with cold RAIN, that's where we have the problem. Cold wind/rain mix bugs me because there's a risk of catching a cold and/or pneumonia. Not only that, but I've heard that hypothermia sucks and I'm not really looking to try it out myself :)

I was finally able to ride to places yesterday afternoon. I rode everywhere, including my chiropractor's appointment. He thought I was crazy when I told him I rode my bike there, but that's probably because of his location at one of the busiest intersections in town. I'd like to reiterate that I never ride on busy streets, just side streets and bike paths only :)

Today was a fun experience, too. We are on fall break at our school, but I had to report for work. I had to report at 8:00 this morning, and I wanted to ride my bike. So guess what I did? I got the bike out at 7:00 this morning! It was freezing cold, with no rain, but I got there safe and sound. Riding at sunup is so different from riding during the normal daylight hours. There's a significantly smaller amount of traffic than there is during the normal daylight hours, therefore I am not as nervous when I'm riding.

Where to Ride

One bit of slack a cyclist faces: where to ride. In some places cyclists that ride out in the street are respected. In other places, like the city I reside in, cyclists get a lot of flack for riding in the street from these angry drivers that are all "*snort* OMG STAY OFF THE STREET IF YOU CAN'T KEEP UP WITH MY BEHEMOTH SUV OMG OMG OMG".

Here is what I do:

I don't ride on a busy street. I take mainly side street and bike path routes. I am scared of the drivers in Wichita and their selfish attitudes, therefore, I am scared of riding on busy streets.

There is only one busy street that I ride on, and in reality, it isn't all that busy. I ride on that street because the sidewalks aren't very well maintained and usually are littered with glass shards. After one shard of glass cut my tire and inner tube up I decided that I would be riding in the street on said street from there on out.

I've gotten a couple of honks and odd glares from a couple of people, but a majority of the people don't seem to care when I'm riding in the street. That's encouraging.

The other day I was riding on the side street, and I came to an intersection at one of the busy streets. I looked over to my right, saw cars, and then looked to my left. What I saw to my left astounded me--two older ladies were in their electric wheelchairs, riding in the street, against traffic, with a sidewalk just a few feet next to them. I know that Kansas Law states that pedestrians that walk in the street must walk against the flow of traffic, but it also states that a sidewalk must be walked upon whenever available. Guh.

I'll never understand some people.

No Readers Yet

As far as I know, I don't have any readers yet. :( This sucks. Maybe updating my blog constantly will get me some readers. I hope...

But when I do get readers, here are a few questions they would probably have for me:

Q: Why is the title of your blog "fatty on a bike"?

A: That is because I am truly a fatty on a bike. I'm 5'6" and...well, I'm not willing to disclose my weight, but I'm at a pant size 18.

Q: Why do you ride your bike so much?

A: For two reasons: health reasons and economic reasons. Before I started riding I was at a pant size 22. Like I mentioned, I'm at an 18 now. I have all this extra energy and I'm actually awake when I get to class. Plus, there's the fact that I've gone from filling up my gas tank every five days to only filling it up every two to three weeks or so. My wallet loves me for that.

Q: When do you drive to places instead of riding?

A: I drive when I have to run an errand that requires stuff to be hauled, like going to the grocery store or something. I drive when I am not feeling well. (That usually happens around the middle of each month. Ha!) I drive when I'm going long distances. Finally, I drive when there is a legitamate concern for my safety. I have a night class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and it is usually pitch black by the time I get out of said class. Muggings happen quite a bit in this area, so I'm sure a girl on a bike would be an easy target.

Q: What kind of bike do you ride?

A: I ride a Trek 4300 mountain bike. Eventually, when I get down to the weight that I want to get down to, I'm going to buy a nice road bike for myself.

This is all I can think of right now.

Unlubricated Bike Chains

One thing that really sucks about riding a bike everywhere is this: having to lubricate my chain at least once a week or so. And if I forget to do it, I will surely pay with a more difficult-riding bike and a noisy chain.

That happened to me today. The crazy winds from yesterday died down quite a bit, which was a big yay for me. I set off around 8:30 or so feeling confident that nothing out of the ordinary would happen to me today.

About a half-mile into my journey I heard it, the sound that almost sounded like a train moving on the tracks with the occasional bird chirping noise. And I felt it, too, as it was become difficult to pedal in my bike's 2nd and 5th gear. It dawned on me that I hadn't relubed it in about a week and half!

And so it was. I only got a 10.2 mph average because I really couldn't pedal any faster than 13 mph when I was at my best. That sucked, mainly because I was hyper and needed to get off some excess energy.

I guess the moral of today's post is this: make sure your bike chain is well-lubricated. The guy at the bike store told me that it should probably be lubed every 150 miles or so with the brand of lube that I use. If you don't lube your chain, you'll have noisy rides, it will be more difficult to shift, and you risk chain breakage in the most extreme cases.

Intense Workouts

Today I was fully prepared to make the journey to class. That, however, changed when I realized that it was too windy for me to make it to class on time. I hitched a ride with my boyfriend, who drives a pickup truck, and I just rode to class from his parking spot.

Leaving my class presented me with an odd choice. I usually have two kinds of workouts that I focus on: distance workouts and time workouts. If I'm going for distance I try to ride 20 miles and if I'm going for timed I try to ride one hour at a rather brisk pace.

This presented an issue for me: I didn't have the time to do either kind of ride today, as I had errands to run before I had to drive to my afternoon/evening classes. (I drive to my evening classes for reasons of my own personal safety. WSU is in a dangerous area!)

I remembered something that my mom said that I kind of took to heart. She said that sometimes it's not the length or the time that matters, it's the intensity of the work. I was riding with the wind going back, so I said what the hell. I put my bike in the 3rd and 5th gears and just let loose.

There were several points in which I looked down at my bike computer and saw that my bike speed was at 17 mph. I was turning corners faster than normal, which was scary as hell, but the little kid in me screamed "WEEEEEEEE!". I got home out of breath and tired, like I just rode 30 miles or something! My mom was correct, intensity can matter just as much as anything else in a workout.

My average speed was at 11.1 by the time I got home. The only reason it wasn't higher was because of the school riding I did where I had to do lots of slow riding to avoid hitting fellow students on sidewalks. That was disappointing to see, but I'm sure my average speed on the bike path was at least 13 mph if not more.

So the moral of the story: intense rides can be just as fun as distance rides and you'd get just as much of a work out in a shorter amount of time if you just pick up the pace a bit.

Rain: Nature's Practical Joke

As expected, it did rain today.

This morning wasn't so bad for me, really. It was only lightly sprinkling outside, so everything was tolerable. I didn't get too wet, and I didn't get too cold since I had a sweatshirt on over my jersey. It was fun and perfect.

Fast forward to my afternoon ride home. I was already grumpy because I was once again riding nto a headwind. I sat there on the saddle of my bike, thinking and pondering. No, it's not going to rain. I've made it most of the way home and it's not going to rain.

All of a sudden, when I got to the last major bridge I'd have to ride under, it started pouring. We're not talking about having a light rain preceding the heavy rain. No, my friends, it was P-O-U-R-I-N-G pouring. It was like God grabbed a little flower watering can and decided to dump it on me in one simultaneous moment.

Instead of waiting it out under the bridge, I decided to brave out the rest of the journey home. Riding in rain and wind sucks, but I'd like to reiterate the fact that riding in both of these conditions sucks. It sucks a lot. It especially sucks on a pedestrian overpass bridge, where the winds are higher. I actually had to walk my bike because I was scared that my bike was going to fall over.

When came home my clothes were soaked like I had just gone for a romp in the swimming pool with my clothes on. So the moral of this story, friends, is this:

If you're a bike commuter and you can do this, wait out the torrential downpours under a bridge or something. Your clothing and sanity will that you for that =)

Headwind Cycling

I forgot to mention one thing about my cycling: I don't just commute when I cycle. I also ride for recreational purposes on the weekends.

Yesterday I was going out for my recreational ride. Going to the end of my destination was easy-peasy. I was probably averaging 12, 13 mph no sweat. However, when I turned around, I was hit this sudden gust of wind. The gust died down, but the winds never did.

My friends, I cycled into what is known as a headwind.

To me, there are three things that really suck about cycling: hills, headwinds, and bad weather.

Hills and bad weather are something that you can get used to. When you get stronger, the hills become easier to manage. Luckily for me, I reside in Kansas, the flat-land prairie state. Hill are therefore not that difficult for me. It's also easier to manage bad weather: if you ride more in it, your body becomes tolerant to it. I remember I rode during the hot hot hot hot hot weather days in the summer and everyone at my work thought I was crazy. Personally, I thought they were crazy, but that was only because the heat didn't bother me the way people were worried it would.

The only thing I haven't gotten used to yet is the Kansas winds. Most Kansans will be able to tell you that the climate in Kansas includes lots and lots and lots and lots of wind. Sometimes the winds go above 20 mph. I can handle anything below that.

Yesterday the headwinds were going at 25 mph to the north, and I was traveling south. I was going to try and do a 30 mile ride, but honestly couldn't swing it. 22 miles is good enough for me, especially considering how windy.

Anyway, I keep babbling. The point of this post is to advise others on how to ride into headwinds without dying:

1. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT try to maintain a constant speed. If you try to maintain a 13 mph speed, even when the strong gusts hit, you will wear yourself out faster than my boyfriend's puppy wears himself out when he's chasing a laser pointer light.

2. Keep your bike in a lower gear. The gears you use for non-windy riding will prove to be too high for the windy riding.

3. Try not to take too much gear with you. Only take what you need--a cell phone, a bike tool, a spare innertube, wallet with ID and money, your water bottle, and some form of self-protection if you have it. You will thank yourself because you won't be carrying all of that extra weight with you.

4. Try not to get yourself dehydrated. You're working extra hard when you're in the wind, and you'll make yourself sick if you're not properly hydrated.

That's all I can think of right now, folks. Check back in tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be rainy tomorrow, so I may end up blogging about that. Tata for now!

Introduction

Once upon a time there was a girl. She had been overweight all of her life, and really, as a feminist she didn't think much about it. After all, she hated how the American advertising industry portrayed women: as sex objects, submissive to men, and too thin to have any kind of strength.

She came from an overweight family. Her father was dangerously obese and did nothing to try and lose weight. Everyone else in the family was overweight, too, but not to the extent that her father was. And she was growing tired of two things: people ridiculing the overweight individuals that don't fit the ad industry's definition of "beautiful" and the stereotypical overweight individuals that were running around.

In the summer of 2008 gas prices started soaring. She worked a mere college job, so each and every one of her paychecks would have to go paying for gas. She decided that didn't really suit her well, so she moved in with her boyfriend and bought a new bicycle. At the end of June, she started her journey as a bike commuter.

I am, of course, talking about myself in the third person here. It makes background information storytelling fun :)

Being a bike commuter has changed me. Before the bicycling began I was at a size 22. Now, at the beginning of October, I'm down to a size 18. The first thing people say to me when they haven't seen me for a while is something along the lines "OMMMG. YOU LOOK SO GOOD!" or "You're my hero". The narcissist in me tells me that's a good thing.

There are, of course, more benefits to being a bike commuter than just the mere weight loss. I only have to fill my gas tank up once every three weeks or so, and I don't have to worry about being stuck in traffic jams anymore. Luckily there's a bike path that mostly goes to the location I work and attend school at. (I work on campus at the local university here in town.) It's a lot less intimidating than riding in the street is.

I'll write more when I get the time to do so, but for now I must come to a close in this entry:

I started this blog as a means of documenting what the things I see, hear, and do while I'm on my bicycle. Welcome, readers, to the blog of the fatty on the bike.