New Year Resolution

With a new year comes the thoughts of resolutions and new beginnings or at least continuation. I would love to resolve to ride my bike to work every day, but I want to set goals I know I can reach.

As the weather changes and the days get longer I will find it much easier to commute by bike and get back in the saddle for longer recreational ride as well. I am looking forward to getting back on the bike. I miss the satisfaction of moving myself and do not miss the frustration of driving.

I do want to make two resolution for 2010:

1. I resolve to learn more about bike maintenance. I can change a tube and some work, but I want to learn more,

2. I resolve to make some difference in the state of bicycling or bike commuting here in the Tri-Cities.

That's it. I am working to make these a little more specific and hope to find the time-line/plan soon. More to come and keep riding...I know I'll be out there soon!

Commuting in the snow

One of the most difficult times of the year to commute by bike is during the winter. I spent a relatively mild winter in Colorado bike commuting and used the public transit system when the roads became too icy to ride.

Equipment to ride in the winter is out there: warm clothes, lights and even studded tires to help on snow-covered or icy roads or trails. The greater caution is traffic.

Sharing the road with automobiles when you bicycle has it's challenges in the best of circumstances. When you add winter weather conditions sharing the road can be very dangerous. Ice is not only a danger for riding on two wheels, but can reduce the ability for automobiles to stop or correct if necessary.

I have had to explore alternate routes for commuting and use public transit, such as a bus that can carry a bike, to help commuting during the winter. Investing in brighter lights and a few more safety lights can also help with the shorter days of winter.

I find that I commute by bike less in the winter months, but I know a lot of people who continue to bike. Conditions change in winter for cyclists just like they do for motorists.

For those of you who bike during the winter...stay safe and see you on the road.

First Half - day 27

Just finished the Plyo Cardio Circuit and the first half of the Insanity program. Next week is a recovery week and I'm curious to go through the recovery workout.

Tomorrow I am running a 5k in the Cable Bridge Run. The ice is pretty much gone and it should be a lot of fun. My friend Dave will be running as well. I hope to have some pictures.

This will be the last post about my workouts on this blog. I have Fortunes Fare set up. I'll keep Buzz Commuter going while I bike and as the weather changes bike to work more often.

Hope some people follow me on Fortunes Fare too, but that's not the point...I guess...just having fun.

Insanity - Day 23

Today felt good. Another round of Cardio Power and Resistance. I'm well on my way to 30 days, half-way through the Insanity program, and I'm feeling a lot more confident in the workouts.

This is my last week before a week of recovery workouts. I am looking forward to a little less intensity for those 7 days. I'll have a fit test afterward and I am pretty excited to see my results.

I'm am continuing to work on my new blog, Fortunes Fare, and hope to have it up by the end of this week.

Weather forecast is for snow tonight...good thing I'm working-out inside at the moment. Getting ready for skiing!

A few changes - Day 21

I have one more week to go before the recovery week. Today was a rest day and my wife and I took the time to get ready for the upcoming week and to get a tree for the holidays.

I'm still working on some ideas for getting enough calories and keeping my body fueled for this Insanity workout program. Tomorrow will be a hard workout with Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs on the schedule.

I purchased a Biggest Loser workout DVD from Costco yesterday...it's called the Last Chance Workout. I watched it today and my wife tried it out. It looks good for people starting a program, and maybe for some others if you get the timing down and increase the speed of the workout. Anyway, a nice addition to our collection of home workout videos and definitely worth the $8-$11 it sells for depending on where you purchase it.

This brings me to my next subject...Buzz Commuter will see a few changes over the next few weeks. I find that I have less to say at the moment about bikes and bike commuting in general. Originally I wanted this blog to follow my days as a bike commuter while I lived in Colorado. More recently it has evolved into my desire to get and stay fit (a nice result of bike commuting) and now my journey on the Insanity workout program. I want this blog to get back to the world of bikes and bike commuting. After all it was a Novara Buzz V and my chance to use a bike exclusively for transportation. Even thought some of my circumstances have changed my desire to bike commute and support cycling not only for exercise, but also a superior means of community transportation.

I also have a desire to climb a few mountains, enjoy the outdoors as much as possible and hopefully do some good in this world. As much as I want Buzz Commuter to be a part of this I want a place to share these adventures, hits and misses, opinions and maybe just some general griping.

To this end I will soon be adding Fortunes Fare. My journey with Insanity will transfer over the Fortunes Fare as will some other information. I will continue to write on Buzz Commuter as I ride to work and keep pedaling.

I hope to have Fortunes Fare up this week. I will not remove any of the current posts from Buzz Commuter and will start fresh on Fortunes Fare.

Here's to self-expression and digital media.

Keep Going - Day 18

It was really hard to hit play on the DVD this morning and I seriously contemplated skipping the recovery workout. But I did it and it made a difference in my day.

Even though I felt better after my workout I felt very drained during. As I added up my calories from the past couple of days and today I realize I am not eating enough. This seems impossible since I feel like I can always eating something: 400-500 calorie smoothie for breakfast, 200-250 calorie blueberry muffin and coffee after breakfast, 520 calorie subway sandwich for lunch and about 500 calories in a burrito, Heath bar and tater-tots for dinner (I know, I know...great dinner huh?!) - I figure that's somewhere between 1600 and 1770 calories today and I need close to 3000 with my current activity level...I could almost eat the entire day's worth of food again to make up the difference.

I'm looking into ways to beef up my morning by maybe adding a PB&J sandwich or putting more calories into my drink. I plan on finding some calorie dense, but good food bars for snacks - hopefully with more than 300 calories.

I am looking forward to my workout in the morning...I just need to make sure and fuel well for the day...and drink enough water.

Tomorrow is Cardio Power and Resistance - not my favorite, but I'm getting familier enough I know what's coming.

Rest day and Fit test

Saturday was a rest day and I took it a little more seriously than the last time. It's hard to say if it made a big difference, but I did feel better. I'm planning on running a 5k on a rest day in a couple of weeks...I'll have to see what workout I have planned for the following day, and make sure I get some good rest after the run.

Today was the Fit Test. I've been on Insanity for 15 days and use the test to track my progress. I had pretty good progress on most of the exercises. Nice to see some development. I'll be curious to see how I do after the next 15 days.

I have two more weeks of the current rotations, and the following week is a recovery week. Then I am into the final weeks of the program. This will include some more challenging workouts. I'm looking forward to it, but right now it's one day at a time.