National Bike Month

May is National Bike Month, centering on Bike to Work week 14-18 May and Bike to Work day falling on 18 May.

I do love to ride my bicycle and take pleasure in surprising people with the places I've gone using that mode of transportation (adamanddwight.blogspot.com). When I first moved to Austin, I lived so far out that my bicycle rode more miles on the back of my car than I rode on it. That messed with my head a little and I had to find a new place to live. So I decided to move to where the action was, South Austin! Biking distance to downtown, my favorite restaurants, my bootcamp classes, and my favorite honky tonk, the Broken Spoke. As my bootcamp locations changed and I didn't go out dancing three to four nights a week, I found myself again driving more than biking.

I am making a solution to this problem. I have started developing a Bootcamp in a Bag. This idea started after I went camping a couple weekends ago and dug out an old army dive bag from the bottom of my camping box. I looked at the bag and thought it was the perfect size to fit my white board, which is one of my main tools at bootcamp, then started adding other items.

I used the setup a few times in the trunk of my car, which was a success, keeping everything contained and easy to pick up and transfer to the bootcamp site or remove from my trunk on the weekend. Today, I finally gave it the old road test. I even added a 25 lb kettlebell to the main compartment.

The load consisted of a run ladder, white board, 25 lb kettlebell, stereo, foam roller, first aid kit, lacrosse balls, and a reflective belt for safety. It was comfortable to carry on my back while walking, but then I got on the bike and realized that the kettlebell is difficult load on the back, regardless of packing. So, I need to design an additional rack for the bike to allow the bike to carry the load instead of my back. A future change I could make is to substitute sandbells for the kettlebells. I expect the softness of the sandbells to allow me to carry a great deal more weight.

Bottom line, despite minor comfort issues, I was able to ride my bicycle to work at 0530 this morning, had a successful bootcamp teaching Turkish Get Ups, and rode back home.