Bicycling, Hunting, and Fitness

Try Something New Day 19 and Day 20

No Burn, No Earn, that’s what I kept telling myself on my way home yesterday evening. My legs were burning so bad and they felt like the muscle was about to pop through my skin. Knowing I had several miles left to go I wanted to stop and rest but I wouldn’t let myself. Stopping would have felt like failure and I hate failing as much as I hate losing. I hate losing a lot btw; ask anyone who knows me very well lol! I managed to keep going and finally made it home from my 13.1 mile ride home, making it a marathons length for the day. I beat Lance Armstrong too, on a bike! Well, I beat his (running) marathon running time anyway!

For my self-challenge I decided to bike the 13.1 miles to work and then back home in the evening yesterday. The ride to work was fairly easy as it was mostly downhill. Even though I knew the ride home would be much tougher I decided to do my usual lunch run as well. As I started home that evening I knew I was in trouble when my legs didn’t have much strength in them from the start. As I stated above about halfway home it got brutal for me. Biking is something I’ve done in the past but recently I’ve been starting again and I was not in shape enough for yesterdays undertaking but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! I got through the day and I know that I’m stronger as I sit here typing! I burned and I earned!

As soon as I got home I grabbed a quick recovery drink and then grabbed my bow and shot. While I’m not exclusively a bowhunter it is a passion. I try to do something everyday to become a better hunter. I got started hunting later in life than most people and I feel I’m behind the curve sometimes. I don’t like that feeling much so I work twice as hard as the average eastern hunter to make up for the years that I spent “wasting my life away” doing drugs, smoking, drinking, and whatever else I could ruin my health with. Now that I’ve come to my senses and am living a healthy lifestyle I have a lot of catching up to do! I work hard on my physical fitness, hard on my hunting skills, and hard on my hunting knowledge! I want to be the very best I can be and I want to be a positive influence on my son and anyone else who will hear my message on God, Hunting, and the outdoors in general. To me, God, my son, and hunting saved my life! They gave me a new passion in my life that keeps me away from leading the unhealthy life I was leading before. I will never go back to that life and I thank God for what he has given me every day!

I got on a little tangent there so forgive me. Bicycling to me is a great hunting and fitness tool and I’m glad I took the time to get one day better at it yesterday! It was a tough but fun adventure and I would do it more often if I didn’t have to pick up my son from the babysitters in the evening. Every chance I do have though you can bet I’ll be doing it!

The day before that I accomplished another challenge, I learned my first rap song on the bass! It was a rock cover of the song but nonetheless it was a rap song! I’m keeping what song it was under wraps for now but if you live in this area come check out my new band when we get going and you can hear it for yourselves, I think you’ll dig it!

Rural Retreat Bicycling

Try Something New Every Day – Day 12

Yesterday was a nice leisurely day. I got up early and went to Church. I only stayed through Sunday School but it had me feeling good and thinking about what I want to do with my life. It made me realize more and more that I want to use my life in a positive way. I’ve spent a lot of time partying and influencing people in to a destructive lifestyle and I never want to do that again. I would really like to spend the rest of my life trying to undo the bad that I’ve done.

After Church I went to my parents house. Only my brothers and my Dad were home and we spent some guy time and had good conversation. I stayed there an hour or two and then headed home.

When I got home Harry and Jessica were at her parents. I decided to have a quick bite to eat and then try something new! I decided to ride my bike over to her parents and hang out for a little while. I had no idea how far it was to her parents but I knew it was at least 20 minutes in a car and featured a lot of hills, in other words it sounded like a fun challenge. It was drizzling a little rain when I started but what’s a little rain between friends? The course turned out to be pretty tough on my legs and lungs, but that’s what I need! I didn’t quite make it to Jess’s parents house as she was leaving about the time I arrived, but it was a great ride!

The rest of the day we hung out with Harry and then our friend Adam came over and we all watched “Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins”.

Bikes and Back Porches 2

This squirrel came right up on my back porch, he was going to come right to me until the neighbors cat scared him off.

Bicycles and Back Porches

It's amazing what you can see riding home from work on your bike or just hanging out on your back porch! There are two does in the first pics and just one in the others...







Click on the pictures to view them full size!

Bicycles, Deer Scouting, and Adventure Riding

Yesterday I finally had a little time to go scouting one of the areas that I thought my bicycle would come in handy, and boy was I right! I didn’t have much time but I threw the bike, a field pack, and a couple of bottles of water in to the back of my truck and got to my spot as quickly as possible. I quickly got my gear together and started down the trail. I was still easing the bike in when I spotted a doe in the first open spot you come to. I watched her for a second or two but she had been spooked by the noise and got out of there. I cruised on, trying to get through the road as quickly as I could just to see how far it went. I didn’t have much time to do any in-depth scouting I just wanted to get a lay of the land. I can’t find this road on any maps so physically getting out there was the only way I could get my goal accomplished. I traveled as far as I could until the time came to turn back and I was already several miles back. I still don’t know how far it goes but I’ll give it another try soon.

Going in was a big time workout and I found out I’m still not in nearly good enough shape. The more I do the better I’ll be though and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon! I wanted to take some pictures but there really weren’t any good views other than a little random deer sign. Coming out was a real blast though as it was mostly down hill and I really got to put my mountain bike to the test! I felt like a true adventure bicyclist, I was jumping logs, flying down hill and really enjoying the moment!

The area certainly looked like it held some deer and that’s always important. More than anything I learned that I definitely enjoyed using the bicycle as a scouting tool, and I will be doing more off-road biking for the pure fun of it as well!

Hunting, Bicycles, Commuting, Money, the Environment, Fitness, and Oil

Wow, what a title! Ok, so maybe it’s a little too ambitious! This is really just going to be a post on my first few weeks of bicycle commuting. The first weeks have went extremely well and I do believe it’s going to become a full time activity. I’ve worked out a way to pack my work clothes in my backpack, as well as my lunch, and wear more suitable clothes to bike in and then change at work. So far everything has worked out well and the air moves fast enough to keep me from being too sweaty when I get to work. The only issue I’ve had so far is that one day last week it was pouring rain when I left work and I hadn’t packed any kind of a jacket. Having no fenders on my bike also provided me with a wet butt before I had even gotten out of the parking lot. I feel like it is going to really improve my fitness level though, and despite the fact that it’s not an extremely long ride or anything, I’ve already came up with ways to make it more challenging when I get to that point.

I’ve also identified several hunting areas where the bike will be very useful as well. There is no way I could make it in to one of the areas without being too sweaty when I got there or having to start walking in at way too early in the morning. I hope to take it on a scouting trip or two very soon, as well, to really get a feel for how it is going to work for hunting, but I feel it will have some real advantages in a few areas I plan on checking out.

Another great thing to come from bike commuting is that I’m being easier on the environment, and even better, I’m saving myself a lot of money! I will soon be biking to work five days a week and that equals a lot of gas savings! Finding a good place to put some of that money was easy too. I’ve already decided on a new muzzleloader! At the end of each trip I have a large hill to climb, and every time it gets tough I think about using that new muzzleloader, way back in the woods, on a beautiful mature whitetail, and somehow I make it up those hills time after time!

New Ride II

Ok, nothing to big to report here I just bought back my bicycle from Chris Rakes of Drivn today. I'm going to use it to supplement my running and to travel back and forth to work whenever possible. Jessica and Harry are out of town this week and I planned on getting some scouting in but so far the weather and my timeline have not worked out, hopefully tomorrow will remedy that!