Here’s to a great day for everyone, wherever you might be.
It’s a weigh-in day, and I’m hoping to wrap up getting everything that needs to be ordered ordered. I also owe a bunch of responses to all the great comments you’ve left. Readership of this blog has been steadily increasing- thanks so much for being a part of the Beach 2 Beach ride!
David Edgren
If you had asked me what was the most common shared experience had by young people in the United States (after finding out the bad news about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, I suppose) I would have immediately spoken up, “Learning to ride a bicycle.” When I was growing up in the Chicago ‘burbs in the 1950s and 60s, every kid over the age of, say five or six had a bike. When I’d go visit my grandparents or family friends, every kid I’d meet there had a bicycle. Even the rural kids in Southern Indiana where my maternal grandparents owned a farm all had bikes. Getting your first 24 or 26 inch bike was the nation’s equivalent of a coming of age ritual. But apparently no longer.
A recent survey undertaken by YouGov and reported by FiveThirtyEight here [linkie] confirmed what I had already believed to be true- that a little over half the country isn’t currently riding a bike. I can see that- up ’til a month or so ago I hadn’t been on a bicycle in a decade. But I was shocked to learn that almost 10 percent of young people nowadays have never learned to ride a bicycle at all. That’s three times as many as the cohort that includes me and my generation. I almost can’t comprehend being a kid and not having a bike to ride. Is it because of the decline of “free range” parenting? The ubiquitous availability of video games and other non-active entertainment? The growing racial and ethnic diversity of the USA?
Whatever it is, I think it’s a damn shame.
David Edgren
Dickens is so evocative, but Mark Twain probably nailed it on the head.
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
A promise. This blog is not going to turn into one long diatribe about healthy diet or weight loss. Neither is a primary goal of the whole enterprise. If I am successful, mind you, I believe they will be outcomes. But I am obsessed with neither, and other than an open invitation to be a friend on myfitnesspal [linkie] so you can track what I’m eating if you’re interested and the results of my weekly weigh-in, I don’t intend to bend your ears about this stuff.
n.b. If you’d like to friend me on myfitnesspal you need to have a user account (which is free) on that app. You can then send me an email here at info@b2bbiketrip.com letting me know that you have signed up and the email you used to sign up under. I can then send you a friend invite. Sounds more complicated than it should be, but it’s not my app. -de
That said, I am currently morbidly obese. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) define morbid obesity as: Being 100 pounds/45.3 kilograms or more above your ideal body weight, or, having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or greater or, having a BMI of 35 or greater and one or more co-morbid condition. I’m pretty sure without checking that 357 pounds/162 kilograms has got to be more than 100 pounds/160 kilograms over my ideal body weight, but a few minutes checking on the Internet confirms that as a fact. Using the “Hamwi Method” [linkie], one of the MediCalc website’s handy calculators [linkie] discloses my ideal body weight to be 202 pounds/~92 kilograms.
Well, I guess not. So I’d have to lose 155 pounds to be at an ideal weight. First NIH criteria: Met.
It’s “Strike one, you’re out morbidly obese,” but let’s do the others just for grins. As far as “BMI over 40” goes, I couldn’t tell you what my BMI is, unless it’s on the InBody report I posted [linkie] the other day…
…yep, there it is: 44.7, about halfway down the page on the left…
But 44.7 what? Butter pats? Frog’s eyelashes? Some more looking on the ‘net led to me discovering that Body Mass Index is calculated by using the following formula
where m is your weight in kilograms and h is your height in meters. Using the 357.2 pounds from Monday’s weigh-in to convert to 162.02 kg and my six foot four inches to convert to 1.93 meters, then squaring 1.93 to get 3.725, and finally dividing per the formula 162.02 by 3.725…
…following along at home?
I get just a smidgen under 43.5. So still well over 40. I’m morbidly obese times two. Let’s go for three out of three.
I see my endocrinologist tomorrow to talk about, mainly, my Type 2 diabetic condition and how my trip will impact it. Fortunately enough, my diabetes is manageable through a combination of oral meds, but I have been concerned from when I started planning the trip that the change from a sedentary to an active lifestyle might upset the balance we have reached, with my A1C at or below 7 going back a good little while. But diabetes is diabetes, a serious co-morbid condition, and my BMI is over 35, so…
[cue somber music]
I’m three for three. Out for the count. Morbidly obese by every measurement. Well, that sucks.
I’ve fought the scales since the 70s. The then in force Army Weight Control Program, which if I recall correctly allowed me first to weigh 232 pounds/105 kg max, then 238/108 as I got older, was an every six-month bogeyman just waiting for me to trip up. This was despite what would be objectively found to be a higher than usual physically active lifestyle. I ran (ugh!), I backpacked, I biked. A lot, actually. My little vanity piece here [linkie] describes in sad detail what happened as that slowed down then more or less stopped altogether. The short story: my weight ballooned to just under 400 pounds/181 kilograms, at which point I considered bariatric surgery (which one of my daughters had, and is, 15 years later, a poster girl success story for). I went through the six month period the insurance company (well, my insurance company, anyway) makes you go through to see if you can’t just lose the weight on your own and lost 40 pounds/18 kg. I decided not to do the surgery based on that and other considerations, and have never looked back. My weight has bumped around in the 360s for a few years short of a full decade now. It’s been higher at times, mainly in the winter (which is hell for the sedentary here in Alaska) and at times of stress. But I’ve eaten and drunk what I’ve wanted to and in the quantities I’ve felt like. Shame on me for saying it, but sometimes, given the state of my health overall, that really hasn’t been such a bad trade-off. I love to cook and I love well-prepared food. I adore wine. A gin & tonic or two are just what hot days are made for. So I get 40 years of indulging myself in, but I’m beginning to realize that can’t go on. You just can’t do that and dodge bullets forever.
And, if it’s time to go, I’d rather go pedaling a bike than eating a steak. Saying that required a closer call than I was comfortable with, so there is all the more reason to know that it is time for a change.
I can do this.
David Edgren
days
to
Atlantic
Beach!
I will have been in Florida almost a week on July 25th, doing shakedown rides of my bike every day and adjusting to the sun and heat. Thirty days from today I will dip my tires in the Atlantic Ocean and start riding west.
…I’d buy one. How the heck does somebody ride one of those things?
In other news, I found a pair of shoes! More about that coming up.
It sounds like this guy’s ride across the country [linkie]
is toast, if I’m interpreting his most recent webcast [linkie] correctly. It looks like Eric Hites is back in Indiana with his wife, his dog, his RV and his bike after spending over $15,000 of other peoples’ money saying that he was “riding across America” for the past year. The comments folks left him on the webcast are, err… interesting, to say the least.
I’m trying hard not to be judgmental, but Mr. Hites said at various times he was riding to “win back his wife (who had apparently left him for another man),” “get a new start to his life,” “lose weight (he started at over 500 pounds/`225 kg),” “find religion,” “get material for a book,” along with a bunch of other reasons. Never once, though, have I heard that he said he was doing it for the sheer joy of riding his bike a very long, long way. Some call what he has been doing a scam [linkie – not for the faint of heart]. I just think the guy never set his priorities in line with what he was ostensibly setting out to do.
And he shouldn’t have expected to do it with other peoples’ money.
David Edgren
…and counting ’til I head from Alaska down to Florida.
I’ve picked up some postcards to put up here when I cross each state line.
Getting lots accomplished. More about that tomorrow.
David Edgren
I make a mistake every so often- once a year maybe? I’m guessing, but…
…I’ve definitely been wrong about my bike.
For weeks I’ve been telling everyone that I have a Surly Long-Haul Trucker. Well, as Ron Ziegler used to say, “That statement is inoperative.” I don’t have a Surly Long-Haul Trucker.
It was the paint that tipped me off. That, and the fact that my bike is clearly labeled “Disc Trucker” on the top tube.
Apparently a Surly Disc Trucker [linkie] is a Surly Long-Haul Trucker set up uniquely for the installation of disc brakes. So I have a Surly Disc Trucker.
Who knew?
Several commenters have been misled by the way WordPress handles first time comments into thinking that what they have written has gone missing because nothing happens when they hit the “post” button. Fear not- that’s not a bug, that’s a feature. I’ll explain.
The first time a reader comments on b2b that comment goes off into a queue for me to approve. This isn’t because I want to pick and choose who gets to play here- it’s to stop spamming.
You know, you’ve seen them.
“I’ve started making $37,264 an hour from home doing just this one small thing…”
and
“This one simple trick eliminates belly fat in just six weeks…”
So I need to approve every first comment by a reader. After that, you’re good to go. Sometimes it just takes me a while to spot a comment needing approval. It’s a dirty job, but- trust me- someone’s got to do it.
As always, thanks so much for stopping by.
David Edgren
Several (well, two) of the readers of this blog have messaged me asking how to contribute to my ride. I really appreciate that, and I encourage folks here to give generously.
Just not to me.
While you are in the giving mood, though, let me make a couple of suggestions.
The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has done work all over the country that is near and dear to my heart. The organization provides funding and other resources in seeking to preserve abandoned railroad rights-of-way as multi-use trails. Bicyclists are a primary beneficiary of the RTC’s efforts, and its website [linkie] is a wealth of information about and links to the growing network of rail-trails out there. If you would consider giving to the RTC, click here [linkie] or on the logo above.
The Nature Conservancy, despite the fact that I couldn’t get a job there after graduating from law school, is another favorite of mine. I like the way it does business- instead of knee-jerk opposition to land development and the use of tactics like lawfare and back-door lobbying to tie the process up and to make things so expensive that the developer finally just gives up, if TNC sees something worth preserving, the organization buys it or buys the development rights. Over the years, it has compiled an incredible track record of preservation of some of the key remaining natural places all around the country. If you would consider giving to TNC, click here [linkie] or on the logo above.
Shifting gears (subtle bike pun, sorry)-
My grandchild Aidan died of an aggressive cancer of the brain in 2011 two days short of his second birthday. He was treated at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, where he received incredible care from some of the most compassionate doctors and medical staff in the world. While the situation ended so very sadly, we know that the SCH is on the forefront of work that will give some future child and her or his family hope for a normal life that is cancer-free. If you would consider giving to the SCH, click here [linkie] or on the logo above.
The Massey Cancer Center is part of my grad school alma mater: Virginia Commonwealth University. A great friend from those days participates every year in the Massey 10K fundraising run with Aidan’s name on her T-shirt along with that of her husband, who also died of this terrible disease. Massey is one of the leading cancer research institutions in the country. If you would consider giving to the MCC, click here [linkie] or on the logo above.
No pressure, folks. I’d be really pleased to know that my ride has resulted in even a single donation to any of the places I have listed. Or you pick a worthy place. And thanks for doing that.
David Edgren
b2bbiketrip.com - A 2019 bike trip blog 