Winter Exercise in CO

Most of this winter, my exercise has consisted of commuting to work (very occasionally), walking to the library/grocers/friend's, and going for a long ride (literally 'a' long ride: it was at the beginning of January.)

Because I feel somewhat deficient in this area, I've added two things to my exercise regimen in the last few weeks: stretching, and what I'll call trans-fats loading. The first is more difficult for me (and therefore more effectual) than it sounds. The second really has more to do with my saving money for the tour than with preparing to actually execute it. Cheap food is a staple right now as I attempt to buffer my savings account for three months of unemployment.

One may think, from all of this, that I have a ways to go before I'm ready to ride 430 miles weekly. Indeed.

In fact, I've taken a significant vacation from my bike commuting (which has been my main form of exercise up until the last few months) partly in order to try to return to an enjoyment of riding. It would be an awful thing to begin my tour already burned out. But I've begun to step up my commuting again, and it's been mostly a blast.

Two weeks ago I was riding toward the north of CO Springs just as the sun had set behind Pikes Peak. The sky was completely clear of moisture and the moon was new, so I could already make out the first stars and Venus high up in the south, dominating like a flashlight. There were only two colors in the sky. The black across the plains faded perfectly to the deep-water blue above the Rockies, almost too perfectly. If someone had shown me a painting of that I would have laughed and said it was a nice airbrush job, fit for a license plate. It was a rare sight, something I don't ever see from inside of my Volvo.

So commuting's good exercise. But that's not why it's good.