I rode my bike to and from work yesterday.
On the way home I saw a dude with fancy bike gloves, and clip in bike shoes.
And no helmet.
Listen, I understand. Legally, adults on bicycles in California don't have to wear helmets. Fine. Mr. Government isn't forcing you to do something. That doesn't mean it's not fucking stupid to be biking around city streets without a fucking helmet. It doesn't matter if you're the best cyclist in the whole world. That won't stop a car from plowing in to you.
Helmets are sexy as fuck.
Being dead? Not sexy as fuck.
Dead as fuck.
And I really really hate seeing parents out riding with their kids, where the kids have helmets and the parents don't. This is the parents basically saying "helmets are lame but I'll get in trouble if YOU don't wear one." Great lesson to teach your kids.
Blarg.
=====================
Like I said, yesterday I biked to and from work (I lent my brother my car).
Total distance: 14.32 miles.
Not the world's greatest workout, but I wasn't pushing it like a workout. Trying to whore's bath myself in the sink when I got to work was gross enough without excessively sweating. I did bring work clothes, but I still felt gross. If we had a shower in my office, man, it would change my life.
I also biked to my training session after work. Yeah, that kind of made me feel like a badass.
The Workout:
x10
30 seconds double arm rope slams
30 seconds rest
30 seconds chest-to-floor push ups
30 seconds rest
30 second medicine ball clean and press
30 seconds rest
30 second sprint (mphs: 8, 9, 10, 10.5, 11, 10.5, 10.5, 10.5, 10, 9)
No rest between rounds. And man, 30 seconds felt like a billion years during the rope slams, and like 3 seconds during the rest breaks. Perception of time, man. Whoa. Blowing my mind.
========================
Monday I dragged (drug? I don't know. And I'm too lazy to look it up, but not too lazy to type out this explanation of how I'm too lazy to look it up. Educate me) Sky to the CSUN track for some speed work.
We warmed up for two miles, then did four sets of 200m sprint, 200m recovery.
36.6s
39.8s
38.8s
40.3s
Halfway through the last one I thought I might hurl. YUM. Pacing myself for 200ms is hard, man.
After the 200ms we switched to 100m.
16.7s
I made it through one before I got the butt twinge. *sigh* So, we cooled down and headed home. It was a much, much lighter twinge, and I didn't feel it at all during the 200ms, so I guess I'll avoid the 100ms for a while. Overall, for the day after a race, we did pretty good. Including warm up and cool down we did a good 4.5 miles or so.
Sky's sweat patterns afterward looked like a face or a penis.
==============================
On the way home I saw a dude with fancy bike gloves, and clip in bike shoes.
And no helmet.
Listen, I understand. Legally, adults on bicycles in California don't have to wear helmets. Fine. Mr. Government isn't forcing you to do something. That doesn't mean it's not fucking stupid to be biking around city streets without a fucking helmet. It doesn't matter if you're the best cyclist in the whole world. That won't stop a car from plowing in to you.
Helmets are sexy as fuck.
Being dead? Not sexy as fuck.
Dead as fuck.
And I really really hate seeing parents out riding with their kids, where the kids have helmets and the parents don't. This is the parents basically saying "helmets are lame but I'll get in trouble if YOU don't wear one." Great lesson to teach your kids.
Blarg.
=====================
Like I said, yesterday I biked to and from work (I lent my brother my car).
Total distance: 14.32 miles.
Not the world's greatest workout, but I wasn't pushing it like a workout. Trying to whore's bath myself in the sink when I got to work was gross enough without excessively sweating. I did bring work clothes, but I still felt gross. If we had a shower in my office, man, it would change my life.
I also biked to my training session after work. Yeah, that kind of made me feel like a badass.
The Workout:
x10
30 seconds double arm rope slams
30 seconds rest
30 seconds chest-to-floor push ups
30 seconds rest
30 second medicine ball clean and press
30 seconds rest
30 second sprint (mphs: 8, 9, 10, 10.5, 11, 10.5, 10.5, 10.5, 10, 9)
No rest between rounds. And man, 30 seconds felt like a billion years during the rope slams, and like 3 seconds during the rest breaks. Perception of time, man. Whoa. Blowing my mind.
========================
Monday I dragged (drug? I don't know. And I'm too lazy to look it up, but not too lazy to type out this explanation of how I'm too lazy to look it up. Educate me) Sky to the CSUN track for some speed work.
We warmed up for two miles, then did four sets of 200m sprint, 200m recovery.
36.6s
39.8s
38.8s
40.3s
Halfway through the last one I thought I might hurl. YUM. Pacing myself for 200ms is hard, man.
After the 200ms we switched to 100m.
16.7s
I made it through one before I got the butt twinge. *sigh* So, we cooled down and headed home. It was a much, much lighter twinge, and I didn't feel it at all during the 200ms, so I guess I'll avoid the 100ms for a while. Overall, for the day after a race, we did pretty good. Including warm up and cool down we did a good 4.5 miles or so.
Sky's sweat patterns afterward looked like a face or a penis.
==============================
My helmet has saved my life 2x once on the bike and once on skis! Minor concussions but thanks to the helmet nothing worse! Thanks for the public service announcement!!!
ReplyDeleteGod I go nuts when I see people without helmets. Parents without helmets but kids with them? WTF? Adult heads are just as fragile and that's like saying "I'm ok with orphaning my child when I hit my head on the pavement and die or turn into a vegetable." I feel the same about seat belts. Just put that damn thing on!
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with this. The worst is people on motorcycles without helmets. Drives me up a wall. Then they try to use their hands to signal instead of their actual turn signals and I think they're waving at me (it's CO, it's friendly out here...right?) and then I get a different finger when I don't realize they're trying to turn. Assholes.
ReplyDeleteI am PRO helmet. My step mom was hit by someone pulling out their driveway. She had her helmet on and she still barley survived. Having to learn to walk, talk...and do all basic functions all over again as a grown adult sucks!
ReplyDeleteI think you'd want to say "Monday, I was dragging." but that might make you sound like you wanted to dress up like a drag queen with the big hair and huge makeup, which isn't really your style.
ReplyDeleteHelmets are a must. all the time. SC doesn't require motorcycle riders to wear helmets either, and I like seeing those guys out there riding bald. I like it because I generally hate people that live in SC, and those are particular Darwin awards candidates. If they made the choice to be that stupid, I'm not going to feel sorry for them.
Oh my gosh this made me laugh. Seems like I remember hearing that one of the big motorcycle anti-helmet activists somewhere (Florida?) died of a head injury in a motorcycle crash. Sad, but very Darwin-awardish.
DeleteAmen on the helmets. Now that I spend more time with more people that spend a lot of time training on bikes, the horror stories that I hear about crashes are unsettling, to say the least. Gotta protect that melon.
ReplyDeleteOR a penis face!
ReplyDeleteI stopped riding bikes when helmets became the rule. Even now I don't have a bike because I don't feel like wearing a helmet. AND because I'm scared to ride and trust I won't die. So if I was riding, I would definitely have a helmet on. I might feel like a boob - but I'd at least not have my brains all over the road.
THANK YOU FOR THE HELMET ANNOUNCEMENT!!! As an ER Social Worker who gets to be present when the Dr. tells the family that their dumbass loved one is either dead/brain dead or will have the mentality of an 8 year old because they were too cool for a helmet, I greatly appreciate this.
ReplyDeleteI think it's dragged. And though helmets are NOT sexy, they are important. Like seat belts. I'm so tired of reading about car accidents where people die, and more often than not the phrase "not wearing a seat belt" is used. Wear your helmet, wear your seat belt, wear a condom. It's not that hard.
ReplyDeleteIt's so stupid when people don't wear helmets. It's not like it's that difficult. I have never once looked at someone wearing a helmet and thought it looked lame. Does anyone?
ReplyDeleteAlso - is that nudie pic of you? It kinda sorta looks like it?
My helmet saved me when I flipped the quad last year, thank you very much for the shout out, and the only way I can make "drug" a verb, is to state that "I drugged myself with chocolate, so that I could drag Sky somewhere or other.
ReplyDeletegreat fucking post.
ReplyDeletei see people all the time around here not wearing helmets.
So penis sweat stains should wear a helmet. Wait...I'm confused.
ReplyDeleteI soooo don't get why people don't wear helmets! Really!? It's like seatbelts, Put the fucking thing on for the love of God.
ReplyDeleteI'd have said dragged. And I totally would have typed out the explanation (explaination? No, that looks wrong) rather than look it up.
ReplyDeleteIt took me one time almost falling to realize that a helmet is a good idea. I've had two bad falls where I hit my head hard and wasn't hurt because of my helmet. I really don't see what the big deal is, but it's epidemic around here, especially on our bike trails. Sometimes I like to keep score of the helmet vs non helmet (aka organ donor) count.
Oh I get SO angry when people don't wear helmets...I'm an RN in a surgery/trauma ICU so I REALLY know how bad it is to not wear a helmet....!
ReplyDeleteOMG parents not wearing helmets when with their kids - HUGE pet peeve. Also people who don't wear seat belts....seriously? Is it honestly that much of an inconvenience?
ReplyDelete