cross training

For the first time in my life, I went skiing yesterday, Nordic (cross country) skiing to be exact. We drove up I-90 to Hyak.

My friend, and co-producer for the film contest, Rob, captured our trip pretty well in this video. We ended up at a pub in Issaquah that's run by the Rogue brewing folks from Oregon. I recommend trying their seasonal "Yellow Snow" IPA!

Nordic from AndersonCentral on Vimeo.

How does this relate to cycling? It doesn't directly, but I was pleased that cycling got me in good enough shape to try the cross country skiing. A year or more ago, I wouldn't have had the capacity to keep up cardio-wise.

Another cycling connection is Rob has been a long-time team cyclist with the Union Bay Cycling team.

I did wake-up pretty sore this morning, in muscles likely not used in cycling that much. My legs were fine, but my hip, especially my right side, is a little sore. I blame this on the one fall I did have (on my right side). I came down hard enough to dent my aluminum water bottle that was in my backpack!

Anyways... happy holidays to you!

~ Nate

500+ commute miles

I almost forgot to mention, according to my Sigma brand odometer, I passed the 500 bike commute miles mark this past week*.

It seemed like it took forever to get there but on the actual day it happened I was clueless. The following day I happened to look at total miles and see it was 504.

I accomplished this in about 15 months since starting to actively bicycle commute 2-3 times a week throughout the year and my commute is around 2.2 miles one-way. So that's roughly 113 bicycle commute days if I did my math correctly.

* Note: I've actually put more miles in that are not counted, as I biked for about a month before getting the Sigma, also, I have used other bicycles to commute but not too often. Also, this does not account for any recreational cycling I've done on other bicycles while on weekend rides with the kids or camping.