Tag: cycling

fitness

Buy Nothing Challenge Update

Diane Harper3 Comments

TLDR: it’s not going as well as I might like, but I’m not unhappy with my decisions.

Martha wrote most recently about the challenge of reducing consumption and our carbon footprint by going for a year without buying new things (mostly clothing). I mostly thrift and sew my own clothes (and have a huge stash of fabric on-hand to work with), so I thought this would be a breeze.

For the most part, it was. However, there were notable exceptions for what I feel were good reasons. I bought two pairs of shoes for my son’s wedding. The dress and jacket fabric came from my stash, but my friend Tracey of TAV Creations sewed them up. So, an indulgence but one that supported a local business so I think it’s okay?

In terms of sheer volume, bike gear was definitely my big splurge. There was the highly reflective jacket so I could dress like a pylon for safety. Then I added in a new ski jacket to replace the jacket I have been wearing for at least 15 years. It came with ski pants, which turned out to be an awesome bonus on the coldest days.

And then there were the lights and gadgets: flashing multicoloured lights for the wheels on my winter bike, a front and back light for my helmet, a phone holder for the handlebars. I am still eyeing a new Lumos bike helmet with built-in signal lights. Those things have all made my rides feel safer and more fun, especially on dark and snowy days.

Finally, the actual bikes. First up was a mountain bike to use at my cottage property. I got it at an excellent price from a local used bike shop that was going out of business, and it will live in the country and be super handy for riding into town to get ice or visit nearby friends.

Silver, yellow and blue mountain bike, with more bicycles in the background

Most recently, it was a used e-Brompton. I have wanted an e-cargo bike for a while but couldn’t justify it yet, because the main places I want to get to by e-bike are not terribly safe to ride to in winter. Some day I will have less need to go to either place, and/or my city will get serious about maintaining winter cycling infrastructure. For now, my car or a combination of winter bike and public transit will do the job. The e-Brompton isn’t the e-cargo bike of my dreams, but it definitely fills the itch to own a folding bike that I have had since Sam wrote about her pink Brompton. I can’t wait to try it out once the snow clears.

fitness

It’s #FrostBike Season – at Last!

Diane Harper1 Comment

I started biking year-round in Ottawa last year and fell in love with cycling in a whole new way. I have previously written about it here.

Since then, I did acquire those pogies, coloured lights for my wheels, and a new ski jacket and snow pants which have really helped on the coldest days. I have even been experimenting with ski goggles and a ski helmet for greater warmth.

A bicycle parked in a snowy yard. You can’t see much except orange and green lights on the wheels, white fairy lights along the frame, a red rear light and a white front light that highlights the front basket.

What is less joyful is my actual route to work. Like much of Ottawa’s cycling network, it disappears under mounds of snow and ice pushed off the roads and stored in bike lanes. The same is true of our city’s sidewalks, despite promises to prioritize the people most vulnerable to injury in winter: the elderly, those with disabilities, the people pushing strollers, and the folks who rely on transit, whether by choice or because they can’t afford a car (often single parents, indigenous, people of colour and new immigrants).

In that sense, I’m relatively privileged. I have the flexibility to avoid traveling during peak rush hours, and I am able-bodied and fearless enough to ride a bicycle in traffic, so get to take advantage of the streets that are bare and dry, rather than struggling on icy sidewalks and clambering over windrows left when street ploughs fill in what the sidewalk ploughs just cleared.

If we are serious about addressing climate change, reducing pollution, access to jobs, improving our physical and mental health, and reducing injuries and deaths caused by collisions, we need more access to separated bike lanes. A large study of European cities showed huge increases in bike use when cycling lanes were added.

Sure, we’re not Europe, but take a look at what Montreal has done. The city has been making major investments in bike lanes, and prioritizing them for snow clearance in winter. The result has been massive growth in winter cycling by all sorts of people.

I talk mostly about bike lanes, but pedestrians benefit from many of the things cyclists want – narrower streets, raised crosswalks, safer intersections, improved and accessible public transit, cleared routes, more green spaces and places to rest, have a drink, and enjoy being outdoors.

I can’t fix all those things on my own, but I have discovered a host of allies from Halifax to Victoria, San Diego to Utrecht, who are all working to make cycling and walking safer in their communities. And I have been encouraging colleagues to give cycling a try, at least some of the time – every ride that replaces a car trip helps the environment. There is strength in numbers too, as we are more visible so drivers tend to be more aware.

A mid-January start to #FrostBike season is very late for Ottawa, but maybe – just maybe – my choice of transportation mode will help turn the tide towards cooler temperatures and longer seasons in future, and help make my city a more equitable place to live.

Diane kitted out in a colourful snow jacket, wearing a bike helmet and blue ski goggles. Only her serious mouth and a bit of her nose are visible.

Now I’m feeling less grumpy than when I first drafted this post. It was -23C with the wind chill, and the ski helmet adds considerably to my warmth. It was a great ride especially compared to the snowy conditions going home last night. But honestly? Even a tough ride is better than no ride at all.

Person in a colourful jacket, grey ski helmet, goggles and a black cloth over her face so only her nose is exposed. You can’t see it, but she is smiling.
fitness

My Nature Dose is Dropping

Diane Harper

Welcome to almost winter. A few months ago I wrote about how I use various health and fitness tracking apps. One of them is Nature Dose. At the time, I was easily hitting 800-900 minutes per week; the goal was 90.

Now, I’m averaging 100-200 minutes, and one week I only managed 50 (I had a huge cooking project and didn’t make it out of the house for three days in a row).

Some of that might because I’m leaving work after dark. Or maybe my phone doesn’t pick up the light while tucked in a pocket under multiple layers of clothing. It’s definitely because I’m not spending hours in the garden or camping or swimming outdoors.

My Nature Dose eexceeds the minimum, but it doesn’t feel like enough to me. The fresh air and natural light (even on a grey rainy day) make me feel more energetic yet calm. My brain slows down to enjoy the scenery and I arrive at my destination refreshed.

I’m almost looking forward to colder weather and snow so I can do a bit of cross country skiing or skating, instead of just biking everywhere – even though that is still tons of fun.

Six people of various ages ride their bikes down a snowy groomed path in Edmonton. Photo: WinterCity Edmonton.ca

fitness

Don’t Worry Sam – I’ve Got Your Back

Diane Harper

A couple of days ago, Sam wrote about how far behind she was on her 150 km ride for the Canadian Cancer Society. Yesterday I finished my challenge, at least the riding part.

My goal had been to do it all as part of my regular riding for transportation around town. One of my favourites was a 10 km trip to drop of my FIT test at the lab. Consider this a PSA to keep up to date on all your cancer screening tests.

Some of the people in the Facebook Group for challengers thought was a little crazy. Not me. I have written before about becoming a winter cyclist.

It turns out I love winter cycling even more than I love summer cycling. No heat. No bugs. No huge distances to feel like a badass (my 2.5 km commute to work achieves that nicely on a cold or snowy day).

Me in the bike parking garage after commuting to work. I’m wearing a warm hooded blue coat underneath a highly reflective and wind-resistant silver jacket, a neck/head warmer thingy, my blue bicycle ear warmers and my blue and white helmet. My glasses are slightly fogged and I have a little smile.

Good luck getting your distances on the trainer Sam. I’ll keep going so you’ll have company in spirit, even if I can’t actually lend you any of my kms.

But both of us are behind on fundraising. Sam already posted her link. Here’s mine. Please consider helping us both achieve our fundraising targets.

fitness

Urbanism and Active Transit

Diane Harper1 Comment

Last year I started volunteering with Bike Ottawa, a group that advocates for better cycling infrastructure to keep the increasing number of people on bikes safe.

It turns out that when you start thinking about what makes people on bicycles safe, you quickly start thinking about how similar changes can make the lives of pedestrians safer. And that leads to how we design our streets to make them more accessible for people with mobility issues (and other disabilities). and then how all those things connect with public transit (or more to the point, how much better public transit needs to be both in terms of service and in terms of connectivity to bike paths and sidewalks, and providing benches and shade for people waiting).

I have been connecting with all sorts of people who know lots about these issues, and it has been a great year of learning – about how to get around my city more effectively, how much I am capable of on foot or by bike, and how to spot and (occasionally) fix problems. I am now a master of Guerilla construction signage adjustments to clear sidewalks and bike paths.

That culminated this weekend with a lovely walk around anOttawa neighbourhood that has been in the news a lot this year because of big, sometimes expensive, questions about how to use some public spaces.

I biked there, met up with other people I know from various cycling groups plus the guy who now leads an urbanist book club and some complete strangers. We were led on our walk by a woman who walks everywhere – an average of 120 km per week.

We talked about the environment, smart density, desire lines, the importance of consultations with users to ensure designs work (hello Flora Street pedestrian bridge with your incredibly sharp turns and unploughed stairs in winter).

Flora Street Bridge in Ottawa, showing the ramp on left, with cyclists and pedestrians, and stairs on right, with people climbing them or walking by. Image on left is from canadianconsultingengineer.com and the one on the right by Scott Norsworthy.

It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, and it reinforced my view from earlier this year that infrastructure is a feminist issue.

We are already planning our next walk, ideally to a suburban area to look at the challenges for people who want to get around without a car.

Until then, we will be dreaming of active transportation and urban spaces that look more like this:

Clockwise from top left: Alexandra Bridge in Ottawa, with many pedestrians; a bike lane that goes right through a mall in Singapore; a bike lane in England being used by someone in a wheelchair. She is protected only by flexiposts as large vehicles drive by; the very busy pedestrianized Rue Mont Royal in Montreal.
fitness

Possible Link Between Cycling and Dental Health

Diane Harper2 Comments

Doesn’t that sound all science-y and official? Fellow blogger Catherine Womack would be horrified, since my data set is just me, with nothing but anecdotal evidence.

I recently went to the dentist, who commented that I have a lot more plaque than usual. She said that a possible cause is mouth breathing (whether from allergies, snoring or something else), since that creates a perfect environment for plaque bacteria to grow. What had changed since my last cleaning six months ago?

I have mild allergies. And I sometimes snore. Both those things have been true since I started seeing my dentist 30 years ago. Those can be eliminated as probable causes.

What has changed is the amount of time I spend on my bicycle, and the joy I get from riding. I have been a 3 season bike commuter for 20 years, but those rides were generally 5 km or less. I never rode for fun and rarely to do errands.

This year I have ridden my bike everywhere. My goal has been to use my car no more than once a week. I also ride just for fun, with various groups. Safer cycling infrastructure has turned my rides from harrowing to pleasurable.

I ride with a huge grin pasted to my face, just like one of my favourite Twitter cyclists, Miss Omar (@AuntieKay28). She has written about the joy, happiness and freedom she gets from cycling, and how it puts a big smile on her face.

Woman in a long black robe and bike helmet, holding up her black bicycle. She is near a cliff with water below, under a cloudless blue sky.
Miss Omar with her Brompton and a huge smile. Photo taken from a September 22 post on Twitter.

Since the plaque diagnosis, I have been trying to ride with my mouth closed, reserving big grins for pedestrians and other cyclists. But it’s hard because I’m smiling so much on the inside that it wants to break through to my face.

Diane Harper lives in Ottawa.

Red Cape Season
fitness

Red Cape Season

Diane Harper

Early fall is when my ballet classes and master’s swim club start up again after a summer break, so it’s a joyful time of seeing friends again. It’s also when I try the to finish challenges that I have been thinking about since spring – I’m at my strongest after the summer, the weather is great with no bugs, and time is running out for this completist to get them done.

Late fall, when it’s rainy and dark, is much less exciting and then I am thankful the external discipline of formal classes to keep me going.

But I still need to move around the city, and I prefer to do that on my bike, if possible. The right gear to keep you warm and dry helps a lot. This morning I rode to the office through the drizzle, while wearing my bright red cycling rain cape. It made me feel like this:

A cartoon child wearing a red rain hood rides their bicycle with a little brown fog perched on the back. It is raining and the child is smiling. There is a Dutch phrase that translates to ‘‘tis always Big Ben wear”.

An undated ad for Big Ben rain wear by the artist Fiep Westendorp, courtesy of @CoolBikeArt1 on Twitter.

I am renaming cold drizzly fall. From now on, it’s Red Cape Season.

Diane Harper lives in Ottawa.

fitness

Summer, by the Numbers

Diane Harper1 Comment

Back in the spring, I joined up with an app to track my cycling efforts for Bike Month. I decided it was sufficiently fun that I kept going even after the count ended. Since June 1st, which is technically late spring, but a convenient place to start, and leaning slightly into fall by counting up to September 26 when I drafted this post, here’s how I have done:

Km ridden on my bike: 1,059

Greenhouse gases averted: 270 kg. A round-trip flight to Ottawa to Berlin creates 2 metric tons of GHG, so I’ll need to cycle at this rate for at least 2 1/2 years in order to offset a single trip to Europe. I am assuming I’ll cycle less in winter and use my car a bit more. This is the calculator I used.

Money saved by riding my bike instead of driving: $643. Honestly, this seems a bit low to me as most estimates have car costs per month in Canada at nearly $1,000, when you include financing, fuel, maintenance and insurance. I’m guessing this amount is just fuel and maintenance.

Critical mass rides to advocate for climate change and safer streets (including Kidical Mass and Fancy Women rides): 5

Organized social bike rides: 11

Km swum: 19.743. This is way lower than past years, but between shoulder issues and general busyness it was all I could manage. Next year!

Activities for a cause: 5 – apple picking for the food bank; helping on various rides; census of transit at various locations around the city for the annual Pedal Poll; swim Angel for Bring on the Bay, which is itself a fundraiser for Easter Seals; 15 km swim fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society

Personal cycling goals set and achieved: 4 (18 km each way for a bike swim bike at Britannia Beach, feeding my friend’s cat 20 km away, visiting my parents 25 km away, and visiting my horse 24 km away).

Walks: I didn’t add them up but there were lots, mostly as a way to catch up with a friend, but sometimes for a history tour or to go to the grocery store with my rolly cart.

What did I get out of all this? I discovered that I can do a lot more than I imagined. I have gone from being a steady short-distance commuter to the office to being the person who thinks nothing about using the bike for all kinds of errands – from medical appointments to picking up groceries, going to shows and concerts, to checking on my community garden plots or joining others for a swim, drink or to check new cycling infrastructure. And that I love being social for a good cause.

Kidical Mass Ride, with a range of bikes and people of all ages in a park
My bike loaded with purchases
Me in the river, wearing a white swim cap and goggles
Friends checking out the new pedestrian/cycling bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau, folks at a social bike ride, and a group of people packing up boxes of freshly harvested apples in an orchard

Diane Harper lives and swims and bikes in Ottawa.

fitness

Do the thing!

Diane Harper1 Comment

Do the thing is an expression my friends and I often use when egging each other (and ourselves) to push boundaries. Like them (and many of the contributors to this blog) I overthink things to the point I chicken out.

This year, I had four cycling goals. One was to bike out to visit my parents, 25 km away. That would be a significant distance increase for me, and there are some scary 80 km/hour roads where everyone speeds – I was not convinced that Google was telling the truth about their rideability. It was mid-September. Time was running out.

On Saturday I had plans to join the Critical Mass Ride in downtown Ottawa, followed by a potluck for Bike Ottawa members in a park. The park is almost half-way to my parents’ house, and going home so I could drive there would take as long as biking directly. Getting home was an entirely different matter and I chose not to think too much about it.

I packed some extra snacks, water and my cycling shorts just in case I decided to do the thing. And my bus pass in case I decided that I couldn’t bike all the way home. When the potluck broke up, folks started planning to go on a 15 km ride that would largely follow my route home. I knew I could easily do that ride. Google told me that it was exactly the same distance as to my parents’ house. Time to stop thinking about it and just do the thing.

I did the thing!

Diane in a blue shirt and wearing her blue and white bike helmet stands beneath a sign for the street where her parents live.

I even did the thing going back home. It took an hour and 25 minutes on the return ride. That’s triple the fastest car ride, but way more fun. How often do you have complete strangers chat with you at a crosswalk when you’re in a car? How often do you notice an entire flock of turkeys on someone’s lawn (and can safely stop for a photo)?

A large brick house with five wild turkeys on the front lawn

I have written before about how riding a bike has made the world both bigger and smaller. I have new experiences, but also learn that things aren’t nearly as far away as they had seemed.

I rode 65 km, something I haven’t done in over 40 years. The roads I was afraid of turned out to have nice wide shoulders most of the way. I feel pretty darned good and I am confident about doing that ride again whenever the weather is nice.

Whatever your big fitness, health or life goal may be, do the thing! You might be pleasantly surprised at how great it feels.

fitness

Does a Fancy Women Bike Ride Make Sense?

Diane Harper

September 17 was the day of the Fancy Women Bike Ride around the world. This year, there were rides in over 200 cities.

Riding with a group of women can be a joyous occasion, as you can see from the video of this year’s ride in Izmir, Turkey, where it all began in 2013.

After the ride though, our local organizer commented that she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the name. Did it exclude people who didn’t want to dress up, or didn’t feel they had anything fancy enough to wear?

That led to a lively discussion among participants about the merits of dressing in different ways as a safety measure. Many of us had found that being super femme was protective. Drivers tended to give us more space. One woman noted that going from a gender-neutral coat to something more fitted and colourful had a noticeable impact on drivers around her.

However, this doesn’t always work. Female cyclists face harassment and bad driving at twice the rate of male cyclists, according to one study. They are particularly vulnerable to close passes and dooring because they tend to keep to the side of the road. But if they take the lane, they are sometimes threatened by aggressive drivers. Anecdotally, this was the experience in our group too.

Even within our group, some felt more vulnerable than others. The local organizer of Black Girls Do Bike rides said there just aren’t many women like her on the road so it always feels a bit uncomfortable. The woman who organizes rides focused on safety for kids (and brought her two along). The trans women who arrived at the last possible moment, hung back on the ride, and didn’t join the discussion until they heard us talking about “female presenting” cyclists.

My very unscientific answer to whether we need a Fancy Women Bike Ride is yes. It’s not just for women in places where riding is relatively safe for them. It’s for women who are marginalized in our community, and for women in communities where women are marginalized. It’s for women who don’t want to be fancy but want to be safe moving around on a bicycle. And it’s for women like me who see being fancy as part of their subversive feminism and celebrate the pink.

A group of women on the Ottawa ride stopped for a picture with their bikes in an urban area. They are wearing regular clothes and shoes instead of riding gear and sneakers.

Bicycles lined up beside an ice cream truck where we ended our ride. feminism, fitness and ice cream – it doesn’t get any better than this.

Dian Harper lives and swims (and cycles) in Ottawa.