life changes 4: replacing car with bike

My brother-in-law; Sam has been a keen bike-rider for a few years and every now and then he encouraged me to give it a go. In February this year – in line with the extra exercise I was doing, and having a weight loss target etc, it finally made sense to me. Indeed, the way the pieces all fit into place was like one of those revelatory moments. I’d seen Sam from time to time, kitted out in his lycra and wearing those weird knicks pants and I’d always thought; “nah – that’s another world – one I just don’t get.” but I guess by February 2012 I had started to open up to another world, a wider world – It was time to start accepting in a lot of things that had previously seemed alien to me – and bike riding was one of those “alien” concepts.

Sam had a few bikes and had previously offered me the use of one of them; a hybrid bike designed for commuting, which was pretty much what I had in mind. I rang him up and asked if he minded me accepting his kind offer. The next thing he was round at my place, unloading the bike off his car rack and presenting me with a complimentary first pair of knicks. This was the weekend. I intended for Monday to be my first day to try the ride to work, and having not ridden a bike seriously since I was about 12, thought I better get in some practice. So I hopped on, rode down the pavement (scared of riding on the road with cars), narrowly missing pedestrians and, through a convoluted and very hilly route, ended up on the bike path that runs alongside our local freeway. I rode along it for maybe 2 kilometres, got passed by every other rider on it. sweated, got thigh-burn going up a hill, turned round and then got drenched in what must have been the most torrential sub-tropical downpour of the whole summer, and finally showed up back at home feeling pleased with myself – I’d gone for a bike ride.

That afternoon I figured the important thing would be to work out exactly what streets I was going to ride down on Monday morning – to be prepared. So I sat down at my computer, pulled up Google Maps and spent about an hour intently studying the roads and paths that could get me where I needed to go, eventually deciding on an optimal route.

Monday morning came. I had an idea that I would need to shower after my ride (fortunately we have a good shower at my work building), so I packed a bag full of clothes, soap etc, strapped it to the back of the bike and set off into my unknown new life. My expectation was that this was an experiment only. If I hated it, or felt that for whatever reason it just didn’t work – then I would quite happily give it up and go back to cars, trains and the commuting life I had known up to that point. But I wanted it to work. I’d given it quite a bit of thought and, as I mentioned earlier, it just seemed to make so much sense that it would be a shame not to go with it. For one thing, there was the fitness argument. I figured I’d have to be burning maybe 700 calories every day I rode rather than drove. And fitting the exercise into my commute time was such a fantastic efficiency; I was reclaiming at least an hour of evening exercise time every day I rode to work. Then there was the commute-time argument. My home city; Brisbane – like many modern cities – has become so strangled by cars every Monday to Friday, that even though I work only 12 kilometers from my office, it takes at least 40 minutes to get there. I can actually do the trip just as quick – if not quicker – on a bike. It just doesn’t make sense using a car to travel at an average speed of less than 20 kilometers-per-hour, and on the way adding to the pollution and congestion of the city. When you think about it – it’s pretty crazy. Then there’s the money savings. I figured petrol and rain tickets run me up to around $50 per week.

So with all this in mind I set off for work, followed the path I had worked out, got sore, sweaty and exhausted, but made it in one piece, chained my bike to the rack in our office car park, showered, changed and went to work – a better man for the experience.

My great good fortune with cycling was that I had not one, but two excellent mentors. Roland, my colleague at work had been riding in for years, and lives close to my home. So I paid him a visit that first Monday – to boast about my bike commute, and also to ask his advice. He was able to give me some valuable pointers and I made some sensible adjustments to my route, rode home that day, and apart from school Tuesdays, (when I need to drive in to be able to pick up Ally from her after-school basketball practice), I have ridden to and from work every day since then – rain or shine.

It has now been 8 weeks. I’ve read some excellent blogs on commuting by cycle. I have found good places to shop for some of the needful things cyclists have to have (more knicks – gloves etc). I have gotten very used to my route and no-longer experience fear of sharing roads with cars, or pain and exhaustion traveling it. In fact, very shortly after I started riding, the exhaustion started getting replaced by exhilaration. You hear riders talking about this feeling of exhilaration, but until you do it yourself – and become accustomed to it – it’s hard to understand. But the moments – the moments. Early morning, when you’re hurtling alongside the river, blood pumping, fresh air suffusing lungs, body working, and sunlight glittering off a thousand points of water to your right, mind clear.

Sam has been encouraging me to join him on a weekend recreational ride ever since he loaned me the bike. I’ve resisted, on the basis that I don’t want to be ballast, dragging down a fast, experienced rider. But this week at work another colleague – who knows I’ve been getting into riding – invited me to participate in a 50 kilometer, charity fund-raising ride to take place in 2 months time, and given that my work commute is only 14 kilometers (and I accepted her challenge), I decided it’s time to get in practice for longer distances. So this morning Sam and I met up at 6 AM and went off on a 34 kilometer ride to the city and back. We were done by 7:30 – my kids were still asleep. It was great. Now I want to do it every weekend.

I’m sure I’ll do more posts about riding in the future, but I guess the point of this at the moment is simply to chronicle what I have felt are the main new opportunities that have opened up in my life which, taken collectively, have really constituted a massive change in direction for me, and more than ever before, have served to demonstrate that positive, lasting change really is possible. You can change your life for the better, even if you’ve tried before and failed, you can do it. You can do it for free. You can start today. Once you start – and open yourself up to possibilities – it’s amazing what can follow.

So far in this little series about my recent life changes I’ve covered quitting smoking, taking up running, changing to a healthier diet and cycling to work. All changes around physical health. But there are some life changes I’ve experienced that I still need to cover; changes that have maybe been more subtle than the stuff I’ve talked about so far, but which are also about opening up to new ways – and about consciously embracing positivism as part of a mindset to try and bring to everything you do.

life changes 2: running (and prog rock)

Hi again. Just before I start this I need to mention the awesome powder pastel colours of the evening sky I rode home under this afternoon. One of those oil painting skies. We are so lucky. Today I’m going to continue with the story of my journey. To be perfectly honest I’m not completely convinced about the value of getting this down, except that the journey has been a uniquely positive one for me and maybe if someone else reads it It may provide some inspiration:

I found 2 big opportunities during my week for a longer run than the standard, 5-6 kilometer runs I was having at night round my neighborhood. One was Sunday mornings. I am lucky enough to live near some pastoral areas – and there is a road that runs through some of this land; Rafting Ground Road. I’d never actually gone all the way up it before – had never needed to in all the years I’ve lived here – but one Sunday morning while everyone else in the house was snoring I got up, put the iPod in my ears and went for a run up Rafting Ground Road. It turned out to be just the most beautiful run, past golden dawn fields with sparkling dew everywhere – you get the picture – actually I have a couple of photos taken on this run – I’ll post them. Anyway, it was about a 9 kilometer round run; the longest I’d done by that point. It was a challenge for me, but it was exhilarating, and the great thing about early Sunday mornings: you aren’t pushed for time. For me it didn’t matter if it took a long time. If I was doing more walking than jogging – I’d started. I knew I’d do it again, and over time my pace would improve (it did).

The one problem with the Rafting Ground Road run; I got a sore knee. I went to the pharmacy and picked up an elastic bandage and wore it for the next few times, and it did the trick. One morning I forgot it, but it didn’t matter. It had only taken a few of these runs to strengthen the muscles around the joint to the point where I no longer needed the bandage. And I’ve never needed it since.

Around the same time as I started the Sunday morning runs, I figured out another golden opportunity for a big regular run. Phoebe; my daughter; was doing Greek (language) lessons every Monday night from 7 ‘till 9 at South Brisbane. I figured instead of dropping her off, driving home, then turning round and picking her back up again, it would make more sense to just park there and go for a run. Beyond South Bank I didn’t have much idea about the river foreshore in Brisbane – but I thought I go exploring. What I found was just dazzling; The Brisbane river foreshore is a fantastic place to run – and heaps of people take advantage of it. There are really good, wide footpaths near the water, in most cases right next to the water, and of course enough bridges that it is easy to design a route that suits you. I started out doing the circuit from South Bank, to the Victoria Bridge and cross over, then along the city foreshore (under the freeway) to the Goodwill bridge, cross back over and finish up back at South Bank. It seemed like an ambitious run to me, but I fit it in well inside of 2 hours, so each week, or couple of weeks I started extending the circuit. First by crossing at the Kurilpa Bridge, and later by taking the big leap and going through the Botanic gardens and all the way up to the Story Bridge to cross back over, then along the base of the Kangaroo Point cliffs. Each time my distance increased I felt I was making progress. Eventually my circuit stretched all the way from The Story Bridge to The Go Between Bridge, and by going around the back of Kangaroo Point – along the little Boat Marina there, I was able to extend the run out to 14 kilometres. That’s the run I’ve been doing since late 2011, and when Phoebe decided to drop Greek classes earlier this year I decided to keep going with the river run. It’s become a high point of my week. Late last year, through work, I met a guy that runs in marathons and I talked to him about what I’ve been doing. I talked about how I run till I get tired, then switch to walking till I have my breath back, then run again – my reasoning had been that I could roughly chart my progress by the ratio of walking to running. This man said the main thing I should be working on is to extend the initial run as far as possible. So I switched strategies and started trying to just run for as far as I could. Like every other aspect of this journey, my progress astounded me. When I started I could run maybe 2 kilometres continuously. My most recent milestone is 11 kilometres.

A similar opportunity presented itself on Tuesday afternoons. My other daughter; Ally has basketball practice at Milton PCYC near where I work. Its a 90 minute practice – but they have a cardio room in the building, so I don’t have to waste my time. Every week I get on the treadmill and knock off another 9 kilometres. Now – I’m not an athletic person – don’t misunderstand – athletic people would be justifiably unimpressed by the distances and pace I manage. I get passed by a hell of a lot of runners every single time I go out there – but I’ve been going out there pretty regularly now (at least 3 times a week) for about 9 months, and it’s making a hell of a positive impact on my health – to my life and to the way I feel.

If you’ve read this far, I think you get the idea that I was becoming more and more serious about my running. As I was trying more roads in my area that I’d never tried before, I started developing the idea of finding the optimum evening run in my local area. Something about 8 kilometres that took me through as much parkland (with paths) as possible as opposed to roads. I took to studying Google Maps at work in my lunch break. I found what looked like a fantastic 3 kilometre long path through a park I had no idea even existed, only about 2 kilometres from my home, so I tried it, found it, ran it. It was fantastic. A dream come true. A big long park running behind a housing estate, that was really quiet and picturesque. That’s still my standard local run now, though I don’t need to do the local run much anymore because of my commute – but more about that later. My family got a little bit interested in how Dad was going out running at nights and I asked them to join me if they felt like it. If Ally or Phoebe join me my run pretty much becomes a walk – but that’s OK – it’s worth it to spend an hour or so just talking to them. The talks are almost always good ones. I’ve been able to find out things that are happening in their lives and discuss their ideas and issues at a length and depth that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. There’s not a lot of situations where you and your child have each other’s undivided attention for an hour or so. It’s I think a great thing to add to a relationship if you can. I want to do more of it if possible.

I was hoping to get further with this post but again – they tend to get out of hand. I should just finish by mentioning Yes – the English prog-rock band of the 70’s (still going now – but just a pale shadow of their former glory). Like a billion other runners out there my essential bit of gear has been my mp3 player, and I have the usual assortment of songs I like to play while I’m running – but – sometime maybe around 6 months ago I got the idea of exploring the music of Yes. I’d been listening to some Pink Floyd at the time, enjoying some of their early, pre-Dark Side Of The Moon stuff, and reading about them online, finding out more about some of their early 70’s contemporaries such as King Crimson, Yes etc. It’s a period that interests me. An elusive time when I was alive but very young. A couple of times in my life I have come across some HARD CORE Yes fans, but whenever I listened, I would get turned off by the singer (Jon Anderson)’s high-pitched voice. Now, for some reason, I decided to give them another try. I downloaded one of their albums: “Fragile” and was intrigued. There were unconventional strange, changing time metres, incredibly musically-challenging pieces – some very long songs, sometimes with very long instrumental sections. I listened to this album while running and found a new thing happening – I was becoming immersed in the music to a level I hadn’t previously experienced. Some of the weird parts of the music that hadn’t previously made sense started clicking while I was on my run – really good stuff. I recall one night running through the Botanical Gardens listening to Yes and having the feeling that I must be the luckiest person on the planet at that point in time. Some joyous experiences. I got to know Fragile really well, and followed it up with – one by one – each of their albums from 1971 through to 1977. The high points for me are probably Fragile, the next one called Close to the Edge, and the one after that;Tales from Topographic Oceans. A lot of critics and listeners bag “Tales”, but I have got a lot out of it. Yes are a band where you really need to be patient with their records to start to understand them and discover the good things that are in them. Anyway, Yes have really been part of my journey over the past few months and I would have been remiss not to mention them. For several months I didn’t listen to anything else while I ran.

Well it’s getting late and as I mentioned I need to wrap this up. There’s more to the journey to tell. I’ll get back to it soon.

life changes 1: quitting smoking and starting the journey

After what has seemed like a long period of stagnation, I have embraced change in my life; a series of changes in fact, and they have all been immensely positive. One has led to the next, in a way that has come to feel like the following of a path, and along the way – after following a lot of paths in the past that seem, in retrospect, to have been less positive – I have started to feel that maybe I am finally on a path that is right for me. So at this point I thought I’d write about it and share my experiences:

It started with quitting smoking, which I might write more about in the future, but for now, the shortened version is that like many people I had tried maybe 7 or more times to quit, and every attempt was difficult, and obviously every attempt ultimately failed. The best I ever did was 6 months. That was about 12 years ago. Just before Ally was born and just before I was made redundant from my last job in the private sector – well, actually – that quit failed on the day I was made redundant – but that’s another story.

This time it worked. I did it cold turkey. Didn’t plan for it. Just decided one day to do it – I’d dropped off my family at the airport – they were heading to Sydney for a few days – and on the drive home it occurred to me that this would be the ideal time to quit, with no-one at home for me to vent my spleen at for those all-important first few days. So I did. And it worked. That was 10 months ago and there’s no way I’m ever going back now. I don’t harbour any secret cravings. Honest. I’m free. Finally, after 31 years of slavery. I have a lot that I want to say about the smoking addiction and the tobacco industry but just now I’m going to save it for some point in the future. Besides – a lot of that stuff is based on anger and bitterness and part of my life change involves taking me away from that place to somewhere calmer and more positive. So anyway, lets just leave that there for the time being.

As I was starting to quit I became very interested in physical health. It started out as part of supporting my quit attempt. There was a psychological model that if I could accompany my quit with other kinds of progress involving physical health, that somehow the quit would be more likely to succeed. I’m not sure I can articulate it in a completely rational way – much of the psychology around freeing yourself of addictions defies logic, but it felt right. It felt like the weeks immediately after my quit were helped by my becoming more aware of, and proactive about my physical health in general. I started running … well, jogging … well, walking and jogging.

Whatever, it felt good to get out and get moving. I started out going for jogs maybe 3 or 4 nights a week. First up I was just going around some of the local streets, doing maybe 5 or 6 kilometres at a time. jogging for what part of it I could, then walking, and  jogging again when I got my breath back. I got to know some of our local streets better. I found that there were some other people doing the same thing. Strangers. Some of them would wave – the older folks mainly. It felt good to smile and wave back. I got interested in progressing. I discovered it was possible to measure how far I’d gone by putting a little device in my shoe that talked to an iPod. I had been keeping track of how much money I was saving by not smoking. I kept a spreadsheet; I started to consider it a fund I could dip into to help my efforts at getting fitter. So out of the money I had saved from no smoking, I bought an iPod nano, plus one of those devices that go into your shoe. I was saving around a hundred quid per week – so at that rate it only took 2 weeks to be able to afford those items. Eventually I acquired better headphones, shoes, shorts etc. But on the issue of gear, please note when I started all this I had nothing – a very average pair of sneakers and some standard shorts and t-shirts. That’s all you need. Plus the first spark of motivation to get out the door and start moving, however slowly, and for however short, or long a period-of-time. There is a quote by the German philosopher; Goethe that I learned quite young and that has stayed with me my whole life:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Just starting something is by far the most important step you can take in accomplishing it, and usually the starting isn’t too hard.

So anyway, with above-mentioned electronic device in my shoe, and iPod nano, I started to be able to track how I was going, and I started to want to improve. I got to the stage where I didn’t want to miss out on my exercise and I remember taking my gear with me on a couple of business trips I made to western Sydney and Adelaide. When you are alone in a city, with hours to burn, you can go on some pretty memorable runs. On the Adelaide trip I was staying in Mawson Lakes – the university precinct. A suburb built around a series of (I assume) man-made lakes. Anyway, this was the trip where I first got into mixing immersive music with exercise. I’d been a fan of the band; Tool for a few years, and loved losing myself in their long, complex pieces of music. This happened while I was on a long run (in the rain) and it was a transcendent experience. I have since done some research on these peak experiences people experience while exercising and they seem very similar to states some people achieve through meditation. I started chasing these transcendent moments. They come frequently. I would describe them as a simplifying of things. A dropping of artificial constructs. A clarity. I have described it as a cleansing of the conduit between self and world. I see the world in a new way – the whole world, and universe seem to be more here than at other times, and hence, somehow more beautiful. The weather rolling along in the sky above me seems like it is part of the same world I’m in, instead of just something that is happening that I happen to know about. Somehow I become far more present in the world and the moment, than at other times. I don’t want to turn you off if you’re not into this sort of spiritual stuff – I don’t even know if this is the kind of thing that spiritual people are experiencing, when they do their spiritual things, but as a confirmed atheist and lifelong spiritual skeptic etc, these experiences strike me as the kinds of things some spiritual people might be talking about. Inspired by these moments, I have done a little reading about Zen and there seems to be some similarity between these experiences and the things some people write about Zen. I want to make clear at this point, that these experiences have nothing to do with mysticism. To me the mystification of spiritual matters is their primary drawback. So-called spiritual teaching, in matters concerning self, self knowledge and higher understanding etc, should involve the opposite of mystification. Anyway – enough about that. Probably another topic I can expand upon later. I guess I just wanted to make the point here, that for anyone considering taking up regular exercise, a spiritual awakening may be an unanticipated, but appreciated side-effect.

The things I have talked about so far seem now as though they belong to a different epoch. They were my first tentative steps. Much has changed and progressed from that point to now. But this post has become plenty long-enough so I will end it here and talk next time about some of the next changes along the path; changes to diet, getting more serious about fitness, extending my runs, consciously embracing positivism, discovering more fantastic immersive music, trying to do some positive things within the community, and commuting to work by bicycle. These are all things that have presented themselves to me along the path.