What a wonderful day it has been so far! I woke up, had my customary oatmeal breakfast and then after some puttering around the house I got into my bike outfit (not anything specifically bike-outfitty, just some UnderArmour gear that helps) and hit the road. The entire plan was to take care of the light-mass errands all by bike. That meant hitting KL Cat Hospital for Griffin’s special food and then Pets Supplies Plus for Owein’s special food. I also wanted a handlebar case for my iPhone so I didn’t have to carry it around in my pocket all the time; I’m always afraid that my pocket will empty my phone out onto the ground and make me a very sad geek. I was able to find what I was after not at Dicks, which I half expected I should, instead they opened without all their product being placed properly. Dicks also irked me, I had to secure my bike to a local tree. It’s not something that’s an outrage, but if you are selling sporting goods, wouldn’t a simple hum-drum bike rack out in front be a nice touch? Alas, I didn’t find what I was after. I did find a lot of UnderArmour, of course, but I have no money for such frivolities and I honestly don’t need any more clothes. Between my Doc Martin Chukkas, which I can boldly say are my favorite pair of shoes that I’ve ever owned, and the recent acquisition of all my bow ties I don’t think I’ll need any more additions to my wardrobe for a long while.
On my journey I used several apps on my iPhone which worked very well together. The central fitness app I use is MyFitnessPal. This app works really well with my FitBit, but there isn’t any integration with MapMyRide yet, so when you want to cross-log your efforts in apps you need to have three bits of information, the time you started, the duration and the number of calories that you burned. Irritatingly enough, the MapMyRide app will only give out duration and calories but not start time. I searched high and low throughout the App Store looking for a time logging app and found one good enough in TimeKeeper. I can start it, tap the title, then tap Biking and it’ll take a timestamp for me without me having to muck about with Siri. She doesn’t understand the phrase “Siri, mark the time.” So, irritating. Once I get all the data going I use MapMyRide to trace my biking performance, MyFitnessPal to track my calorie availability and manage what I can eat, and then last but not least, Google Maps. Google Maps has a biking mode and turn by turn directions which work really well when I’m on the road.
Biking around can be dull but I have another app on my iPhone that I use called Downcast that downloads and streams Podcasts over my phone so I can listen to original programming while I work out, going from one place to another. I’m currently listening to only three podcasts, “A Way With Words”, “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me”, and “RadioLab”. I have to say that I enjoy all of them immensely and the player is good enough to stream one episode back to back with the next so I don’t really have to fiddle with my phone much at all.
The only thing I would change is that I would bring battery backup for my phone next time. I was glad that Culvers had power plugs by the dining tables and I was able to get a wee charge from them while I had lunch, but that’s not something I should plan on – I need to prepare some sort of backup power deal when I go out biking.
So now, after lunch, which I splurged on (allowed myself french fries, which are my guilty pleasure) I’m at home, recovering from the 32 mile bike adventure. After this, I think I’ll head out and get the rest of the supplies, which entails a trip to Meijers. I may stop at Chocolatea for something not quite unlike Green Tea. 🙂