Tag Archives: starbucks

My Badass Bike

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I just got it, but I do <3 my bike.

After a few trips to the bike store, I finally bit the bullet and bought a bike! (Thank god for tax refunds!)

I went with the Giant Dash 3, a performance hybrid. It’s basically as close as a hybrid can get to a road bike without actually being a road bike. Which means it’s comfortable and has straight, not curly bars, but is light and fast.

Riding it home afterwards was absolutely terrifying. Riding down 9th Ave at rush hour? With a heavy purse on my shoulder? I am so glad I didn’t die. I dropped off my purse and headed back out for an 8ish-mile ride to Battery Park and back.

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Dog not included.

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I asked the nice guy in the bike store what I absolutely couldn’t walk out of the bike store without, and he said all I really needed were lights, if I ever rode at night, and a helmet. I already had a helmet, so I bought the lights. I also bought a water bottle holder (pink, since the bike is blue) and a lock.

Things I didn’t buy immediately but foresee in my future: padded shorts, a rack for the back in case I want to take it grocery shopping.

Things there is no chance in hell I will buy: clips. I am too clumsy to clip in and out.

So since I just dropped a nice wad of cash on this baby, and we’ll be spending a lot of time together, he needs a name. (Yes, I named my cars, too. I had a blue Jeep named Bluebird and a red Volvo named Ruby. So yes, I am that girl.)

And that’s where you come in. Because I love you so much for reading my ramblings everyday, I’m buying you a present. Just one of you, just for suggesting a name for my bike.

I’m sending one winner a $10 Starbucks gift card. You can buy approximately 3 spinach feta wraps with this.

All you have to do is leave a comment suggesting a name for my bike. The only two criteria for the name:

  • It has to start with a B. (Its full name will be B___, the Badass Bike.)
  • It should be a gender-neutral or a male name. Though this bike is for a lady, the bike itself is a dude.

Just leave a comment by 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday, April 27, 2011. I’ll pick the winner Thursday.

 

Should I Work Out Through Soreness?

Last night, I walked over to Equinox to reserve my bike for the spin class. I had hoped to do a Vipr class, but I somehow read the schedule wrong. I had some sharp pain in my lower back as I walked over, but I really wanted to work out.

Some people say I’m good at “listening to my body,” but I say I’m just lazy at heart when it comes to working out and will seize any opportunity to not work out, if possible. I enjoy working out once I do it, but it’s still a fight to make myself work out. I reserved my bike, and then I had a little time so I walked over to Duane Reade to look at vitamins. (I’m cool like that.)

I had talked about multi-vitamins with a pharmacist a few weeks ago, then Tina told me she’d consistently taken a multi-vitamin every day for a month and she had a lot more energy. Then I read Janeetha’s post on vitamins. Okay. I need to take multivitamins–or at least give them a try. The pharmacist said with my healthy diet, I was probably okay without a multi-vitamin, but it couldn’t hurt.

She did say that as a runner and a young woman (who limits her dairy) that calcium was incredibly important. I know that I feel great when I take B-vitamins, so I looked for a vitamin that had high levels of B and calcium. I ended up buying Alive! women’s multi-vitamins. They had decent levels of B and calcium and were made of fruits and veggies. I took one this morning, and maybe it’s a placebo, but I have a decent amount of energy. It was also really easy on my sensitive tummy to digest.

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But back to the spin class. I decided to give it a try, and if my back hurt, I’d stop. It didn’t, and so I finished the class and my back feels better now. It can be hard to tell when to work through soreness and when to give it a rest, but I think that in general, active recovery can be helpful, and your body will tell you when it really needs rest.

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It will also tell you when it really needs a spinach feta wrap, and that’s what my body told me this morning.