other sports…

[oldbikechick]

All my favorite sports have high barriers to entry at the moment : skiing – requires snow and mountains, in short supply around here. Horseback riding, requires getting and maintaining a horse, which is expensive and time-consuming. Tennis, fewer barriers, but need to find a place to play and a person who can play when you can, at your level, etc. What I love about cycling is that barriers are practically non-existent. Once you have the bike, it requires relatively little maintenance, you can just keep it in the shed and when you want to go, you go. And I can get my bike ride in while commuting, basically needing to find no extra time in my day. So, until I retire and buy a ranch near some mountains, cycling it is…

Edit to add that when I had the good fortune to be able to live in a place where I could both cycle and go horseback riding, those two sports were a great combination. Horseback riding is great for strengthening the core, and working out your upper body, which is a great complement to cycling.

[lordofthemark]

I spent most of my youth as an unathletic geek/dork whatever. Always picked last for teams as a kid. A friend talked me into trying running when I was 22. Didn’t stick with it. Did a little weight lifting here and there, never stuck with it. At one point my wife and I got into skiing, but not more than once a year or so ($). We have always walked alot, and done some hiking but that usually means a two hour drive to SNP. These last two years, my wife is amazed that I have become an athlete of sorts, obsessed with a sport I participate in. I was never like this before

[Rod Smith]

Lifelong skier, but not much recently. I’d rate myself as an advanced intermediate yo-yo player but I rarely do that much anymore either.

Telemark skiing is a sort of niche sport and participants are friendly to each other, like biking, feels like family. I don’t know if it happens everywhere but locally Telemarkers tend to congregate on the hill and ski together. Whitetail has a nice core of Telemark skiers. I’m sort of anti-social generally but I love to ski with fellow freeheelers, much like group bike rides. I also enjoy snowboarding.

Playing with my yo-yo is very much a solitary activity. Haha.

[dasgeh]

@consularrider 116614 wrote:

I’ve been through a lot of sports in my adult life …

Me too. I’ve played a lot of softball, ultimate and flag football (which is how I met my husband), and I run and swim and do triathlons (all for fitness – I’m not “competitive” at those though I probably could be at swimming if I focused on that). Aside from the bike leg of a tri, I’ve never competed in anything on a bike.

Ugh, I’m going to lose my excuse for not getting back into shape soon. Thanks for reminding me.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Soccer, always and forever; high school, college, men’s and co-ed leagues here in DC, indoors/outdoors. I gave it up for a couple of years when my boys were born. I just got back into it now that the prospect of playing for an over-40 team seems like an achievement and not a cop-out. I just joined a friend’s team, but the bastard lied to me. It wasn’t over-40, it was over-30. Still, even though cycling and soccer are mostly different muscle groups, my cardio kicked the butt of all those 30ish whippersnappers.

[rcannon100]

At Oberlin, we focused on academics spending most of our time in the library, pounding away at the existential philosophy of Hegel or the idealism of Keirkegaard. There wasnt a lot of time for drinking, goofing, or road trips – ya know, that type of frivolity. Nope, comprehending the quantum state of mitosis was our quest.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8697[/ATTACH]

If however, we did go on a road trip, we brought our own couch.

[Vicegrip]

Skateboarding back in the 1970s when ramps and vertical skating was just starting up in this area. Lots of backpacking here and out west. Kayaking in the summer, ice climbing and more backpacking in the winter. Rock climbing evolved into caving and that went on for a good while. Caving evolved into scuba diving and that wandered into the deep end in tech wreck diving. If time, money and the daddy job were not in the cards I would still be wreck diving. I started weight lifting about the same time as diving and have continued since off and on depending on time and tide. Discovered the fun in restoring and racing old cars and high performance driving. I still play with cars but for now it is more in the shop than on the track.
Started cycling 4 years ago or so. I find cycling most enjoyable and for many reasons. Many ways to enjoy bikes from group rides to quiet rids to work to all day century’s to one hour hilly hammer fests never being more that 3 min from home. I look forward to bike time from the daily ride in and out of work to long distance trips to tandem rides with my dear daughter.

Things, hobbies and people come and go but I think I will always be a cyclest.

[cvcalhoun]

@lordofthemark 116646 wrote:

I spent most of my youth as an unathletic geek/dork whatever. Always picked last for teams as a kid. A friend talked me into trying running when I was 22. Didn’t stick with it. Did a little weight lifting here and there, never stuck with it. At one point my wife and I got into skiing, but not more than once a year or so ($). We have always walked alot, and done some hiking but that usually means a two hour drive to SNP. These last two years, my wife is amazed that I have become an athlete of sorts, obsessed with a sport I participate in. I was never like this before

I have a similar history. It wasn’t so bad that I was picked last for every team, but the guy who was picked just ahead of me had had polio and could barely walk. (Remember to vaccinate your kids, folks!)

I took up jogging in law school. It took me only a few months to injure my knee so badly I could barely walk. Indeed, my introduction to the law firm I started with immediately after law school was a Christmas party at which I tried to lean down to get something, hit the injured knee wrong, and leapt backward into the arms of a partner standing behind me. It was not a good start. X-rays showed that the back of my kneecap was much pointier than it was supposed to be, and that unless I spent almost as much time warming up and stretching as I did running, I was not going to be able to run without injuring my knee all over again.

I will never be a fast bicyclist. After taking the panniers off my bike to reduce weight and bicycling as fast as I could manage, I’ve been able to get up to a less-than-remarkable 11.5 miles per hour. I could probably go faster on a road bike, but a) I like to be able to look around while I bike, b) I like to be able to pick up stuff at the store when I’m out on a bike ride, and c) slow upright bikes are a lot safer than fast bikes ridden head down.

But cycling gets me places. It has so far prevented my wife and me from needing a second car, which saves money. And it’s more fun than driving.

I do use a gym, both for cardio exercise on days when I have nowhere to go on a bike and for strength training. But that and bicycling are pretty much it for me.

[bobco85]

Cycling has always been my #1 sport of choice, but I’d say a close #2 would be hiking followed by camping, caving, yoga, tennis, racquetball, volleyball, and (mini or par 3) golf.

Hiking is the sport that I do when I’m not cycling, and it helps me build that bone density that many cyclists lack. Since I’ve gotten into doing bike ‘n’ hikes (bike to a spot, hike, and bike/walk back home), I’ve been able to spend more time exploring the DC area. CaBi really helps with this for making a one-way bike trip and hiking back. Load up a few podcasts with deep/informative/humorous discussions on the world, philosophy, etc., and I’m quite content with exploring the world around me.

In high school, I played football my freshman year because I was fat and athletic (obviously I was an offensive lineman). I was NOT AMUSED to learn that our team made linemen run the most because they wanted us to be able to fire off the line of scrimmage as fast as possible, but I survived it and was able to use the reputation I had as a strong blocker to avoid any bullying since I was a geek (I still am a geek, BTW). I later joined the tennis team (as a back-up) and an informal cycling team that had such a positive effect on me that I still like to bike today.

I did a lot of caving in college. I loved it because the people were cool (made many friends in this), I found caves to be quite beautiful, I loved the exploration aspect, and I found it terrifying at times (one of those “keep in mind that this is dangerous” sort of things). Being fat, my biggest (pun intended) fear going in was that I would get stuck, yet my greatest takeaway was that I learned exactly how big my body really is and how I could maneuver myself to fit through seemingly impossible passages. Using different combinations of legs, arms, back, butt, and even my head in a few cases to ascend certain areas was challenging and fun. Learning the layout of caves and how to lead trips of many newbies (including how to coach them out of fear or confusion while deep in the cave) were great life skills that I’m glad I was able to learn.

I’ve always been fat, but I’ve also always been athletic. Maybe someday it will be more of the latter and less of the former

[PotomacCyclist]

If anyone practices the martial arts, or is just a fan of “The Karate Kid,” Ralph Macchio will be at the Awesome Con convention next weekend, right here at the Washington Convention Center.

Awesome Con is similar to Comic Con, I think. It has a broad focus on what some might call geek pop culture, from video gaming to comics, science-fiction, fantasy and some kids franchises. There will be actors from Star Trek (William Shatner, George Takei), Doctor Who (Alex Kingston), The Lord of the Rings (John Rhys-Davies who also starred in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” as Sallah, Sean Astin), Starship Troopers, The Terminator (Michael Biehn), Jay and Silent Bob, The Power Rangers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and more. I’m not interested in all of it, but I did watch the original Star Trek series during grade school and some episodes of the new Doctor Who. The 501st Legion will be there as well. They are the nationwide group of “official” Star Wars re-enactors with professional-looking Star Wars costumes.

Not too much cycling-specific content, although they do have a panel titled “Geek Fitness” about being healthier and more fit. It’s no secret that many people in the sci-fi/fantasy, comics, video gaming and cosplay worlds have less than ideal health, partly because of the lack of exercise and partly because of the very high-sugar diets that some of them follow. (Video game enthusiasts are known for guzzling down can after can of high-sugar soda. Maybe not all gamers, but that’s the stereotype. I’ve seen some of this behavior in person.)

Unlike other many other events in DC, this convention charges various fees, from general passes to photo op tickets. Just to warn you, in case you develop sticker shock.

http://www.awesome-con.com/

[Tim Kelley]

Anyone up for some pickup basketball? Or ping-pong?

[PotomacCyclist]

Or ping-pong with a basketball?

I think most people here are going to lose to you in pick-up basketball, unless they are ball-handling speed demons and outside shooters like John Wall, Kyrie Irving or Stephen Curry.

[PotomacCyclist]

The ideal cross-training facility?

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/top-shelf/2015/05/joe-englert-d-c-s-bar-impresario-has-much-more.html

It’s a proposal for a combined beer garden, bouldering gym (an “athletic form of rock climbing”), and coffee shop in the Ivy City section of NE DC. If this gets built, I think it’s probably better to patronize the bouldering gym before patronizing the beer garden.

[Tim Kelley]

@PotomacCyclist 116861 wrote:

Or ping-pong with a basketball?

I think most people here are going to lose to you in pick-up basketball, unless they are ball-handling speed demons and outside shooters like John Wall, Kyrie Irving or Stephen Curry.

Steph Curry and I did go to school together. Well, actually I graduated the year before he started, but it’s practically the same thing…

[jabberwocky]

@PotomacCyclist 116863 wrote:

If this gets built, I think it’s probably better to patronize the bouldering gym before patronizing the beer garden.

Better yet, they should put the beer garden at the top of the most difficult climbing wall.

[Author]

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