Abundance

  First of all, I am going to apologize right away for not having any photos.  Remember what I said about the Carol Burnett/catastrophe thing when I eat on a bike?  Well, it's even worse when I try to take photos on a bike.  I could either be describing the amazing photo I took just before the crash that broke my phone (and my head), or I could be describing all of those picture-perfect moments that eluded digital documenting while I stayed upright and in awe of my good fortune.  We'll go with the latter.
  It has been a good long while since I added anything here - I forgot what happens when there is actual bike riding going on!  As Henry Rollins said (or yelled, while flexing), "Don't talk about it!  Do it!"  Well, I've been doing it! (not it, but "it" - you know what I mean!)  When Spring finally hits in Buffalo, there is an abundance - an abundance of flowers in the many gardens, an abundance of bands all playing on the same night, an abundance of cookouts (food!), and this year, I believe, there's an Abundance of Kick-Ass Ladies on Bikes.  May is National Bike Month, so women, men, children, marmots, insect colonies - they're all out there on bikes, in force.  But I'm noticing (and I'm not just wearing rose-colored Oakleys) here in Buffalo that this year the women are on their bicycles and they're excited about it, big time.
  Last Sunday, May 11, was Cyclofemme, an international event honoring women and the joy of riding a bicycle.  Here in Buffalo, there were at least two "official" Cyclofemme rides held that day - one by GoBike Buffalo, and the other by The Bike Shop in East Aurora.  I use "official" in quotes, because anyone riding that day was celebrating the event as far as I'm concerned!  Having recently discovered The Bike Shop and its awesome all-women group rides, I joined their ride that day.  And I have to say, there were some eye-popping moments.  Besides experiencing a heart-stopping half- second of the dreaded wobble, I was thunderstruck at some point by the uniqueness of this ride.  The magnitude of this hit me when I fell back from the group for a while, to check on a few riders behind.  After I saw all was well behind me, I watched this pack of, well, cyclists up ahead, just flowing along a country road, and I thought, "They're all women!" (it takes me a while to catch on, sometimes) I realized at that moment that this was only the second ride I had ever been on that was all-female (the first one being the women's ride sponsored by The Bike Shop just the week before), and definitely the first ride where I was with fourteen other women!  I'm still feeling the impact of this on my brain, and the implications - that this rare, surreal event might not be so rare or unusual pretty soon.  And Hooray! for that.  A fellow rider that day, Alexis David, had some mind explosions herself, it seems.  Here is her account of the day.  I think everyone on that ride said the word, "amazing" at least once.
  Still flying high on the Cyclofemme ride, I rammed right on in to a back-to-back 5K race (Greek Fest 5K) and 62.5 mile cycling event (Hospice Gran Fondo).  Why did I think this was a good idea when I really wasn't in shape for it?  Oh yeah, souvlaki.  And wine.  The Hospice Gran Fondo is new this year, and went very smoothly, except for some cars getting stuck in muddy ruts in the field where we parked.  Since my car is made of styrofoam and Chinese newspapers, it wasn't heavy enough to get mired, and bounced jauntily along the hillocks into its parking spot.  "Jaunty" is not the word I would use to describe the bike ride part, however.  The course was beautiful; winding around wine country in Niagara County, and almost completely flat.  It was, by far, the easiest bicycle course I've ever been on.  Yet by mile 50, there was Excessive Whining.  My hip flexors and quads were alternating between uselessly leaden and blowtorch-braised, like filets. Luckily, I had a friend who was eager to join in the crying game, so we whinged and moaned our way ("Not another incline! Auuugghh!" Yes, you read that correctly - "incline".) the last 12 miles to Chateau Niagara Winery for lots of food and about a zillion different wines. Oh, sweetness!
  So the next day I was massaged with hot oil by lithe and attentive servants, who also fed me pizza when I snapped my fingers.....Nah, I went on a bike ride.

Interview With a Blogger #2

   This is getting pretty fun!  And I feel so "professional", even though "professional" is hardly a real condition in my little world of blogging about cycling and non-cycling topics.  This time around, we have Sam B., the London, ON co-founder/co-author of the blog, Fit, Feminist, and (almost) Fifty offering up her take on life as an active, thinking woman approaching fifty.  Her in-depth blog tackles topics centering around this, and so much more - guest writers appear regularly, covering anything from women in weight lifting to philosophical and feminist thought as they pertain to fitness and body image.  Sam also maintains an active facebook page, Fit is a Feminist Issue, where she posts so many incredible links I can't keep up with them all!  I urge anyone seeing this for the first time to check out both her blog and facebook page.  So....here we go!

Detournement: By your own description, your blog came to be when you and Tracy set a goal to be the fittest you've ever been by the time you turn 50.  As that date approaches for both of you this late summer and fall, how do you feel about your fitness?

Sam B: I’m a more well-rounded person that I was at other life stages. There were times when I was a faster runner and there were times when I was a faster cyclist but in those times that one thing was all that I did. I’m stronger now, more resilient. I’m loving CrossFit and my martial arts training in addition to cycling and running. I spent a season rowing and loved that too. I feel more ready to take on new things. It’s harder to measure fitness when you’re doing lots of things but I’m okay with that too.

D: Was fitness and health always a concern and/or part of your lifestyle, or did they develop into a routine as you got older?

 

SB: I regret very much that I didn’t discover athletic me until adulthood. Growing up in the 70s it seemed you could be smart or sporty but not both. I was an avid reader and I excelled in school and didn’t give sports a second thought. (See http://fitisafeministissue.com/2012/11/02/indoor-soccer-team-sports-and-childhood-regrets/.) Of course, come teen years and early adulthood there were many years of dieting and trying to be a certain size Once I gave that up I decided that if I was going to be bigger than average I was going to be fitter and stronger too. I started running in the years around my 40^th birthday, cycling shortly after that and so it began!

D: Were you blogging before you started this particular blog? 

 

SB: Yes, I blog with The Feminist Philosophers Blog, http://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/ and other places too. A complete list is at http://samjaneb.tumblr.com/blogs.

Here’s a sample blog post not about fitness! http://peasoup.typepad.com/peasoup/2009/08/performance-evaluations-in-an-entrepreneurial-work-culture.html

D: What led you to start receiving contributions from other writers to your blog, and was it your intention from the beginning?

 

SB: Well, at first we thought it would just be us but then friends started suggesting ideas, we’ve developed a strong community of readers on which we can draw, and it turns out we’re not alone. There are lots of women who identify as feminists thinking about fitness and how it fits into their lives. We typically know the people who guest post for us—either through the academic world or through the blog—and we have one or two guest posts a week. I love our guest posts!

D: Do you think you are reaching your intended target audience?  Is there a target audience?

 

SB: Yes and no. We reach lots of academics and fitness oriented people but I’d like to reach more into the community of women who aren’t quite there yet either in terms of feminism or fitness and help them find a way in.

D: Do you feel your pursuit of and education about fitness has changed your feminist perspective at all?  How about your philosophical perspective(s)?

 

SB: Well, as we say on the blog “But we’re also feminists and philosophers, so we want to ask: what does it mean to be fit? What are appropriate measures for the goal? And, from a feminist perspective, in what way(s) does women’s quest for fitness and health contribute to empowerment and/or oppression.”

Sometimes it might mean we over think things! But hey, that’s what we do.

D: Cycling, of course, is what drew me to your blog, but you engage in so many more physical activities.  Could you list a few (or all!) and explain their importance for you?

 

SB: In terms of cycling, I’m a road cyclist first and foremost though I also own a cyclocross bike, a mountain bike, a track bike, and a fixed gear commuting bike.

But I also love Aikido, which is a very beautiful martial art. I’m training for my 4^th kyu test (so I’m a middle rank). I love it for self defense reasons. I love the community. And there is something very empowering about spending an evening throwing large men around in the dojo. I say that in a joking tone but I’m serious about the empowerment part. I’m more comfortable with my size and strength and how my body moves. The practise of Aikido has changed the way I am in the world both on and off the mat.

I started CrossFit a couple of years ago in the cycling off season and I love the intensity. I’ve always lifted weights but it can be lonely as a woman in the weight room. At CrossFit there are lots of women and many of them are stronger than me. I love that. I also like the variety. There’s something new almost everyday and I really think there is something right about the functional fitness idea.

Oh, and I play soccer recreationally. But that’s mostly for fun, with friends from my neighbourhood.

D: Which type of exercise/training is your favorite, and would you consider it to be the most fun out of all of them?

 

SB: Cycling! There is something about going fast on my bike that makes me smile. I feel like a little kid again. Whee!

D: Have you faced any serious challenges and/or setbacks on the way to your goal, and if so, how did you overcome them/it?

 

SB: Oh, stress fractures a few years back. Too much running, too soon. And the hard part was that they took me out of all physical activity for 6-8 weeks each time. The downside of seeing a sports medicine doctor is that they know too much about what we do. I asked if I could ride my bike and he said, “Yes, but no big gears, no hills, no sprinting, and if you can’t do that stay off the bike.”

D: What advice would you give to another woman having a similar setback?

 

SB: Build slowly!

D: What fitness products/gear have you discovered you really like to use, and what ones have you gotten rid of, if any?

 

SB: I’m a big fan of heart rate monitors and bike computers. Love my Garmin.

D: This might come off as silly, but do you think there is a different perception of exercise/fitness in Canada than in the US, or do you think both countries are roughly the same in this regard?

 

SB: First, Americans tend to be either into things in an over the top way or not into them at all. I notice that the US is the land of the super fit and the land of people who don’t exercise at all. It’s very much a “go big or stay home” kind of place. There’s less room for the person who wants a little bit of everyday exercise.

 

Second, the biggest difference isn’t between Canada and the US but between Canada and the US, on the one hand, and Australia and NZ, on the other. The latter have a much more participatory sports culture. There are more Masters athletes and more club level racing. Racing isn’t just for the elite cyclists there.

 

D: I was wondering if you could elaborate on the last one, which I found really intriguing and others might, too.  Have you had first-hand experience of the sports culture in that part of Oceania?  Is it a part of your research interest?  Do you think feminism plays a role in NZ and AUS' more inclusionary behavior in sports?

 

SB: I've done visiting academic gigs in Australia and New Zealand. I was a Visiting Faculty Fellow, Social and Political Theory, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, September-December 2011, 2007-2008. From Sept to Dec 2011 I was a Visiting Faculty Fellow in Philosophy, RSSS, The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. From Jan-June 2012 I was a Taylor Fellow in Philosophy and a Visiting Fellow in Bioethics at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.

In Australia, at ANU, I met up with the Vikings, http://vikingscycling.org.au/home/ and did their Novice program and then later rode with their women's group, the Valkyries. I raced time trials, road races, and crits and generally had a blast. The racing culture there was very inclusive. For example, for crits they had Women's A, B, and C grades whereas here we often just have Men's A and B and women race with Men's B. There were lots of Masters women and young women too.

In Dunedin, New Zealand (land of crazy big hills!) I hooked up with Women on Wheels, a track cycling group, http://www.cyclingotago.co.nz/customdata/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_text_listing&CategoryID=12690&itemLayout=2&headerselector=3&OrgID=6359. Again, there were loads of opportunities to race and to train that we just don't have here.

Why the difference? The culture generally in both Australia and New Zealand seemed much more active, sporty, and outdoorsy. Racing seemed like a normal part of life, no matter what your sport. 

 

 

Aaaaand.....I don't really know how to end these things.  Mainly because I don't really want them to end!  I feel the discussion could keep going and going and going....Well, that is sort of the intention, isn't it?  

Please feel free to check out any and all links that Sam provided in this interview, and let's keep going!