I have been commuting by bicycle almost every weekday in September and October. Since the beginning of the year I have got 3813 km riding the bicycle. If the conditions are good until the end of the year, I might reach 5000 km. That would be a new record.
The photographs were taken in Nuuksio on September 19th. Tomorrow I have plans to walk across big swamps, but it remains to be seen whether that is possible.
(Posting title is from the poem Mapping the Genome by Michael Symmons Roberts.)
Since the beginning of May in have got 1831 km riding the bicycle, a little bit more that last year. In addition, I have spent almost as much time walking across forests and swamps, so there has been a nice amount of exercise every week.
I have been excessively busy recently, and this will not change in the near future. I hope I have time for a long walk during the next weekend.
The photograph was taken on August 1st.
(Posting title is from the poem Do Not Make Things Too Easy by Martha Baird.)
I'm feeling tired, but I'm not sure whether it is due to being busy at work, and the amount of exercise I have been getting recently. In any case, I didn't have energy to go through my photo stream at Flickr searching for a good set of photographs for a posting; I just took the two newest ones.
(Posting title is from the poem North by Seamus Heaney.)
I had the car serviced today. The car is 15 years old, and it turned out that the brakes need extensive repair, which means another visit to the repair shop. The guy at the shop said: "The car doesn't have any sale value, but it has a lot of use value."
These photographs were taken on April 4th, which was a gray day, and so was today. We even got a bit of rain. And for the night the forecast promises a little bit of snow. I have been commuting by bicycle, and it is good, even though I have felt physically tired once in a while. I have been getting 1 1/2...3 hours of exercise each day for 13 consecutive days without a rest day in between.
(Posting title is from the poem Fence Repair by David Lee.)
In the news today there was an article about people, especially young men, getting too little physical exercise. One hour per day was the recommendation.
I gained some weight during the darkest time of the year, but this week and the previous one have been helping in going down with the weight, getting at least 1 1/2 hours of exercise each day. There is still 2 kg to go until I'm at where I was last summer, but this is not bad, it is over 10 kg less weight than three years ago.
Here are some blurry photographs, taken while walking on January 25th, which was one of the dark days. Exposure was 0.3...0.5 second, f/1.7, ISO 800.
(Posting title is from the poem Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Millay.)
I took this photograph for documentations purposes. Do you see the curl in the snow on top of the car? Can you explain how this happened?
I'm getting two hours of rather heavy exercise each day. In the evening I take magnesium to help with the sore muscles, and it seems to work. A colleague commented that magnesium makes one tired, and this seems to be true even though I'm not sure whether this is a scientifically proven fact. In any case, I'm sleeping rather well.
(Posting title is from the poem The Invention of Streetlights by Cole Swensen.)
This morning we got some snow, and during the day the weather warmed up, so that the snow melted, and it was quite a bumpy ride on the bicycle on the way home. But it felt good anyway, and so far I have got six hours of exercise this week.
These photographs were taken on February 3rd, a fine night to be walking with a camera.
(Posting title is from the poem Death Is a Hysterical Dynasty by Steve Kistulentz.)
Today I went for a two-hour walk. There was enough snow so that the landscape looked like winter. Perhaps some of it will remain tomorrow.
I commuted by bicycle on two days this week. So far I have got about six hours of exercise, which is not bad. Lack of sleep bothered yesterday, and I got a headache, but today I'm feeling much better.
The photographs were taken on November 16th.
(Posting title is from the poem Letter from Swan’s Island by Elizabeth Spires.)
I commuted by bicycle once again, and even though it was wet I didn't get too wet.
I have got plenty of exercise during the last few weeks. In fact, there has been only one "rest day" within two weeks, last Tuesday when I commuted by car. During the weekends I have been walking, 3-4 hours during the weekend, and during the workweek I have got at least 1 1/2 hours on the bicycle each day.
But on August 11th I commuted by car, and took some photographs.
(Posting title is from the poem Little Exercise by Elizabeth Bishop.)
Today I got the axle nut for the bicycle, and it fits. I need still to do a test ride, but looks good.
Earlier this week I didn't get much exercise, as I had to commute by bus and car, because the bicycle was broken. But I got an ache in my leg muscles, as if I had done a lot of exercise. I wondered how this can be, until I realized that I have a standing desk at work. Some leg muscles were apparently underused during the summer, and now they got pressed back into service.
Yesterday I went for a walk in Petikko with my daughter, taking photographs of various plants. It felt good, and the headache went away.
The photograph was taken on July 24th in Oulu.
(Posting title is from the poem Mythistorema by George Seferis, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard.)
On May 17th I walked for three hours in Sipoonkorpi, exploring Lindamorsmossen swamp. At the south end of the swamp there are giant's kettles, west of Brännbergen hill.
Sore muscles are still bothering a bit, especially in the shoulder area. The swimming I did during the warm weekend taxed the muscles.
Weather was cold today, at +7 °C, and it was raining a bit both in the morning and in the afternoon. But I commuted by bicycle anyway.
(Posting title is from the poem Giant Night by Anne Waldman.)
Today some good things happened at work. And yesterday wasn't bad either. I'm getting almost a feeling of contentment. Should I start worrying instead?
I have commuted by bicycle on two days this week, which means four hours of exercise so far. Tomorrow I'm planning to take the bus, I need a rest day.
The gear I have for riding the bicycle works rather well. This morning the temperature was -9 °C, and there was headwind 7 m/s, making it rather cold, but I didn't have any problems. The Buff merino wool headwear works very well in protecting the face, and it is versatile on how to put it on, in how many layers, etc.
I haven't been using my bicycle shoes and neoprene overshoes, though, because the toes tend to get cold when the temperature drops below -7 °C. Instead I'm using my Sievi hiking shoes with two layers of socks, merino wool underneath long thick wool socks. This works well even below -15 °C.
(Posting title is from the poem Girl in a Library by Gail Mazur.)
Earlier this week I started thinking about making a longer ride on the bicycle during the weekend, and this morning I decided to do it. I thought it would be interesting to ride to Solvalla in Nuuksio.
I was a bit sleepy in the morning, not paying enough attention to the route, and so I made a wrong turn, riding a road which lead to south of lake Bodom instead of Solvalla. I had to circle back, which took about 20 minutes. The road to Solvalla was in excellent condition, going up and down hills. During one downhill part the speedometer showed 53 km/h, but the speed limit was 60 km/h so no problem.
I rested for some minutes at Solvalla, by Haltia Nature Center, where a lot of other people on bicycle also stopped. For the return I went another route, not along the road but along the walking paths between Solvalla and Pirttimäki, where Route 2000 goes. This route is very hilly, and I had to walk up several of the hills, and downhill one had to be careful and use the brakes a lot. I got somewhat tired during this part, but from Pirttimäki forward there was road once again, and the hills weren't so steep any more.
All in all this was a nice trip to make, three hours and 50 km. Afterwards I was quite tired, but in a pleasant way. Maybe this trip is something to try again if there is a weekend with sunny but reasonably cool weather, such as we have today.
The photographs were taken at Nuuksio on August 10th.
(Posting title is from the poem Hymn to Life by James Schuyler.)
On Tuesday I commuted by bicycle, which was 1 1/2 hours of exercise. After making dinner at home I went with my oldest daughter for a walk in the Petikko forests, for 45 minutes. Then I spend some time outside in the yard with my youngest daughter. And at the end of the day I made some small repairs to the bicycle, installing new brake pads, cleaning the chain etc., and after this I went for a test drive with my second oldest daughter. And oh yes, I did some walking at work when going to a meeting. Not bad for one day.
These photographs were taken on Saturday at Vaakkoi. It seems I'll be much behind in processing my photographs this week.
(Posting title is from the poem Tomahawk by Mark Rudman.)
Here are photographs taken on Saturday, while walking in Nuuksio south of lake Saarijärvi and returning to the parking lot at Yli-Takkula.
I have commuted by bicycle on four days this week, even though yesterday and today it rained plenty. During the previous week I commuted by bicycle on five days. The daily commute is 32 km, 1 1/2 hours, which means in a week 7 1/2 hours of exercise. In addition, during the weeked I have gone walking in forests, typically for 3-4 hours. This means a total of 11 hours of exercise weekly.
In my teens I took part in cross-country skiing competitions, and then I trained for about the same number of hours per week. Of course, I trained much harder, but I think I'm getting into shape right now, as it starts to feel really pleasant to get on the bicycle or start walking in a forest.
Maybe I should also arrange for some rest days, because there is the danger of too much exercise, one should have time to recover after exercise. Now I ride the bicycle for 45 minutes each morning and afternoon during the work week, and this may be too much in the long run, as I'm no longer so young as I was when I competed in skiing.
(Posting title is from the poem What to Eat, What to Drink, and What to Leave for Poison by Camille T. Dungy.)
Another busy day today, and lots of things to do on Monday. I commuted by car today, which means I commuted by bicycle on only one day this week. But maybe next week. I did a little bit of walking today, and that felt good, but I do need to get some exercise during the weeked.
(Posting title is from the poem Teddy Bear by A. A. Milne.)
Today I didn't take any photographs. It has been some time since this happened, but I was just too tired. I got over two hours of exercise when commuting and when walking to meetings, but I think I got tired mainly because of the busyness over the last few days. Well, it is good to relax every once in a while.
The two photographs show here are from yesterday.
At home I finished reading The Fallen Man by Tony Hillerman. I enjoyed the slow-life sentiment of this novel; an action-packed triller would not have fit my feelings today. Well, the book described rock-climbing, but not in such a manner that it would have generated too much anxiety.
Posting title is from the poem In a Dark Time by Theodore Roethke, selected because it fits the mood.
I commuted by bicycle today. Since the beginning of May I have a total of 774 km of riding the bicycle. My body weight has gone down a bit. This tends to happen during summer when one has more exercise, but this time the slimming down has been more noteworthy than usual. In fact, I haven't had this low weight in 5-10 years.
After dinner my oldest daughter wanted to go for a walk in Luukki, and so we went there, walking by the lake Kaitalampi in the fine evening sunshine. There were some mosquitoes, but not too much.
After the walk I celebrated by making a lot of pancakes for the family, the children being eager helpers. I think I got back what weight I had lost so far.
(Posting title is from the poem The Weight by Linda Gregg.)
Update: Speaking of bicycles, at 22:10 today the bicycle of our oldest daughter was stolen from the yard beside our house. A young guy walked away carrying it. He carried the bicycle up the nearby hill before we managed to go out looking for it, and when we searched for the bicycle we saw no sign of it. It was a new bicycle (lilac-colored Helkama Jopo), bought in April, and a sad thing for my daughter to lose.
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