Small Steps is a small but effective, non-overwhelming Web site that appreciates that people have various challenges to living a healthy life, not the least of which is making a second career out of trying to live a healthy life. It offers quick tips and suggestions for being more physically active and eating better. The site is divided into two components:read more
In the April Outside magazine, I read about stand-up paddleboarding and thought, there’s another crazy thing I’ll never try.
Last week, I walked out of Great Outdoor Provision Co. and thought, Man, there’s something I can’t wait to try.
The difference perspective makes.
Here’s how the Outside article started (quoting from the drop headline): “Masochistic surf kook bent on taming very large stand-up paddleboard seeks Graveyard of the Atlantic for island-linking expedition entirely at whim of wind and waves.” Masochistic … kook … taming … Graveyard … whim — not descriptions I look for when deciding whether to try a new sport. The article — about the author’s six-day, 70-mile vertical paddle from Ocracoke to Nags Head — didn’t quite live up to its beware-all-ye-who-enter-here headline hype. But passages such as “ … averaging a fall every five minutes or so, accumulating abrasions on knees and knuckles …” and “Nevertheless, I go down hard, cracking my jaw on the deck and bloodying my lip. And I haven’t even reached the real turbulence yet … ” keep me from adding stand-up paddleboarding to my to-do list.read more
The next time you hear someone badmouth all the New Yorkers here, invoke the name of Jessalee Landfried. She’s the reason we’ll get to ride our bikes, free of motorized traffic, over a mile-long loop of downtown Durham streets Sunday afternoon, and she’s only lived here since September.read more
I’m already running behind this week, even on the big news, which is … this is Bike to Work Week.
Since I try to keep these posts to a readable length, I will not attempt to extoll the assorted virtues of riding your bike to work. Of the money you’ll save on gas, of how a bike and its rider emit far fewer pollutants into the atmosphere than a car, of a wake-up call (the ride in) that’s even more effective than a triple Americano at jump-starting your day, of a great way to shake the “I-can’t-believe-I-work-for-the-guy-Dilbert-is-modeled-after” end-of-day blues, of getting a good workout with great health benefits to boot.read more
So, what did you do first thing this Sunday morning? Have a cup of coffee? A bagel? Read the Sunday paper in your bathrobe and slippers?
Me? I dove into 15,000 gallons of ice water.
Technically, “ice water” may be pushing it. According to the duck, it was 65 degrees. To put that number in perspective, jump into the ocean during your summer beach vacation, then subtract 20 degrees. It’s a big difference, trust me.read more