For now, forget the bug. I’ll be dealing with that in the next week or so. Stay tuned.

Let’s
talk about  the bike, my speedy slightly used cycle machine.  ‘Cuz now
that L.A.’s baskeball playoff run is done, I can stop eating badly and
drinking heedlessly three nights a week and, finally, get my exercise
on.

Last weekend I got some great Father’s Day gifts. (Dodgers tix from my sons? Against no less than beloved Cleveland Indians? Barack Obama mos def wasn’t talking about my black ass!)
The one bound to give the most tangible benefit is the used bicycle my
girl picked up from an Altadena retiree who specializes in fixing up
broke-down bikes. If rising gas prices,
weren’t an issue, I’d still dig the gift. But they are, so my love for
the thing is practically familial. This week I’ve ridden everywhere
that's bike-able. Maybe you should co the same.

My treks in and
around Culver City have supplemented a re-thought workout plan. Now
it's clear that I’ve put too much time and effort into weight training.
About a half-hour of each thrice-weekly workout session was devoted to
lifting. Ninety minutes is just too much for a busy guy who’s trying to
lose 10 pounds. Now I do 60 minutes a week, and the lifting is intense
and heavy.

I first figured out the approach about seven days
ago, when I whimsically throw 225 on the bench press. Not only could I
lift it, but I could get it up repeatedly. Ordinarily I had been
working with as much as 70 pounds less, thinking less weight and more
reps was a good way to burn calories. But fewer and smaller barbells
weren’t making me lose weight, no matter how frequently I pushed them
up in the air. All I burned were minutes; cardio is my thing.

Even
after dropping down to a more reasonable working bench press of 190
pounds, I’ve cut a third of my time in the weight room.  The sessions
on that rowing machine, etc. are equally compact and dense. On the way
to my gym, I meander through the neighborhood and town that surrounds
it. (Ballona Creek isn’t much to look at, but the environs around that water body are at least quiet and without car traffic.)

And
perhaps more importantly — well, at least as important what I put into
my body — is the incidental riding that has infiltrated my week. The
grocery store is a regular destination. Plans are to ride my bike to the Red Line train stop in Koreatown, then have mass transit get my ass to Pasadena for time with my kids. And of course there’s that dispensary up in Hollywood…

Fact
is, deadlines and utility drives us in these busy, busy times. As much
as I can multi-task by burning calories while getting places — as
opposed to burning them on a stationary machine — my life is better,
more practical. And as for those gas prices? That’s one tax on my
quality of life that I refuse to pay.

Thank you, baby.