Above: The front of our fundraising postcard for our participation in this year’s Tour de Cure. (Hey, did you know they typically don’t remove the “old organs” when you receive an organ transplant? And did you know that plural of pancreas is pancreata?)

Background

Since 2000, Lisa and I have been cycling in the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure fund-raising event. We’ve ridden in the MA and NH events, and this year we’re riding in 100 kilometer event in southern Maine for the first time.

We look forward to this annual event because it combines our efforts in the fight against diabetes with our love of cycling (and each other!). Each year, as we humbly request donations to the ADA as part of our participation in the event, we are also reminded of how fortunate we are to have so many supportive and generous friends and family members.

If you’d like to support our efforts this year, you can make a tax-deductible donation via our personal page on the event’s website. Or, just as appreciated, drop us a note via the comment link below with any well-wishes or good vibes. Thanks!

-Rob

Please forgive two bicycle-related posts in a row, but today is National Bike to Work Day, and I just couldn’t help myself. For regular bike commuters like myself, the value in the actual riding today is perhaps outweighed by the attention today’s event might bring to a the idea of transportation by bicycle, and the potential for it to convince someone new to give it a try – whether to work, errands, the gym, or wherever.

Not me, but I’ve definitely felt like this guy on more than a few rides.

It was great to see the event get some publicity from the mainstream media, including a mention on my local (Boston) morning news this morning, as part of Bay State Bike Week. It was also great to see an article today in the WIRED Magazine’s popular blog… 5 Ways To Make Bike Commuting Easy. I enjoyed the article, as well as its terrific images (example above), and thought the author did a great job of blending the simple joys & practicalities of cycling with some fun & useful new technology, managing to bring the topic of bike commuting to its many gadget-oriented readers.

Speaking of bikes and gadgets, I’d like to take this opportunity to share one of my favorite new pieces of work-related equipment. For my last birthday, Lisa gave me a HYmini, a small, portable wind-turbine device that clips to the handlebars of my bike. Here’s how it works: As you ride, it turns a small propeller which generates/stores electrical power. It then detaches from the bike easily, and can be used to charge a variety of devices via its USB port. In my case, I use it to charge my cell phone, and occasionally a laptop or camera. Good old nerdy fun…I LOVE IT! (Thanks Lis!) I haven’t had to plug my phone into a wall outlet or car charger yet this year!

My HYmini, mounted on my commuter rig (and yes, those are indeed some old school, stem-mounted shifters too)

WARNING: Be prepared for some questions about “that fan on your handlebars”, or some sideways looks when when you power-up your laptop by plugging into a 3 inch “fan thing” sitting on the table in the meeting room – in which case, just tell them that “today’s presentation has been brought to you courtesy of my legs.”

Happy Bike to Work Day!

I’ve confessed here before that I’m a big bikehugger. In fact, my love for bicycles often takes a leap passion to compulsion. Heaven help poor Lisa, as she puts up with my strange and seemingly endless obsession with bicycles. She knew I liked bikes when we met, but it was not until later, after we married, that I gradually revealed the full extent of my illness. Perhaps this Post-Nuptial Agreement for the Bicycle Rider sheds a bright light on my condition, and that of those bearing a similar affliction…and our poor spouses.

My trusty commuter bike, for traveling to the office, local meetings, etc.

I have long been drawn to bikes for many reasons; their simplicity, their details, their technology, their geometry, their colors, their practicality, and their seemingly limitless blends of form and function. I love it all. But perhaps the biggest reason is the joy and relaxation I find when pedaling a bike. Over the years I’ve found that riding a bike does as much for the health of my mind as it does for my body. Sometimes, there is nothing quite like a good long ride to clear away the cobwebs, the clutter, the daily stresses, and all the rest that fill my mind and obstruct clear thought.

Perhaps as a result of its clarifying ability, I’ve found exercise, in particular cycling, to be a great catalyst for creative thought. Often, in my work as a graphic designer, when I get stuck in a project, struggling for ideas, strategies, or solutions, a ride on the bike does wonders. It frees my mind. Better still, I’ve noticed positive effects that last throughout the remainder of the day, making me calmer, more even-tempered, and hopefully a bit easier person to live with, compulsions aside.

The idea of a relationship between creativity and exercise is nothing new. Although much of the information on this topic is anectodal, it is also fairly well-supported by scientific literature. In one such recent report, Aerobic Exercise and Creative Potential: Immediate and Residual Effects, written by Dr. David Blanchette, Chair of the Department of Management and Marketing at Rhode Island College, suggests that “aerobic workouts have potential benefits in aiding creativity processes”. The study, using college-age participants, indicated that that “instances of aerobic exercise significantly impacted the creative processes of the participants, and these effects were shown to endure over a two hour period.”

“I thought of that while riding my bike.”
— Albert Einstein, on the Theory of Relativity

The ability to utilize the creativity-boosting benefits of exercise to one’s advantage may be something that can be learned, or least improved with practice. Perhaps, at a minimum, one must be open to the idea, allowing themselves to be receptive to the notion that exercise may indeed affect their thinking. This concept of an individual’s receptivity and mood prior to exercise and it’s role in that exercise’s ability to improve creativity was explored in a 1997 study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Exercise enhances creativity independently of mood, (Steinberg, Sykes, Moss, Lowery, LeBoutillier and Dewey). As the report’s title suggests, its results indicated “that mood and creativity were improved by physical exercise independently of each other.”

Have you noticed a link between your exercise patterns and your creative thinking skills?