Fast forward to the Ipod age.  Now, I can have dozens of books on a tiny flash mp3 player that will run for dozens of hours on a single charge.  Audible.com was the first in the space of digital downloads for books.  They supply iTunes and they’re now owned by Amazon, so they are probably there to stay.  I recently signed up, and I must say I love it.  It is kind of expensive, and it breaks my rule agains buying DRMed material.  However, I haven’t been reading much  in the last couple of years, and this allows me to squeeze some reading in during my exercise time.  It’s nice to be reading regularly again.

Here’s to hoping Amazon can convince the publishers to shed the DRM.  Honestly, the book reading crowd isn’t a bunch of freeloaders.  We’ve always purchased our books, and human nature says those folks aren’t going to go giving the books away.  If Audible ever folds and I’m stuck with books I can’t listen to, you can tell me I told you so.  But for now, the benefits outway the possible drawbacks.

morse-lake

The park straddles the Monon Trail, the 15 mile greenway that stretches from downtown Indianapolis to the Northern end of Carmel.  At its center is the Monon Center, a combination health club, community center, and aquatic park.  West of the center are some natural wetlands, an artificial lagoon, walking trails, a board walk, and, despite the fact that the park is surrounded on three sides by roads, a road right through the middle of it!  The only thing I can figure is that they really wanted to spend a lot of money to build a pretty bridge over the lagoon.

I guess it never occurred to them that they could have build a number of pedestrian bridges over the wetlands and lagoon for less.  The end result of all these roads is that you can never really suspend disbelief that you are in an urban area, like you can in the real Central Park, because you are always within ear shot of traffic.  The west side is pretty, but not very functional.  The walk trails get use, but you don’t see people lounging or picnicing on the lawn like you do in many urban parks.  This may have something to do with the fact that all of the maintained lawns are on a slope.  They didn’t design the landscaping very well on the slopes, and some serious erosion has resulted.

The east side of the park is an abomination.  Once again, the park is bisected by a road, and, since the park is narrower on this side, there is not really room on either side of the road for any other amenities.  I’d say roughly 30 of those 160 acres are useless as result.

In the end, the Monon Center is a fabulous amenity, but the surrounding park could use some work.

Fallcreek and Monon Greenways

The first thing that became obvious was why they were there.  Although there were a fair number of kids at Jazz Fest, there was only a mild interest among them.  No, the true target audience of this product is the middle aged set, mostly women, who are constantly looking for that weight loss silver bullet that doesn’t require too much work.

So how does it work as a fitness device?  Well, not having used it, I can’t say for certain.  Watching the games on display and how they worked, I would say probably not all that well, but it’s better than nothing.  If the time you spend at it would otherwise be spent watching TV or playing a traditional video game, there is at least activtity involved.  Much like Yoga, the majority of the games seem to focus on core strength and balance.  What’s missing is the cardiovascular fitness side of the equation and overall strength/endurance training which is need to get that metabolism going.

So, if your looking for something new and fun to suplement your existing exercise routine, or to replace some sedentary free time activity, give it a try.  Just don’t expect miracles.

Anyway, it’s an awesome route. It’s one I rode a lot last year. There are a lot of variants of this route, and optional extensions that can be applied to various place from downtown. So, without further adieu, here’s the route:

Greenways and Downtown

Cycling Route for 6/1

I usually take this sidewalk along 146th between Allisonville and Hazel Dell because it’s pretty smooth pavement, and it’s a pretty steady grade making it rough to keep the kind of pace I usually like to keep in traffic. However, as you can see, the entrance to a new subdivision has taken precedence, and fifty foot of the sidewalk has simply disappeared. There’s a median making it difficult to get to the other side of the road here, so I got to portage the distance.

Rest assured, they’ll put it back. Local building codes require them to. But, you can bet that there will end up being a steep, three foot elevation difference between the sidewalk and the entrance, that the signage and landscaping around the entrance will make it difficult to see traffic coming out, and that the pavement they put in won’t be as nice as what was there. Heck, they may even add some nice hilly, curving landscaping to the sidewalk itself just to make it more interesting.

Keeping a steady pace is the ideal in cycling. While the mixed-use sidewalks are nice, the constant elevation changes at every subdivision and strip mall entrance, the frequent gaps between subdivisions, the accumulated debris, and the presence of pedestrians, make keeping the steady pace nearly impossible.

Granted, it can be kind of awkward at first.  With your seat this way, you will barely be able to reach your tip toe to the ground when you come to a stop.  However, it makes a big difference on how far you’ll get on the energy expended.

Cycling Route

It was an awesome day for a ride: partly cloudy, not too windy, and not too crowded on the stretch of the Monon that I covered. Best of all, traffic was light because of the 500.