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Finding time to ride your bike can be a tough challenge in today’s crazy modern world. Family, work, sleep and other hobbies leave very little opportunity to spend time on a bike much less train at a vigorous level. However, it is mostly a matter of being organized and proper planning to find the time to train and ride. The following are tips to finding the time to train.

Set goals for yourself. You should have a long-term objective like riding a century or competing in a race. Short-term goals are vital as well for gaining an understanding of how you are progressing. These could be anything from quicker training times on your favorite route or riding 50 miles without a break. Once the short-term goal is achieved, set another until you eventually achieve your long-term goal. It is best to keep a training diary so you can evaluate your progress.

Do not waste time. When you do have time to get out and train, do not waste the opportunity. If you plan an early morning ride, make sure your bike is ready to go, clothes prepared, water bottles are filled and gear are ready the night before.

If you cannot ride then do not feel guilty or get angry. You may feel inclined to go out the next day and ride double what you normally would ride. This will only lead to over training or injury. Accept what you cannot control and realize that some days you just will not be able to train.

If you cannot train during the day, then put a light on your bike and ride at dawn or dusk. Similarly, your can also use your lunch hour for a hearty ride.

Make sure that when you do go for a ride that you train hard. When time is limited, hills, simulated time trials and intervals provide an especially good workout. Heart-rate monitors and cyclometers can be used for feedback to ensure that you are getting maximum results from your training.

You can combine activities. Ride your bike to work or use your bike to run errands. If you cannot ride all the way, drive part of the route then bicycle the rest. If you do not have time to ride outside, use the time spent lounging in front of the television to ride a trainer or a stationary bike.

If you cannot ride your bike find other activities to take its place. Participate in high-intensity spin classes, lift weights or run. You have to be willing to compromise some days. 45-minutes in a spin class is not as good as a two-hour ride outside, but it is better than no training at all.

Try not to put things off. For instance, if you have a worn tire, make sure to go ahead and replace it before you head out on your lunchtime ride. It is far quicker to replace parts at home than have things break down on a ride.

The important thing to remember is that riding should be fun. If you are dreading having to train it will be hard to keep with it and stay motivated. Try to vary your routes, ride with like-minded friends or go mountain biking.

There is always a way to ride your bike and get in a good workout even if you are busy. You just have to use a little imagination and be reasonably flexible with your schedule.

Depending on where you live and fish, the time from mid-April to mid-June is a good time to fish for spring bass. At this time of year, there are many bass spending time on their spawning beds in breeding mode and other bass staged to begin breeding soon.

Bass that are on their beds for the spawn are not really feeding but are in aggressive defensive mode ready to attack anything that happens to get too close to the bed. These fish are in the shallows and are able to be fished by sight in many cases. The challenge is to entice them to attack your bait presentation by getting it close to their faces. These bass will defend the spawning beds!

Bass that are not quite ready to spawn yet are staged in a little deeper water but are feeding aggressively.

In order to catch as many bass as possible in the spring time, follow these seven guidelines to locate spawning and staged bass for some great bass fishing action!

Fish underwater ledges, ditches or troughs. Using a depthfinder, locate the contour changes that form these troughs or ledges. Staging bass will be there typically near cover or creek intersections. These bass can be fished for using a variety of baits. Perhaps your best chance at catching these bass however would be with soft artificial worms or lizards in pumpkinseed color.

Fish the deep grass. Staging bass often congregate along a grass bed’s deeper edge. Cast artificial baits parallel to the grass bed edge, but staying close to the edge itself. Your bait should be retrieved fast enough so not to snag on the weeds. Rattling crankbaits in crawdad color may work well here.

Fish the creek channel bend. Staging bass will locate on the deeper side of the bend. Try casting a black or pumpkinseed jig tipped with a trailer of some type to entice the bite.

Fish the points. Staging bass often congregate on the side of the point closer to the spawning area. If there happens to be any cover in the area, the spot should definitely produce well. Cast a white or chartreuse spinner bait retrieved just under the surface close to the shoreline cover. An up and down jigging retrieve with the spinner bait can also produce well here.

For spawning bass, fish the pads and the stumps. Sometimes bass will make their beds on the roots of pads or underwater stumps. These fish will be close to this structure and can be fished with a lizard or large worm in chartreuse, white or black with a white stripe. The tactic here is to cast past the bed itself, then move the bed ever so close to the bed to entice the byte.

Fish the rocks and the docks. Spawning bass naturally seek out rocky areas to spawn. Those areas are especially good for producing bass if there is overhead cover like a dock or overhanging tree limb. Try a tube bait with a jig head cast into the bed area and retrieved with a twitching motion to entice a strike.

Fish the shallow grass. Spawning bass will make their beds among patches in underwater grass beds. To catch the bass located here, try fishing with some type of swim bait as it is common for bass beds located here to be visited by other fish species like bluegill.

All in all, tailoring your strategies to catch spring bass that are spawning or that are in pre-spawn mode can produce some exciting bass fishing adventure. When you are out on the lake, pay attention to the topographical features of the lake to locate these exciting catchable fish.

Do you find yourself obsessively watching car racing on TV or driving to the local racetrack? Do you love tinkering with cars out in the garage, getting oil on your hands? Does the sound of a super-charged engine get your blood pumping?

Well, maybe you’re the kind of person who would love to get into the hobby sport of Drag Racing. Here’s some insight.

Drag car racer, Lorne Walters, worked on his drag car for over two years, making it one of the fastest cars on the strip. He even competes against cars that have a higher rated horsepower than his 1984 drag racing street car that he picked up for next-to-nothing. He collected inexpensive, used parts for it for over a year, until he finally bolted it all together and cranked the ignition.

Since then, he has put a couple of seasons of driving and fine-tuning under his belt. He explained that it is not major changes that produce big leaps in performance but many little changes over time that makes the difference between winning and losing a race.

Removing the muffler increased his engine’s horsepower. Removing over three hundred pounds of non-essentials made the car lighter. Removing the belt-driven fan and replacing it with a battery-powered fan reduced the load on the engine. Changing from street tires to tires that get sticky when you lay rubber and heat them up increased his car’s traction. All of these changes increased his car’s speed.

When you’re counting your racing time in tenths of a second, every little change brings you closer to winning.

One of Lorne’s motto’s to live by is, “You can’t learn it if you don’t do it.” If you want to become a better and more successful Drag Race driver, you can’t just read about it or watch it, you must do it! The more you do it, and apply what you learn from the experience, the better you become.

Before he ever thought of driving his own car though, Lorne joined a pit crew for a stock car driver, which allowed him to network with other enthusiasts and also get into the thick of it. Once he got bitten by the race car fever, getting behind the wheel became a driving obsession.

Consistency is also one of the major keys to winning. In Drag Racing, it isn’t always the fastest car that wins, but also the one who stays consistent in doing the little things right. Good race timing scores must be repeated often.

Lorne also learned quickly that when you’re on the strip, ready to go, you don’t hang around waiting to be “told” to go. Waiting for the tree of lights to reach green-for-go cost him 1.2 seconds. Which meant that his competitor, who exploded his engine’s horsepower into forward motion just prior to green, left the gate just as the tree hit green and was way out ahead of him. There is always a lag time before the car will actually burst forward.

When Lorne started out with his own car, tagging along with a successful racer who knew the circuit and all the ropes placed him car lengths beyond his competition. He also gained much of his knowledge by asking lots of questions, searching the Internet for free information, and by hands-on experience.

Drag Racing is no longer a hobby to Lorne, it’s a passion – a passion that pushes him from race to race throughout the season.

Maybe this could be your passion, and like Lorne, you may get some or even your entire car sponsored by local businesses.

Not sure if you would like it? Some drivers are allowed to take passengers during certain parts of the day. Why not get to know one and go for a trial spin?

Happy super-charging!