Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens … quick interval sessions and a really good audiobook – OK, that doesn’t rhyme but these are a few of my favourite things. In case you’re not familiar with my favourite things lists, you will not find tools or obscure bike products below. Instead, you will be treated to a selection of things that are absolutely related to cycling, albeit not always at first glance.
For the majority of 2024 I was pregnant with my second child, so a lot of the products I used the most revolved around pregnancy and trying to keep my body functioning in a semi-comfortable state – or as comfortable as I could force it to be. A theme you may notice is recovery, because while I have been able to stay slightly active (not nearly as much as my first pregnancy or “regular life”), recovering from most activities is a lot harder when your body is growing another person.
If you came here for wheel recommendations or the best in tech, you’ve come to the wrong place. If you have a partner/family member who is – or you yourself are – pregnant, I hope you’ll enjoy this little step into my 2024.
Zwift Ride indoor trainer
Full disclosure, my Zwift Ride was sent to me by Zwift to test out. I didn’t pay for it. I do pay for my monthly membership because I basically live on Zwift.
The Zwift Ride was launched earlier this year and right off the bat I was intrigued. The number-one cause of me not riding outside is having to take my bike off the trainer, where it resides most of the time because I am a mom who also works and time is of the essence. As someone who is barely competent with technology, I found setting up the bike to be painless, and I was eager to jump on it.
From the first ride, I was impressed with how easy it was to adjust and how fun the controls on the handlebars were to use. It rides like any regular road bike or a trainer, with a slightly more comfortable cockpit, Plus, the Ride offers an enjoyable way to ride indoors without getting sweat all over your pretty pretty road bike, always a win.
I was able to, by some miracle and weekly trips to a very, very talented physiotherapist, ride my regular road bike through the entirety of my first pregnancy. By the end I was using the Wahoo Kickr Climb (seen on the left) to accommodate my bump. This time around, the bump was getting in the way earlier on than before, so the Zwift Ride’s easy-to-use handlebar adjustment has been a game-changer. I cannot overstate how great this bike and its easy adjustment is when your body is going through major changes weekly. The handlebar height seen here is maxed out, joys of the third trimester.
My daily routine now includes waking up, taking my daughter to daycare, coming home and jumping on my Zwift Ride. It’s easy as.
There are two drawbacks/complaints I have about the product. First, the saddle is not amazing. Whether that is because of the added 12 kg of weight thanks to baby girl or because it just doesn’t work for me, I’m not sure, but I would recommend having another saddle on hand in case you also find yourself managing some saddle sores after a few uses. The second is that with the multiple Bluetooth connections it’s hard to use with an iPad. I’ve yet to successfully connect it to my iPad, which is my preferred method of connection (so I can watch movies and TV on my computer).
Price: US$1,300 / £1,200 / €1,300 (bundle, with a Wahoo Kickr Core trainer)
Libro.fm audiobook app
I’ve been a member of Audible since 2012 and am a huge fan of audiobooks. Also reading books, but I found in this pregnancy that looking at words on a page felt a bit like trying to ride a unicycle around in circles on a boat during a storm. To keep my reading habit alive I increased my listening time. Unfortunately, Audible is owned by Amazon, and this year I’ve been making an effort to distance myself from the giant. I did a lot of research into other ways to consume audiobooks and came across Libro.fm.
It has all the same features as Audible: you can listen at normal speed, slow it down or, like me, put it in 1.6x. The app is easy to navigate, from your own library to finding new books to read. It also has some great recommendations based on your Wish List and past listenings. By far my favorite thing about Libro.fm is that every purchase on the app supports your local bookstore. I absolutely love my local bookstore – Montana Book Co. in Helena, MT – and while I couldn’t physically read books it brought me a lot of joy to continue supporting them via this app.
The app runs on a membership model, you can choose either one or two credits a month, and one book is one credit. This brings me to my only problem with the app. Once you’ve exceeded your credit(s) you can’t purchase additional titles. As a 3-5 audiobooks a month person, I’ve had a hard time with that one. Otherwise, I am a big fan of this Audible alternative.
Price: One credit per month is US$13, two per month is US$21
Nutribullet Original (600w) blender
Super weird cravings have been a daily occurrence for me for the last couple of months, but so have food aversions. Some days nothing sounds appetizing, but it’s so important to keep your body fueled during pregnancy. So I’ve turned to smoothies. A post-ride banana/peanut butter/vanilla protein powder/spinach/almond milk smoothie is my almost-daily, go-to, pre-lunch fix, and the Nutribullet as gotten so much use that I actually had to get a new one because our old one (of five years) decided it was done.
Aside from making me smoothies on the regular, the Nutribullet has also been used once a week for our Saturday morning Dutch Baby breakfasts. It blends salad dressings, salsas, oat flour, mocktails, etc.
I love how easy it is to use and how easy it is to clean, plus it’s not huge but packs a serious punch. It can fit pretty much anywhere in the kitchen, unlike a massive standard blender, but it can blend almost anything. Nutribullet (the company) has larger and fancier options that could probably blend literally anything, but I’m a big fan of the original standard-sized one seen here (just before making my daily smoothie).
Price: US$70 / £60 / €80 / AU$100, but often on sale
Eight Sleep sleep system
This is probably one of the fanciest things my husband has purchased in the name of “marginal gains.” I couldn’t really care less about my sleep data and how much REM or whatever sleep I get, but the Eight Sleep has one feature that has me looking forward to climbing into bed every night. It’s a mattress cover that connects to a tank of water that pumps water through the cover at a temperature of your choosing. Do you like to climb into a warm bed every night? The Eight Sleep can pre-heat your mattress for you. Like a cold bed? You’re nuts. But it can do that too. What about if you and your partner have opposite preferences? Well, using the app on your phone you can designate a “side of the bed” and heat/cool it to your wishes. My pre-bed setting is +2, so when I climb into bed it’s nice and cosy. My husband has it set to cool during the night. It’s awesome.
It is surprisingly comfortable, seeing as it’s tubes of water you’re lying on. One downside is that the cover squeezes the mattress so you might need a little buffer in between the frame of the bed and the mattress. It’s also not silent. I wouldn’t say it’s noisy, but it definitely has a noise when it fires up, which for my husband’s side of the bed is like 1:00AM. Eight Sleep makes three models, or “Pods” and offers them from full to California King sizes (or equivalent sizes in other markets).
There are also cyclist-related things to enjoy about it and I’ll let him tell you here:
“Eight Sleep lets you control the temperature of the bed, so that you never get too cold or too hot. You might know how important the environment you sleep in is. A dark room, quiet and preferably cool room, but with warmth under the covers always makes you feel snug and lets you sleep better. But what Eight Sleep also does it changes the temperature during the night, lowering the temperature so that you can hit deeper sleep and feel more rested when you wake up. It even has two different alarm features. One wakes you up by just heating the bed until you are awake [Abby: COOKING YOU ALIVE?!?!], or the other has a vibrating setting that gently wakes you up with vibration. No more crazy loud alarms.”
Price: US$2,649 / £2,549 / €3,149 / AU$4,349 (Note: Pod 4, queen or equivalent mattress; full access to features requires an app subscription, starting at US$17/month)
Normatec 3 Full Legs compression boots
We’ve had this particular pair of Normatec boots since 2018, and while I was racing I didn’t think much of them. Sure, they are nice to use for recovery and I’m sure they did something, but I wasn’t ever a big fan. That completely changed this pregnancy. Especially after a long day on my feet I found my legs and ankles so swollen it was uncomfortable to wear socks, so one day I pulled these out and decided it wouldn’t hurt to try. I’ve been using them once a day, maybe even twice, since.
After each use there is a massive difference in swelling, especially around my ankles and calves. Where before, by the end of the day, I was waddling around grimacing every so often, with these each day becomes a little bit more bearable. We’ve lent them to pregnant friends before who have raved about them as well. So, while they are probably a big help with recovery from a long ride or some intervals, they are everything if you’re pregnant and having a hard time with blood circulation.
Again, ours are an older model of the Normatec boots. Hyperice (Normatec’s owner) lists the current version as the Normatec 3 full legs and makes systems for lower legs, full legs, lower body, and full body. They also make the Hypervolt massage gun that I use almost nightly on my extremely tight hips. We brought it to the hospital with us to use on my lower back during the birth of our first child and it was the best decision we could have made. The Hypervolt probably also would have made this list but … I’ll just throw that in right here as an aside.
Price: US$799 / £899 / €999 / AU$1,500
Woom Original 1 kids bike
My daughter received this from her grandma for her second birthday and it’s been amazing to watch her learn to love riding a bike (not nearly as much as her parents, but that’s fine). Prior to purchasing it, I did some poking around, trying to figure out the best first bike for a toddler and this was the one I kept coming back to. For me, I love the aesthetic. It’s simple, easy to build, no fluff, but rides great. For my daughter, it’s easy to handle and learn on and it’s super easy to adjust the seat height.
I don’t love the brake. It’s not adjustable and she can’t reach it with her little hands, but I’ve been told by more tech-savvy people than me that any standard brake lever can replace it and be adjusted to fit better.
I also really love the full coverage of Woom’s helmet, and how it fits her head. Plus, if you buy a bike you get a deal on a helmet.
Price: US$249 (helmet $69.90) / £229 / €229
Honourable mentions:
Kaden Maternity Primo Padded Shorts: Normal cycling bibs stopped fitting around week 26, and although I’ve sized up in some of my favorites to continue riding, I haven’t found anything quite as comfortable as Kaden’s Primo Padded Maternity shorts. These were sent to me last pregnancy but I didn’t need to use them as my regular cycling bibs fit to the final week. This time, these have been amazing. The only thing I don’t love is that they ride up the legs a bit.
Lululemon UnderEase Super-High-Rise Shortie: Finding comfort is very difficult in pregnancy, but Lululemon’s UnderEase shortie underwear are a m a z i n g. They are super high rise and basically cover the bump and are so, so soft, I wear them day and night.
Bauer Chamonix skates: Given to me as a very early Christmas present, because we’re a hockey family in the winter, I absolutely love these skates. They take a little breaking in, naturally, but are worlds better than any rental you’re going to find at the local rink. Of course, my favorite thing about them is how they look.
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology: And finally, this wouldn’t be an Abby Mickey production if I didn’t throw a little Taylor Swift in there. When I wrote my previous “Favourite Things” articles at the other place one of her albums always made the cut, and this year was no different. Upon first listen I wasn’t sold on The Tortured Poets Department, but after spending some time with it, and seeing her perform a few of the songs live at the Eras Tour, I’ve determined that it contains some of her best work.
This is the second-to-last instalment of our annual Favourite Things stories. You can find the other entries in this series here, and please share your thoughts in the comments. We’ll close things out Friday with our intrepid editor-in-chief, Caley Fretz.
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