I’m hoping to get start riding my bike to (sort of) and from (definitely) from work soon. My plan goes like this: I’ll get up around my normal time (five-ish) and do normal morning things. Then I’ll ride seven miles to the hospital on the edge of town where I can catch a bus (with a bike rack!) that’ll take me the rest of the way to work. At the end of the day, I’ll just hop on the bike and pedal home (20 miles, door-to-door).
I figure that at first, the morning ride will take about 45 minutes, and I’ll be in the saddle coming home for close to two hours. Those times will, of course, decrease as I get used to riding again and get in better shape.
And why the hell would I subject myself to all that? Of course riding to work is one of the easier things I can do that’ll really make a difference, environmentally speaking. The bigger, more important reason, though, is that riding to work is a great way to build exercise into my daily life. Right now, I don’t get *any* exercise because, honestly, I’m one of those guys who needs external motivation. If I had to meet a buddy at the gym every morning, I’d be there, and giving it my all. But that’s not the case. So why not create an artificial external motivation and see how that works (and trust me, it’s a lot harder to do, then say)?
I’ll keep you posted.
Way to go AJ! Best of luck with your new exercise plan. So wrangling the herd doesn’t provide enough exercise? or is it that all that home brew offsets all the chasing of dogs and kids?