Bike day #1

I finally did it.

Sometime last fall, we started driving the car less often, & began taking the bus to/from work & other destinations more often. For me, that’s usually meant taking the bus sometimes as many as three or four days of the week, driving only when after-work errands or appointments were necessary.

The two big reasons for this were to save on gas money & to pollute less. After my mom’s death, & the growth of my commitment to my health, another reason became that it led me to walk more. Especially after it warmed up a bit, & the streets became walkable: instead of taking one bus from near my house & transferring to another that gets me the rest of the way, I take a 15-minute walk to the nearest bus stop for the second bus.

But today I finally made good on my resolution to ride my bike to work some days. It’s a distance of about 4 miles. Since I live in the valley of Chester Creek, this means at least one uphill climb every day as part of the ride.

This morning I went through midtown; took me about 40 minutes to get to work, & a fair lot of huffing & puffing. When I got to work, it took me a lot longer to climb the stairs up to my third floor office than usual, because my legs were tired & weak.

But I imagine that a month from now, the ride will be quicker, my legs will be less feeble at the end, & I’ll be a little less fat. 🙂