On Biking to Work

Although living right next to work (2 minutes walking!) was really really convenient, I came to the conclusion that there is such a thing as living too close to work.  For one thing, every time we’d drive home in the evening, we’d pass my building, and there would be lots of cars outside as the students sweated away at various projects.  That always brought back memories and kicked me out of ‘The Now’.

The other thing is that I’ve discovered that I’m utterly useless at going out for a random run, or a random bike-ride just for exercise.  I need there to be a purpose to going out on a run or a ride or a walk (and training for a race won’t cut it).  There has to be some point in getting from A to B if I’m going to be doing it on a regular basis.  And thus we settled on a location that was not next to work, but within a bike-able distance to work.

This here blog post is to mark that I’ve biked to work for a whole month (with two or three exceptions, due to scheduling issues).  Thankfully, the weather has cooperated, with a mostly dry month, and not a lot of wind.  It’s basically been utterly gorgeous out there every day, and that has indeed made it easier.

Having a fancy phone that can track my progress via GPS, while playing fantastic NPR podcasts has also been a real boost.  Getting fenders, waterproof biking-gloves, and a proper bike-bag has also helped now that it’s started raining a bit.  Yet to come are studded tires, lights, and more protective gear as darkness and colder weather will be coming our way soon.

All in all it takes me a little over 30 minutes to bike to work, but closer to 35-40 minutes to bike back home from work since it’s more uphill, and the wind tends to be unfavorable.  If I were driving, it would take 15 minutes in no traffic, and some 20-25 minutes in traffic (I wouldn’t know, I’ve never tried).  As conditions will continue to deteriorate, driving may take longer than biking!  But we’ll have to wait and see if I make it to that point…