Day 1

Right before leaving the House on my trusty steed.

The whole weekend, I meant to pass by my local office supply store to print out and laminate the spoke cards from 30 days of biking.  I really wanted to roll the whole month with a little bit of bling on my bike, yet somehow the weekend ended and I never got a chance to go.

As fate would have it, the very first ride for my very first 30 days of biking was to run an errand, on behalf of 30 days of biking (say that three times fast).  The trip to the shopping center was nothing new. Last week I found myself going to the same shopping center to buy dog food.  To get there and come back, it's a hair under 8 miles (7.93 mi if you want to be exact).  I do have to cross a major highway to go there, but I pretty much have to cross that highway to run just about 75% of the errands I could run on my bike.

At the moment, I find myself thinking that I should perhaps take a picture of said highway intersection since I will probably be going past it more than usual in a bike this month. Past the highway I cut through a neighborhood to get the shopping center.  Nothing too bad, I'm slowly learning to negotiate suburban streets.  The few pedestrians that I encountered gave me a warm smile, and I even got a couple of thumbs up from a couple of motorists.

Considering April just started, and that there are 29 more days to ride, I feel great.  I'm looking forward to what the rest of the month will bring.

Purdy

Be Safe and Be Green

March 2nd

With the first 60 days of the year done, I feel myself lagging a little bit behind.  I haven't put as many miles under my wheels as I would have liked, but I feel much better this far into the year than I did last year.  I'll be honest. I didn't get any bike rides done in January, but I did get 5 bike rides done in February for a grand total of 31.71 Miles.  That leaves me 468.29 short of my 500+ goal for the year.

A little part of me is a little disappointed that I only did a little under 32 miles in February, yet I feel good about the possibilities for this year.  Two of the trips in February was me going to work and coming back from work.  The first commute is done. The hurdle has been jumped. The cat is out of the proverbial bag. I know it's do-able. I biked to work and I didn't feel particularly fatigued ,tired, or lacking concentration. For the remainder of the week, I had a sense of accomplishment.  Sadly, the weather has taken a cold turn around this parts, and I am not yet acclimated to riding in anything bellow 50 degrees.  It's warming up though...  and warmer weather brings me and other cyclists to the roads.

2013 Mile total: 31.71 Miles

Be Safe and Be Green.

A Small Rack for Bikes...

One Giant Leap for the Cycling Kind. Otherwise know as "ask, and you shall receive."  That is the lesson I learned yesterday.

Ever since the school year started, back in late August, I noticed that our new building was missing something. Something that should be in every new building, specially if said new building is designed to be a "green" building. A bike rack.  Bicycles simply promote a healthier lifestyle, but if you are reading this blog, then you don't need to be schooled on the benefits of commuting by bicycle.

I know it's not the biggest bike rack. It's technically designed to hold six bikes, but it's installed in the wrong direction, thereby cutting the amount of bikes it can hold by half. The biggest point; however, It's that is there and it is still functional.

The roads around my place of work are bike friendly. Bike through here in the mornings on the weekends and you are liable to see at least a dozen cyclists zooming up and down this humble country roads.  The roads are well kept.  They are straight -ish.  The hills are tough, but not unforgiving. And as far as my experience goes, the motorists around these parts are respectful and aware of cyclists.  These are a lot of the reasons why I asked to be moved to this new location, so I could commute by bicycle from time to time.  You never know, It could become a habit.

Early in the school year, I asked my manager what would it take to get a bike rack installed at our location. His answer "I don't know. I'll ask."  From then on, every time I bumped into him in the hallway he would give me a quick one or two sentence progress report on the bike rack.  Progress felt slow, but he had an awesome way of letting me know that the idea and the project had not stalled to a standstill.

Yesterday when I got to work after lunch I bumped into him as I was coming in the front door of the building (almost as if he was waiting for me), and with a smile in his face he told me: "That bike rack you asked for was installed a little while ago on the back entrance of the building."  Astonished. All I could reply was "Cool. Thank you, I'll go check it out."

When I saw it, I couldn't help but smile.  An overwhelming sense of hope came over me and I thought "build it, and they will come."  The presence of the bike rack should give people that have been thinking about commuting a little nudge towards the right direction. I for one... can't wait to lock my bike there while I work.

Question is... which one first?

Be Safe and Be Green