Riding for a Year, 1700 Miles

A year ago I bought a new bicycle. Nothing fancy; just a step up from the run-down department store bike I'd owned for almost a decade. The reason is that over the summers of 2014 and 2015 I slowly started to build momentum to commuting by bicycle and I soon was asking more from my old bike than what it was capable of providing.

Over those 2 seasons I grew confident in traffic, learned to fix a flat and did it many times over, started riding the majority of the weekdays instead of a single time a week, and brought my commute time from 40-something minutes to 24. My old bike didn't like going over 20mph. It would complain by wobbling the front wheel and I was never really able to get it in true. So I got a new bike, which I've been riding for the past year:

With the new bike, and improved consistency and confidence during my commute I decided over the course of 2016 to see how far I'd get by pushing myself to keep riding as summer gave way to fall and winter. So I rode through fall, and found myself in the dead of winter, still riding. And eventually May was around the corner again.

1700 miles later, it's been a fun year full of great experiences!

11 Miles on Foot

It seems that my cycling habits need to improve. I spend too much time up from the saddle and I don't stretch. Ever.

To top things off I almost never walk, so recently the tendons that run down to my heel started asking for some TLC, and they did so in the form of pain.

Over the weekend I noticed that walking carefully helped a lot, so I decided to start walking more often and to become disciplined with my stretching. Both are currently a work in progress.

Today I walked to and from work— instead of cycling— and as expected it took me a while. About a total of 3 hours and 11 miles. I had done one-way in the past so I knew what to expect when I got to work: fatigue, a sense of accomplishment, and above all, an urgency to pee. What I didn't know was that the return trip would enhance all of these symptoms and extend the recovery period by about 18 hours.

Still, it was worth every step.

Multimodal for Errands

Today I had some errands to run a couple of towns over and decided to make things work between my bicycle and the train. It was a fun and productive day.