Cycling to work

Do you ride to work?

Or are you considering riding to work?

Today was the first day I've ridden to work since starting the sustainability challenge. I've been trying to ride to work 2-3 days each week for the past few months and most weeks I manage it, but sometimes there are barriers. There's this horrible wet stuff called rain that I just absolutely hate to ride in. Sometimes the body tells me it's "really not up to it today". I used to also find that I didn't allocate myself enough time to get out of the house. I'm used to the cycling routine now, so this doesn't happen anymore. But for a while it was a bit of an issue for me. I can do the cold, that just requires an extra layer or two. Don't know how I'll go in the heat, I've not done that yet so that will be interesting. But the rain, the rain really does get me reaching for the car keys every time...

A you're probably aware, not driving to work 3 days a week was part of my challenge. I'm hoping that making the challenge 3 days will help me jump that barrier that keeps me at 2-3 days of riding (and I didn't think 4 would be manageable at this stage). Fitness wise it's great to cycle to work. I get my exercise for the day and it doesn't take much longer than it takes me to drive and walk effectively giving me a bit of extra time in the day. And now that I've officially discovered the bus having caught one last week due to this challenge I can opt to sit and chill out with a book instead. So if I'm not riding my intention is to get my 'not driving' in by either car pooling or the bus or a combination of both. But so far so good with the weather this week. Yeah yeah, I know it's only day 1. But we're off to a good start there so I'm definitely aiming for my 3 days this week. My husband thinks I can manage more than this but my screaming legs really do protest quite loudly. Sometimes I love it. I get on the bike, start pedalling, get into an almost meditative state due to the rhythym. And then there are days I get on the bike and my legs just feel like lead. There are other days that they just scream the whole way and most especially on the uphills. And today was one of those days.

Mind you, I didn't ride last week which may partially explain the aching legs. And I'm not exactly crawling, so I would expect my legs to feel it. At the same time, I certainly get overtaken, so I'm not zooming along and so I'd expect the poor old aching legs to recover ok too.

I guess you could say that my commute speed is somewhere in between the people on town bikes with bike baskets in the clothes they're going to wear all day and the guys in professional cycling gear with a great road bike and bulging thighs. My commute is also the same sort of awkward 'average' when it comes to distance. It's too long to get away without a shower, but too short to be on the bike for the length of the average gym class. I'd much prefer it to be something that would have me as one these people on town bikes cruising their way into their day. I'd love to ride to work in a skirt and pretty top. But instead I have this weird sort of awkwardness as the one in the middle. The go between on an old hard tail mountain bike with shoes that clip in (cleats) and nothing much else that says 'professional bike rider'.

And that's because, let's face it. I'm not.

But that doesn't matter because you don't need to be a professional bike rider to ride to work. Sure these guys that scream past you down Northbourne and overtake you by sliding into the cars lane right next to or in between cars like it's the most natural thing on earth look good (and intimidating). But none of them started riding yesterday. And none of them just ride less than 10km a day. Still, if you're riding on the road you will need a bit of guts, at least for the first few times. It took me a few rides around the block to be comfortable to cross the road diagonally from one side to the other. It took me another few rides around a bigger block to be confident to hit a dual lane roundabout. And the only reason why I even ever rode down major highways and Northbourne Ave is because I needed to get more training for mountain biking into my week and cycling to work seemed like a good way to do it. If I didn't mountain bike I truly don't think that's a ride I would have done it.

The point there is, that it really can take a bit of guts to ride on the road. And that can be a barrier to riding to work. Mind you, so can not having a bike. I've gotta say, I've taken the cycleway a couple of time and it's a much nicer ride than the main roads that are my other alternate route. For one, cycleways are much easier to navigate. They tend to go through a park or green area, a much nicer ride. A cleaner and safer ride too. There's plenty of room to overtake, not like a teeny tiny bike lane on the road that's really only big enough for one. Bike paths also don't expect you to ride in the gutter, or in the awkward place where you aren't on the gutter but if you falter a little you will be, and then there's a lip of bitumen that you have to navigate your wheel back up. Yes, definitely good to avoid that.

So I thought, considering bike paths are a nicer, easier, safer ride to work that I'd provide you all with a link to the information on where to get an ACT cycleway map. They cost somewhere between $5 and $10 (think it just went up from what I just saw on the link from last time I looked), but is also held by the National Library. It's a complete map of the ACT cycleways, making it a great tool for planning weekend rides or the weekday commute.

If you cycle to work I'd love to hear about it. Why not leave a note and tell your story...