Amy's Blog

The only physical activity that I do involves running or walking.  I just started a new weight loss program about a month ago and I like to keep up on the latest health and fitness trends.  I keep running across the words cross-training and I’ve been thinking about taking up light pleasure biking.  I even got a really cool new back pack to tote my stuff around in on my new bike….that I hadn’t yet purchased…

I finally  picked up my new bicycle a couple of days ago with the intention of riding to work. The route is a piece of cake 3.5 miles.  When I went to pick up the bike, I assumed that I would just throw it in my two door car and head home, no big deal.  Well, it obviously didn’t fit in my car. So, I put the back seat down and shoved the bike as far into the trunk as I could get it.  I figured I’d be fine if I drove slow the whole 10 miles home.  Did I mention that we were in a tornado or thunderstorm warning and there were 45mph winds?

I was pretty nervous driving 20mph in a 45 with cars passing me and my trunk lid flying up every few minutes.  After I had been in the car about 20 minutes and hadn’t even made it a third of the way home, I realized that I was hungry.  I decided to swing into the Taco Bell drive through for Fresco tacos (meat, lettuce, and tomatoes only, but I digress) I got some strange looks going through the drive up, but got my tacos and was back on my way.  I finally made it home in one piece and got the bike in the garage. 

I wanted to ride to work the next morning, but I didn’t because I had an out of the office meeting that I had to attend.  After work that night, I decided to do a trial run of the route to the office. Like I said earlier, piece of cake, right?? I got the bike out, and got on the road. It had been about 4 years since I had ridden anything but a stationary bike. After about five minutes on the road, I wanted to turn around and go home, but I decided to stick with it.  That was a tough 3.5 mile ride, more hills than I expected and quite a bit of road construction. 

I made it to the office and was exhausted. I really had nothing to do but turn around and head back home.  I rode on the opposite side of the street to avoid a lot of the construction. 

Somewhere along the way, I must have gotten a second wind, because I decided to swing into the dry cleaners to pick up my latest order.  I had forgotten that I had six garments and an express bag waiting for me.  By this time, the sky was black and the wind was starting to pick up… a storm was moving in. 

As I collected my items, the man that runs the store said, “Oh my, you are on your bicycle in the rain.” Well, that shows what little he knew, it hadn’t even started raining yet!!! Anyway, somehow I managed to get my clothes, express bag, and myself home on my bike in one piece.  Perfect timing…as soon as I got into my car, the down pour started. 

I was exhausted and I realized that before I commit to commuting via bicycle, I need to carefully plan when I can be without my car, what time I will leave the house, what I will need to keep at work and what I will need to tote with me, should I take a shower at home or the office, etc. etc.  In the meantime, I will do a couple of more trial runs of the route….

The only physical activity that I do involves running or walking.  I just started a new weight loss program about a month ago and I like to keep up on the latest health and fitness trends.  I keep running across the words cross-training and I’ve been thinking about taking up light pleasure biking.  I even got a really cool new back pack to tote my stuff around in on my new bike….that I hadn’t yet purchased…

I finally  picked up my new bicycle a couple of days ago with the intention of riding to work. The route is a piece of cake 3.5 miles.  When I went to pick up the bike, I assumed that I would just throw it in my two door car and head home, no big deal.  Well, it obviously didn’t fit in my car. So, I put the back seat down and shoved the bike as far into the trunk as I could get it.  I figured I’d be fine if I drove slow the whole 10 miles home.  Did I mention that we were in a tornado or thunderstorm warning and there were 45mph winds?

I was pretty nervous driving 20mph in a 45 with cars passing me and my trunk lid flying up every few minutes.  After I had been in the car about 20 minutes and hadn’t even made it a third of the way home, I realized that I was hungry.  I decided to swing into the Taco Bell drive through for Fresco tacos (meat, lettuce, and tomatoes only, but I digress) I got some strange looks going through the drive up, but got my tacos and was back on my way.  I finally made it home in one piece and got the bike in the garage. 

I wanted to ride to work the next morning, but I didn’t because I had an out of the office meeting that I had to attend.  After work that night, I decided to do a trial run of the route to the office. Like I said earlier, piece of cake, right?? I got the bike out, and got on the road. It had been about 4 years since I had ridden anything but a stationary bike. After about five minutes on the road, I wanted to turn around and go home, but I decided to stick with it.  That was a tough 3.5 mile ride, more hills than I expected and quite a bit of road construction. 

I made it to the office and was exhausted. I really had nothing to do but turn around and head back home.  I rode on the opposite side of the street to avoid a lot of the construction. 

Somewhere along the way, I must have gotten a second wind, because I decided to swing into the dry cleaners to pick up my latest order.  I had forgotten that I had six garments and an express bag waiting for me.  By this time, the sky was black and the wind was starting to pick up… a storm was moving in. 

As I collected my items, the man that runs the store said, “Oh my, you are on your bicycle in the rain.” Well, that shows what little he knew, it hadn’t even started raining yet!!! Anyway, somehow I managed to get my clothes, express bag, and myself home on my bike in one piece.  Perfect timing…as soon as I got into my car, the down pour started. 

I was exhausted and I realized that before I commit to commuting via bicycle, I need to carefully plan when I can be without my car, what time I will leave the house, what I will need to keep at work and what I will need to tote with me, should I take a shower at home or the office, etc. etc.  In the meantime, I will do a couple of more trial runs of the route….