Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Bike Riding v. Car Commuting Challenge: Mid-May Update

Well, this month started out just great, I was ahead of planned schedule and was optimistic that this whole challenge of riding my bike for more time that I sat in my car driving to and from work would be an easy slam dunk win for the bike, since my office was moving in mid-August and I'd have a much shorter commute for the last third of the year.

Now I'm not so sure.

Last time I rode my bike was last Friday afternoon. Then the family went out for the weekend to graduation ceremonies at Liberty University (highlight of the commencement speakers: S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick Fil-A, whose first words to the crowd after he received an honorary doctorate were: WHO HERE LIKES CHICKEN? And everyone cheered and applauded his wisdom.).

And then Sunday was Mother's Day, so I couldn't go out for a morning ride because of all the festivities and activities necessary to celebrate the day in the manner in which it has become to be expected in my house.

Then it rained. Rained Monday. Raining today. It might stop tomorrow.

Long story short, I'm still on track, but only if today was the last day of May. I'm 35 hours behind on the bike.

This week was looking to get better, as I'm off on Friday and planned to ride my bike home on Thursday. The Thursday bike ride home would have helped in two ways: 1) one less car commute home on a traditionally bad driving day, and 2) at least two hours of bike riding during the week.

But now I get a meeting invitation for an all-day off-site meeting on Thursday, until 5:00pm. If I go to that meeting and still ride my bike home, I'll likely miss the last soccer game of the season for one of my daughters. Maybe I can skip out of it early.

But looking ahead, I'm planning on taking a few days off in June and July, which will prevent some commutes to work and potentially allow an hour or two of riding on some of those days.

There's still hope and the expectation I'll achieve my goal for the year. It's times like these that keep things interesting.

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