It's a Long Way To The Top If You Want To Rock n Roll

Hills. They’re all around us. It’s hard to travel anywhere around here without running into one. The ones that get me are the invisible ones…the wind. Headwinds in particular are tough. You can’t see it, but you feel it. It’s easy to deal with a regular hill. You see the incline. You know when you reach the top. With a headwind, it can go on for miles, never knowing when the end is near. I swear my commute is uphill both ways – real hills on the ride in, and the invisible hills on the ride home. If you’re riding in a car, you don’t even notice it. Ride a bike, however, and you wonder why you are pedaling so hard and only going about 10 miles an hour. The same stretch of road without the headwind allows for an easy 15 or 20 miles per hour travel. The flip side is a nice tailwind, giving you a little boost. I cannot ever seem to find those for some reason. I must be always riding in the wrong direction. It’s hard to complain, though. Winds, hills, they all just add to the adventure…and the feeling you get when you have conquered, or at least survived, them.

Not Easy To Sort of Be Car Lite

First of all, I'd like to say that I envy those who can live a truly car-free or car-lite life. As much as I enjoy bike riding and commuting by bike, I have a long way to go before I can say that I do not need to rely on a car. Over the last couple of months, I have relied on the crutch that is my car for more often than I care to admit. There have been after work commitments, weather issues, and lately, a lingering cold that have kept me off the bike most days. The thing is, when the car is there, it is all too easy to wimp out use it. I know that without easy access to the car, I would either be riding or taking public transit. Taking public transit would add about a half hour to the commute, plus I would have about a half mile walk to the bus stop. Certainly doable when there are no other options. However, when you are already financially committed to owning a vehicle, it seems to make more sense to go ahead and use it on the days when riding not a likely option. Yes, it hurts to watch the dollars tick by when filling up with gas. And yes, it is painful to sit in traffic, especially when I see another bike commuter. I'll get back into the groove soon, but it is a drag being out of it right now.