Maybe I need a new hobby. Bike polo?
I don’t usually ride my bike every single day. That is, until this month, when I signed up for 30 days of biking. Commuting by bike is brilliant, as is running errands, but on the weekends we have usually just hoofed it around the neighborhood, unless we’re headed out of town. Today I talked to a neighbor, also a bike commuter, who said the same thing. There are compromises to be made when you live in San Francisco, but a huge advantage is being able to wind down on the weekends by going almost everywhere on foot.
So 30 days of biking is starting to wear on me toward the end of April. 6 out of 7 days on the bike seems reasonable and almost effortless. 7 out of 7 days on the bike has been a challenge. And it’s been a tough month in other ways—flooded basement, multiple tedious end-of-the-school-year committee meetings, and a conference out of town. Mentally, I want to stick a fork in 30 days of biking already. Today my daughter and I rode to pick up our CSA box and Chinese takeout. It would have been almost unbearable to make this trip by car (no parking, ugly traffic) and unpleasant on foot (exhausting, time-consuming) but mostly I just didn’t want to leave the house at all.
Part of the problem may be the advent of pollen season, which makes difficult to breathe even lying still in bed. It’s either that or I’m coming down with the killer flu that’s felled half my office and my son’s elementary school. Maybe getting an electric assist would take some of this edge off, because it’s the hills that are really killing me lately. Either way, at this point I think I might celebrate May 1st by taking the shuttle to work and back.
Hum of the city 
the end is in sight– you can do it! (This coming from one who does 5/7 or 6/7 and knows exactly what you’re writing, except I don’t have SF-style hills in the Cambridge area.)
Thanks for the encouragement. 27 days down, 3 to go…
I totally agree! One one hand, I’ll be happy not to have to commitment of riding everyday but on the other hand, I don’t want to stop! There were a couple of days that I really thought my ride would be to the end of the driveway and back…
I have come very close to a driveway and back ride, probably spared only by the fact that technically we don’t have a driveway, so I had to ride around the block. I’m looking forward to not feeling obligated to ride every day, but very pleased that I actually seem to have managed it!
I hope the the rest of the weekend goes OK. I’m glad you’re part of #30daysofbiking team family bike! If walking with my little Mr. Carry Me! wasn’t such a pain, I think I’d feel the same way about a day off the bike.
Yes, the carry-mes make the bike look very appealing. I realized recently one of the reasons biking up the hills doesn’t seem so bad is that if I weren’t riding up them, I’d be walking up them with a 30-45 pound kid in my arms. At least the bike has gears.