Why do I ride?

If you read my last post you know that I didn't get started riding because I just felt like it one day.  I am still riding today and it's been about 8 months since I first started riding.  You would think I could have figured out a different way to make the 26 mile round trio I have to make each day to get to work right?

Right.

I did get a nice tax return this year which I could have used to get myself some sort of alternate transportation to and from work. 

But I didn't.  Why do you ask?

I love riding. 

First and foremost it is fun.  You can get on your bike and go away for a few hours.  There is just nothing but you, the outdoors, and your bike.  Now where I live we pretty much experience all the extremes except for snow.  We obviously get heat, we get rain, we get heavy winds, we get cool days, we get freezing days.  You really get it all here.  There are also a lot of places you can ride your mountain bike as well.  The desert is pretty rocky so you have to deal with that a lot!

Second, its good for you!  I have lost 20 pounds since I started riding.  It's been a long time since I felt better.  As I mentioned before I sit for 10 hours at work staring at TV and computer monitors.  One of my biggest challenges to my job was to not fall asleep in my chair.  Well since I have been riding I have more energy and don't have problems keeping awake.  Another side benefit of the extra energy is that you aren't so lazy when it comes to taking care of yourself.  So I have been eating better as well.

Now eating better wasn't something that I set out to do when I started this whole bike commuting thing.  When I started out I was taking about an hour and 10 minutes to go the 13 miles one way to work.  I set a goal for myself of getting to work in about 45 minutes.  So I started to ride on my days off as well.  I also started to pick up some cycling magazines like Bicycling, Mountain Bike, and Road Bicycle Times.  One of the biggest things that they all agreed on was if you want to improve your riding skills you needed to eat better.  So I have been.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not on some miracle diet or anything like that.  I've just cutback on the junkfood I ate and have started eating more fruits and vegetables.

The biggest obstacle to getting to love riding was the fact that I started riding because my car broke down.  I had to really fight against the urge to be upset that I was riding a bike to work because I was too broke to afford another car.  I had to just jump in to cycling as a way of life.  The Tour De Palm Springs was coming up and I had done the 27 mile ride back in 2006 and that was a tough distance for me.  I decided that I would push myself a little bit and get ready for the 55 mile ride. 

I have a buddy who lives in the Bay Area who is in to cycling as well.  He also happened to be the person that I did the 27 Mile tour with back in 06.  Now he has been steadily riding since then and I hadn't even been on a bike since we rode in the tour back then.   I told him that I wanted to ride in the tour this year and he was ready to go.  So I had a goal to work toward while I was pedaling my way to work.  I did make the 55 miles and it took me 4 hours and 6 minutes!  I will say that I was extremely thankful for the last SAG stop because  I was ready to die from starvation!  Who knew that a sandwich consisting of two slices of bread  and one slice of ham could taste so good?

I really am glad that I decided to dust off that old bike that I had sitting in my backyard and ride it to work rather than figure out a way to hitch a ride with someone.  I really can tell the difference that riding the bike has made in my life.  Not to be too preachy or anything but the benefits to commuting on your bike or even just getting out and riding for recreation far outweigh the drawbacks.