apple juice

today is april 24th. on april 23rd, i was upset that i didn’t ride to work. i still hadn’t ridden to work. so on april 24th, i woke up a bit earlier, found my gear, packed my bag, and headed off.

five minutes in to the ride, i felt something.

rain.

ten minutes into the ride, it was misting. fifteen minutes, somewhere between rain and downpour. the ride takes about 40 minutes.

but, all of this rain and exercise made me feel pretty good. i don’t think i could claim a good heart rate for nearly a month. i don’t even want to think about the last time i actually, officially, exercised.

my brain was fired up and ready to go when i arrived. that felt good too. i shared a few ideas.

it was a pretty good day. and then it was time to ride home. i stepped outside for a second. one or two drops. i thanked those who had offered me a carpool, i was going to brave it. i changed back into my bike clothes. walked back to my office. packed up. rolled out the back door.

it’s pouring.

i waved at the kids firing their ceramics. jake hollered at me – “change your mind about the ride?”

“nope! I’m going for it!”

More people in Minneapolis ride their bikes to work than in any other U.S. city except Portland Ore., according to figures released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Yay for Minneapolis! The City of Bikes

I got the clearance for full activity from the doctor today, so I’m going to get one day of riding in at least!

I took my first bike ride of any significant length this evening after an eight week absence for the collarbone breakage. A nice little cruise with my best lady around lake harriet.

It’s amazing how weak your body can feel after not using it for a while. My shoulder was saying to me, “What’s with all the weight and vibration? I liked the cush life of slow saunters and sashays” Too bad, shoulder, it’s back to work time.

So I was on my bike a week ago…

If you noticed the picture of my bike that is currently on the right, you may have also noticed that the fork is bent back at an unnatural angle. Let’s use that bent fork as a metaphor for my collarbone.

The doctor tells me it will be about six weeks until I’m able to get on a bike again. I’ve responded in the past week by sitting on the couch, playing video games, and ordering cable TV again. (Well, the World Cup is going on!)

On the plus side, maybe I’ll blog with a bit more regularity? I’m listening to the DFL convention on NPR at the moment, they’re trying to nominate a gubernatorial candidate. I hope they don’t pick Hatch. It seems at this moment that Becky Lourey may drop out, and a majority of her delegates will switch over to Steve Kelley… hopefully it will happen. (Suck it up DFL’ers! So what if he voted for the stadium? The stadium will help the city and state generate revenue in the long run, create a more vibrant downtown, create stronger draw for high end jobs (as opposed to the cold omaha situation), etc. etc. It’s about overall quality of life in conjunction with all the other stuff that care about)

I love riding my bike in the rain. Something about cruising down the street, water hitting your face, feet getting wet, nose cold and damp, it really makes you feel alive. While in Sweden, I learned that those crazy people just don’t care and ride in any sort of conditions. So, in an attempt to channel my inner Swede, tonight I rode about 7 miles to pick up some dinner in the wet. The decision to go riding in the rain came after a trip today to REI, from which I escaped with only minimal damage, including some new fenders for my bike.

But why did I suddenly decide to upgrade the wet weather capabilities of my bike? During spring break, I purchased a new bicycle. This was a big event for me, as this is my first new bike in about 10 years. (If you don’t count Pinkie or Mrs. Creakers) The main objective for this new bicycle is to get me to work. This has been a plan all along, but it took 3/4ths of the school year for me to get going on this.

Anyway, during the ride, I was thinking about the cost of transportation. I think that generally it’s assumed that travelling around this country in an automobile costs about .40 cents a mile. But with the recent increases in fuel cost, maybe that has risen. For the purposes of my arguments (in my head), I assumed .40 cents.

The inner truth that I came upon was that for anything that is within a 5 mile radius (10 mile round trip) of my house, if I bike there instead of driving, I can save a nice chunk of change. Four dollars to be exact.

Okay, I know that isn’t much, but repeat that over a year. How often would I drive to the hardware store, grocery store, bookstore, video game store, music store, coffee shops, various restaurants, etc in a year. All places that I can generally pack whatever I buy in a backpack, and all places that are within about 5 miles of my house.

Lots of times.

Of the 350 Miles I have on my bike now, approximately 250 have been either commuting or running errands.

250 Miles * .40 cents / mile = $100

Which I just spent at REI on gear for biking. 🙂