A break

I'm going to be taking a short break from this blog. The last couple of days the bike blogs I normally love seem to be filled with little more that hatred directed at people who drive and it's left me unable to write anything at all. I have the LiveStrong San Jose ride coming up, and hopefully the bike-positive (as opposed to car-negative) vibes of the rest of Team Fatty will renew my love of the sport.

I really hope so.

Being too close to transit

In one of my last posts I mentioned that one of the things making it tougher for me to ride is how easy it is for me to take public transit. I want to expand that a little so I don't sound like a whiner without anything to really complain about.

Previously, when I lived in the Bay Area, I lived a few miles from BART, and my work was more than a few miles from BART at the other end. That meant that getting to work required me to drive the whole way, including fighting the San Francisco commute both directions, or biking. Easy choice most of the time, even when biking meant leaving home ~ 04:00.

Now, I live a 10 minute walk from BART and my work is directly outside of a BART station. This means that biking is almost more hassle than not. I have to get up in the morning, pack my work clothes into a bag, kit up (for the ride home), haul my bike up to the platform and then down at the far end. The payoff? A fantastic 12 mile ride home. It really is a conflict.

I plan to join a gym near my work when I get back from my latest trip. This will give me access to showers, which might, let me repeat and be honest MIGHT, be what I need to get me to bike both directions at least a few days a week.

Anit-cancer loot

I've mentioned before that I'm doing the LiveStrong ride in San Jose, as a member of Team Fatty (and again, feel free to GO HERE and donate to me). One of the things that our team captain passed on recently was a link to the Team Estrogen site to get a pair of "Cancer Sucks" socks. The idea is that the whole team will show up with the Team Fatty jersey and the Cancer Sucks socks and make a strong statement. Today when I got home from work this is what I found in the mail.

Nothing like having anti-cancer kit for riding. I am going to look like a bit of a frilly bike-ninja though, with my all-black-and-pink ensemble for the ride. Maybe I should find an old helmet to paint...

On not riding and physical well-being

It has been a while since I've been on my bike, or physically active in any real way. This is due to two things - work-related travel (15 days away from home with no bike or running shoes) and the ease of getting to work on public transit. Something I've noticed is that the more time passes between my last workout and today the worse I feel. It's funny, in some ways I feel like it's the day after a good ride/run because my legs are tired and sore. The problem is that they are tired and sore from underuse, not exertion.

Obviously, my weight isn't going in the right direction since I'm not exercising. I do have some rides planned for later in the week when I head out of town again, this time for my nephew's first birthday. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into a rhythm.