Today, I again cycled into work and back. The commute in was fine, albeit pitch black, but on the way home (also pitch black), the heavens opened – and just when I was half a kilometer from the nearest shelter so I couldn’t even take refuge whilst I pulled the rain cover over my CamelBak. Within minutes I was soaked, and slipping all over everywhere in the mud. It was 5degC, and the wind was a force to be reckoned with, almost blowing me off my bike a couple of times – and inexplicably always being against me, regardless of the direction in which I cycled. But was I downhearted? Was I dispirited? Not at all. (Much to my wife’s surprise, when I finally reached home.) I had a great time. Really.
Plus, today’s commute was extra cause for celebration, as I clocked up (the first) 1,000km on my (not-so-new-now Scott Scale 40) bike. Not all in one go, of course, but none-the-less… This is in the five months that I’ve had it, averaging 13.5km each way on my (three times a week) commute, which I think is quite an achievement.  My ‘on-board’ computer tells me that I have maintained an average speed of 19.66kph (although this has been drug right down by pootling around the park with the kids at about 2kph at the weekend) and reached a top speed of 53.7kph (in a 50kph zone! The police can just ticket my Lycra-clad ass!).
The temperature has ranged from 0degC to 28DegC and all points in-between, and it has rained with alarming frequency. It has yet to snow, but I know that’s only a matter of time.
I’ve got through two sets of brake pads (one front, one back), bent one derailleur, had one puncture, and had my bike in for three services. I’ve also broken a finger (I think), cracked my bike helmet, and lost positively yards of skin off my elbows, knees, and shins.
But do I feel better for it? Err. Not really, no. I’m the same weight (to the nearest pound) as I was five months ago although some of that does seem to have been redistributed (largely from my tummy to my now improbably-hard ass), and I feel more tired (on an ongoing basis) than I was before. And my finger’s still sore. But I definitely feel morally superior to my work colleagues who are driving in every day. (And I feel somewhat smug, working for a petrol company and doing my damndest not to use petrol!)
But it’s not really about the health side of it. It’s just a lot more fun. Given the choice of sitting in a traffic jam with the rest of them, or wrestling my bike uphill through several inches of mud, I’ll take the bike ride every time. I’ve also enjoyed a level of peace and solitude I wouldn’t get in a car. About 90% of my route is on dirt-track or otherwise-unused (i.e. heavily potholed) farm roads where I rarely see another person. I’ve had the opportunity to get back to nature, seeing rabbits (in abundance), foxes, pheasants, fieldmice, hedgehogs, and even some guy getting blown in his car, down what he obviously assumed was a disused country lane. Now there was a rabbit caught in the headlights, when my Sigma 10Watt spot shone through his windscreen!
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