So I just rode my bike to work for the first time in 1.5 years.
(One could argue it was the first time I rode my bike to work voluntarily. My last (terrible, no good, very bad) job started at 5am and it was the only way to get there.)It was okay! Though I think the cycleroute planner engine and I disagree about what constitutes a 5% grade.
But I made it! And the Bike to Work Week people at the brightly-coloured tent on campus gave me:- 1 chocolate chip Clif bar
- 2 juiceboxes
- 1 cookie
- 2 foldy cycle route maps
- 1 banana
Lovely parts: riding through parks and cemeteries, particularly Mountain View, which is one of those delightful places where it is downhill in both directions: a path with a dip in the middle that is a shallow enough slope that you can coast down one side and your momentum carries you safely up the other.
Not-so-lovely parts: going uphill. Though at least 50% of that is me being out of shape and no longer used to powering up hills half a dozen times in a row.Notes to self for tomorrow:
- it's probably not going to rain; the weather forecast is a tissue of lies concocted to make you wear far more layers than I need
- just wear your bike leggings, even if it means you'll have to change when you get to work; it's just a lot more comfortable than jeans
- it's not November, so you probably don't need waterproof shoes either; if you get wet, you're changing, and even if you get wet, it's May, so you're not going to freeze
- oh god biking in summer is so much nicer than biking in winter
