Why I Still Bike to Work

With fall coming on in full force, the temps drop close to or below freezing at night now. Which makes for the chilliest of mornings when I bike to work. Which I'm still doing by the way.

My initial goal was to bike to work all summer long. Check.

Then I thought, why drive once school starts? I thought, if I keep riding my bike, I don't have to worry about traffic or parking costs or finding a parking spot or paying for gas. Conservatively, I figure I save between $50-$70 dollars per week by not driving.

So, we're nine weeks into the semester and, check.

This picture has nothing to do with biking and everything to do with fat lil cuddles while I try to grade. Notice that I'm down on the floor with her instead of at the standing desk, slaving away. You can see her individual toes. I mean, I literally cannot. Cannot.

Riding my bike is beneficial in the following ways:
--It gets me outside everyday for at least an hour
--It reduces my stress because I don't have to deal with traffic
--It's a good workout that challenges me and keeps my heart rate up
--It makes me breathe. Deeply and regularly.
--It helps me experience Denver in a brand new way
--I'm able to work out the stress of my day by the time I get to work and again before I get back home

What do you think, Roo? Should bunny mama keep biking?

There are some downsides, though, like the following:
--Really, really planning my weekly meals and materials. I can only carry so much, and I try to minimize it, and this takes an incredible amount of organization.
--Maintenance. Like, actual maintenance. Every other day I check the tire pressure and give the whole bike a once-over. And by this, I mean that I wake G up early and he does it for me. All I'm going to say is that I don't do this when I get in my car and go somewhere. It's a new paradigm.
--New gear. This is more of a learning curve than a downside, but so far I've bought bike lights, winterized gloves, a pant strap, and regular maintenance on the bike itself.

I was cruising along - in a huffing and puffing kind of way - until a few weeks ago when my right elbow began to really bother me. What had been a slight pain for a few months became an overwhelming and nauseating pain that caused a few trips to the doctor. It's OK, just an extreme case of tennis elbow, but even a steroid shot didn't work and I had to lay off physical stress for a while and focus on the elbow rather than the biking.

So, I drove to work for a full week. Honestly, I worried that it would get me entirely out of my biking habit (it really was a habit by then). But! The time off, and the other rehabilitative work I was doing on my elbow, really worked! And I'm back to biking a solid three days a week. Even in the cold! Even in the rain! And, so far, even in the snow!

Roo likes nose kisses. This means I spend an inordinate amount of my time laying on the floor. God bless that Roomba.

Having to take time off the bike made me realize something significant.

The biggest benefit of all:
***Stress and Anxiety Relief. Biking to work has reinforced a lesson I learned about myself a few years ago, which is that physical exercise - specifically cardio - reduces my stress and anxiety significantly.

Even though I know this about myself, I rarely dedicate time to exercising, and now I realize that it is every bit as important as doing my homework or prepping my meals or grading. It's one thing to say that, and another thing to change my lifestyle. So, now, on the days that I drive, I run on the treadmill. And I no longer look at that time as negotiable: it's mandatory.

My goal is to keep biking! But if I can't, or when it gets too cold, I'm hoping to make stress-management a daily priority in my life, specifically through exercise.

What works for you? Any realizations in your own life?