La Bicicleta

I am quite excited. Last week I finally brought my bike in to be tuned. It's almost 6 years old and never really had an overhaul. Last year switching gears was often a dodgey proposition. Plus, the break pads were getting a little worn and I'm sure there was some tightening and whatnot that needed to happen.

There have been a number of periods in my life when bike riding was a huge thing. Most notably soon after I bought my current bike. I worked for Honeywell during college and rode my old bike to work 30-45 minutes each way every day that I worked (not every day of the week) all year long. That's right, I rode my bike to work through a Minnesota winter. I also rode my new mountain bike on all sorts of trails in the Minneapolis area with a friend or two who also rode, or just by myself.

Needless to say, during those periods I was in very good shape. Unlike my current situation. You may have read a little about my current hiking saga. Well, I'm hoping to get, at least a little bit, back into biking as well.


I am certainly going to start biking to work. With my current position as full-time computer nerd and zero-time surveyor man at work, I don't get a lot of the exercise at work I got during the last couple of summers. This will get me about 4 miles a day on my bike, without even really trying. It's a mile each way and I like to go home for lunch.

This course of action will not be without pitfalls and perils. Contrary to popular belief, not every single day in Bozeman is sunny. I may have to deal with rainy or chilly mornings (though those are becoming fewer and farther between as we speak). And if I decide to keep riding through the fall and winter, well, biking the Cold Smoke is not the same as skiing it. Plus, drivers here are idiots (especially in the winter), I'll always have to be on the lookout for them.

Though I think the part that will impact me the most is the need to actually get out of bed on time and leave a full 15 minutes before work starts, as opposed to leaving with a mere 5 minutes to spare like I do now. Once upon a time I would get up around 5am and go and workout with my brother Matt. He had just gotten out of boot camp and needed a sucker to wake up at about the same time he automatically did every morning. Amazingly, and against all premonitions, I started finding it easier and easier to get up that early and loved getting in a full workout during those months. (plus, I had huge pecs) Unfortunately, Matt's work schedule changed and correspondingly his sleeping patterns. Without the outside motivation, it was all too easy to sleep in until 6, or (gasp!) 7. The point of that long aside is that getting up early is not something I am accostomed to or even seemingly capable of doing at this present time. But, I'm just going to have to do it. I know my heart and lungs and various other muscles will appreciate it. Not to mention my wallet--gas just climbed over $2 here. Ouch.