It was a little dark this morning as I rolled my pant legs into my socks and struck out for the parts unknown. I was prepared to face the new challenge to my life: the bicycle commute. I’m not a fast person. When I was on cross-country, I peaked at about the 8-minute-mile. I was a goalie in most sports because I hated running, and yet I ran and was one of the faster goalies in my league. In lacrosse, there was only one other goalie (the girl from Dunn, I remember her face and her height) who wasn’t cut from the ‘Get the BIG GIRL in the Goal!’ mold. I guess the idea was to block the goal. She and I, however, were smaller, trimmer, faster. I used to run laps with the team in my gear, which was significantly less than the other girls. Soccer shin guards, chest-protector, gloves, helmet. That was it. I never went in for the upper arm, upper leg guards, because I couldn’t move in them.
But fast isn’t a term people associate with me. I don’t do speed, I do distance. I can walk on level ground or rolling hills for a very long time and I like it. I can ice skate in circles for a long time and I like it. I can rollerblade long distances and I like it. So even though the average speed of commuting bicyclists is 15.3 km/h, I’m only hitting about 9.6 to 9.9 km/h. Clearly improvement is needed.
Don’t confuse that speed with people like bike messengers or hard core enthusiasts. I’m talking about slow biking. And it’s my goal to be a slow biker. From The Slow Bicycle:
Slow bicycling is a lifestyle in Copenhagen, where 500,000 people cycle each day to work or school. Interestingly, the average speed of this mass of two-wheeled humanity is 15.3 km/h. That’s not decided by consensus or by implementation of speed limits. That is simply the organic speed that half a million people settle upon when given the chance.
So today I was a really slow biker, but I made it to the train in 30 minutes (which takes into account the 10 or 12 minutes it took me to sort out the bag situation). It’s 3.3 km (2.1 miles) to the train from home. I walk it in about 40 minutes, so right there is 10 minutes saved. I know I used to be able to run faster, but this is a work in progress.
There was another woman with a Dahon (20″ wheels to my 16″) and she nabbed pretty much the only seat in our car where you could fit a bike and you. Cest la vie! It’s only a 10-15 minute ride into work, so I stood up and read the paper. Got to Ogalvie, went down stairs, unpacked my bike to the amusement of my friend Rae, and got to work about 2 minutes after she did on the bus. I hit every single red light on the way, too. Of course.
At work, I tucked the bike under my desk. I have a little dead space under my desk, where there’s about 24″-square between file cabinets, cube walls, and under the desk knee room. The bike fits in just fine. It sticks out a bit into knee space, but it’s behind where I sit, and there’s enough width to tuck my bag in next to it.
Wisely, I packed my shirt in my bag, so when I got to the office, I washed up in the lav, changed into my dress shirt, and went for 8 ounces of water and a cuppa joe.
I still feel ‘good.’ Not tired at all, a little sticky, maybe, but I re-applied pit stick and washed up as best you can in a little bathroom. I think I’m good!
Quick edit to add – I made it home in 5 minutes less time. Uphill. Against a headwind. And I wasn’t terribly tired at the end of the day! I will bike again on Friday and do twice a week until Passover, and then thrice a week. By my birthday I should be at 4-5 times a week.