it all helps
I ended up taking a shower and washing my hair right before bed last night. I woke up this morning and caught a glance of myself as I was passing to the toilet -- I looked like Lyle Lovett! My hair was a sculpted, curly mess on top of my head. I rather liked it -- but today is a dress-up day for work so I smashed it all down.
Well, after a friend and a complete stranger telling me I needed to get my seat adjusted, I finally took it to heart. As I was pathetically pedalling down a flat section of street, working way too hard, I jumped off the bike and took a look at the seat post (I'm sure there's a technical term for this, but I'm not there yet) -- low and behold, adjustable! So I cranked it up about an inch. That helped! But it still wasn't where it should be. So I brought it up another half an inch, and voila, me and my bike seem to be less at odds.
That said, the steel bridge bike/ped path was up, so I took the Esplanade over to the Hawthorne Bridge, and I did end up getting almost to the top of a ramp and then walking. But, I am hopeful that soon I will post about bicycling and not include the word pathetic.
My upper body has felt different since I've been biking. Like, tighter. Right now, my right arm pleasantly aches, and I can actually see some muscle definition. I have some thigh and back acheyness too, which pleases me. My hot shower this morning felt so good!
3 Comments:
Your efforts are impressive! All the walking and training plus the bike commute! Awesome. I've always wanted to bike to work but right now I live too far. Our office is moving and it might be feasible, or I can bike to the train station and then take the train to the new office. Do you get sweaty on your commute? If so, how do you "clean up" when you get to work?
Sorry for the personal questions! Take care.
9:30 AM
You are so kind, Marshall! How is the support for bike commuting in Dallas? It's been very well supported here in Portland -- we can bring bikes on the MAX train (the light-rail) and on all buses (they have racks on the front), as well as a well developed set of bike routes through the central core of the city, all of which makes it easier to bike commute. It helps that I live only 3 miles from work, too.
I do get sweaty whether I bike or walk, so I always bring a change of clothes. I belong to a gym about 2 blocks from work, so sometimes I shower there; otherwise, I spongebathe in a washroom here at work.
Portland doesn't require larger property developers to provide showers and locker rooms, but there are 'bonus provisions' in the city code for those who do. My last job did have showers/locker rooms for people in the building, and it got a quite a bit of use.
The whole shower issue is a big deal -- I have a lot of coworkers who would bike or walk in if they could wash up afterwards and I know myself, if I didn't have access to the showers at the gym, I'd be much less likely to bike or walk in. Which is too bad. This stuff keeps me sane (or saner, at least).
12:31 PM
Unfortunately Dallas is not a very car-friendly city. I studied urban transportation in grad. school and read a lot about Portland--it made me jealous! Dallas doesn't allow bikes on any transit during rush hour, so that limits one's options. My office is currently about 13-14 miles from home; the new office will be about 10 miles from home. But the new office is literally a couple of hundred feet from a train station, and I live about 1-2 miles from two different train stations, so I may plan to bike to the train. And I'm a heavy sweater so I have to have a shower if I'm going to do a long commute!
4:03 AM
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