Bike Commuting is Freedom

[Tri Girl]

I've been riding my bike to do most all my errands lately (most everything I need/use is within 3-4 miles of home). I went "big" grocery shopping for the first time on Sunday (always bought little things here and there before), and overestimated the size of my panniers. I had to squish my bread, put apples and oranges in my back pockets, and carry the milk and the bananas in the basket so all the rest of the groceries would fit in the panniers. Lesson learned- make smaller trips. Doing errands by bike is very liberating. I went out on Sunday when it was BAC (bite a** cold) and I got the strangest looks. I LOVED being the "freak" on the bike grocery shopping and running errands. It's so free-ing!

But driving is SO inconvenient!!

Unfortunately, driving is SO convenient for me to get to work. 30 min. in the car- 2 hours on the bike (each way). I wish I worked closer to home like last year when I was only 3 miles away. Now, THAT was convenient to bike, and it took the same amount of time as driving.

Next year I'll have proper cold & wet weather riding clothes. Even with oversize mittens over gloves over bike gloves, my fingers hurt. Even with 2 pairs of socks, my toes hurt.

That's my problem, too, with the cold. I finally bought some really nice winter tights from the Terry half off sale and they are soooo wonderful. Keep my legs super toasty. Just wish I'd gotten a really warm jacket. I'm working on that one. Now, if I could only find some warm shoes/socks I'd probably be OK.

Good for you for bundling up and commuting anyway!

[Melalvai]

I hit on an important discovery today. A while ago I posted about snot and someone mentioned "snocks"--socks with the toes cut off, worn on your wrists as a hanky. Well, my wrists were so cold yesterday between my sleeves & gloves/mittens/etc. So today I made snocks and wore them. My fingers felt fine, and when I took my gloves/mittens/etc off, my hands were sweating!

Apparently keeping that little bit of wrist covered from the wind, also kept my fingers warm.

My commute is only 3.5 miles. So it is more convenient than driving. Driving means dropping off my daughter at school first, and either finding parking or my husband dropping me off--taking up more of his time as well. It actually takes me longer to drive!