Arbitrary Achievements

Bike mileage for the first half of 2008 -- 3576.55. That's not too bad, I suppose. It is mainly comprised of commuting and transportation miles since I've done no racing, nor have I done many long rides just "for the hell of it" (I think I've only done one long ride, come to think of it). Still, I was hoping to crack 10K this year. I don't see that happening, so I'll shoot to break last year's mileage at least.

One thing I have to say I'm proud of (Can I toot my own horn? Wait, this is my friggin' blog): I've taken a number of days off from the office for work, family (Willa's birth and care) and a few sick days, but I have only driven to work two days this year. I got one day's worth of rides to and from work from friends. I've also been picked up by April so we could leave for roadtrips a couple of times. My "stretch goal" was to not drive at all. I blew that obviously, but I am not entirely displeased to look back at the stats and see that I haven't done a half bad job of going car free.

I used to think of the car as a last resort if I was running late or under the impression I just wasn't feeling up to the ride. Now every morning I realize the bike is my "car" and wherever I need to go it needs to be under pedal power. It's a big commitment, don't get me wrong. And I'd be lying if I said that I love every minute of every ride. But the truth is I've spent so much time outside of a car, working my body to get where I need to go, that I honestly can't fathom regularly turning an ignition switch as a viable alternative. I'd rather suffer temporal discomfort (temporal because I only perceive it as discomfort in the moment when weather conditions are less than ideal or I'm feeling shitty) than suffer the long term discomfort that reliance on internal combustion transportation signals in me.

Is the rest of my life aligned? Pshaw! Far from it. But I'd have to say this rather large part is. And I'm going to bask in that a while ...