Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Day 100 Recap

Catching up with sleep in 7-minute increments has been my theme this week. The alarm goes off at 5am at which point I repeatedly climb out of bed, run across the bedroom to hit the snooze, then back across the bedroom, under the covers, and promptly fall back asleep. It would be more efficient to move the alarm clock. I know myself well enough to know that in order to pry my tired rear-end out of bed in the morning, I need to keep it inconvenient.

Finally out of bed, showered, dressed and on my way... it was a frosty ride in. 5 degrees at the bank. Heavy snow flurries or frost must have blown through last night. Much of my neighborhood and east of the Mississippi had a very light layer of fresh snow. As I traveled west, there was very little snow on the ground, but the trees were covered with a thick heavy layer of frost. I thought that it was the accumulation of frost on my eyelashes until I got to work and could look out the window.

Today marks day number 100 (provided I make it home safely.) This equates to approximately 3,000 miles of commuting. I cannot really measure the sense of accomplishment. I can measure my total savings, zero.

While we did sell our car and have avoided 2 months of car payments and insurance. Combine that savings with the approximately $450 in fuel savings and I am sure that it is less than what I have spent on: additional clothing, tires, tubes, a new light, and increased food consumption. My lovely spouse will be quick to point to our Quicken report on where our money is spent. This will clearly highlight the fact that I have a bicycle addiction.

So, let us see. Taking longer, being constantly tired, getting up early to go outside to ride a bike in the dark, heat, rain, snow, and cold. To me, really… there is no wonder why this whole bicycle-commuting thing does not catch on. My typical response is: “I’m either committed or I should-be-committed.”

Honestly, there really isn't a day of "suffering" that goes by where I think of how this will benefit me when it comes to begin actual training for the TransIowa v4.0. I think that there is only something like 17 weeks to go.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You would have spent money (maybe not quite as much) on the cycling whether or not you commuted to work. Probably eaten almost the same but ended up heavier and far less fit. You might have been more stressed also which may have resulted in you having no job to drive to anyhow. Your'e odd in a good way! If everybody else rode bikes you'd drive a car just to be awkward. Keep up the good work as i enjoy reading your entries whilst sitting in rainy Manchester (U.K). I also commute daily and i work from home.

CoCargoRider said...

I am on day 42 today and I would not give commuting up for anything, except maybe for working at home!

. said...

Happy belated birthday!

Yep, it's cold there. I rode home in a t-shirt and shorts yesterday. I am very jealous.

...and it's 19 weeks til TI. Still scared I am.

Reflector Collector said...

Dan says 19 weeks unitil TI4! Woooo Hooo... Maybe I should take a 2-week hiatus to kick back and relax for a while :)

I could then brush up on my macrame, drink some beer, and relax for a change.

Seriously how does one go about "training" for a 320+ mile ride in late April. "Oy vey"

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