When I lost my lunch while bicycling to work.

I should have not been surprised that forgetting one of the little details before my bike ride will lead to a very bad day.

It is hard enough to manage the details of the morning but when you bicycle to work there are added dimensions to getting ready for the day. You have to have that change of clothes, extra deodorant, water bottle and so much more.

I checked to make sure I had everything I needed set in my back pack; clean socks and shorts, a washrag and face towel, my work shirt, my lunch, wallet, keys and other little things. If I forget something it is an hour ride back to the house to get it, and then an hour back to work; but it was all there.

I strapped my backpack to the back of the bike and pushed off to the morning ride.  It was a crisp morning but the cool helped me make head way and I was pushing my limits a little. Half way to my job I stopped at a light and heard something strange behind me, a thump. I looked around but there was no car nearby, so I didn't give it a thought and when the light turned green went on my way.

Later I was coasting down a nice slope and again wondered about that sound. Feeling uneasy I stopped and looked my bike over; when my eyes rested on my backpack strapped to the rack I realized the sound was my lunch falling out of the unzipped compartment of my pack.  A panicked search found my wallet and cell phone was still in  place since thier zipper was closed.

I rode back up the hill watching the gutter for the fruit and granola bars of my lunch bag. At the intersection there was no sign of my lunch bag. I considered tracing my route all the way back to home but would be over an hour late for work. I do not want to be the guy who is always late so I headed off to work thinking that I was going to eat out of the vending machine unless I could find a forgotten rice cake in my desk. It was going to be a long day without my snacks.

There are many things to remember when riding a bike to work daily but you must never forget to zip the zippers or you can just forget everything.

What Happend When I Almost Did Not Ride My Bike To Work

Maybe I am starting to get lazy or maybe I am having problems with time management but I have been finding myself thinking, "I will just do more at the house and leave later and drive instead of riding the bike. " Or I muse, "It might rain, so for safety I will take the car instead of the bicycle."

The other day was a nice day but cool. I was having those thoughts that it was too cold and there were a few things I needed to do so I will just drive. An argument went back and forth between the Good Me and the Bad Me. The Good Me said I need to get the exercise, I need to save the money on gas, I need to be responsible with the earth's resources. The Bad Me said I am tired, I need a break, I will only save a couple of dollars on gas, I won't have time. The Bad Me was winning, but in the end I decided to ride the bike since there would be time if I got organized and it was basically a good thing.

I rode over the hill and began to really enjoy the beautiful day. I turned on the country lane and admired the rolling hills, trees and sky. The lazy tranquil streets were filled with singing birds and drifting autumn leaves. I was enjoying the he blue sky, the colorful leaves and the crisp air felt good. The ride made me feel energized.

As a car went by the silhouette of the person inside made me think, "They left the wooden box of a house that kept the nice day out and got into a metal box with wheels (a car) that is keeping the nice day out. They can't possibly be enjoying this nice day like I am."

I almost missed out on a beautiful day if I had gotten in a car and rushed off, I counted myself blessed to have ridden a bicycle that day.

How Get To Work On Time While Riding a Bicycle

I hate being late to work, I do not want to let bicycling to work become an excuse.  The last thing I want to hear is someone saying something like, "Yea, he is late every day because he bicycles to work. He should get his act together."  What I want to hear is, "Wow!  Can you believe he peddles in every day on a bike and he is here early?"

Well, it was a hard and tiring week, so on Saturday I just couldn't get out of bed; just a few minutes more seemed to whisper in my head. At the last possible minute I jumped out of bed with a silent curse and stumbled into foggy action. I rushed around eating my banana and gathering up my stuff in the dark so as to not wake my family. My shower was barley a rinse, and shaving would just have to happen another day.

Most mornings I put a few drops of oil on the chain but acts of love would have to wait. I kept shoving the key in the lock upside down in my haste until a glance told me to turn it over, when you are in a hurry sometimes the simplest things become so hard. I shoved off across the lawn and down the first grassy decline taking a short cut to the road.

This first road has a meridian down the middle that is a mess with bushes and trees, so it has to be circled; but for no apparent reason the normally deserted street is peppered with passing cars that kept passing at the crossing point forcing me to wait. At last a driver let me cross, and I bounded up the sidewalk on the far side and down a bike path through the public space. It is a narrow twisty path and goes about two tenths of a mile, shifting down I cranked it faster than safe. Crossing three bridges leads to a very steep climb back to a street, it is a very rare day that my heavy Huffy mountain bike can take it but with the momentum and quick gear changing the climb is conquered. The next climb is a fight, it is not long but it is another steep one, slowing me down little by little by the weight of my bike, backpack, lunch, and change of work clothes which grows heaver each yard.

A stroke of luck, or God's mercy, finds me at the top and no cross traffic at what is normally a fast and busy street. Taking advantage of the vacant street I give it all I got for the next mile covering slight inclines and declines. The sun is up now and shining through a mist, almost fog, that hangs in the air. I said thanks to God for the first green light I sailed through, but as I approach the second a lady in a red car looks like she is going to run her red light as I am going through the green. She stops about ten feet into the intersection leaving me a foot of clearance, this made me brake for about ten feet and louse speed; now I had to shift down and back up. With a sigh and a shake of my head I press on.

The next half mile is a decline through suburbs so I give it everything. My legs ache, I am using calories needed to make it through the day. A look at my watch tells me the progress is good, not great, but good. At the bottom of this decline is one of the biggest intersections in the town of Columbia MD with a long red light controlling a high volume of traffic. It is frustrating for me to come to the light after racing downhill and stop to give up momentum and speed to wait three minutes for all the light changes, but today the light was green and I flew threw, keeping my speed.

A half mile and a turn to climb a hill that takes the "safe" road. I always take the safe road even though it is thirty percent longer than the main road; the main road has very high speed, no visibility, no shoulder and many merging points for cars coming off of freeway. The safe road is hilly and winding but I feel I will be alive at the end. Although tired I climb the steep hill and cross to coast downhill. For two miles I give it all I got, over one rolling hill after hill.  About half way and I start a long low grade climb but I am experiencing a second wind, a runner's rush, and checking my watch tells that arriving on time is possible. Topping this hill leads to a long and fast decline. I am going downhill dangerously fast, the cranks are spinning so fast they are almost not engaging the wheel.

At the bottom I have to go up again this time over a freeway overpass that has traffic merging at high speed as they exit the freeway and I am trying to get past or ahead of around them. At my speed I do not have much time for decisions as a car approaches. I take the lead seeing plenty of space for them to yield and stop, since I do technically have the right of way.  My fortune is holding out they wait as I zoom past.

The other side of this overpass is another red light that never seems green for me. I squeal my brakes all the way down the other side. My watch tells me I can still make it to work on time, if only this light would turn green.

Finally I get through the intersection to start the last climb and there is construction on the road. The city is repairing sidewalks and has a crew of workers breaking up concrete, building forms and pouring fresh cement. The man stands in the middle of the road blocking traffic he has a sign that says stop on one side and slow on the other. I stand on peddles and gasp for air to get to him while his sign still says "slow."  I can't afford for him to turn it to "Stop." Crank, and crank, and crank I am getting closer and closer to him; behind him is a line of cars waiting for him to turn the sign for them to pass. Maybe he sees my exhaustion or determination but he holds it for me and I get past the construction.

Seeing the shopping center I work at now gives a little panic of worry about the time. It is just a little higher up the hill, (in a car these never seemed so high). After the last yards a left turn puts me in the parking lot, where a moment later my bike was standing by itself locked up safely at the bike rack. A look at my watch relieves and astonishes me to see that it is four minutes early until my shift. Going through the door I get a "Good morning," from the boss- she has no idea.

What I Learned While Riding My Bicycle, Slow Down.

I learned a life lesson while riding my bicycle the other day.

There are times when I want to race, race and race some more when bicycle riding to work or home again. I hit the hills where I want to power crank my way up, and when I get to the top I pour on the speed to capitalize on the momentum until I am flying down the other side at unsafe speeds. I feel the thrill and rush of going as fast as I can; I exult in setting a new personal record home.

This is fine but it is not all. I learned the value of slowing down and even coasting for a time because my front gear-shiftier broke so I was not able to switch up and down the gears. It was discouraging; I was stuck in one gear, my second gear on the front sprocket. So I just rode my bike, no racing, and no speed record, just getting where I needed to go.

It was a different experience to coast along without pumping power into my legs and spinning the crank as fast as I could; in fact, it was fun!  I drifted up streets and looked at the passing scenery; I glided down hills and took my sweet time climbing the next hill. It was relaxing and enjoyable.

My mind was more relaxed since I was not concentrating on potholes, gears, anticipating the next hill, and the push, push, push, push of cranking the bike as fast as possible. I was thinking about less demanding things.

I was more relaxed when I arrived at work and had energy to spare because I had not spent every ounce of strength just trying to get to work. I had some reserves left. When I got home I had energy for chores and duties needed to be done for home and family.

Reflecting on this I realized that sometimes you need to slow down and enjoy the ride. Many people say you have to stop and smell the roses. When I was racing along I didn't even see that there were roses on the way now I add extra time so that I can see the beauty around me and enjoy the ride.

(c) Adron

What I Learned By Riding My Bike To Work.

Riding my bike to work has taught me many things. One is about gears. A gear turns energy into movement; the right gear give the most efficient conversion of energy the wrong gear burns up energy and gains little movement. Bike gears change the ratio of the times you turn the crank to the number of times the wheel turns. In life gears can be a metaphor for the level of activity relating to the level of results.

Learn
What you have to learn, and it is more by experience than by instruction, is when to change gears. Many of us change our pace from the work week to the week end but there may be other times when we should change gears, or the pace.
     *Would things go better if the activity was moving faster or slower?
     *Is it time to change gear and slow down or speed up?

Know
Know which gear you are in. It can be very discouraging to be struggling along and to think that you are in the best gear and then to look down at the sprocket and see that you were in the wrong gear. Pay attention to what you are doing, what you are feeling, and how things are reacting.
     *Is this the fast gear or the slow gear?
     *What are others saying?

The secret
The secret is to pay attention: Don't let the constant turning of the crank lull you into thinking everything is OK. Don't get caught by the attitude that says "This is what we are doing and this is what we will keep on doing."
     *Why do we do it this way?
     *What other ways are there?

Anticipate
Anticipate the change. Scan the road ahead and plan for the change. Don't wait until you are in the struggle to change the gear. That is when the chain and gears are under pressure- they will grind and wear the sprocket and if the chain is rusty it may even break. Changing the gears in anticipation saves grief and gets you to the top quicker. In life and business we must anticipate the next season or the change in the market.
     *What is ahead on the calendar?
     *What are the emerging trends?

Choose to be efficient
Being in the right gear gives you speed on the flat road or power to climb the hill, to be in the wrong gear means you are spending a lot of energy turning the crank on the flat or straining your joints and muscles on the hill. Look at the projects you are involved in and ask if it is the most efficient way.  Even if you are not in a hurry you want to be efficient, when the ride is over you want to have energy left over for work or other recreation.

Why Do People Call Me The Town Kook?

I have been riding my bicycle to work every day for about three months. You can see my bicycle locked up in front of the grocery store where I work. It is familiar to many who go to the shopping center, most people know it is my bike.

One guy says he always looks for the bicycle when he comes to work. Shoppers come in and say, "I see you are still riding your bike." Some people come to my register and say, "Did you ride to today?" Others say "Did I see you riding a bicycle the other day?" Today one guy said, "Man you are that guy with the bike. I see you all over town. The other day you were way over there!" He held out his hand for me to shake.

Every day I have several conversations about riding bicycles as a serious form of transportation. People have many different responses to what I am doing. To the majority of people I am some kind of non-conformist out of touch kook. Most ask how far I ride every day, I tell them twelve or fifteen depending on the way I go, and they react as if I was running a marathon, (though this is hardly a warm up for a seasoned bicyclist). Some people act like I was the last of the protest movement, because I have a sign on the back of my bike that says,"I refuse to pay that much for gas." (It really does cost too much on a cashier's wages.) Some people applaud my supposed spirit of determination.One day last week I was waiting for a red light as a group of teenage pedestrians crossed the street, one saw me and said to his companions, "There he is, check out the sign on the back of his bike."

I feel like I have a reputation to uphold and if I stopped bicycling to work I would have a hard time answering for it. For example the sign wore out in the rain, so it fell off; I rode without my sign on the back of the bike for about a week, then one day after work I found someone had made a new sign, nicely printed up and laminated and placed it in my bike basket. I had to put it on my bike- I was afraid not to or else I might have let someone down.

Most people are supportive and encouraging; they discuss my bicycle riding with sincere interest and good will. I enjoy meeting different people this way and enjoy the exchanging of views and ideas. The friendships I have made with strangers because of my bicycling has been more rewarding than I could have foreseen, even if some think I am a kook.

What Challenges Bicycling To Work?

Riding your bike to work every day challenges you in several ways. The first you think of is the physical challenge of actually peddling the bicycle the distance; other challenges are navigating safely through traffic or finding a route to take. The hidden challenge may be the greatest downfall of the daily commuter bicyclist- scheduling enough time to arrive on time with time to do all you need to do.

It is not just enough to ride a bike to work; you need to lock it up, clean up, and change into work attire. These things take time but that is not all, you need to have enough time even before you get on the bicycle to pack up your work clothes, lunch if you bring one, maybe you need a towel and washcloth, deodorant, or other items for the day.

WHAT WORKS FOR MANY:
It may take a few tries to figure out your personal schedule and needs for time management.

• Some find routine helpful.
• Some find preparing the day before helps.
• Some just start earlier. 
• Some leave things undone like breakfast.
• Some write a schedule like an agenda.
• Some just get to work late.

WHAT DOES NOT WORK FOR ME:

Not much works for me.

• I am not an organized person, so keeping a schedule just tells me I am behind schedule. 
• I am too busy to prepare the day before since I often close the store some nights and open the next morning.
• I can't cut out breakfast or brushing my teeth the few minutes saved are not worth it.
• I try to start earlier but end up rationalizing that since I am ahead of schedule I have time to squeeze in some little task and before long I am behind schedule again.
• I try to get a routine down but my job has variable hours and my family has us all going in different directions.
• I do get to work late a lot.

WHAT DOES WORK FOR ME:

I had to change the morning routine and give the carpool to my wife because after driving the kids to school I was always late to work. I keep everything close together so packing is easy and quicker. I have determined that my ride is about forty minutes and I need about fifteen at arrival to wash my face and clock in, so I leave an hour before I have to arrive. My boss knows I am riding my bike and understands I will be late sometimes.

THE BENEFITS OF BEATING THE CHALLENGE:
Bicycling mandates I deal with my lack of time management competence; it is forcing me to grow in character and in my planning abilities. This skill will become a strength in the work place and other areas of my life.

Bicycling is nothing like jumping into the car and racing to work to clock in on time. It requires more time and aforethought, but is worth the extra time it takes. You save money, get exercise, you are in better health and better shape; it is the right thing to do to conserve our resources.

A Life Saved by Riding my Bike

If I was driving my car to work a life may have been taken from our green planet, but I was cruising along on my old bicycle which gave him time to react.  As I passed through a shady suburb he was standing right in the middle of the street, he was either standing guard in the center of the road or chose to do his morning meditations there. I pressed the brakes and he turned to look at me and his tail gave a sudden twitch. His meditation turned into a spontaneous act of martial arts, he jumped and landed on all fours facing me and jerked his bushy tail again. Next the squirrel took three hops to the left covering as many feet then stopped to flick his tale two more times, (I am sure it is an obscene gesture in civilized squirrel society), he darted to the right five feet and stopped again no doubt to gauge my progress. Turning around he dashed back across my path, scampered up a tree and began to make squirrel barking sounds at me. Since I am an American I only speak one language, and do not understand "squirrelleze." If I did I am sure what he was saying was not polite and I should have been offended.

This Might Have Been The Last Thing He Saw In Life.

I am glad the little squirrel made it back to his home to the tree, and all he experienced was an inconvenient scare.  If I was driving my car I would have regrettably and sadly injured the tiny creature. All of us have collided with some frail living thing at one time or another, it is an inevitable fact of cars. I wondered how many of God's creatures have been sent to premature graves because of my tires and bumpers. I remember a few; one, an old lady's cat, still comes to haunt my dreams from a collision with my tire thirty years ago. I recall that I phoned her to tell her how sorry I was to hit her cat, she cried, and I was depressed for some long time. I remember another time when two birds fluttered down on the road just in front of my truck they disappeared underneath and my mirror revealed a tumbling cloud of feathers.

Bicycling is slower, animals and people have a better opportunity to escape collision. If a bunny is hit by a bicyclist his injury is likely to be a fraction as severe as if he was hit by a two ton car speeding at forty miles an hour.

We are stewards of our planet, and have a moral responsibility to seek ways to lessen the effect of our being here. We are responsible to protect and preserve what God has put here, be it either the living creatures or the inanimate resources of the earth. We each must come to terms with these truths; others may make a different decision but I feel that for me a reasonable response is to take every opportunity to park my car and ride my bicycle.

A squirrel's eye View of a Bicyclist