As it were…

I rode my bike to work today.

I haven’t ridden a bike consistently since college, when I rode everywhere. Last year my father-in-law bought a Mongoose 21 speed mountain bike at a garage sale and put it in the barn. This spring he sent it to our house, and it’s been sitting in our garage ever since. A couple weeks ago I said “I should start riding to work”.

My wife was reluctant at first. I ride on some pretty busy roads, and she didn’t want me getting whacked. But in time she came around.

I did some minor work on the bike, oiling things, pumping up the tires, etc. I bought a helmet (never worn one before), and a water bottle. We have some nice showers in the gym here at work, so I just packed my work clothes in a backpack and showered here.

Why do I do this? Mostly to get into better shape. I was up to 195 lbs last week, and that’s about as high as I’ve ever been. Just cutting out Coke dropped me 3 lbs since then, but I still have a gut. And this morning it’s burning. 🙂

It took me 35 minutes to go 5 miles. That seems sadly slow to me, but it’s my first time, and there are a LOT of hills. And I’m not racing. 🙂

I’ll post about it again in a couple weeks.