Biking to work

Last Friday I biked to work for the first time this spring, and today I went for a much longer ride, over to the co-op, and back downtown to work.

I'm one of those fair weather bikers that my brother was just complaining about - but I don't feel that bad about it - I really only like biking when it's nice out. I don't like to wear all the proper gear for bad weather - heck, I don't even like wearing a helmet all that much. I don't ride a fancy bike (I only have two bikes - a 21-speed hybrid for riding on bike paths for fun, and a 7-speed also hybrid clunker for riding to work) and I much prefer to ride in a skirt and sandals. In fact, I think my clunker, a Giant Bike, is in the category they call Comfort - meant to be ridden leisurely and fairly upright. So the only times I get to feel that better-biker-than-thou-smugness is when I, on my chubby-tire clunker wearing Birkenstocks, with a big satchel on my shoulder, pass someone on a skinny-tire bike, all tricked out in spandex, with fancy panniers that cost more than my bike.

This year the problem is that I really got old and fat over the winter - it was icy and snowy and I did not ski all that much, and I had too many days where I just walked to work and back - about 50 minutes of gentle walking altogether - better than nothing, but not really enough exercise. I went swimming last week, and my arms hurt afterward; that's never happened before.

I've been doing a little better recently. Swimming, like I said, and I've been going for more walks for exercise, in addition to walking to work. I'm planning to swim tomorrow morning. But I'm still basically a wimp. There's covered bike parking - by default, it wasn't built to be covered bike parking, but there's an outdoor cement stairway & terraces on the Brutalist-style '70s building that houses the undergrad library at University of Wisconsin where I work that provide shelter - so when it started raining, I simply left my bike there. I was going to take the bus home, but Mark called and asked if I wanted a ride. I'll get my bike back tomorrow.
The areas in the shade in the picture are where you can park your bike and it won't get wet.