I Got on the Slippery Slope: No Bike Ride for TWO WEEKS

The good kind of Slippery Slope that we use
when we bike home.

What do all the things in this list have in common?

My work got busy.

I had to travel.

I had to lug equipment.

I was tired.

I worked from home.

I had errands to run.

I overslept.

These are all reasons (excuses) I gave over the last two weeks that prevented me from riding my bike to work.  

My son even asked, “Ride bike?” and I said, “No, not today.”  I missed a lot by not riding my bike.  I especially felt the effects of not getting exercise.  I am not sure if there was more stress but I do know that it was harder to shake the stress.  It took longer for me to fall asleep and wake up and I was tired and less motivated to do anything.

I sure missed the whimsical time with my son on the ride.  We do things like stop to look at a dump truck, ride over a bridge that is out of the way, sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame together, talk about the boats we want to ride and what seaplane we will take to the islands someday.  My son wants to take a blue plane but it looks a little rickety to me and I am pushing for a white one that looks like it has a few less miles on it.

My car commute is about 10 minutes one way; my bike commute is about 30 minutes one way.  I spend about an hour each day riding my bike or 20 minutes each day in my car. For a working mom, 40 minutes is a lot of time and time is the most valuable thing to me.  For my birthday, I just want a little time, time to do something or even do nothing.

When I look at all the effects of not riding, the 40 minutes that I added to my commute could be the best 40 minutes of my day. When I am behind or overwhelmed, it seems so beneficial to drive and I get that 40 minutes back. In reality, the benefits of the exercise are what really help me stay on top of things and help me deal with stress, and I get more done with a better attitude.

That’s what I mean by slippery slope -- I am running late so I drive, so I do not exercise, so I take my stress home with me and my stress causes me to toss and turn in bed, and I get to sleep late so I have a hard time waking up, and then I am running late so I take the car, again, and again, and again. 

This week, I will now break the cycle and ride my bicycle.  

Drove Car to Work, Rode Bike to Work

I needed to get my son to daycare by 9 AM so that he could enjoy the music man. The music man is a guy who comes to the class once in awhile and plays music for the kids. My son LOVES it and so it is important to me that he is at school on time on those days. At 9:15, I realized the time, I realized I was late, and I jumped in the car and dropped him off. Next, I drove home and I was back home at 9:45. 

Yes, I drove to work, dropped my son off and then drove home so that I could have a bike commute.  I realize I did nothing for the environment but what I did accomplish was meeting my goal to keep this bike commute up.  It is a slippery-slope back to a car commute and I know that I am very susceptible to falling into old habits.