I GOT A BICYCLE a few months ago and after moving to a flat area of town, I now feel able to ride the four km to work several times a week.
It's been decades since I rode to work. As a young copilot in California, I had a seven mile journey into a strong headwind. Four years later, I would jump on my bike and ride six miles to the flight line in Oklahoma. The journey happened before sunrise on many occasions.
Flash foward to 2019 and now it's the easiest run on the biggest bicycle. My current ride came courtesy of Ireland's bike to work scheme which means I got a great machine at a 20% reduced price. Plus I can burn calories while paying for the 21 speed bike.
I tell friends what I have and they agree that I'm equipped for the trek. The Thule panniers can hold my laptop (although I'm often keeping the laptop safely locked up at work). Having to plan my baggage means I carve back my load to things I need for the day.
I've discovered my Samsung Health app tells Strava what I'm doing when I toggle into "workout" mode. This means people farther up the fitness chain can see my progress. Several have offered me high fives for resetting my fitness journey. Sometimes they get to see the sort of screen grabs and trophies that accompany this blog post.
I think I will start sharing a weekly report on my blog because my progress is worth measuring. And I also think I'm going to start hitting the cycle lanes as the sun rises because here in Tipperary we have some brilliant dawn choruses with radiant bursts of light.
[Bernie Goldbach teaches creative media for business on the Clonmel Digital Campus and hope to build an entire photo album that documents the joys of cycling.]
