Realizing Your Potential

With a long day ahead and few lunch choices near the airport, I made a sandwich detour. The woman behind the counter saw the cycling garb and asked where I had started and where I was headed. She was shocked, thinking it impossible or impractical to ride 16 miles to work in the morning and 16 miles home in the evening. I offered that I hadn't jumped into riding that sort of mileage, I eased into it. She claimed she could never ride a bike that far and I reminded her that each of us is capable of more than we realize.

Reaching the end of the 2013 and having completed my 56th lap around the sun, I find myself above my goal of 4500 cycling miles for the year. I've upped that goal to 6000 miles and with just under 5600 miles and a few weeks left to log the remaining 400 miles, I stopped to consider how far I'd come. With age comes wisdom and as I've grown older, my focus has shifted from my own needs to helping others. That sandwich shop chat got me thinking about what to suggest to readers who might want to undertake a bicycle commute, reduce their dependence on fossil fuel, shed some weight, improve their health, and generally feel more energetic about life.

1) Start Incrementally

First a disclaimer: Verify you are healthy enough to begin cycling by checking with your doctor or by getting a physical examination.

My commute routine started with a mile or so of cycling to BART, riding the train to a station near work, and cycling the remaining five miles. 12 miles round trip was tiring at first, so I'd alternate one day riding, one day driving. Often the train home was delayed and it began to dawn on me: If I could work up to cycling the whole way, I'd get home sooner. Occasionally I'd ride the whole way home. Then I began cycling to and from work and before I knew it, I had mostly abandoned BART. The key was starting with an intermodal solution and then gradually increasing my mileage. Try to do too much, too soon and you may give up before you've established the all important exercise habit pattern.

2) Find a Route

Most people say the number one reason they don't consider bicycling is the lack of separation from motor vehicles. Bike lanes, sharrows, and green lanes are great, but they don't guarantee protection from a collision with a car or truck. Mapping software like Google Maps or the interactive New York Times bike maps can help you discover a good route. Don't put your faith in any suggested route until you've verified it yourself. You may find that designated bike routes are actually less suitable than a routing you find yourself.

3) Form Good Habits

Exercising every day is a good way to ensure success, but realize that it can take as long as two or three months to work out the logistics and for the cycling habit to become engrained. Once you've established a pattern and worked out the kinks, driving to work will seem less and less appealing. If you have to spend time getting to work, why not spend some or all of that time doing something that will make you feel better?

What about arriving at work all sweaty? A lot depends on your circumstances, but with some planning and ingenuity those issues can be worked out. I carry two panniers: One is my flight bag containing my iPad mini, headset, and various supplies. The second pannier holds a change of clothes, a sweater, and my lunch. I use panniers because I don't like carrying things on my back while riding, but these solutions are individual in nature. Experiment and find what works for you.

4) Measure Your Progress

Regardless of your goal (sleep more, eat less, exercise more), you're more likely to succeed if you have a way to measuring your progress. I find the MapMyFitness iPhone app useful for tracking my weekly mileage and time spent riding. There are other apps and they all seem to have historical measurement and graphing tools. If, for example, you see your mileage increasing by more than one standard deviation, you're probably increasing your workouts too quickly.

5) Set Achievable Goals

Nothing will scuttle you faster than setting an overly ambitious goal. Better to set a less aggressive goal that you can meet or exceed. In my own case, I set a goal of riding 4500 miles for this year even though I suspected I could do more. When I met my goal early, I adjusted it upward. Time will tell if I make the 6000 mile mark, but I'll have fun in the process.

6) Pace Yourself

Once your exercise habit pattern is established, avoid being too aggressive with your routine. Americans live in an increasingly competitive, some might say militaristic, society.  Don't fall victim to the mentality of "If a little exercise is good, then more must be better." Unless you're a comic book hero, over-training will lead to burn-out, injury, illness or just a bone-tired feeling that you can't shake. The flip side of exercise is rest: We all need rest. If you have entered your fourth decade or beyond on planet Earth, you're aware that you don't recover from injury as quickly as you used to. So be wise and avoid getting injured in the first place.

7) Expect the Unexpected

Regardless of your well-laid plans, illness, injury, saddle sores, over-training, and countless obstacles crop up for cycle commuters. If you've set a reasonable goal, you shouldn't have any trouble taking a few days off when you don't feel right or if you need time to heal.

You'll also need to be prepared for unexpected bike maintenance, usually a flat tire. Install puncture resistant tires, carry the necessary tools and supplies to fix a puncture, and have the skills to do the work. Knowing how to make simple repairs in adverse conditions will serve you well.

What about rain, snow, and other icky weather, you ask? California generally has benign weather compared to where I spent my formative years (Chicago area), but things can still get nasty. Rain, strong winds, and cold temperatures with high relative humidity provide plenty of reasons to throw in the towel and just drive. My motto: "There's no such thing as poor cycling weather, only poor preparation." Fenders, shoe covers, riding tights, insulated gloves, helmet covers, and good cycling lights (front and rear) are excellent investments. Get equipped, get over the hump, get out the door, and you'll find things are not as bad they seem.

A side benefit of cycling is that you will regularly encounter unexpected moments of beauty and awe. It could be wildlife, a breathtaking sunrise or sunset, the stillness of a gentle snow fall, or the mystery of a thick fog. Consider carrying a camera and recording what you see, share these inspiring moments with others, but by all means slow down, appreciate, and enjoy.

8) Manage Risks 

Reducing risk on a bike boils down to being visible, wearing a helmet, and riding responsibly and defensively. It may not be fashionable, but bright clothing and lights (front and rear) reduce the risk you'll collide with a motor vehicle or pedestrian. If you find yourself resistant to wearing a helmet, ask yourself this: Do you want to experience a traumatic a brain injury when your noggin hits the pavement? Will you enjoy relearning the alphabet in a rehab facility while your significant other feeds you soup from a spoon? In addition to wearing a helmet, ride responsibly and follow the rules of the road. There's a difference between executing an Idaho Stop at a deserted intersection and acting like a selfish jerk in heavy traffic. Don't ride like a jerk!

9) Care for Your Ride

Once a week, clean your bike, check your tire pressure, oil your chain (if you're still using a chain), and check the condition of your brakes. A little preventative attention now can prevent a roadside repair at an inopportune time and location. I've learned this the hard way. Few things match the unwanted excitement of making a tire repair on a dark and lonely urban street in a pouring rain.

10) Be an Example for Others

When people you know or work with see you have adopted bicycle commuting, they may question your mental health. There's no need to try to sell others on the virtues of using a bike as transportation. The very fact that you arrive by bike and that you look and feel great is all the evidence others will need to adjust their commuting priorities.

Funny Symbols on Pavement

Struggling through the latter stages of a cold, I went for an easy bike ride that led to an unexpected encounter with an irate, shouting driver. My transgression apparently was choosing to use the rightmost lane of Northbound Buchanan Street in Albany that was recently marked with sharrows rather than use the crowded multi-use path that parallels Buchanan. Why I chose to use the road rather than the path may not have been obvious to a non-cyclist, but the driver's indignation was anything but subtle. Cutting to the core of these sorts of encounters requires that we recognize the auto-centric nature of our transportation system.

Most states have laws that give pedestrians and bicycles specific rights to access our nation's roads. Some portions of the interstate system even allow bikes limited access in order to bridge gaps in cycling infrastructure. Yet drivers, including the person I encountered, assume that motorized vehicles have priority over pedestrians, and bicycles.

Markings and signs that alert drivers to the presence and rights of bicyclists and pedestrians can help educate the non-cycling driver, but these don't always work. In my case, perhaps the pavement markings were too subtle for the driver in question or maybe he didn't know the markings mean bikes can share the lane with cars. For many drivers, greater mass and speed are all that matter: Might makes right.

If there's any doubt about our automobile obsession, consider the virtual absence of criminal prosecution of drivers who collide with and injure or kill pedestrians and bicyclists in many of our major cities. A recent New York Times opinion piece pointed out that if you want to kill someone without any criminal repercussions, just run over them with your car while they are walking or riding a bike. If you are not under the influence of alcohol and you don't flee the scene, you'll probably walk away without any charges. In Holland, a driver who collides with a bicyclist is assumed to be at fault unless it can be proven otherwise. Maybe explains why you're 5 times less likely to be hit by a car while cycling in Holland than in the US.

Do cyclists make overweight drivers feel angry and do these drivers then lash out at cyclists for their own lack of fitness? Or is it that we're trying to do too much, or we're late getting the kids to school, or we need to stop at the dry cleaners before heading to work, or we overslept and are in a bad mood Maybe we're stuck in heavy traffic because everyone around us is trying to get to the same concert, ball game, or celebration. These interrupted intentions create stress and often lead us to do and say things that we're later ashamed of, or at least should be ashamed of. So take a deep breath, try to get the big picture, and don't do anything stupid. To that end, enjoy this informative and clever video on ... sharrows!