It snowed today. Sure not a huge stretch of the imagination considering I live in Wisconsin and it snowed 100+ inches of snow last year. Fine, whatever, but look at the date. October 27th – October twenty-FREAKING-seventh! And it snowed! Although none of the snow stuck it came as a very heeded warning. Last spring seemed to have been non-existent, summer flew by, and now fall is waning as well. Long story short, I have to stop waiting, get my ass in gear, and get out the door.
Lately the cold autumn days have been rainy or just plain gray leaving the trails mostly soft, not allowing the mountain bike see much action. However, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing anything. I’ve started running again. Why? I’m not quite sure except that I miss it. Just down the street is a conservation park where I can get in some trail running and of course there are some quiet neighborhood streets as well. I have coworkers that run and now I also have a girlfriend that’s doing it as well. Sunday afternoon we went for a run in the park and really had a good time in what were 20-30 mph winds. Today with the snow flying, she said to me on the phone, “No matter what I’m going for a run.” And she did. I think she’s officially caught the bug.
No matter what, I need to start biking. Every time I jump in the car and drive to work I feel guilty. I could be saving money and shedding the weight and commuting in by bike. Today’s snow isn’t helping my decision, but the goal of trying to bike to work everyday “no matter what” is really starting to steep in my brain. I’ve really wanted to start a writing project about my own bike commuting / errand running exploits and hopefully include other people in it as well. My birthday is coming up this Thursday and it seems like a good starting point. If I can run a marathon on my 21st, I can begin a year of bike commuting on my 24th.
As always the year is winding down with me getting anxious to get back outside because of lost opportunities or just plain laziness this past year. The racing / event schedule is taking shape. Focus on running in the spring, then mountain biking in the summer and fall. It should make for a fun year of new experiences. We’ll just take it one day at a time for now. Remember, it’s October and the snow is already falling.
