Jenny and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Bike Ride

I think it's funny when companies' attempts to be progressive or environmentally conscious turn out to just be wasteful. Take the LEED Certification of buildings, for example. New buildings* can become LEED certified (which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) by meeting a set criteria of requirements involving energy efficiency, lean building practices, recycling (both during construction and after completion), environmental quality controls, the use of environmentally safe products, etc. This is all well and good. Being more environmentally conscious and energy efficient is great! But it doesn't stop there. If you don't want to settle for simply being LEED Certified, you can try to reach the next levels of certification of LEED Silver, Gold, or Platinum. Once companies aim for these higher levels of certification, they can sometimes start adding random features to their buildings just for the sake of marking another check box. Did you know that you get credit towards LEED certification if you set up information centers that describe and explain how you became (or since it's before the fact, will become) LEED certified? It can be as simple as installing plaques describing the energy efficient systems or recycling programs or whatever or as complex as installing interactive monitor stations. Maybe it's just me, but if the end goal is sustainability and efficiency, that seems counter-productive. 

And while I hate to admit it, I'm pretty sure that my company's desire to certify the new headquarters as LEED Gold is the only reason that we have locker rooms and gym facilities. Don't get me wrong, I love that we have a gym and locker rooms, but other than the occasional yoga break during lunch time, I've never used them. I'll occasionally see someone in there when I'm passing through on the way to the parking lot, but it's mostly vacant. It's a nice perk, but sometimes I wonder if it was worth it. But by far, one of the easiest ways to get extra points towards certification is by installing bike racks on the property. It doesn't matter that my office is in the middle of a highly industrial area. It doesn't matter that it's surrounded by highways and other high-traffic roads, rife with unruly 18-wheelers, with no shoulders and few sidewalks**. It doesn't matter that these bike racks never get used (I've been at this office for a year and a half and have yet to see one bike), we have them now because we needed them for our LEED Gold status (I assume). I even tried to make them useful, once, but even though I live extremely close to work now, my one attempt at biking there was fraught with terror and was disastrously unsuccessful. 

That's right, that entire rant of an intro was just a super long, rambling segue into an anecdote about a terrible bike ride. 

Suckers

Being that I now live pretty close to my office, I thought it would be a good idea (for the environment, my personal health, and my fuel budget) if I started cycling to work. I had done some light google-mapping and found what looked to be the perfect route. It went almost directly from my apartment to the office and, best of all, didn't involve any actual roads (which considering how inexperienced at cycling I am, I really need). It seemed too good to be true. Unfortunately, when I tried to actually make the trip, it turned out to be just that. 

As I followed the route, I found that only half of it was on any type of pavement, and the rest on this weird gravel/rock combo. While that wouldn't normally present a problem for experienced mountain bikers or people in motor vehicles, it was terrible for the inept cyclist that I am. Not only that, but there were a lot of hills (well, North Texas' version of hills) that my legs just couldn't handle. Then, when I was already getting wary of how on earth I'd be able to ride that gravel road each morning, I ran into a gate toting "Do Not Enter" signs. Being the ne'er-do-well that I am, I heroically climbed under the barricade and continued on my way. I couldn't get much farther, though, because I the path dead-ended at a power plant that didn't show up on the map. It was surrounded by barbed wire, and despite my lurking around (with a security camera following me all the while), I couldn't find a way around it. The worst part? The fact that I could see my office not too far off with absolutely no way to get there.

Can you imagine me parking this at work? Keep in
mind, I work in the construction industry. 

I can't blame all the problems with my ride on the route, though. I made a few errors myself, the biggest one being that I didn't have a bike (oops). I had to go to my old apartment (only 2 months after moving out), break into the garage (by casually following someone else's car in), and snatch my old bike from the clutches of the parking garage bike rack. After I got that squared away, I still had to deal with the overwhelming heat, a minimal amount of water (because apparently two water bottles weren't enough for mid-day in August), my general fear of riding bikes (seriously, it's a little bit terrifying), and my out of shape legs. 

Furthermore, because I ran out of water and was unable to refill at my office as I had planned, I had to make a detour on my way back (to bring me by the Jack-in-the-Box where I could get some water), which led me atop a weird valley-crest and through a swamp. Gross.

And with that, I gave up all hope of ever giving those bike racks at my office purpose. They will forever just be a waste.


Do you bike to work? Are you willing to ride on roads with actual cars and trucks? Do you like that I go to fast-food restaurants in the middle of a workout?


*New Construction is only one of many categories in which a structure can attain LEED certification - there are also categories for renovations, existing buildings, tenant spaces, community planning, ongoing maintenance, etc., each with their own set of requirements. 

**I realize that cyclists can ride in actual lanes on actual roads, but would you really want to be the biker holding up a bunch of speeding, angry 18-wheelers?

... so much more rewarding than a stationary bike...

Since outgrowing my hot pink childhood bicycle at the age of 11, I have spent very little time bicycling. I think I had one unfortunate ride in middle school where the under-inflated inner tube of my older sister's bike popped out of the tire, resulting in 13-year old me being forced to drag it home. Figuring that this incident was likely a fluke, I tried riding the same bike again my freshman year of college with eerily similar results (the only difference being that this time I ended up dragging the bike across an unfamiliar campus at 3am). Who would have guessed that letting a broken bike sit motionless outside for 5 years wouldn't automatically fix its problems? Aren't the great outdoors supposed to be rejuvenating? I even attempted fixing my bike that time, but while working on it (or more accurately, staring at it quizzically), a number of insects and spiders flew/crawled out of the tire and attacked me (or more accurately, existed in my general vicinity). Thus ended any desire I had to ride a bicycle.

Fast forward four years. I graduated college and was living in San Antonio. I was trying to get healthy, and figured that a good way to do that would be biking around town. My boyfriend even let me borrow his mountain bike! I was so excited that I kind of tricked out the bike with an awesome basket (hand-decorated) and a bell (that wouldn't fit on my bike, but sounds awesome when I ring it in my room). For some reason, though, Jason was against me painting his bike pink. Unfortunately, my first and only attempt at riding it to dinner was fraught with terror. My apartment was situated as such that I couldn't get anywhere without basically taking a highway entrance ramp. That went up a steep hill. And had absolutely no lighting (on the bright side, the service at IHOP was slow so I had ample time to catch my breath and regain my wits). I decided that biking near my apartment was too treacherous, and waited until I moved back home to touch my bicycle.

Since moving back, I have actually been riding it semi-regularly (3 times in the past 3 months... so maybe not that regularly)! The first couple trips were just to my neighborhood grocery store, but this past Sunday, I actually rode all the way to and from my friend Kim's house (a total distance of about 7.5 miles). It was very exciting, not terrifying, and actually pretty fun! Kim even joined me on the trip back to my house! The best part about it was that now knowing that the distance/route are not dangerous or out of my realm, so many options are open to me (she lives really close to a Target and a Chili's). I also am now more confident in my ability to ride without embarrassing myself, running into people/cars/trees, or falling over! For this reason, Maddie and I have decided to go to a nearby lake with a 9 mile bike path around it this Saturday and spend the day biking (or "cycling," as Maddie so informed me it is called) and slacklining with a bunch of our friends! I can't wait!

How has your experience with cycling been? What is your stance on the debate of whether to call people bikers or cyclists? Do you know of a good hot pink bike I could get that would fit both my basket AND bell on the handlebars? Do I use exclamation points too much?

Game Changers

After weeks of planning, I have finally done it. I have finally gone to the grocery store (I know, what an amazing feat I have now accomplished). I even rode my bike there! While this would usually be an extremely mundane event (and still is, in fact), I find it very significant in that it means that I finally have healthy snack food. More importantly, it means that I finally have some healthy grab and go breakfast options that consist of yogurt cups and bananas.

Nearly every morning since starting my new job (three weeks ago), I have been feeding myself in the morning with either a McDonalds Sausage McMuffin with Egg (plus hashbrown) or kolaches from this donut place I pass. This is upsetting, albeit delicious, on so many levels. Not only is this really unhealthy and therefore making it difficult to win my contest with Mom, but I think the guy that works the window at McDonalds is starting to recognize me. I even took a much longer route last Friday so that I could go to a McDonalds where no one knew me. I feel like that should really be my red flag that something is wrong. In fact, I remember promising myself that I would never become a regular at a fast food establishment when I was having lunch at Wendy's once and a 300 pound woman came in who already had her "usual" order basically waiting for her. She was apparently friends with the employees, and it seemed from their conversation that they had not previously been friends, but became friendly because she had eaten lunch there at the same time almost every day for so long. I even recall the cashier saying "I was wondering when you'd get here today!" I have been a regular at campus dining halls, campus wrap cafes, and San Antonio sandwich shops, which is bad enough, but a fast food drive thru? No thanks.

On the bright side, this trip to the store has already gotten me to make healthy decisions today. I grabbed a banana for breakfast and am drinking water in the morning (note to self: get soda with a lot of caffiene before afternoon meeting). I even brought a healthy lunch just in case my team isn't eating together today. (I don't like missing lunch with the whole team, but I also am tired of wasting money and calories buying lunch for just myself when we aren't eating together.)

This just might turn out to be a big game changer.