Biking to work

My Russian has finally gotten himself pumped up to exercise more - he decided to bike to work. He hasn't planned or biked to work before, but suddenly there we were, at Target, buying him a helmet and gloves.

The next morning he got up early and started to prepare a backpack for the trip - I was quite worried since he hadn't tried the new route yet, and according to the map, the distance is 12.5 miles each way. Luckily he has showers at his workplace (heh, lucky for his coworkers, that is)...

So he left around 7:30 AM after pumping his bike's tires and I left at the same time for work (yes - driving my car even though the distance to my work is only 5 miles). Around 8.30 AM, I tried to call him but he didn't pick up his phone - started getting worried at 9.30 AM since I still hadn't received any missed calls. Actually, he had arrived at work at 9AM, couldn't remember the combination to the bike lock, and had been frantically trying to call me to ask about it.

Around 9.45 AM, I finally got a message informing me that he got to work safely, even though he had gotten himself lost in a park and had to bike over grass and woods for a while to get back to a road. So, his route was extra-slow that day.

I was still proud of him for even *trying* to bike to work at all - an ambitious 25 miles round trip - and that he was still committed to do it, even after that first brutal day. The next day he shaved off 30 minutes from the trip, each way, thanks to not getting lost and biking more efficiently on the hills, which were now predictable.

We had a little celebration by going out to Chilis and getting some of the calories back which he had lost this morning ; )







It took us 3 days to finish all of that. I think we got more than enough calories back...