my other ride has two wheels

My little Sube has a special place in my heart. I’ve been driving my Subaru Impreza hatchback since I bought it in 2008, and it’s never let me down. Through many, many moves, several blizzards, and countless rainstorms, my car has kept me safe and sound. I’ve driven 70,000 miles without even a flat tire! (Knock on wood.)

My little car, in its element / Personal photo

Anyways. This isn’t a paid advertisement for Subaru, I swear. I wanted to talk about biking. Not dirt-biking or motorcycling (too dirty, and too loud, respectively). Road biking. And doing it for fun. In an ideal world, I would ride my bike along a pretty tree-lined road to work every day, instead of spending 3 hours round-trip in gridlock traffic. But even though my commute isn’t ideal, I’ve still been logging a lot of hours on my bike on the weekends.

And so my other ride – my road bike – has become my favorite mode of transportation.

Now, I do have to confess, I’ve been the laziest girl you’ve ever met, all winter long – after Dara and I got back from our honeymoon to New Zealand and Australia, I went into total hibernation. I hadn’t dragged my butt into the gym for 3 whole months. We watched a lot of TV, and I cooked a lot of dinners at home in our cozy newlywed nest. But what’s gotten me off the couch has been the MS150.

For the last two years, Dara and I have competed in the BP MS150, a 180-mile two-day bike ride from Houston to Austin to raise money and awareness for MS. And I’ll be real – that is not a walk in the park. By the time we pull into Austin, I am about ready to pass out. Or drown myself in the margaritas awaiting us at the finish line. It is pretty painful, and it takes all of the motivation that you can muster. But the feeling of accomplishment is incredible, and I think it’s for a great cause. And so it’s become a tradition.

This year is no exception – we began our MS150 training in mid-January, and most Saturdays since, we’ve been going for longer and longer rides in preparation for the {incredibly long} trek to Austin. Our Sundays have been spent sorely hobbling around the house, but it’s so worth it – and I’m starting to feel like my normal, active self again.

A weekend MS150 training event / Personal photo

And so, here’s the thing: once the MS150 is over this year, I vow to keep up with biking. Normally we get so sick of biking that we stash our bikes in the back of the garage until the following January. But this year, I want to stick with it. I’d like to replace some of my short drives around Houston – errands, grocery runs, etc. – with bike rides.  There are so many benefits of bike riding – fresh air, good exercise, not burning fossil fuels, stopping to smell the flowers (seriously…an old habit. I brake for pretty flowers!)… And of course, there’s the issue of parking. As long as there’s a bike rack to lock up my bike, I’m set – I don’t have to wind up and down the rows of parked cars waiting for a spot to open up.  (Sigh… first world problem?)

Short car trips are the worst for generating air emissions – starting your car is the equivalent of idling for 5 minutes. And biking does not create noise, it reduces road congestion, and it doesn’t contribute to ground water run-off. It’s a win-win all around.

When was the last time you went for a bike ride?