30 Days of Biking, Day 22: Habits

When I started riding my bike to work I did so only on the days that I deemed “perfect” for bike commuting. Back then in the long-ago, this meant:

  • No rain, no wind, no snow, no fog, no excessive heat, and no forecast predicting any of the above
  • No meetings out of the office, because what would I do?
  • Appropriate clothing and shoes already hauled to the office by car and left in the closet so I could change when I got there
Exercising my bike habit doesn't mean I have to wear special clothes. This shot is from my commuting days in Spokane.

Exercising my bike habit doesn’t mean I have to wear special clothes. This shot is from my commuting days in Spokane.

I lived 3.5 miles from work at the time.

It was all downhill and then a flat bit to get there.

The meetings I went to were most often either in a building 2 blocks from my office, or in another building 1.3-1.5 miles away depending on the route I took — the longer route would involve use of the Centennial Trail along the Spokane River for over a mile.

I lived on a bus line (a specific choice I made buying that house, just as with my choice of neighborhood and house in Seattle now).

I’ll wait while those of you who commute regularly (or who have only known me as a bike commuter) stop laughing.

And then I’ll remind us all that for someone who hasn’t yet formed habits around bike commuting, everything that presented a barrier to me as a beginner is a barrier to someone who’s just getting started today. (And hey, it was uphill on the way home, and my first day of bike commuting the temperature topped 100 degrees. I pushed my bike the last 2 blocks. The barriers are as real as you perceive them to be until you learn new habits.)

I’m much more comfortable now with a wide range of weather conditions than I was back then and I own the few items that add to bicycling (or walking) comfort when you’re creating your own wind chill.

I have what I need to carry stuff on my bike — nothing more complicated than a rack and a bag. As a bonus I’ve realized that using a car allowed me to build up quite the deadweight of things I didn’t really need to carry and I’ve lost some weight.

I realize how much easier it is to get around on a bike than in a car in downtown traffic — something I started to pick up on as soon as I realized that when I biked to a meeting, I was inside and sitting down while others prowled for parking spots close to the door to cut down on all that exhausting walking.

I shifted my clothes shopping habits only slightly, to make sure my skirts let me get on the bike and my pant legs don’t get caught in the chain. Shoes? You can bike in anything. It’s easier to bike in high heels than it is to walk in them.

I got everything in my life lined up to eliminate barriers to biking, which, coincidentally, meant I started to notice barriers to driving that before I had taken for granted.

In short, I developed new habits that make biking, rather than driving, the easy choice.

And while I don’t recommend biking on autopilot (mindlessness: the bane of everyone maneuvering in traffic), with those habits I’ve made it oh so easy to get on my bike without even thinking about how I’m going to get to work. It required a lot more thought when I was choosing between biking and driving. By thought, that is, I mean hassle factor.

On any given day I follow one of two habits: bike to the bus stop, put my bike on the rack, and read all the way to the office, or bike the full 10.5 miles and arrive charged up and fully oxygenated. I reverse it in the evening — again, without having to think about it beyond looking at the One Bus Away app to see when the next bus leaves and choosing between 30 minutes and 60 minutes for the trip home.*

Either way I’ve had a space and time that are just mine before plunging into the whirlwind and I’ll have another space and time on the way home to shift my mental gears, along with exercise for body and mind.

I believe those are the habits the Surgeon General recommends.

*By the way — if you’re really a creature of habit and you really like predictable schedules, I have to tell you that going by bike and/or bus gives me a much more predictable commute than driving. Driving involves too many variables involving other people and the volume of road space consumed by their vehicles. This was just as true when I lived in Spokane as it is now living in Seattle, so it’s not just an urban thing.

Related Reading

30 Days of Biking

Your Turn

  • Have you made bicycling a habit?
  • What hassles do you remember most distinctly in the early days that you would tell a new rider not to worry about?

 

Posted in Attitudes, Bike Style, Bike to Work, Commuting, Encouragement, Gear/Maintenance, Health, News | Comments Off on 30 Days of Biking, Day 22: Habits

Snohomish County Bikes: Will Bike for Pie

Happy cyclist at Snohomish Pie Company.

Happy cyclist at Snohomish Pie Company.

Snohomish County Bikes: an ongoing series highlighting great Snohomish County bike rides. Share your own great ride with us here!

To say I love pie is an understatement. They are hands down my favorite dessert. I am especially fond of fresh fruit pies and have devoted hours to picking blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and huckleberries for the sole purpose of turning them into pies.

My partner Steve is an amazing pie baker (his wild huckleberry pie is consistently a top draw at our annual auction) and indulges me with a birthday pie every year. He’s convinced that his pies are the key to my heart. He’s right.

I am always searching for a good pie and I have planned recreation destinations around pie. For instance, some of my Mount Rainier hikes and cross-country ski tours were chosen because I could reward myself afterwards with a slice of blackberry pie from the Copper Creek Inn in Ashford. Yum!

And of course I will bike for pie. How far will I bike for a tasty slice of pie? I once pedaled from my apartment in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood to the Snohomish Pie Company in historic downtown Snohomish—a round-trip distance of about 72 miles. I followed the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River Trails to Woodinville, then navigated a mix of roads through suburbia until I reached the picturesque Snohomish Valley.

Last year, Snohomish County purchased the railroad right-of-way that will extend the county’s beloved Centennial Trail from the town of Snohomish south to the King County line. When that new trail is built, I may again bike to Snohomish for another slice of pie!

Tell us your pie story. Where and how far have you biked for pie?

Want to read more about bicycling in Snohomish County? Fill out the form so we can send you news about bike travel, including sources of the all-essential pastry.

Blog Posts to Inspire Your Snohomish County Bicycle Trip

Sign Up to Receive Updates on Biking in Snohomish County

First
Last

Posted in Adventure, Everett, Fuel, Snohomish County, Tourism, Trails | 4 Comments

30 Days of Biking, Day 21: Aches

Okay, so, aches. I get it — not the most positive word I could choose. Sufficient unto each day is the biking therein, or something like that, and today I noticed yet again a couple of twinges that have been hanging around for a bit. Maybe writing about them will exorcise these tiny demons.

But first, a quick note on enjoyable aches. These aches show up when I’ve exerted myself in a way that makes me feel strong. I’ve enjoyed various forms of ache-inducing activities over the years, from weight-lifting (got an A in a college PE class) to dragon boat racing in Spokane to yoga practice including doing 108 Sun Salutations for a winter solstice celebration.

Bicycling has provided many enjoyable aches, all of these representing bike dates with my sweetheart:

And now, for the less enjoyable aches, which fortunately are few and far between.

Ache #1: Tailbone. I mentioned this as a possibility for the word of the day over a week ago, thanks to a tumble I took onto a cement floor setting up for the Spokane Bike Swap. That’s what can happen when you back up to get a better look at your booth layout and don’t realize someone has set boxes behind you.

Biking relevance for today: The early feedback from my body was that with a bruised tailbone, biking was a much better idea than walking because the impact of my foot striking the ground hurt quite a bit. Every day I’ve ridden any distance, however, I’ve noticed the tailbone bruise yet again when I dug a bit deeper in muscular exertion to get up a hill or start from a dead stop on an incline or come out of a light in downtown with a lot of cars behind me, which motivates me to move quickly.

Today I had those climbing elements plus a little bit of walking as part of my ride. I scouted a new way to climb the ridge out of my neighborhood last night, but misremembered the turns this morning and found myself facing a longer rather than a shorter hill. Not ideal and I ended up getting off and pushing, thus experiencing tailbone walking impact plus climbing effort all in one package.

Ache #2: Calf muscle. This little hangover lingers courtesy of a really bad leg cramp that struck Friday night. While not as bad as the punishing ones I experienced when I tried to boost my mileage too far, too quickly, it was still a monster. The fact that my muscle is still sore if I rub it 3 days later is my proof.

I’ve been prone to charlie horses all my life; I even get them in my feet after wearing the wrong shoes on a long day. I add Nuun tablets to my water bottle every time I ride 10 miles or more, which seems to help but doesn’t entirely eliminate the problem.

On a related note, I just learned that kiwis are higher in potassium than bananas.

At any rate, today’s bicycling, while beautiful and springlike and enjoyable and a lot of other fun words, also represented a few aches.

No picture of my tailbone or calf shall accompany this post.

Day 21 in the 30 Days of Biking, 30 Words, 30 Pictures-except-for-today series

Related Reading

30 Days of Biking

Your Turn

  • Do you like to ride ’til it hurts on purpose?
  • What do you do about leg cramps?
  • Even if you’re not riding every single day, is 30 Days of Biking inspiring you to ride more often than you would otherwise?

 

Posted in Health, News | 1 Comment

After Sine Die: What’s Next to Grow Bicycling Statewide?

The 2014 session was most notable for what was absent – a multibillion-dollar transportation revenue package. Despite the package’s absence, its presence was felt almost everywhere via the lack of major policy initiatives affecting transportation.

The supplemental transportation budget represented a bare-bones budget with relatively minor adjustments. It passed the House and Senate and retained approximately $30.45 million for the state’s Safe Routes to School and Bicycle and Pedestrian state grant programs. Unfortunately, due to ongoing federal funding uncertainty (2014 represents the end of the federal transportation reauthorization, MAP-21) and state losses, only $8 million is programmed for the 2015-17 biennium for both grant programs. We will need to fix this in the 2015 legislative session.

One successful bill – related to our 2009 success around signal detection – gave motorcycles the option to take a left-hand turn at a signalized intersection after confirming that the signal detector failed to detect the motorcycle. Because of some technical issues, amending the bill to include bicyclists was not possible. Washington Bikes’ legislative and statewide issues committee will examine this issue during the interim.

Legislation to strengthen penalties and close loopholes for distracted driving (Washington Bikes championed the 2010 Text.Talk.Ticket law that now needs additional updating) failed in 2014. Again, Washington Bikes will look at how to address this growing safety concern next year.

Looking ahead to the 2015 legislative session, Washington Bikes will seek to address the looming transportation shortfalls in the transportation budget, continuing roadway safety concerns, and growing Safe Routes to Schools momentum to increase safety and save schools money statewide.

 

Posted in Advocacy, Funding/Policy, Issues & Advocacy, Legislature | Comments Off on After Sine Die: What’s Next to Grow Bicycling Statewide?

30 Days of Biking, Day 20: Purpose

Calling all Master Gardeners and plant experts: What's this beautiful tree with the white flowers that resemble trillium? I want to plant one someday when I create a moonlight garden.

Calling all Master Gardeners and plant experts: What’s this beautiful tree with the white flowers that resemble trillium? I want to plant one someday when I create a moonlight garden.

The past few days have included some noodling-around rides to find magic and enjoy a quick taste of the night before baking cookies. This afternoon, however, I set off with purpose. And that purpose was . . . finding a rooster.

Not just any rooster, mind you. The rooster that crows repeatedly, annoyingly, illegally from somewhere in my neighborhood a scant block or so from our house. I said I needed to go grab a bike ride and my husband suggested another search for the rooster. We’ve lived here nearly a year and have yet to figure out where the rooster lives, precisely.

Our plans if we find the home address of said rooster are somewhat vague. Do we take the direct approach and knock on the door to say that good neighbors don’t keep roosters in a city neighborhood, or report the peace-shattering noise source to the office of code enforcement?

(I rule out chicken soup as an option because I am a vegetarian. And this search obviously isn’t undertaken because we’re happy to have a rooster crowing incessantly while we try to enjoy our yard. A Zen attitude has already been ruled out. There’s a reason we don’t live in the country. Where people keep roosters. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In the country.)

I found additional purpose along my bike ride, having failed in the rooster hunt. (Guess he sensed me coming and knew to keep his beak shut for a change.)

Purpose #1: Find rooster. Failure.

Purpose #2: Stop and enjoy the secret little creek chuckling alongside the street we suspect houses a rooster. Success.

Purpose #3: Since I was riding part of my morning route to work, check out a couple of alternatives and find a way to make the climb up a steep ridge a little more gradual. Success: Found a new approach that feels like somewhat less of a climb than the one that elevates my heart rate so early in my ride, or perhaps more accurately it’s the same climb but stretched out a bit longer so the rise isn’t so vertical. Yet another reminder that if you don’t like something about one route, try another and enjoy the exploration.

Purpose #4: Retrace my wanderings through these alternative routes to find the house with the pretty white tree so I could take a picture of it and figure out what it is. Success in finding the tree; success in identifying it lies with you all.

Purpose #5: Also retrace in search of a particular roundabout with nice plantings to grab a picture because you never know when you’ll need to illustrate a traffic-calming feature in use. Success.

Purpose #6: Stop to check out the tiny, charming Pinehurst Pocket Park I didn’t know was there. So nice to have a little bit of the “outdoors” right there in an ordinary neighborhood. Success.

Purpose #7: Ride a little bit for exercise because I spent much of the day on my sofa working on a grant proposal and because cookies. Success: Not lots of exercise, mind you, but getting exercise by bicycling feels like fun, not work.

Six out of seven — not bad. I’m feeling purposeful and successful, which are good feelings to carry into a Monday.

Day 20 in the 30 Days of Biking, 30 Words, 30 Pictures series

Related Reading

Your Turn

  • Do you consider “riding for fun” a purpose?
  • What would YOU do about the neighborhood rooster?
Posted in Attitudes, News | 3 Comments

30 Days of Biking, Day 19: Cookies

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies -

Endangered species in our house: oatmeal peanut butter cookies.

Today passed quickly, with lots of rain interrupted now and again by a brief bit of sun. Between reading my Kindle, chatting with the daughter who’s at college on the East Coast, and taking an occasional stab at a flooded e-mail in-box, I missed those sunshine breaks. Then we embarked upon a family movie fest, and before I knew it the light had nearly left the sky.

Out of nowhere my husband suddenly exclaimed, “Cookies!”

“Yes, cookies!” the cries broke out.

“Check the butter supply,” my husband directed the youngest, standing by ready to make an emergency supply run if needed. Butter supply confirmed. Flour, sugar, eggs, check. Oatmeal — always on hand. Hey, peanut butter! Time to test a variation on my family’s crispy oatmeal cookie recipe.

“Okay, cookies it is,” I said. “But first I have to go for a bike ride.”

Lucky me — cookie mania had struck during one of the breaks in the rain. The night, the wind like a giant animal breathing in the treetops, the sweet air washed by the rain — no ride is just a check-the-box ride. Once out the door I wanted to ride much longer, but cookies.

Enough toying with you — here’s the oatmeal cookie recipe. These would make a fantastic part of your food plan for bike touring or a day ride. Or, in our case, a family movie fest. We’re also big fans of pie, but when you’re thinking about travel foods that pack well in bike panniers, pie is not the first thing that comes to mind. Oh, wait — hand pies! Mental note.

Today’s picture shows the 3 cookies I hid from my family out of the third pan so that I could get a taste after the first two pans vanished within microseconds. Fair warning: Double this recipe because cookies.

You can make this nut-free if need be; just use all butter and leave out the walnuts.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Cream together:
1/2 c. butter (don’t use shortening—it makes all the difference in the world! And for even more amazing flavor, brown the butter first)
1/2 c. peanut butter (best if you use 100% natural with no added salt/sugar, stirring it first)
3/4 c. white sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla

Sift together, then add to the creamed mix:*
1-1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour (yes, you can use white if you must)
1 t. baking soda
¼ t. salt
¼ t. nutmeg
½ t. cinnamon
Pinch of cloves
Optional: 1-2 T. ground flaxseed**

Stir in:
1-1/2 c. rolled oats
3/4 c. finely chopped walnuts and/or pecans (optional)

Prepare a bowl of cinnamon/sugar mix:

1/3 c. white sugar
1 T. cinnamon

Roll dough into balls the size of small walnuts, then roll in the cinnamon/sugar mix. Place on cookie sheet and flatten gently with your thumb or the bottom of a glass. They don’t spread too much with peanut butter; if you use all butter they spread a bit more.

Bake at 350 degrees for 7-9 minutes, then hide a batch for your snacking pleasure before you give your family a taste. If you put two cookie sheets in the oven at once, then halfway through rotate the pans top/bottom and front/back for more even heat distribution.

After you take the pans out, let them sit for 1-2 minutes before removing from the pan.

Devour.

Day 18 in the 30 Days of Biking, 30 Words, 30 Pictures series

Related Reading

Your Turn

  • Share a link to your favorite cookie recipe!

 

*That sounds so official and cookbook-like when I say to sift together and then add. My usual technique? Measure ingredients, dump in, stir well. The cookies turn out just fine.

**The ground flaxseed adds omega 3 for vegetarians along with an additional touch of nutty flavor. This also adds a bit of oil but doesn’t materially change the cookie’s baking characteristics. Disclaimer: I don’t work for Cook’s Illustrated so this assertion is not backed up by 400 different tests of this cookie.

Posted in Food, News | Comments Off on 30 Days of Biking, Day 19: Cookies

30 Days of Biking, Day 18: Sunshine

Seattle waterfront Ferris wheel, looking up from inside one of the cars

I didn’t ride the Ferris wheel on the Seattle waterfront today–just looked at it as I walked and thought it was a perfect day for it. This shot is from another day when we took our younger kids to ride.

Maybe I’m not supposed to tell because there’s a big secret community strategy to keep people from moving to Seattle, but I actually enjoy quite a bit of sunshine living here. What was it I said yesterday? “If you don’t like the weather, just wait.”

Today certainly rewarded that attitude. After an absolute downpour yesterday — only magic allowed me to work in a ride during the one tiny rainless break in the day — today absolutely sparkled.

That wasn’t a sure thing in the morning. Looking out the windows after breakfast when the time came to decide whether my trip to work would be fueled by calories or by my Orca card, the sky gave me what looked like a 50-50 chance of testing those new mud flaps. Clouds scudded by rapidly overhead and the branches of the tree in the backyard fluttered.

In one direction blue sky lay behind the clouds, in another what looked like a front moving in. Certainly wouldn’t have pegged “sunshine” as the word of the day at that point. I set off on the bike, telling my husband, “Well, I’ll start riding and if it ends up raining and I don’t like it, I can always get on a bus. Hey, remind me to mail my Metro ballot so I can still say that after next week.”

The farther I rode, the brighter it got. By the time I finished the 10.5 or so miles to work it was full-on sunny and it stayed that way all day, tempting me out of the office for a lunchtime walk along the waterfront to enjoy it some more and think about how fun it would be to ride the Ferris wheel if I had time. The paths and sidewalks along the waterfront thronged with people soaking up some Vitamin D and a group of 6 or 8 people rolled past me on a Segway tour, wobbling only a little as they practiced on the big open wooden decking near the big wheel.

Sunny Seattle — quite a transformation from yesterday!

 

Day 18 in the 30 Days of Biking, 30 Words, 30 Pictures series. Why a series? Why not?

Related Reading

Your Turn

  • Did today’s bike ride give you a dose of the sunshine that gives you Vitamin D, or was it that liquid sunshine where you live? 

 

Posted in News | 1 Comment

30 Days of Biking, Day 17: Magic

Today’s word was supposed to be rain. Or fenders. Or flaps (I have a spiffy new extra-long reflective WA Bikes mud flap extension on my fenders).

Instead it’s magic. Here’s why:

The day started with a driving rain, in both senses of the word: The Seattle skies opened up, and I needed to drive to Auburn for a meeting with Jeff Scully, president of Ortlieb USA. This was definitely the kind of weather that makes their waterproof bags an essential piece of gear and apart from the traffic — and the navigation — and the lack of visibility more than a few yards in front of my front hood — I didn’t mind driving instead of biking.

The day flew by, complete with parking ticket because I can’t remember to keep track of a car’s needs. Sheesh, it’s like having a Neopet. (Remember those?)

Drove home at day’s end. Still raining. But that’s not the word of the day. Because if you don’t like the weather, just wait.

A few minutes after finishing dinner I spotted blue skies down low near the horizon. The sky took on that golden end-of-day glow when the nearly horizontal rays of the setting sun catch all the glistening raindrops on the tips of pine needles. The rain had stopped.

It was time to ride.

Here’s where the magic starts: I didn’t have anywhere in particular to go. So much of my bicycling is destination-oriented. I’m riding to the bus stop. I’m riding to the restaurant for breakfast or dinner. I’m riding to the meeting, and then the other meeting. I’m riding to the grocery store.

I decided to noodle around a few blocks of the neighborhood, taking care to go in a different direction from any of my goal-oriented routes. Wending my way through a few quiet neighborhood streets, I checked out the architectural styles and the flowers in various yards.

Turning onto 130th St. NE I spotted the next sign of magic: A house with the interior lit up by colored lights. Glowing jewel tones of magenta and lilac filled the rooms of the little house. I don’t know why and I imagine it makes for a terrible reading light, but it looked pretty cool radiating out of the windows. A wizard’s house, no doubt.

Gazebo at night with roof of tiny lightsA couple of blocks ahead, yet more magic: A gazebo in someone’s yard with a cap of little tiny lights. Their house blocked the gazebo from sight at first, then it popped into view like a giant glowing mushroom in the rapidly deepening dusk.

Satisfied that I’d gone on a ‘splore (for you Winnie the Pooh fans) and had an experience created solely by participating in 30 Days of Biking, I pedaled home.

Final bit of magic: Those new fenders and the extra-long flap kept my feet from getting soaked when I splooshed through an especially deep puddle in the last block before reaching home.

Day 17 in the 30 Days of Biking, 30 Words, 30 Pictures series. Why a series? Why not?

Related Reading

Your Turn

  • What moments of magic have come your way thanks to the bicycle? 

 

Posted in Attitudes | 2 Comments

Funds Available for Bicycle Education in Spokane – Deadline Approaching

The SpokeFest 2014 Bicycle Education Grant Fund is now open for application. The Deadline for application submission is May 15, 2014. Funding will be available June 1, 2015.

SpokeFest wants to help fund a project that seeks to advance bicycle education and safety for the Inland Northwest. As of Wednesday, April 16th SpokeFest has not received any ideas for funding. Your idea (or someone you know) might be the bicycle education idea they’re waiting for.

Projects funded may include one of the following:

  • A project that helps people become familiar with bicycling and enables them to feel more comfortable participating in the activity
  • Projects that educate motorists about the rules of the road in regard to bicyclists
  • Educational programs that promote bicycle commuting
  • Creating bike routes for different fitness levels and providing necessary information about access and support facilities along the way

If you know someone in the Inland Northwest Region who has an idea for a bicycle education project, encourage them to submit their idea by filling out the application . Submissions for funding should meet the guidelines described in the grant description.

Applicants are asked to submit an electronic copy of the completed application to spokefest@gmail.com The application is available at www.spokefest.org under the Education link. Applicants will be notified by email of the status of their request.

Posted in News | Comments Off on Funds Available for Bicycle Education in Spokane – Deadline Approaching

USBR 10: In the Home Stretch

North Cascades HwyEarlier this month, an application for official recognition of US Bicycle Route 10 — Washington State’s first in the US Bicycle Route System — was jointly submitted by Washington State Department of Transportation and Washington Bikes. The application went to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and will be reviewed by the Special Committee on US Route Numbering at their May meeting.

USBR 10 travels 416 miles across the northern tier of our state. It will continue into Idaho to the east and connect to the San Juan Islands and Canada at its western terminus in Anacortes via Washington State Ferries. This route climbs four mountain passes, including Sherman Pass at 5575 feet, and takes the bicycle traveler through spectacular landscapes and friendly towns.

Our on-the-ground work to create USBR 10 took over two years and has been a labor of love for WAbikes board member and mapping volunteer John Pope of Anacortes. We owe a round of high fives to him, Barb Culp of Seattle and Lynn O’Connor of Colville for their field work and energy.

You can preview route maps and sign up to receive an announcement about the official designation and celebration on our USBR 10 page.

The US Bicycle Route System is a developing network of national bicycle routes that has been championed by Adventure Cycling Association. Nearly 6000 miles of US Bike Routes have been established in a dozen states so far. Currently, over 40 states are working on creating US Bicycle Routes.

Related Posts:

More Progress Made on USBR 10

Exploring the Methow Valley on Two Wheels

Biking In and Around the Okanogan Highlands

Anacortes Wants the Guemes Channel Trail!

Posted in News, Tourism, Travel, USBRS | 3 Comments