The Beauty of Biking

To avoid losing any of my health and fitness subsidy at the end of the FY, I purchased a bike last May. With the exception of biking to the pool with Ben on summer Saturdays, my shiny new bike collected dust in the garage for the next several months. I switched projects at work in early December and now, instead of commuting across the bridge to Virginia, I work directly two-miles south of where I live. LOVE it. I could walk to the metro station, hop on the train, transfer once, and get to work 40 minutes later. On days Ben doesn't need the car, I could drive. But even that can take 20 minutes for a mere two miles, thanks to endless lights and backed up streets. There's a bus that goes from point A to point B in a roundabout way, if I'm willing to walk eight blocks to point A. The most logical commute, you see, is for me to bike to work. And yes, this logic considers 10 degree temperatures in the winter and humidity overkill in the summer.

While this whole biking thing started because it was the practical thing to do, I'm discovering there are serious mental and physical health benefits to even a modest four-mile roundtrip bike ride. When Ben was a foreign exchange student in Germany almost 10 years ago, he hardly got sick during the winter. His host mom chalked this up to all the fresh air he got from riding his bike everywhere. When Americans get sick, we stay out of the cold. When Germans get sick, they go outside for some fresh air. The fresh air this winter really has done wonders for me. If nothing else, it invigorates me on the way to work and reinvigorates with me a second wind on my way home. I'm generally in a pretty good mood, but difference in my mood and energy levels after 15 minutes on a bike versus 40 minutes of fighting crowds in the metro is surprising.

Tonight I had my weekly b-ball game at the G-town Law fitness center. Since POTUS was giving his SOTU at the Capitol, driving and parking were supposed to be a pile. I opted for the bike. It's official: biking is my new favorite way to take in DC. It was the perfect zen moment before and after the game - spinning by all the security guards, watching motorcades whiz by, and carrying on my way all from the comfort of my bike. Much like when I fell in love with walking and ipoding all over London, biking + DC + DC bike lanes = a thing of a beauty. Precipitation permitting, my new goal is to bike everywhere within a reasonable distance: work, b-ball games, the gym, and the grocery store. Here's to getting some bang for my 2009 fitness subsidy buck in 2010.