Lately I’ve been walking. I have walked to work 3-4 days a week for the last month. I’m not even really sure why. I have enjoyed the slow pace. I turn on a podcast and kick it.

Today it’s been raining all day. I walked here in my rain suit; however, my bike was at work all weekend. I have to ride a few miles out of my way to drop off my rent check. I was thinking of all the ways I could get a ride. Today’s one of those days where I really did not feel like riding in the rain.

Then I decided to not be a pansy and go ride. Now I’m actually excited to get out and ride in the rain.

I ride to and from work just about every day. We had a solid month where the weather didn’t get above freezing, even during the day. That meant every evening as I was gearing up at the office at least one person would say, “you’re crazy.” or “you’re insane,” and the ever creative, “there’s something wrong with your head!”

For a while I’d just reply, “yup!” Then, I thought about it. These same people go skiing and don’t think that’s crazy. In my opinion skiing is even worse because you’re out playing in the snow. I usually remind whoever is calling me crazy that while I might be crazy I’m actually quite warm. At which point I bore the person with a winded description of my gear.

Last week we had a day in the 60s and it’s been over 40 every day since last Monday. A few fellow riders actually rode in last week. I even rode home with another rider. Something I haven’t done in a long time. While the weather is supposed to drop back into the 30s this week I think the worst of the winter is over.

In my last post I relayed a long saga about how I didn’t have my bike at home and needed to get to work. For those of you that are wondering what I did, here’s the answer; I walked.

I read quite a few reviews about the Harrisburg cab companies. None of the reviews were positive. Every one talked about how the cab never showed up and the operators were rude when they called. I figured there is no reason to rely on someone else to get me to work on time. Plus, if they did come then I would have to pay them money. I just didn’t want to do that.

It took me 40 minutes.

Based on this morning’s walk here’s why I say cycling is so efficient.

1) It takes me 1/4 less time to travel the 2.5 miles to work. Obviously, we know that bicycles go faster. But having only driven and ridden this stretch the difference was highlighted when I walked it.

2) It is much better for my legs! I don’t have bad knees, but I have known people in the past that have developed bad knees from walking and running. However, right now my shins are in terrible pain. I have shin splints. I can hardly walk. That’s OK because I am riding home. I was even wearing my hiking boots.

3) Cycling is more fun. I love careening down a hill at 40 mph. I love passing a long line of cars waiting at the red light. I love the “I-am-one-with-my-bike” feeling I get.

To walking’s credit some of the things that I love about cycling were enhanced. I had even more time to look at the beautiful scenery, and I could take greater notice of the things along the road.

What else did I learn from walking?

I should probably get out and actually walk more. I will use different muscles I don’t use when I ride. I learned that I can walk if I need to. It’s not a mystery any more. I am more OK with having burned my bridges. I don’t need to rely on other people (that is if I can walk with my shins being in such pain).

I also learned that socks make good gloves if you are in a pinch.

I’m at my aunt and uncle’s in New Jersey. I wish I rode my bike here, but I hitched a ride with my parents.

I’ve found that not having a car becomes most interesting when I break my standard routine. Normally I just ride to and from work. Once or twice a week I may go on an extra ride to the grocery store, library, or wherever.

I am not going back to work until January 5, but I have a lot of places to go and people to see. I live in a good forty miles from most of the people I care about. So I’ll be interested in seeing how I get where I need to go.

I’ll be interested in seeing how much I ride too. I ride mostly for utility, but I enjoy riding. Because I ride so much when I commute I don’t often go out and ride for sport. So I wonder how much I’ll get out and ride over the holidays.

By the way, I got new gloves.

I need new gloves.

Hale Ride. 1940's program to encourage physical fitness on a bicycle.

My four main motivations for going car-free are: financial savings, environmental benefits, health benefits, and the plain and simple love of riding my bicycle.

Here at Going Carless I’m starting a series. I’m going to explore each of my motivations in more detail. I’m starting off the series with the health benefits of commuting by bicycle. You will see posts related to sleep, eating habits, and weight loss among other things.

This first health related post is more anecdotal than anything.

It is no secret that being healthy is a good thing. Likewise, it’s no secret that a huge component to being healthy is exercise. By simply being active you can help fend off high blood pressure and diabetes. You can build muscle, lose fat, increase energy, and decrease stress. These are just a few of the benefits of exercising.

One authority somewhere said you should exercise for 30 minutes a day 3-5 times a week. Everybody’s been copying that person’s advice since.

I’m not trying to be rudimentary here. Actually, I’m breaking out the phys ed basics in order to stress my point. What’s my point? I’m lazy. I don’t go to the gym. I go hiking sometimes, but certainly not 3-5 times a week. I didn’t even get into biking for athletic or recreational reasons. I got my bicycle for almost exclusively financial reasons.Thankfully I love to ride now!

But here I am. I have plunged headlong into a car-free experiment. That means the vast majority of days I go to work I’m riding there. When I want to go grocery shopping then I get on my bicycle and push my pedals.

I started riding my bike a lot over the summer, easily hitting that 3-5 times a week mark. Now that I don’t have my car I’m well over that!

Cycling is an aerobic exercise. That means it get’s the heart pumping. It also builds your leg muscles like nobody’s business. Actually, it is other people’s business. I am going to weigh myself and measure my waist and thighs. I’ll start checking in once a week on the weekends with the stats.

Cycling does not build the upper body very well at all. How do you supplement upper body exercises?

Just think, I probably still wouldn’t exercise if I wasn’t such a cheapskate.

I discovered a web site yesterday. It’s called Green Light Ride.

Basically, you can track how many times and miles you ride.

Then you can join together as a team with other riders and get the total number of rides and miles for your team.

I talked with the other cyclists at work. We have decided to keep track of our rides for the entire year of 2009. We have a fundraiser for Relay for Life ever year. One of my co-workers suggested that people could sponsor us for a penny a mile. It looks like whether we do it or not as a fundraiser we are going to be tracking our rides. We are only counting the rides to and from work.

You should too. Do you want to challenge our team?

I rode the 23 mile each way ride to my girlfriend’s this weekend. Having sold my car the entire ride felt totally different. It was a great feeling to be totally self sufficient. I can’t explain it. I felt so empowered knowing that I made it the whole way there and back on my own power.

I purchased some cheap goggles off of the Internet. As soon as I put them on they fogged up. I was riding by and saw a ski store and decided to stop in and check out some goggles. When I was in there they talked me into sport glasses. I like the idea of smaller glasses that don’t limit my vision. These glasses have interchangeable lenses: clear for night riding, regular sunglasses, and polarized. So far they seem to work fine, but by some fluke it’s been between 40 and 60 degrees. That’s right. It’s 60 degrees today! It’s going to be back down to 31 for a high tomorrow. How weird.

I’m still not used to not having a car. I had a car for 11 years. I feel like it’s in the shop or something, and I’ll be getting it back soon. I have so many habits I had formed that I am now forced to break. I often get a thought like, maybe I’ll go to Fuddruckers for lunch or maybe I’ll head over to the beer distributor. Then I remember it’s not as easy as it once was. You’ll most like see a post about time management and being carless.

Speaking of future posts, I think now is a good time to do series about why I have gone car-free.

My motivations in order of importance are: financial, environmental, for the love of riding, and health. I would say that love of riding and health are about equal.

I am going to explore different facets of each over the next week or two.

I’m also going to start some kind of daily update about the ride conditions, my health conditions, etc. I haven’t figured out the specifics yet. All in good time.

Picture by ....Tim. Used by permission. Creative Commons

Not having a car in a oil addicted society is definitely an adventure in and of itself. Not only is trying to find alternative methods of getting things done an adventure, but r

iding my bike in the cold, rain, and careening down hills is an adventure.

What do you do for adventure? What could you do for an adventure?

This evening I put on all of my winter gear, turned on my blinkies, and rode off into the dark, cold night. Like I said in my previous post, riding in the cold isn’t that bad. It’s all about the gear. I feel like I’ve done a decent job of getting appropriate gear.

Still, I started to second guess myself when rubber hit the rode. Can I do this any time I need to go somewhere? Is the money saved really worth the winter riding? Can’t I just wait until Spring? It helped me put things into perspective.

I’m at a critical juncture. My car has been posted on Craigslist. I already have two offers (though with Craigslist you can’t take offers too seriously). If I am going to decide to not sell the car then this is the time.

As I was riding along in the cold I started thinking about some of my original posts in this blog. This is back when I thought the car would never be drivable. I laid out all of the arguements as to why I should sell my car. I’m clinging to those arguments. I’m selling the car. Money is still my top priority here. I can’t wait to see how much money I will save! Excercise, the environment, and, honestly, this blog are other reasons I’m selling my car. Combined, these are still enough of a reason for me to go car-free. I’ll find a way to make it work despite the obstacles, uh hem, cold.

Then I thought about all of the comments in this blog. Many of them were from people that have already gone carless. They all said similar things. “You won’t believe how much you save,” “It’ll work.” All the more inspiration!

So no more time for second guessing. Now it’s time for action.