Useful Exercice? Biking to School.

I was selected for a random survey I received in the mail recently.  It asked questions about what transportation I used in the area.  Specifically, it asked about biking and running in the general vicinity in which I live.

Why yes, I do run in the area, I answered.  I also bike some, I filled in.  Then it got to the why questions and I realized I don't do anything useful with the biking and the running.  I just head out from my front door, do some exercising and then return to my front door.  Then the survey asked lots of questions about how many trips per week, month, etc. I used the sidewalks and green ways for transportation from place to place.  Oh... erm, none.

So I started the survey feeling like I was doing a good thing getting exercise, but I ended it feeling like I was burning up just as many fossil fuels as I had been in the past.  Was there a way I could use the bike or run to some errands?

So running, no.  No real pocket room in running shorts and no one is going to want to see me when I arrive all sweaty.  But the bike, yes.  I could bike somewhere and do something.  I had even gotten a basket on my new bike.   But the best possibility is baby transport.

We have one, soon to be two baby seats that go on the back of our bikes.  The babies love riding around.  In under a month, my son starts a morning preschool.  Could I bike him to school?

There are challenges.  First, the roads are big.  But wait... I saw my neighbor biking his girls to school in a trailer pulled by his bike recently.  When I asked how he got to school on the roads he said, "Oh, you just go through the park and get on the green way."  His children go to a different school, but my son's school is just as easy to get to.  Park to greenway to art museum path to pedestrian bridge over the highway back to green then arrive at school.  Disco.

But how long will it take?  That's the second challenge.  Getting a small child up early, getting him fed and then biking for how long to get him to school?  So today I checked out the travel time and distance.  It's slightly under six miles and took me about a half hour.  That's doable.  That is it's doable if someone is at home to take care of the second baby while I'm pedaling.

But I'm so going to do it one day before the weather gets ugly and no one wants to be outside.  After telling my husband how the route was and my total travel time he went out later in the day and beat my round trip total time by seventeen minutes.  Showoff.  Maybe I'll send daddy to school on the bike with the boy.

The Big Boy Update:  "Stuck.  Help.  Corn."  That is what he said at lunch.  And he said it several times.  He was eating corn on the cob, which he loves.  He said it several times and pointed at his teeth.  I looked and lo, he had corn stuck between his two front teeth.  That's the most impressive bit of communication he's done yet.


The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Do not like shower, mama!  Normally they get a bath.  We decided to try a shower with them tonight.  My son loved it.  He backed in the corner when it was time to get him out, said, "no no no" and then, "bye bye" to explain how he was not finished and please leave the water on as we left.  But my daughter screamed the entire time.  By the time she was clean, she was in the "snuffies" phase of crying where catching her breath was taking over and her ability to cry was limited by her upset gasping.  

Fitness Update:  12 miles biking.  Fun, and not nearly as tiring as running.  Also, much less sweaty.