22 Days in May

The Bike to Work (month) Challenge

In honor of the upcoming Bike to Work Day in May (18th – see website and participating businesses) I’ve decided to challenge myself to commute by bike every day to work in the month of May. As a long-time bike commuter this might not seem like much of a challenge at first glance. In the past 15 years, making an educated guess, I would say that 90% of my commuting has been done by bicycle. This has included my graduate school years in the Louisiana, a couple year stint in the Midwest, and a few years of living in Elko. The last 9 or so years spent in Reno I have been more consistent than ever in my bicycle commute. It didn’t hurt that the distance to my workplace for the majority of that time has only been about 2-3 miles.

But the challenge of bike commuting changed a bit this past January when I took a job 12 miles from my door. I’m no stranger to the challenges involved in commuting that distance. My time living in Elko was 13 miles one-way with a small summit to go over every day (Spring Creek to Elko proper for those who are familiar). The challenge now is two-fold: One, I started this new job in the dead of winter and as any bike commuter knows, prepping for a quick 3 mile ride vs. a 12 mile ride is quite a different animal in terms of proper attire and gear; Two, my new job as a teacher requires a big allocation of time for the grading and planning that goes along with the time in the classroom. Essentially this makes for a job that has me putting in 10+ hour days consistently. Not to rationalize (too much anyway) but for those of you who read this and think “so what, lots of people work long hours” I would ask you to remember that very few jobs require you to be prepared to educate (and entertain) 100+ teenagers a day everyday of the week. They are at school ready for me to teach whether I am prepared or not. I have to be ready for them.

When I was commuting 3 miles one-way it was actually faster by bike than taking a car due to traffic and parking. A 12-mile commute takes me roughly 45-50 minutes, which is double the drive time. The pay off in biking is of course that it is fun, healthy, environmentally better for our community, and perhaps most importantly, keeps me from going completely nuts. Frustrations from the day invariably melt away after a bike ride.







All this has lead me to be the most inconsistent in my bike commuting that I have ever been in the last 15 years. But the buck stops here! In conjunction with the month of May (bike to work month in many states - NV only has a one-day event) I am pledging to commute every working day to my school. Thus the 22 days in May. Tallying up my workdays and knocking off the holiday weekend later in the month is how I came up with the 22. For the next month I will chronicle my commute and all of its challenges along with including information and tips about biking that will hopefully inspire a few other people to give bike commuting a shot, if not multiple times this month, then at least shooting for the official bike to work day (mark your calendars!) May 18th.

Day 1 Starts Tuesday!