Update on Bike Riding

So, I have had my bike for a little more than a week.  I think I am probably getting close to 100 miles ridden on it.  That seems pretty good.  Especially for a cold turkey start like I did.

I rode my bike to work on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  On Monday I went the long "safe" way.  The hills at the first were way harder than I thought or even than they looked in the car.  It took me just over half an hour to go the first 3.5 miles.  I finally got to work with a total time of 1:23.  Twice I got lost a little on the way and had to backtrack, so that added to the time.  On the way home I tried the short way home.  It turns out that it was actually 11.3 miles, instead of 9.5 like I said in the last post.  It was perfectly safe, most of it was on roads with less traffic and designated bike lanes.  I made it home in 56 minutes.

Tuesday I went a different way to work and got there in 1:06.  On the way home I made in in 54 minutes.  Wednesday I was kind of sore and had a little chafing, so I decided to drive.  Thursday I went the short way to work and got there in 1:00 and got home in 56 minutes again.  This was the first day where I didn't get lost at all, so that was good.  Friday I had a some clothing issues with a different type of underwear that ended up riding up a lot and being quite uncomfortable.  There was also a headwind almost the whole way.  I got to work in 1:06, but was more tired and uncomfortable than the other days.  The way home also felt longer than it really was.

I listen to audiobooks (on double speed, of course) while I ride.  I get my books from Librivox.org.  One thing that you have to watch out for is the reader's voice.  Unlike other audio books from Audible or CDs, the readers on Librivox are all volunteers and mostly are not professional voice actors.  That makes so the quality is really hit or miss.  Somethings there are different readers for different chapters, which is kind of annoying too.  But they have so many free public domain (published before 1923 and therefore not limited by copyright) books.

So far I have listened to:
   Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane.  Its about the Civil War and kind of one boys perspective on battle and that.  It was interesting, but not super engaging.
   Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson.  I really liked this.  It is at least as good as Muppet Treasure Island. :) The story is fun and moves pretty quickly.
   The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy.  This was really good.  I like the movie and the play, but I think I liked this maybe even a little more.  The descriptions and stuff are really good.  It moves quickly and was fun to listen too.

I also decided to try listening to General Conference, so that is what I've been doing on the way home the last couple days.  It of course is good.

Today (Saturday)  I road up to the Distribution Center to pick some stuff up and then to the bike shop.  I got my pedals switched from the toe cup style to the clip pedals.  I like how the clip ones fill with no real pressure on the top of your foot.  It makes the bike seem like more of an extension of my legs.

It is kind of crazy that I only have two weeks of work left until I go off to school.  I imagine that I wont see too big of improvement in my times or in my general fitness, but hopefully I will see some.  Probably one day I will try and really push myself to see how fast I can get there or back.

Here is a map of the route that I take to work:
Google Maps Route for my bike ride to and from work