Cycling to work
Seems like a no-brainer when you live within a couple of miles from work and have no children to drop off, right?
I always had a reason not to: boyfriend still had a parking space, a was running late, I had a 9am Skype call / meeting but wanted 5 more minutes in bed....
The truth is, I had been going through a fairly dark time a work which built up over months and led to bad life habits. When I finally burnt out and was signed off work, I was forced to face up to the fact that I needed to slow down, look around me a little and appreciate simple things (not to mention realise that work isn't everything).
Cycling everywhere around Norwich was one of the first things I took up. What a revelation! It may sound stupid, but I couldn't have imagined how good it would be for me.
It's by far the quickest way to get from A to B in the city and allows me to rediscover why I fell in love with Norwich in the first place.
An added benefit is that it's a brilliant way to clear my head after a day at work. There's no two ways about it: you have to pay attention to traffic when cycling. I need to listen for what might be coming up behind me, make sure cars see me before they pull out of a junction, etc. Listening to music in my headphones while cycling would definitely not be an option for me! By the time is cycling for 12 minutes from work back home, I have cleared my head of work! I can talk about my day, but I am detached from my work self, and it's a great feeling after last year's downward spiral. I have new energy to do things in the evening as opposed to being too "brain dead" to get off the sofa. Of course, this new energy isn't solely due to cycling, but it helps massively.
So what are the pros and cons of cycling to work?
I always had a reason not to: boyfriend still had a parking space, a was running late, I had a 9am Skype call / meeting but wanted 5 more minutes in bed....
The truth is, I had been going through a fairly dark time a work which built up over months and led to bad life habits. When I finally burnt out and was signed off work, I was forced to face up to the fact that I needed to slow down, look around me a little and appreciate simple things (not to mention realise that work isn't everything).
Cycling everywhere around Norwich was one of the first things I took up. What a revelation! It may sound stupid, but I couldn't have imagined how good it would be for me.
It's by far the quickest way to get from A to B in the city and allows me to rediscover why I fell in love with Norwich in the first place.
An added benefit is that it's a brilliant way to clear my head after a day at work. There's no two ways about it: you have to pay attention to traffic when cycling. I need to listen for what might be coming up behind me, make sure cars see me before they pull out of a junction, etc. Listening to music in my headphones while cycling would definitely not be an option for me! By the time is cycling for 12 minutes from work back home, I have cleared my head of work! I can talk about my day, but I am detached from my work self, and it's a great feeling after last year's downward spiral. I have new energy to do things in the evening as opposed to being too "brain dead" to get off the sofa. Of course, this new energy isn't solely due to cycling, but it helps massively.
So what are the pros and cons of cycling to work?
Reasons to cycle to work
- Environmentally friendly means of transportation of course!
- Keeps you active and burns a few calories
- A real stress buster
- Discovering the city or seeing places you love but had forgotten
Reasons you might think it's not for you, despite living within cycling distance
- Getting sweaty: at first, yes, but s your stamina improves, it gets a lot better. You can bring deodorant and a spare top to work if it's really a problem
- The ruckstack / sweaty back problem: difficult to avoid even with good stamina. The solution I found was to buy a nice looking panier that has become my laptop bag.
- Skirts / dresses and the wind. Fear not! I just put on a pair of dance shorts underneath and pedal away carefree.
- Wide trousers. They could indeed get mucky. How about investing in some high vis ankle straps? Or, if like me you haven't got round to it yet, clothes pegs do the trick nicely and needn't be visible if you have the right technique.
Have you got any other tips for making cycling to work more enjoyable? Share them in the comments box below!
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