Bike Commute Challenge

This month WSI competed in the annual bike commute challenge where companies compete against each other to get the highest percentage of their employees to commute to work by bike for the month of September.  Mileage doesn’t count so long as each work day you commute at least partially to work by bike or foot.  Our office had weekly raffles and we will have a party in a couple weeks to celebrate our nearly gauranteed win in our business size category.  Although I live in a different state, 18 miles away from the office I personally challenged myself to bike each day to work on my 40lb downhill, full suspension mountain bike... I got a lot of looks from all the roadies in spandex around me on the road but I managed to keep up with most of them despite my nearly 3” wide tires.  I ended up more than doubling the mileage of the next person in the office with a total of over 500 miles biked for the month of September.  I feel in much better shape, my legs are stronger and I’m seeing my spare tires disappear from my waistline.  And compared to my two hour bus commute it’s only an extra hour more to get all that exercise in and I save about $150 in bus fair and truck gas a month by doing so as well.  It might be time for me to eat my words and buy a road bike, or at least a cross bike this Christmas if we are going to ultimately end up living in the Ridgefield area of Washington long term...