yawn...

Ang took off for the coffeeshop at 4:15 this morning and I wanted to send her off just to make sure she had everything she needed for her ride... afterwards, it took forever to fall asleep again. I hate laying in bed trying to sleep and just not going under.

I got up groggy a couple hours later and debated riding to work or not. Knowing Ang had already gotten up and ridden though? I can't imagine there's any better psychic butt kicking to know your still fairly green to cycling wife rode to work at 4:15 and you're debating riding because you're 'tired'.

Yes, I rode. It actually wasn't a bad morning for a ride, the fog/clouds were just rising from slightly below the mountains and there was this kind of ethereal haze from the light bouncing through them. I took the shortest route which is a little over 8 miles and 1000' of climbing. Total time? 40 minutes. The ride home will be barely 30.

I was doing math in my head and assuming I ride 3 days a week (which is the goal Ang and I've set) then that should translate to around 240 saved driving miles/month... multiply that by 12 and divide by the 21 mpg that I usually get, and that should save us around 137 gallons a year. Multiply that by the 2.47 that gas was this morning and that's an extra 330 or so that we can sock towards debt (and Ironman registrations!)

But that's just gas for the Santa Fe. Ang's ride is shorter, but with the riding she does three days a week, she should be able to fill the Elantra up every three weeks instead of two.

I can honestly say that I'm interested in finding out what cycling will be like as a lifestyle. I don't think we can park our cars entirely, mostly because of how spread out things are around here, but I think we can shrink the amount we drive by a good chunk and shrink some pant sizes in the process.

stats from the past couple days
Sunday club ride: 20.5 miles
Monday night dinner ride: 14.5 miles
Ang's Tuesday Commute: TBD
Brian's morning commute: 8.1 miles