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(This is cross-posted at BlogHer.)

Some people, whether by necessity or choice or both, ride their bikes to work every day. They brave the weather, traffic, and sweat in order to do something good for their bodies and the environment. Other people are more casual about biking; they’ll bike to work on occasion, but only if the weather is nice or their car is in the shop. Once a year there’s also another occasion to climb on two wheels: a special event called Bike to Work Day.

Bike to Work Day “is an annual event held on the third Friday of May across the United States and Canada that promotes the bicycle as an option for commuting to work.” Many locales organize bicycle-related events and “in some areas, pit stops along bicycle routes with snacks.” [Wikipedia]

Even though I didn’t participate in Bike to Work Day, I did hear about it in advance — I live right outside of Washington, DC, so I saw banners up in various places, and several local blogs had written about it. (This is a good example of the advantages of living in a large metropolitan area. There are so many things to do, there’s really no excuse for not participating in something that interests you.)

I like biking, but I live over ten miles away from where I work. I also like the feeling of rinsing off in a shower after I get sweaty (which would be especially true if I biked to work and then had to spend the next eight hours in my workplace). It’s bad enough that I have walk a mile to and from my Metro stop in the summer — it can get pretty god-awful humid around here. On pretty days, being outside is wonderful. But when it’s not-so-great, I welcome the presence of an air-conditioned train.

Even though I’m not biking, I do feel good about the fact that I take public transportation to work. I’ve been commuting to my workplace in DC for almost two years and I’ve never once driven my car there. There are a lot of weeks where I only get in my car a few times, and that’s usually just for short trips (within a 3-4 miles radius) to the gym and grocery store.

If I lived closer to my workplace, I’d be much more likely to utilize the bike I bought last summer. At this point, riding for ten miles along various types of roads (plus having to deal with scary rush-hour commuters) doesn’t hold a lot of appeal to me. But I wouldn’t rule it out if my living situation changed.

Do you bike to work? If not, would you want to?

Related Reading:

Drea at Business Pundit says Get Your Butt in the Saddle. She has a lot of good reasons for casual cyclists to participate in Bike to Work Day, as well as a list of perks for those who choose to make biking to work a permanent activity.

DC Metblogs highlighted some of the cool things that local participants were able to take advantage of (being DC, there was also “a surprise visit by the Secretary of Energy and Nobel Laureate, Stephen Chu”). Some additional examples:

* The food was excellent — bagels and schmears, apples and oranges all nicely quartered, hot coffee and cold tea — and plenty of it. Yay, sponsors!

* The Coast Guard contingent was particularly impressive, led by Admiral Thad Allen.

* Excellent giveaways and raffles; the drawings are the only time during the event that everyone on the plaza pays strict attention.

Debbie Leight, a Google employee writing at The Official Google Blog, bikes to work almost every Friday…and that’s 45 miles one-way.

[I]t takes about 3 hours. Most people think I’m crazy, but seeing the sun rise over the bay and feeling the rush of the air as I speed down Cortland Hill at close to 30mph on my bike makes it all worth it.

Yokota Fritz at Cyclelicious participated in Bike to Work Day in the San Francisco bay area, riding 25 miles from San Jose to Menlo Park. Yokota said she “gained about 10 pounds scarfing down Hobee’s coffee cakes from 11 Energizer Stations in six cities and two counties.” She also made a short video to commemorate her ride.

Elizabeth Press at StreetsBlog reports that “bicycling in New York City shot up 35 percent” last year, thanks to “bike lanes, bike racks and other amenities…popping up everywhere.”

Biker Chick Char lives in Alexandria, Virginia (same as me!) and commutes 32 miles round-trip to her job in Washington, DC. (I’m sure she’d have a thing or two to say about my excuses.) In this post, she describes the Bike to Work Day pit-stop she made.

A regular cyclist, Maude Bauschard volunteered at a Bike to Work Day event and used the opportunity to network for a job she’d like to have.

(This is cross-posted at BlogHer.)

I was going through my list of fitness-related blog links and realized I have some that need to be shared. I try to keep them around long enough to see if I can fit them into a specifically-themed post in some way, but these span a wide range of topics — I either haven’t had a chance to use them all yet, or they fit into categories I’ve already written about. Some of them were written last year, but they’re great posts and the bloggers are still blogging.

Biking

Jeanne at Not Born to Run had a friend spend multiple hours teaching her how to replace the tires on her bike. But first, the lesson included getting the bike into her car:

[H]e had to first TALK ME INTO GETTING THE BIKE INTO THE CAR. Which involved taking off the front tire. I actually printed out his directions and read them while performing. Cuz performing was what I was doing in my parking lot at work (where I keep my bike), trying to read while unscrewing this and moving the seat, and the pedals…well, heck, I’m might as well just share it all with you, should you ever have a need.

Alice in Blunderland says that biking in heels isn’t as hard as it sounds, but it attracts attention.

On my way home last night, I was stopped at a red light on E Street, and this group of teenagers was crossing in front of me, one of them singing “Low” by Flo Rida. I laughed at his antics. After they crossed, they turned right to head up the street on which I was stopped. He took a sideways glance at me, then turned to his friends with much fanfare, and shouted “Yo, this girl’s ridin’ a bike IN HEELS!!” One of his female friends replied “Wow, that takes talent.”

Kickboxing

The Adventures of KVV: when a girl in her kickboxing class had the bad etiquette to stand directly in front of her, she found it difficult to concentrate.

Her arms were flailing, her shoulders were out of control, who knows what her legs were doing, but absolutely none of it went to the beat of the music! I have never in my life seen someone completely devoid of any rhythm!! [...] My frustration started out-weighing my fascination and by the end of class I was pretending to punch her lights out and kick her head off… However, I think she thought I was really out to get her because at the end of class, when I smiled at her, she shot me a very evil look… oops.

Kayaking

Weight and Paint took a kayaking lesson and loved it.

We got a lot of paddle time: it was a four-hour class and I think we spent at least 2 hours in the water, maybe more. None of us wanted to get out when the class was over! I think I did well with the various strokes. It requires a lot of torso rotation; it’s not all arm-power. I’ve always had great obliques, don’t know why, and am much stronger in twists than straight back-and-forth stuff, so I think I got the form pretty well. I was only a little sore and a little tired the next day, so that is an indication that I was doing it right.

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

Tokaiangel talked about her experiences with HIIT. One example:

Session 2: Treadmill. Worked much, much harder during the intervals this time with faster sprints and steeper gradients all the way through – still managed to complete the 20 minutes without pausing. Felt very pleased with myself for seeing it out. Got LOTS of weird looks from the girls on the machines next to me. Felt secretly quite pleased for being so hardcore.

Zumba

Greta says It’s Fun to Zumba at the YMCA. Here’s a snippet of what happened when she and her friend Kiki tried it for the first time.

Kiki: Are your shins hurting already?

Greta: (inaudible from the panting)

Kiki: Seriously, shin splints.

Greta: Um…I’m trying just not to piddle. There’s a lot of bouncing involved in the Tango.

Kiki: Oh. I’ve for sure wet myself. And this isn’t Tango it’s Salsa.

Greta: Then I need chips and a margerita.

Running

Luanne gives her Top 10 (tongue-in-cheek) reasons for why she used to run marathons.

2. Blingy medals – as if I was ever going to wear them anywhere except home from the finish line. I have yet to see one around some one’s neck at church or a social function.

Definitely RA used to think she’d never be a runner, but now she no longer hates it.

I would not call myself a runner, by any means. My pace is not fast, my form is not clean, and my shoes are not high-end. My morning workouts are just that: work. I like being outside, getting fresh air, and starting my day with something healthy, but running does not come naturally to me. [...]

I began the summer boldly proclaiming that I hated running, and now I might say that I almost maybe enjoy it. When I am not struggling up hills or gasping for breath, I find it surprisingly calming. If nothing else, running no longer hates me, so I’ll take it.

Snowboarding

Al at Uncommonality tells us “more than we wanted to know” about snowboarding (complete with illustrations!).

I started my zigzag down the slope and lo and behold — I’m doing circles! I was totally showing off. Making sure Boy was looking at me each time so I had an eyewitness. There are cameras set up on the slopes and you can go to the site afterward and see if they caught you in action. Each day I sat and went through about 300 pics posted trying to see if they got me. And they didn’t! I’ve been so worried that no one would believe me, that I am now a very awesome snowboarding fiend.

Yoga

The Vegas Vegan compares practicing yoga by herself at home,versus being in a studio with other people.

Unusual fitness

Kristen from Cafe Mom tells us what she learned in circus class.

I still can’t fly through the air unless my butt is firmly planted onto a porch swing. But going to circus class was an ah-ha moment for me. After giving birth to three children in the last three years, I thought my body was forever doomed to post-partum weakness and poor fitness. It’s not. I’ve been working out since last November, and I can finally lift my husky 28-pound baby without breaking a sweat. I can fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans. And most importantly, I am fit enough–just barely–to give it a whirl at circus class.

Has anyone else read any good fitness writing lately?

(This is cross-posted at BlogHer.)

I’m a huge fan of walking, but I think it gets a bad rap sometimes. We all know that it’s a great activity for people who are just starting to exercise and need something that’s simple and low-impact. But there are a lot of advantages to walking, no matter how fit you are — it just tends to be overshadowed by activities that are more “exciting,” or that burn more calories in a shorter period of time.

Look at it this way. Even though walking involves putting one foot in front of another, over and over, there are a lot of ways to mix it up. You have the option to go outside, so you’re not limited to a designated area like you are with exercise machines or weight-lifting. You don’t need special equipment, other than a decent pair of sneakers and weather-appropriate clothing. You can push yourself (by incorporating intervals and hills) if you feel like it, or slow things down if you need to. You can walk by yourself or with a group.

I love walking in an area that I’m not familiar with. Even though I have a favorite, well-established walking route in the area where I live, it’s nice to have a change of scenery once in a while. The time goes by faster when you don’t know exactly what to expect. When I studied abroad in Amsterdam back in 2004, I’d walk around the city (by myself and without a map) all the time. Sure, I’d get lost — but it wasn’t such a huge place that it was all that difficult to find my way back to my original location. Where I live now, I’m too familiar with the area to get lost unless I walk really far away.

My ideal walking scenario is when I don’t have anything I need to carry or anywhere in particular I need to be, and I’d be wearing loose clothing and comfortable sneakers. I certainly enjoy walking a lot more when I’m not on my way to work, because I tend to carry all kinds of stuff in my bag — book, water, dress shoes, food for the day.

Most of the time I end up walking by myself. I enjoy this because, for that period of time, I don’t have to answer to anyone. I don’t have to talk; I don’t feel like I should be doing something more productive; I don’t have to respond to text messages (indeed, I usually leave my phone at home unless I’m coming to/from work). I often take long walks for the express purpose of clearing my mind. I’ll play some music on my iPod — which I sometimes pay attention to, but sometimes I tune out and use it only as background noise — and go from there.

Sometimes, though, it takes walking with someone else to remind you that group activities can be fun, too. This past Sunday I walked around Georgetown (and a section of the Capital Crescent Trail) with my friend R-. Even though we walked slower than I would have if I was by myself, I had a really good time. I put aside thoughts of how fast I should walk and how much ground I could cover and instead concentrated on the beautiful day, the scenery, and the conversation. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with walking for exercise, this experience reminded me that it’s a good idea to take it easy from time to time.

What do you like about walking?

Additional walking options:

eHow: How to Design an Interval Walking Plan

Nordic walking (using poles)

MBT (Masai Barefoot Technology) walking

Related Reading:

Sagan likes the social aspect of walking.

Our Life Upstate, in her list of things she does for the environment, mentions walking as one of her favorites. She says, “I love to walk. Anytime I can walk somewhere – the bank, the post office, etc I do. [...] In truth I do it just because I love it.

Veronica says that before she had kids, she walked for exercise. I liked her method: “My method of walking for exercise was very simple: I walked away from my home until I was so tired that I could not walk anymore. Then I turned around and walked back. This meant I was always walking twice as far as I thought I could. Forcing myself to walk even when exhausted gradually made me stronger, so I could walk longer and longer distances.”

MizFit thinks that walking is a great way to get started with exercise, offers tips, and lists some of the advantages of a regular walking routine.

NY Times: Learning How to Walk [do you know how to do it properly?]

The Independent: Walk that body: A stride to fitness

American Heart Association: Start! Walking for a Healthier Lifestyle