My second day commuting to work!

So I was reading the following article on CNN here are the cliff notes of it;

'Physical inactivity causes 1 in 10 deaths worldwide, according to a series of studies released in British medical journal The Lancet, putting it on par with the dangers of smoking and obesity. The results also suggest that public health officials treat this situation as a pandemic.

Specifically, Harvard researchers say, inactivity caused an increase in deaths from coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breast and colon cancers and caused more than 5.3 million deaths in 2008 worldwide.

If physical inactivity rates were to go down by even 10% to 20% worldwide, they say, it could save between a half-million and 1.3 million lives each year. This could also raise global life expectancy by almost a year.

I read that and thought really if only those people knew how fun it was to ride a bike!  Think of all the old bikes in basements, barns, crawlspaces and closets gathering rust while their owners bodies rot away from inactivity.  It really is sad, what will it take to motivate people to ride again in this country like they do in Amsterdam, Sweden, Denmark and places like India?  Could it be they don't know the dangers of cough sitting, car riding and office chair immobility?  I'm not sure for me it was a combination of everything!  Here is my top five reasons for riding my bike to work and back.

1.  I will be forty before I know it and I want to still feel good as I age I know I must stay active to achieve this goal.  "Objects in motion stay in motion theory"

2.  I wanted to set an example for my children that as an adult I understand the things I do to the environment will effect us all at some point in time or another.  Sometimes the seldom traveled paths offer the best views!

3.  I wanted to save some money!  Lets face it this is a tough economy I'm not just saving at the pump I'm saving on tires, repairs, oil changes etc.  Write down everything you spend on your car for one year......

4.  I like a slower pace of life.  On a bike I can slow down the pace of this hectic life to one of times since past.  It so enjoyable to hear water flow over rocks on a cliff or hear tree frogs that I never heard in a car. 

5.  I hate driving some days!  Really the traffic, the noise of all the cars, the monotony of the drive there is no challenge to it.  What a waste of what I have been give the ability to do with my body just to sit in a car!

So there it is I ride into work around 2:30PM and home at 11:30PM yes I am tired as I go but the reward of reaching home feeling like I have accomplished something is worth it 100 times over. 

Peace 

Pedal Strong