Ye Olde Bicycle Commute

I rode more than 10 miles today on my bike. That, my friends, is farther than my total combined mileage for the rest of 2008 thus far.

That’s right. Mister I-Ride-Everywhere. Mister RocBike. Mister Bike Culture. That same cat has reverted to Mr. Pudgy Cager. Since being transferred here to Albany, I’ve been driving everywhere. In the first six weeks, I gained back nearly all the weight I had lost in the previous year. And I rode my bike fewer than 10 miles in 3 months.

Today, I decided enough is enough. I live in downtown Albany. I can actually see some of the hotels I represent from the upstairs window of my rented house. There’s no — repeat NO — reason to be driving and paying for parking when almost every union member I need to see is down the street. So after driving to a meeting this morning, I parked the car in the driveway and biked the rest of the day.

It felt wonderful! I’ll admit that Albany has lots of hills. In fact, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it from the capitol building back to my house as I chugged up the steep incline of State Street on the Packet Boat (Xtracycle). It hasn’t even been a year since I rode 30 miles through the Bristol Hills on a bike with half its gears missing, and now it’s a challenge to go four blocks uphill. But I’ll get my legs back. I’ve had my diet under control for several weeks now, and I’m working out at home. Trying to recapture the magic.

My biking experience here in Albany is limited, but I will say one thing: Parking your bike here sucks. Albany makes Rochester look like Portland, Oregon. You can park your bike downtown in Rochester with relative ease. Here in Albany, you have to get creative. There are very few racks anywhere, even right on the main streets in the center of downtown. The few racks there are seem to be decorative more than functional. I’ll bring my camera when I come back next week and take some photos to show you what I mean.

I should also mention that I dress differently now than I used to. In fact, I wear a bowtie:

So I was wearing dress pants and shirt, a sweater vest and a bowtie with my jacket over the ensemble as I pedaled around town today. It wasn’t bad at all. If anything, I was a little too warm with my Lands End Extreme Squall jacket, even in the 37-degree weather.

By next week, my dual-tube, neon-green Down Low Glow should arrive, and then I’ll really be stylin’.

I did take a few pictures with my cell phone this week. I’ve been on a real Franklin Roosevelt kick recently. (Who isn’t, right?) I’ve taken a couple trips down 87 to Hyde Park to visit the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Last weekend, I saw the new exhibit about his first 100 days in office. Very inspiring. I’ve also been listening to the audiobook version of the recent biography FDR by Jean Edward Smith. In it, Smith mentions that FDR lived in downtown Albany when he was in the New York State Senate. I found both sites. This is first place he lived, at 348 State Street:

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And here’s the second, at 4 Elk Street. It’s now the home of the New York State Bar Association:

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Click for larger photo

I’m excited about getting back on the bike. Despite my initial worries, most of my new responsibilities are a lot more conducive to bike commuting than my old duties were. I have two hotels in Schenectady that I’ll have to drive to, and a weekly staff meeting in Saratoga Springs, but the rest of my job is right here in downtown Albany.

The Packet Boat sails again!

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