Loaded bike and goods
In this competition-obsessed country, there are winners and losers, but mostly losers. Trophies, championships and accolades go to the relative few. Oddly, our athletic events seem divorced from our daily lives. Aside from those who commute to work by bicycle, on foot or transit, we don’t seem to integrate exercise well into our routines.
Here is an “event” that anyone in reasonable health can enjoy. Each time you participate in it, both you and the Earth win. This is how it works: The next time you need to run errands within two miles from your home, do them on foot or by bicycle instead of by car. If you run three errands, you just completed a Tri-errand-athlon.
I can already hear the litany of excuses:
· I’m too old for this (I’m 61)
· Our weather is often bad (ours is usually bad)
· We have hills (so do we, big time)
· I’ve got bad knees (I could enter a bad knee competition and have had three surgeries! Note the product I bought in the photo for joint problems)
· I don’t have time (It is often just as fast to walk or bike when you factor in traffic and parking)
· The businesses where I run errands are too far away (ok, this is valid if you are talking MILES away)
Excuses aside, here’s how it works. Several days ago, I got on my bike, rode one mile on a cloudy, drizzly 40-degree day. My first errand was to drop off our tax return with an accountant. Then I rode to the drug store and bought a few items to stow in my bike panniers (bags). The third errand was to the grocery store where I bought quite a few items, which combined with the others, added up to 40 pounds total. The items included a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, a bag of apples, a bunch of bananas, two containers of berries and two loaves of bread. They all fit in my two bike panniers and one small back pack, and they all made it home intact.
This was my athletic “feat” of the day – a successful Tri-errand-athalon completed in one hour’s time. And I ride slowly.
Many of our driving trips are one mile or less in distance — an eminently walk-able/bike-able distance. Americans need more, not less exercise. Stated bluntly, we need to get off our collective arses and move our bodies! And we need to incorporate exercise into our daily routines, not just episodically at gyms, classes and athletic events. We would also benefit by burning less gasoline and by spending less on its purchase (not to mention car maintenance costs).
I challenge you to complete a tri-errand-athlon of your own. You can easily surpass my accomplishments of three stops, 40 pounds of goods and two miles completed in one hour. Regardless of whether or not you top my marks, you win every time you get on a bike or walk instead of getting in a car. Why? You get exercise, you experience the great outdoors, you save on money and gas, and you have fun.
Good luck on your Tri-errand-athlon! I’m off on another one right now.
