Can I bike to work??

With the rising gas prices, still over $3.00 here and much higher elsewhere in the US, I am seriously considering biking to work. I know that it is doable. The safest route is probably just under 6.5 miles, that would be around 13 miles roundtrip. I am in decent shape with my running even with me running very occasionally lately. I dug out bike Thursday and cleaned it up a bit and put air in the tires and it seemed to work. Yesterday I rode about 20 minutes with Rose and then about 1/2 hour by myself, somewhere around 5 miles maybe. Today I did a 4 mile run and when I got home I got on the bike and did 2.3 miles. It is all good so far. I am giving myself next week to get some more miles in on the bike and getting overall more confortable with biking and then setting a day to actually do it.

It is not just the gas prices forcing this but also the fact that I want more exercise as well. I like to run and for me at least it certainly seems harder than biking, but these last couple of days have been a nice diversion from running. I am waiting to see how sore my rear gets once I start putting more serious miles in, that was something I really didn't like last time I rode my bike. That brings me to trying to remember when I did last ride my bike. My wife & I bought our bikes when we bought our house, now nearly 12 years ago. Both bikes were WalMart specials, I think they cost something like $100 each maybe just a little more. I need to look but I think mine is something like a Roadmaster?? and my wife's was something I had heard of maybe Huffy??. Neither one got used much at all so basically no wear other than just sitting in a garage for year after year. My wife's actually was put to use one summer by her sister, but other than that we are talking about probably under 70 miles in total. Not sure if I should take my bike somewhere to get it looked at or not, I will probably see how it does getting ridden a few times and see if any problems come up.

I did my 4 miles at Stacey Park in Olivette, I had been there once before with the kids on the playground and saw the running path. I was looking to go somewhere a little different today and remember this park. Not a bad little path, I took a deadend route off the path each time around to add .2 to each lap, making the laps .95 instead of .75. Kind of a short route so I don't think it will be going on my regular running places. Of course it isn't far from work, so if I get back into lunchtime running, it will be a candidate. It was cold today, after 2 very nice days, Spring had to go away. It also sounds like tomorrow will be cold. I guess that is what we get for having Easter in March.

Not much else, still reading my 2 books. Don't know if I will finish either of them by the end of the month or not. The Hobbit is probably has the better chance, being shorter, but I am still trying to split my time on both pretty evenly.

Baseball starts Tuesday, very early in the morning in Japan or China--not really sure where but one of those countries. With our DVR, I think I will be setting it and checking out these games. With Creighton getting bounced by Florida in the NIT and Drake losing on a last second shot in the NCAAs, college basketball is basically over for me. I have a sheet in with the family with North Carolinaa winning it. I will find out tomorrow how my chances are on that. Debbie has OK winning it on her sheet, not likely but I guess possible. Like I said I am very glad baseball is starting up, nothing like being able to check the stats and box scores each day.