5 ms·

You can't bike 12 miles in because... ? I'd say give it a try.

adrianN 10y ago
It takes an hour by bike an forty minutes by car. That's forty minutes a day you could be spending with your children instead.
- holri 10y ago
  This calculation is incomplete. You missing the live prolongation effect of cycling. 40 min a day 5 days a week for 40 years is ~290 days. The plus side is in years dimension. With cycling you have more overall live time with your children.
  - adrianN 10y ago
    Lifetime with children is more valueable when the children are younger.
    - holri 10y ago
      I would be more than happy if my father had been cycling and would be still with us today.
  - dpark 10y ago
    You don't get back the time you lose with your children when they're young. Spending time with adult offspring cannot possibly be the same, especially if they move and you actually don't get to spend that time with them. Your best bet is that you'll recoup the lost time with grandchildren. I'm not saying it's a bad tradeoff. In addition to living longer, staying fit makes you a better model for your children and increases the quality of the time you spend with them.
  - brokenmachine 10y ago
    Also the extra energy from being fit all the time means you can actually do meaningful outdoor activities with your child, instead of being a fat potato on the couch.
- steego 10y ago
  > That's forty minutes a day you could be spending with your children instead. Not if you're dead... All morbid jokes aside, it's important to take care of yourself so you can take care of your kids. If you're not going to bike to work, spend that extra forty minutes biking with your kids or throwing them around the yard. I don't want to accuse you of not exercising or using your kids as an excuse to not take care of yourself, but it's really easy to unintentionally do just that.
- bryanlarsen 10y ago
  That's almost exactly my situation. I solved it by stealing the time from that period after the kids go to bed -- in other words I go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. I couldn't do that in previous years because I was needed for morning routine but now that the kids are out of day care and all going to the same school I can leave early.
- paulcole 10y ago
  don't you get more time at home because your daily workout is done?
- Someone 10y ago
  That's two hours of exercise in forty minutes of your time.
- loco5niner 10y ago
  Yes, but you'll likely sleep better and be a better (because health!) parent in both the long run and the short run. And, as pointed out previously, you're getting 2 hours of exercise at the cost of 40 extra minutes (which you should be getting anyway).
dmm 10y ago
You also don't have to do it every day. Do it two or three times a week.
- untog 10y ago
  But that gets back to the whole point of the daily routine. I bike to and from work at times, but it always comes in blocks - when I do it, I do it every day. Once I fall off the wagon, it takes me time to get back on again. I couldn't say why, it's an odd psychological phenomenon.
  - zulln 10y ago
    By always doing it a specific day or days maybe part of this can be achieved? Like always biking to job Monday and Wednesday so it becomes natural? Of course not as good as a daily routine, but maybe could work as a compromise.
  - brokenmachine 10y ago
    I bike to work every day that it isn't raining. So sometimes when the weather is bad I won't ride for a week. I'm usually depressed by the end of those weeks. :-(
Jtsummers 10y ago
Where I live, my 14 mile commute requires traveling on a highway. To avoid the highway (not an interstate, legally can bike on, but too dangerous for me to cycle on, people here are dicks to cyclists), would push the distance to 20 miles. East of the highway is a no-go because of wetlands, west of the highway is the only option but due to some other wetlands and farms pushes me much further west.
- 13of40 10y ago
  I don't bike much anymore, but my daily routine is to drive to about 4 or 5 miles from work and walk the rest of the way. If you have a bike rack for your car...
  - Jtsummers 10y ago
    Unfortunately not an option on this route. By the time I got around the highway areas I'm practically at the office. I already exercise (well, currently recovering from a couple injuries so not this much) about 8-10 hours a week so this isn't that critical for me. I could bring the bike to the office and cycle around the area (it's actually much better for that than where I live, but nearby housing is prohibitively expensive or crime-ridden neighborhoods), but that's just shifting the sort of exercising I'm doing.
- thesmallestcat 10y ago
  Are you in the US, and in a major metro area? You don't have to say where, but I'm having fun guessing, and if you're commuting to, say, a place like Biloxi, I might as well give up now. My best guess currently is that you're commuting from northeast of Philly.
  - Jtsummers 10y ago
    Hah, not a major metro area. The problem is that I live in one city (much better social life) and work in another (much better pay). Small cities, both (50-100k people, large town some might say). Along the highway connecting them (well, the parts of them that I care about), the east side has a lot of farmland, timberland, and wetlands with poor quality roads or that take me way east before I can cut back. To the west is primarily industrial land with some farmland, same problem. The most useful (for biking) north/south roads are about 1-2 miles off the highway at the start. But they trend west, so I have to come back 2-4 miles when I want to cut towards the office.

It takes an hour by bike an forty minutes by car. That's forty minutes a day you could be spending with your children instead.

holri 10y ago
This calculation is incomplete. You missing the live prolongation effect of cycling. 40 min a day 5 days a week for 40 years is ~290 days. The plus side is in years dimension. With cycling you have more overall live time with your children.
- adrianN 10y ago
  Lifetime with children is more valueable when the children are younger.
  - holri 10y ago
    I would be more than happy if my father had been cycling and would be still with us today.
- dpark 10y ago
  You don't get back the time you lose with your children when they're young. Spending time with adult offspring cannot possibly be the same, especially if they move and you actually don't get to spend that time with them. Your best bet is that you'll recoup the lost time with grandchildren. I'm not saying it's a bad tradeoff. In addition to living longer, staying fit makes you a better model for your children and increases the quality of the time you spend with them.
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  Also the extra energy from being fit all the time means you can actually do meaningful outdoor activities with your child, instead of being a fat potato on the couch.
steego 10y ago
> That's forty minutes a day you could be spending with your children instead. Not if you're dead... All morbid jokes aside, it's important to take care of yourself so you can take care of your kids. If you're not going to bike to work, spend that extra forty minutes biking with your kids or throwing them around the yard. I don't want to accuse you of not exercising or using your kids as an excuse to not take care of yourself, but it's really easy to unintentionally do just that.
bryanlarsen 10y ago
That's almost exactly my situation. I solved it by stealing the time from that period after the kids go to bed -- in other words I go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. I couldn't do that in previous years because I was needed for morning routine but now that the kids are out of day care and all going to the same school I can leave early.
paulcole 10y ago
don't you get more time at home because your daily workout is done?
Someone 10y ago
That's two hours of exercise in forty minutes of your time.
loco5niner 10y ago
Yes, but you'll likely sleep better and be a better (because health!) parent in both the long run and the short run. And, as pointed out previously, you're getting 2 hours of exercise at the cost of 40 extra minutes (which you should be getting anyway).

dmm 10y ago

You also don't have to do it every day. Do it two or three times a week.

untog 10y ago
But that gets back to the whole point of the daily routine. I bike to and from work at times, but it always comes in blocks - when I do it, I do it every day. Once I fall off the wagon, it takes me time to get back on again. I couldn't say why, it's an odd psychological phenomenon.
- zulln 10y ago
  By always doing it a specific day or days maybe part of this can be achieved? Like always biking to job Monday and Wednesday so it becomes natural? Of course not as good as a daily routine, but maybe could work as a compromise.
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  I bike to work every day that it isn't raining. So sometimes when the weather is bad I won't ride for a week. I'm usually depressed by the end of those weeks. :-(

Jtsummers 10y ago

Where I live, my 14 mile commute requires traveling on a highway. To avoid the highway (not an interstate, legally can bike on, but too dangerous for me to cycle on, people here are dicks to cyclists), would push the distance to 20 miles. East of the highway is a no-go because of wetlands, west of the highway is the only option but due to some other wetlands and farms pushes me much further west.

13of40 10y ago
I don't bike much anymore, but my daily routine is to drive to about 4 or 5 miles from work and walk the rest of the way. If you have a bike rack for your car...
- Jtsummers 10y ago
  Unfortunately not an option on this route. By the time I got around the highway areas I'm practically at the office. I already exercise (well, currently recovering from a couple injuries so not this much) about 8-10 hours a week so this isn't that critical for me. I could bring the bike to the office and cycle around the area (it's actually much better for that than where I live, but nearby housing is prohibitively expensive or crime-ridden neighborhoods), but that's just shifting the sort of exercising I'm doing.
thesmallestcat 10y ago
Are you in the US, and in a major metro area? You don't have to say where, but I'm having fun guessing, and if you're commuting to, say, a place like Biloxi, I might as well give up now. My best guess currently is that you're commuting from northeast of Philly.
- Jtsummers 10y ago
  Hah, not a major metro area. The problem is that I live in one city (much better social life) and work in another (much better pay). Small cities, both (50-100k people, large town some might say). Along the highway connecting them (well, the parts of them that I care about), the east side has a lot of farmland, timberland, and wetlands with poor quality roads or that take me way east before I can cut back. To the west is primarily industrial land with some farmland, same problem. The most useful (for biking) north/south roads are about 1-2 miles off the highway at the start. But they trend west, so I have to come back 2-4 miles when I want to cut towards the office.