So my original commuting plans took a dive...
 

Rewind a number of months. Back in Late Feb/March I kicked around the idea of cycling to work. My situation is probably a bit different from most on this forum, but I figured it was worth a try.

I started by driving part of the way, and cycling the rest. The total commute door to door is 31 miles.

All was going well, then on April 28 my wife gave birth to our son, and second child.

On the plus side now, I work from home pretty much 4 days a week. I do consulting so some of those days are taken up with visits to clients (all by car, with the exception of 2 clients that are close to my house). On tuesdays I have a staff meeting with my staff at 8am. So tuesday is the day I go to the office.

I have been riding as much as I can for exercise this whole time. Trying to maintain close to 100miles a week, although I regularily fall quite short of this goal.

With the days getting shorter and the nights getting darker, I have been trying to figure out ways to keep cycling. Viola! Ride to the office on tuesdays!

So am I nuts? I know I can do the distance, although it is a bit hilly. Here are the 2 routes

To work:

http://www.routeslip.com/map.php?map=8682

Back Home

http://www.routeslip.com/map.php?map=8682

I have a WingNut pack that I would carry my stuff. I would probably leave a pair of pants and shoes, belt, and toiletries at the office. So I would only need to bring a shirt, lunch, cellphone etc.

There are no facilities at the office, so my option is a bathroom cleanup, or stop at the YMCA 7 miles before the end for a quick shower.

Thanks for listening. Mostly I figured by getting this out public it will help get me motivated to stop talking and start riding.

-D

I say do the ride and clean-up in the bathroom. Get there early enough to cool down before cleaning up too. The way I figure, if it were me, if I stopped to shower at the YMCA, I'd be all sweaty and funky again after 7 miles.

Yea I am on the fence about that. Back before the munchkin was born, I was doing the partial commute, stopping at the Y for a shower. And then a quick wipedown at the office.

It worked ok, except.

1. It eats up alot of time. Lock the bike, go in, strip down, shower etc, get dressed again.
2. It requires I carry more. I would have to carry my toiletries as well as a towel (used a camping pack towel).

Since then I have also gone to the self inflicted buzz cut style hair (#2 guard, buzz buzz), which helps too.

-D

Change the meeting location to your house?

Ride to work, bum bath in sink. Get there early so you can wash up in peace. :)

Nah, I gotta at least show up once a week in the office. Keep the troops happy and take care of paperwork.

Plus if I can get to doing this, it makes for a great workout.

-D

You can always plan around the travel time that the commute takes.
Carry just the things that you can't leave at work. If you have a desk at the office, or if there's an empty drawer in a filing cabinet, can you leave soap/toothbrush/etc. at work and just carry the pack-towel and your clothes?
The buzzcut works pretty well for easy maintenance. I've opted to go even less than that and shave it completely. It takes an extra 2 minutes to shave my head (give yourself 5 minutes until you're well practiced) and it's always neat 'n' clean for work.

Yea I have an office there, so I can store whatever I want.

I thought about the shave, but I like keeping a little hair. Plus with a complete shave I would have to redo it more often. I usually use a #1 or #2 guard and can get away without cutting it again for a few weeks.

-D

I do the car/bike thing. 30 in the car, 10 on the bike, each way. Don't get too hung up on getting your miles in. Ride for the fun of it.

Since you've got the office, store your sink-shower supplies there and keep a couple changes of clothes there, too.
I've got a locker room with 2 showers (and no one else uses them in the AM) so I keep a week's worth of clothes in my locker along with all my supplies, and I shave my head in the shower, which only takes about 2 minutes since I've been doing it for years and years. I'm going bald anyhow, so the clean shave is about all I can do.