Athlo Blog

While living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’ve met many people who commute by doing something other than driving alone.  A former employer actually paid us $4 each day we didn’t drive. If we were a carpool driver we received $2 per passenger each way.  It was a really nice benefit and definitely an incentive to be green.

Even if your company doesn’t provide a financial incentive to not drive, the money you save on gas is probably enough of a reason to take a bus, train or get there under your own power.  However, health is a reason that often goes overlooked.  Endurance commuter is a term my buddy Dave Penake introduced me to one morning on our 13-mile run from San Francisco to work.  We did this run once a week and although we occasionally saw some bikers on this route, we never saw anyone else running it with the exception of a group of Google employees making the 40-mile one-way trip to Mountain View about once a month.  Since my endurance commuting debut, I’ve become much more interested in how people get to work and an advocate for alternate commuting.

When talking to people about how they get to work and if they would be interested in running, biking or walking, I usually hear one of five excuses: it’s too far, the weather is bad, there is no shower at work, the roads are dangerous, my bike is old.  The “too far” excuse could very well be a valid one but depends on just how far away you live.  I didn’t just start out running to work the first day I showed up.  I had a good base of training but had to build up to that distance on a consistent basis.  Snow, ice and heavy rain are definitely reasons to use your car to get to work.   On light rain days I just throw on my rain jacket and just go.  The lack of a shower could be bad if you sweat easily, but check with your company’s facilities management group and see what you can do to persuade them into installing one.  Dangerous roads are an extremely serious matter so try to seek out anyone who may know the routes to work or check out the new Walk There feature on Google Maps.  Lastly, there are plenty of bike shops that can either tune up your bike or sell you a new one.  Don’t let that stop you from saving gas money, getting a good workout and helping save the environment.

What’s the most you’ve done with regards to endurance commuting?  Are you still doing it?  If not, why’d you stop?  If so, what motivates you?  If never, what’s your excuse?

Tags: commuting, endurance, running

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 11:59 am and is filed under Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.