I used to love using my bike.
It helped me to get some exercise, to spend time with the family and to enjoy seeing some parts of the countryside that I might otherwise have ignored.
These days, however, I spend considerably less time cycling at weekends.
I've been thinking about this a fair bit recently.
I've been wondering about why this should be the case and whether it should even worry me.
Maybe I should just accept that times are changing.
Except it doesn't really making any sense.
How does a popular hobby suddenly become a task that you can't find the time to do? To some extent, I've been concluding that this isn't an issue of time at all.
Sure, suggesting that I'm too busy to get the bicycle out of the shed is a handy excuse.
But I'm not sure that it's an excuse that would get beyond too much scrutiny.
It's not as if I don't cycle at all.
In fact, this may well be part of the problem.
I've realised that my reduction in leisure cycling pretty much coincided with my choice to start cycling to work.
Petrol prices were rising and I loved using my bike, so it made perfect sense that I should forget about the car and get on my bike instead.
It would be cheaper and I'd enjoy it a lot more too.
I'd no longer be spending time in queues of traffic.
Instead, I'd be having some fun riding my bike.
That was how I envisaged things, but I suspect that the change to my daily commute is part of the problem.
It may be that I'm now associating cycling with commuting.
Alternatively, it could simply be that the drag of following the same route every day of the week has been getting me down.
What is clear to me is that there's a big difference between commuting and using a bicycle because you want to have fun.
One involves taking varied routes and choosing to head out when weather conditions are suitable.
It means that you can take things in your own time.
But you don't get these options when you're commuting.
You have to cycle at some speed because you don't want to be late for work.
You can't choose to stay indoors if it's raining in the morning.
You can't cycle through beautiful countryside, unless that happens to be on your way.
Instead, it's true that commuting can begin to get you down.
So what's the solution? I don't want to give up cycling altogether.
That would be a real shame.
What I'm going to do is to change the way that I commute.
I'll still use the bike most days, but I'll be driving the car if the weather's bad.
I'll be mixing up my routes too.
I don't to get bored.
It's my hope that, by varying my commute to work, I won't find it so dull.
Hopefully that will also make me more enthusiastic about using the bike at weekends.
It helped me to get some exercise, to spend time with the family and to enjoy seeing some parts of the countryside that I might otherwise have ignored.
These days, however, I spend considerably less time cycling at weekends.
I've been thinking about this a fair bit recently.
I've been wondering about why this should be the case and whether it should even worry me.
Maybe I should just accept that times are changing.
Except it doesn't really making any sense.
How does a popular hobby suddenly become a task that you can't find the time to do? To some extent, I've been concluding that this isn't an issue of time at all.
Sure, suggesting that I'm too busy to get the bicycle out of the shed is a handy excuse.
But I'm not sure that it's an excuse that would get beyond too much scrutiny.
It's not as if I don't cycle at all.
In fact, this may well be part of the problem.
I've realised that my reduction in leisure cycling pretty much coincided with my choice to start cycling to work.
Petrol prices were rising and I loved using my bike, so it made perfect sense that I should forget about the car and get on my bike instead.
It would be cheaper and I'd enjoy it a lot more too.
I'd no longer be spending time in queues of traffic.
Instead, I'd be having some fun riding my bike.
That was how I envisaged things, but I suspect that the change to my daily commute is part of the problem.
It may be that I'm now associating cycling with commuting.
Alternatively, it could simply be that the drag of following the same route every day of the week has been getting me down.
What is clear to me is that there's a big difference between commuting and using a bicycle because you want to have fun.
One involves taking varied routes and choosing to head out when weather conditions are suitable.
It means that you can take things in your own time.
But you don't get these options when you're commuting.
You have to cycle at some speed because you don't want to be late for work.
You can't choose to stay indoors if it's raining in the morning.
You can't cycle through beautiful countryside, unless that happens to be on your way.
Instead, it's true that commuting can begin to get you down.
So what's the solution? I don't want to give up cycling altogether.
That would be a real shame.
What I'm going to do is to change the way that I commute.
I'll still use the bike most days, but I'll be driving the car if the weather's bad.
I'll be mixing up my routes too.
I don't to get bored.
It's my hope that, by varying my commute to work, I won't find it so dull.
Hopefully that will also make me more enthusiastic about using the bike at weekends.
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