jennipurrr
6-17-11, 10:33am
As I posted a couple years ago, I live less than 4 miles from my office. At that time there was an slice of area between my office and home that I considered far too dangerous to bike or walk through. While its probably ok around 7 am, the folks selling drugs on the corners and the prostitutes were out by 5 pm when I am coming home. Out of that conversation here it ended up where DH and I occasionally load the bike rack and bikes up, drive past the bad area, park and ride the two miles in and two miles back at the end of the day. Its a nice ride, but we don't do it as often as we should
I do NOT want to seem callous here, I am devastated by the loss of property and life my city has sustained...after the tornado came through this part of the city was destroyed. The tornado basically took out the worst parts of the scary area entirely. Cleanup has begun and many of the buildings are already leveled or in the process, and have left empty lots of the time being. The city plan calls for affordable, but nice housing to be built in this area...the target markets are students and working class families, so I do not believe we will see anything like the former environment.
So, the past couple weeks I have seen a resurgence in runners and recreational walkers through the area. As for biking, I feel the area still may be a bit iffy...there is a lot of traffic and not all the signals are installed yet, plus we got a nail in our tire last week driving through there. All the sidewalks are still in great shape though! This year, I decided to try the whole train for a 5K thing and completed my first one in May. When the weather is nice I run in the park, when it is too hot (like now, high 90s - 100s during the day) I go to the track in the gym. I really enjoy being outside and it is easily cool enough to jog to work in the morning. DH works a few buildings over from me, so I can ride home with him...not sure I am up for nearly 8 miles in a day (yet!) plus at 5 the heat is killer right now.
So...does anyone do this? What are the logistics? I have a shower at the gym (near my office) and I can rent a locker for the year...so I guess, leave the house dirty, jog to the gym, take a shower at the gym, change clothes and then go to work. But, what about my clothes? I guess I would need to take a back pack? Or should I stop by in the evening and leave my work clothes for the next day? I have walked and hiked with a backpack, but never tried jogging. Or then I was thinking I guess I could scrap the whole speed thing and just walk to work, not get super sweaty, bypass the gym, and just change, wipe down if needed at my office. But, also that would take me longer to actually get to work and I really wouldn't be getting the workout I want.
Trying to wrap my brain around the logistics...so instead of reinventing the wheel, what do you do? Bikers feel free to share too if you have a similar issue.
I do NOT want to seem callous here, I am devastated by the loss of property and life my city has sustained...after the tornado came through this part of the city was destroyed. The tornado basically took out the worst parts of the scary area entirely. Cleanup has begun and many of the buildings are already leveled or in the process, and have left empty lots of the time being. The city plan calls for affordable, but nice housing to be built in this area...the target markets are students and working class families, so I do not believe we will see anything like the former environment.
So, the past couple weeks I have seen a resurgence in runners and recreational walkers through the area. As for biking, I feel the area still may be a bit iffy...there is a lot of traffic and not all the signals are installed yet, plus we got a nail in our tire last week driving through there. All the sidewalks are still in great shape though! This year, I decided to try the whole train for a 5K thing and completed my first one in May. When the weather is nice I run in the park, when it is too hot (like now, high 90s - 100s during the day) I go to the track in the gym. I really enjoy being outside and it is easily cool enough to jog to work in the morning. DH works a few buildings over from me, so I can ride home with him...not sure I am up for nearly 8 miles in a day (yet!) plus at 5 the heat is killer right now.
So...does anyone do this? What are the logistics? I have a shower at the gym (near my office) and I can rent a locker for the year...so I guess, leave the house dirty, jog to the gym, take a shower at the gym, change clothes and then go to work. But, what about my clothes? I guess I would need to take a back pack? Or should I stop by in the evening and leave my work clothes for the next day? I have walked and hiked with a backpack, but never tried jogging. Or then I was thinking I guess I could scrap the whole speed thing and just walk to work, not get super sweaty, bypass the gym, and just change, wipe down if needed at my office. But, also that would take me longer to actually get to work and I really wouldn't be getting the workout I want.
Trying to wrap my brain around the logistics...so instead of reinventing the wheel, what do you do? Bikers feel free to share too if you have a similar issue.