Packing Your Fears

There is an old adage in the camping/canoeing world that whatever you are afraid of is what's making you pack too heavy. If you are afraid of being cold, you will pack too many sweaters; if you are afraid of getting lost, you will probably pack an extra compass, a GPS, and several extra sets of batteries. If you are afraid of being hungry, you bring too much food. And so it goes...

As I mentioned in the previous post, I am quite pleased with where I have gotten myself to re: commuting. My fears are now turning towards losing ground come winter. At present, the bike is the quickest, easiest way to work. Come winter, I doubt it will be either the quickest or the easiest. But I still want to give it a go, partly because I am in decent shape (for me) right now and don't want to lose that, and partly because I know it can be done.

I have been taking inventory of my fears about winter and it comes down to three things:

1. The Dark
2. The Cold
3. The (lack of) Motivation

The Dark and The Cold can be remedied with money and money/trial-and-error (respectively). The (lack of) Motivation is a little more difficult to control. Still, recognizing this is a good step for now.

I added some fenders my used Marin mountain bike this weekend and re-purposed a spare cargo rack to that bike with an eye towards making that the winter/ugly weather bike. I am currently researching some light options as well. The light I currently have is good for getting caught out after dark, but being afraid of the dark, it doesn't seem quite like what I want to face winter with. There are a number of ways I could go and it's more about price point than anything else, it seems.

The motivation work comes from writing this all down and putting it out there as a dare to myself.