One year, 6 months and 5 days in the life of a cyclist.... It was that long ago that I started my new job, and it made the decision for me that I was going to ride to work.

There wasn't anything special about the job that made me decide to do this, and it wasn't really a leap of faith as I rode a bit already and was in the process of building up my dream mountain bike. I ridden off and on to previous jobs, but it was never really a concerted effort.

But there was something different about this - it was a decision to ride every single day, no matter what the weather. And save for a few months recovering from two separate broken arms (not incurred on the commute cycle I may add) I've managed it.

Okay so it's not far, but it was a big step up for me to ride every single day, and the uphill route in the morning felt unnecessarily strenuous come the middle of the week. But I stuck at it, even at times taking longer routes, leaving earlier so I could fit in 10, 11, 12 miles before the day started in earnest.

The time that I made the decision was conducive to keeping up the effort of course. It was almost March and you could feel the change in mood of the weather in the air. It started getting warmer, and lighter in the mornings and evenings. As time went on the lights were discarded from the bike, then the waterproof layer left me, followed by the long sleeves.

What had been a concerted effort up to summer, something which I had to remind myself every day I was doing for my own good, started getting mentally easier. I sweated more, I felt the heat pounding on me as I climbed every day, but I also laughed at those I was passing in their air conditioned cars, or worse, those crammed onto the buses languishing in the heat far worse than I.

This was why I was doing this. On the way to work I could at least guiltily steal some small pleasure from the day, forgetting for that entire length of time what my actual destination was. It only got better heading home after earning the daily crust. The ride was usually a de-stressing exercise which worked remarkably well, now in the summer I felt I was seeing as much of the warm season as I had since I was a student.