By Heidi Swift

Winter came with darkness. It does this every year. Daylight hours shrink, the chill creeps in. We keep riding our bikes (albeit maybe less frequently): bundle up, shove off, huddle, increase coffee stops, hot shower, hot chocolate, repeat.

In addition to cold and dark, winter brought me an unexpected development: for the first time in years, I found myself with something that resembled a “real job”. I accepted a contract position with a big company out in the suburbs. It required me to show up and sit under fluorescent lights for 8 hours a day. It required me, because of a lingering cyclocross injury that prevented me from pedaling, to sit in a car. In traffic. For 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon.

An hour and thirty minutes a day, 7.5 hours a week, 30 hours a month, 360 hours a year. That’s more than two weeks a year! Of my life!

I’ll be honest with you. I kind of lost it.

I’ve never had to endure a real freeway commute. In the Bay Area, I traveled to work by a combination of train, bus and foot. It took 5 hours every day, but it kept me off the freeways and provided lots of reading time. The sensation of being stuck in a long line of slow moving vehicles brought me to near-panic. “Is this how people live?” I thought.

Maybe people get used to it. I knew I didn’t want to.

As soon as the doctor cleared me to ride, I loaded up a waterproof backpack, strapped fenders to my road bike, lit the whole thing up like a Christmas tree and left my house in the darkness of morning.

It poured. I forgot my printed route and had to make it up as I went along. I got a flat. I was late to work. I forgot my socks.

In other words, it was perfect.

At the end of the day, I had 28 miles, 1800 feet of climbing and 2 hours of non-stop smiles to my name.

It’s your ride. Light it up.

Heidi Swift is a freelance writer and photographer based in Portland, Oregon where she lives with two mean cats and one rad Sicilian man. In addition to being cyclocross-obsessed, she enjoys good whiskey, romantic rain rides, and frequent international cycling escapades. Despite most often trending toward “tomboy” she has a penchant for very red nail polish, large scarves and obnoxious designer sunglasses. She’s a regular contributor to Peloton Magazine, Editor-at-Large for Switchback Magazine, and cycling columnist for the Oregonian Newspaper. Her work has also appeared in ROAD Magazine, Bicycling, Cyclocross Magazine, Wend Magazine, VeloNews and CyclingNews.com. You can follow her misadventures at GritandGlimmer.com or catch her on the tweets: @heidiswift.

Look for another “Lightlife” piece from Heidi Swift next week!