A Little Goes a Long Way

I'm reminded very often that winning small victories is not only an easier task, but also more worthwhile in the long run.

I bought my girlfriend an extremely belated and overdue Mother's Day gift a few weeks ago (before you judge me, we bought a house together, so I WAS A LITTLE BUSY). What did she want, you ask? A front basket for her bike:

The orange crate is not normally on her bike, so bear with the unsightliness for a minute and I'll explain. I needed to pick up a sizeable amount of groceries on Saturday before my parents arrived, and my bike wouldn't have enough space for all of them. The easiest solution would have been to jump in my car and do it that way, but you know me better than that. With a crate and a basket, I was in business.

The front basket is actually pretty ingenious and multi-purposed. When riding, it sits attached to the front handlebars with a velcro strap and metal bracket like so:

But, when you pick up the basket handles, it allows them to slide through the slots on the bracket so it can be removed easily:

You can take it in to the store and shop with it! Pretty nifty, right? Sometimes the simplest gifts are the best. If you want one for your own bike, they're made by Retrospec and are available on Amazon.

As for the trip to the grocery store, I had more than enough room for a full haul (about 40 pounds' worth of goods):

That ended up being the only time I rode that day, but at least I made time to ride, and that's a small victory that can be achieved every day. Believe it or not, this was a challenge for me in recent months and also for long stretches when we lived at the old house. I'd say moving has been a big success in this regard so far. Since we went on vacation July 20th, I've only rested on 3 days. Even if it's only a short lap around the block, all of those little rides add up, and I approached 200 miles in the month of August without ever logging a ride more than 10 miles:

Simple pleasures and small victories make up the big picture. So instead of trying to do everything or only trying to do big things, I think I'll keep doing the small things well. Little rides go a long way...