Originally Posted by
Sir Lunch-a-lot
I find such good intentions on their own to be largely ineffectual for changing my behavior. I might decide in the evening that I am going to ride to work the following morning, but when I wake I may feel tired or like sleeping in an extra half hour and thus sleepy me overrides the decision made by not-sleepy-me. So I have created something of a Ulysses pact - I am making a decision in advance and creating the circumstances to aide me in sticking with it.
At the end of the day, this is an experiment - nothing is permanent yet. If I decide that it is too much all at once, I'll look to adjust things - whether that be taking the train a couple times a week to break things up or bringing my car keys home for weekends (or taking some of the above advice and keeping my keys at home...
) or some other such thing.
There is something to be said for that, especially going all-in on it like that. When I did a similar experiment it was after mechanical trouble with the car, and I was disgusted with pouring money into it. Not a bicycle enthusiast at all, in fact I didn't even like it but bikes were the fastest and most convenient so that's what I did. If the car had been in good shape I'd have used it for the more difficult trips, no question about it.
It was months before I said "hey this is easy" and a month or two more before "I actually like this" and started riding extra. Somewhat older than you at the time, it may happen faster but regardless of how you go about it I urge you to give it enough time to succeed.