Today was a day that tried my commuting soul. Even though I ride my 14 miles year round in Boston, I was starting to get adjusted to spring with AM temps in the high 40’s. Yesterday though rainy, I had a nice tailwind. This morning however, the temp was 36 degrees with an 18 mph headwind, 33 degrees at my destination, and snow in the far western suburbs (and I took off the studded tires this past weekend.) I went back to bed at 5:30 AM planning on 15 minutes, but strongly entertained the option of an additional 45 minutes in bed, then taking the train with a further 30 minute nap.

There have been several threads about motivations, and arousal techniques for early morning commuters. At a penny for my thoughts, here’s my $ 0.4 worth.

1) Last week I started a rigorous 10 week Century training schedule, and today’s quota is 15 miles
2) I know that invariably when on the road. literally the first few feet, I’ll feel good
3) When I arrive I feel much more fulfilled than if I took the train and even more so than if I drove
4) On a bad weather day (cold and/or raining), I’ll invariably be asked that perennial question, “You didn’t ride today, did you?”

The second person I met at work after riding asked me a variation of that question, “How was your ride, pretty cold? And it’s April 28 (grumble, grumble)...”

EPILOGUE:

On the VFW parkway I encountered a well-appointed strong rider and rode with him for about a mile. He was riding out to Dover for fun after work. We chatted and he mentioned that his co-workers were concerned about him as he left, warning, "There's frost on our windshields."

As we came near our split in the road, I asked him, as I usually do of strangers, had he heard of Bike Forums? He did and posted rarely. I introduced myself as “Jim from Boston,’ and he pointed and said, “I read your posts all the time. See you later on the Forums.”