my commute is 15 miles roundtrip. the ups: fairly steady downhill all the way in the morning, and Denver has a great bike infrastructure. there's a "grid" of bike routes that all use low traffic side streets with minimal stops, so it's mostly all houses and dog walkers.

the downs: home commute is seven and a half miles of steady up hill. 300ft gain doesn't sound like a lot, but still being new to commuting and after working construction for eight hours i'm pretty beat.

it's great when i can talk myself into it, the exhaustion and accomplishment and all. but i usually just do the beginning half of the route before the hills, then catch the light-rail for two stops. then a quick flat jaunt home.