Yesterday, I had one of the amazingest commutes in a long time. It was cold and windy. I put on all my new winter clothing which I was so inspired to buy before the season set in. I had my new bike which is so light and sprightly. I changed the saddle on it from the ass hatchet to a Brooks B17 I borrowed from my Bianchi. I was super comfortable, and I had a slight tail wind rather than the usual headwind. I was in danger of being late for the meeting scheduled between me, my boss, and my boss's boss, and I really didn't want to be late. I poured on the speed and made it in my fastest time in the 13th month I've been working here. Average speed was 14.7 mph over a 14 mile commute, so damn, I'm good. I think I really am a lot faster on some bikes than others, and a lot of that is because of the comfort of the fit. The weird thing is that this bike has upright bars, so they should slow me down, but I don't think they did. I was quite warm the whole way, even though I bet anyone else outside who wasn't well dressed was pretty uncomfortable. So the whole day felt like a triumph for me. I was hoping to push my limits in speed and in tolerance of wintery weather, and I succeeded at both in a single day.

The ride back in the evening was dark, of course, and I discovered I really really hate battery powered lights. I don't usually use them, but that's what I had. I had used the headlight on a previous evening commute, and I now know that the battery can provide enough light for only one evening commute. The light didn't go dark but it went very dim. I'm going to put dynamo lights on the bike. Their peak brightness is a bit less, though it's still good enough, but I always know exactly how bright they are going to be, and that's worth a lot to me. I got really hot and sweaty, because the temperature was higher, and I didn't wear fewer layers. When I got to my evening meeting, I got that clammy feeling you get from sweating into a cotton t-shirt. Those "anything but cotton" admonishments never meant much to me, as I don't normally get this problem, but yeah, it was unpleasant. If I'm going to be riding hard, I think I better wear synthetics or wool on my chest and back.

I'm not riding today, unfortunately, because we're going to a dinner party after work tonight, and I'm getting there by commuter train.