Monday afternoon we started to get freezing rain. When I left the office at 5 PM and walked over to the bike rack the sidewalks were very, very slick. Chippped off a layer of ice from my seat and began the 8 mile ride home. The main roads that had been salted and had traffic were slippery, but not too bad.

Once I hit the MUP though, it turned into a sheet of wet glass. I was still able to ride without too much trouble as long as I didn't do anything crazy. About a couple miles from home I came across a guy walking in the snow along the side of the MUP. He asked me how I was able to keep the bike upright as he couldn't walk on the pavement. I stopped to chat, put my foot down and discovered I was completely unable to stand on the ice. I had to keep my hands on my brakes and lean on the bike to stay upright. We chatted for a minute and then I continued on my way. Made it the whole way home without going down, so it was all good.

Tuesday my cold got the best of me and I opted to stay home.

This morning I decided to try heading back to work. The roads and MUP were still incredibly icy, so I had to be careful and not get too aggressive around the curves. Despite my increased awareness, as I came down one hill that had a sharp left turn at the bottom I got going too fast. Of course, there was a giant ice patch right at the bottom where I needed to turn. I hit this patch at much too high rate of speed and my tires started to slip.

I slid sideways across the ice until I hit the ridge where the plows had piled up the snow, at which point I high-sided and flew off the bike. I landed in the snow bank unharmed. Nothing I could do but laugh out loud at my own stupidity.

Needless to say I was even more diligent the remainder of the ride to work.