I recently rode my bike in to the office for Bike to Work Day... and rode home the previous evening with help from another commuter to show me the way.

However, I'm struggling to get back into it. I used to bike commute pretty regularly. It was fine at 5 miles (a few months), 8 miles (a few more months), and 10 miles (6 months)... each way. I'd be 2 hours out of my day, but I was getting exercise and it was do-able. Plus, parking either wasn't an option or was $12 a day, each building had showers and secure bike storage, and there was public transportation as an alternative.

All those changes in commute length were because my company was unstable and folding, and the job where I ended up is in the suburbs - I live in DC, work is in Laurel, MD. Parking is free and there aren't showers. The route is 25 miles each way, but 60% or so is on bike trails... the other 40% is on wide shoulder 50mph roads, with a few residential sections. Both times it took about 3 hours to complete, one with lots of flats, the other with lots of BTWD pit-stops. Riding buddies say it should take about 2 or so.

So... It's been 6 months since I regularly rode my bike, I've been getting out of shape, and doing down and back again Thurs/Fri has me sore on Tuesday. So, any tips for getting/easing back into commuting?

A few initial thoughts:
1) time to retire the fixed gear? This could be part of why I'm sore...
(already working on this - found a 1985 Peugeot PGN-10 in the trash I'm refurbing... slowly)
2) Find secure parking halfway to get my stamina built up?
3) Read Bike Forums tips on not being sweaty at work without a shower?


My ideal intermediate goal would be to get to a point where I could do 2 round trips per week, maybe drive both ways Monday, do Tues/Wed and Thurs/Fri leaving the car at work - 100 miles a week? That's about 5 days of my previous long-ish commute.

Route is not a problem, it's pretty much set... and I'm not sure that I'm going to be adding to it just to have a change of scenery... at 25 miles I'll be pretty tapped out regardless.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to comments here too. Finding two other guys who commute here is a good start, I think. One does 20 miles each way every day.