Finally decided to chime in on this thread, been reading it for a while. My commute is 22 to 26 miles each way depending on the route I take. Currently trying for twice a week with a goal of 3 times a week. Wanted my first post in this thread to be a positive one but today's ride home was kind of crappy so I'll post about that instead.

I got out of work about a half hour late so took the shortest route which includes a short stretch I don't really like for several reasons. One of them being a railroad crossing that is right at a switch yard. Tonight at rush hour traffic they are rearanging box cars blocking the road for a good 15 minutes. So after standing there for 15 minutes now I have this humungous line of cars behind me on a road with a highway crossing that goes back and forth from 2 lanes to 4 several times. So I get through that with just some lost time. Next I'm on part of my ride that is a bike path that runs parallel to a major freeway in Metro Detroit. At the major roads where there are entrance/exit ramps the path has to cross the streets. The worst of these crossings has a go signal for the path preceeded by a right turn arrow for the auto traffic. So basically when I get my green I have to interupt a steady flow of right turning traffic whose light just went from green arrow to green...sounds safe eh? Normally I ride out into the intersection making eye contact and forcing someone to let me through, which they normally do once they see me. Tonight was the first time I actually made eye contact with a driver as I slowy entered the intersection and she just kept on coming. So I let her pass, give her look and I'm on my way as the next car lets me through. Lastly I'm about 3 miles from home on a two lane semi residential street. I hear this clang like something broke on my bike followed by this hissing sound. I still don't know what I road over because I didn't see it and didn't take the time to go back. No tube with me today so I walk the bike down the street and find a decent spot and proceed to patch my punctured tube. First time patch job for me but it went OK, took a little long, like 20 or 25 minutes.

Sorry for the long post, just one of them days.