My commute was great today. To see the sun rise over the Potomac is incredible and the temp was moderate at about 49 degrees. It was my first ride into work in about 2 months. Even though I was a little slower than usual it was fun riding in the dark and felt great to get some exercise in the morning. I also saw many more riders than I was used to back in the summer. I recently backed off of the communting as the weather started to worsen (getting colder, darker, and rainy), and after taking a week off to recover from a ride back in September (you know how sometimes a number of factors conspire to affect you), it's been difficult to get back into it. But after several long and frustrating Metro and traffic delays that thwarted recent attempts to leave work early, I remembered how much I miss the autonomy of biking into work. Even though it's a bit chillier than I'm used to, I know that, regardless of any Metro problem or rush hour traffic, I'll still get home in 30-35 minutes and don't have to pay for parking or metro fare. I was worried that I didn't have the right cold weather gear, but I layered effectively to keep warm and will look into buying a winter riding jacket soon (can anyone recommend a good winter riding jacket?). Even though my evenings are largely booked this week, I know that by the time I get home, I will have ridden about 18 miles, getting enough of a workout to stay in decent shape and lose weight. I'm re-committing to continue commuting through the winter.