Tonight, I beat my personal best for the trip home by more than 1 1/2 minutes!!! With a combination of luck with traffic lights and a decent energy level, I made my eight-mile, long-way-home commute in 28:31 (it was 27-something if you don't count stops at traffic lights).

Yeah, I know some roadies go a lot faster, but I'd never broken the thirty-minute barrier, I live uphill from work, and I had two loaded panniers. It helped that I passed a guy who decided to keep up with me. for a mile or two. Not wanting to get passed by the guy I passed kept me moving.