I'd rather have rain... or even snow!

The 6.2 mile commute started out at 6:20 and it was 37 and clear by 6:35 it was snowing and windy. I arrived a few minutes slower than usual.

We went for another family ride, this one we went and got take out and went to the park, less than 5 km round trip. Literally 9 blocks south from out house and then 6 blocks west. We rode nearly all on a a bike street and we only had to cross one busier road with a controlled signal.

Going slowly (my son had to walk his bike) up a small decent grade hill in my lower gears were not any problems on my knee! Yeah for no pain. My mother in law has been talking about me getting an electric bike for hills and child hauling. It is not out of the question, but now I feel better knowing I started out with a small hill and no pain.

During this my wife freaked out, and started being very scared and saying this was a bad idea and we weren't doing this (cycling) again. The trauma is still too fresh for her to be on the road with us. Every car is waiting to kill us and its not safe on the road so she insisted we ride on the sidewalk for about half of the trip. She threatened to take my bike to the dump if I went in the road. Even our son wanted to go in the street. I just let her know it is okay and we will work up to this. I also suggested we take a bike class, there are a few seemingly good ones sponsored near us by the advocacy group. She liked that idea but shes not ready for it yet, maybe a few months down the road.

I think that the bike class is a great idea and I hope that she takes it with me. I also know time will help her get over the crushing anxiety. So for the meantime we are sticking to dedicated bike paths.

But dinner was delicious at the highest point in the city, great sunset, eating by a fountain, then we went home and all got to sleep early.

32F/0C and a strong headwind the whole way in...I'm so over this spring wind.

Cold. Cold. Cold.

Great news [MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION]. I'm sure it is tough for you all to be out in traffic, but time will heal that too.

A pretty good wind here helped me for my early miles and really wasn't bad the rest of the way. About 48F, but the high is forecast to only be 58, a good 10-15 degrees colder than it has been getting to.

It's now light enough by 7am that I can wear my regular sunglasses instead of my clear lens glasses. I suppose an overcast day could change that though.

A cold front rolled through early this morning and temperatures dropped about 10 degrees between the time I got up and left for work. That also meant that I had a tailwind most of the way to work, which was nice. Not so nice were the red lights, and I caught 12 of the first 13 of them. A few lights finally started turning in my favor when I got downtown, but then I started hitting the wind. Still a nice commute in balance.

25 Degrees this morning with very little wind. Pretty nice, especially as the sun came up to reveal a crystal clear day. One of the better commutes.

I got curious about the timings of different parts of my commute home and turned on Strava, for the first time in about a year apparently. It's academic only, since I already know that going slow in the end-parts with large parking lots, parking garage, access roads and gates and so on vary more than between my slowest and fastest times ever on the rest of it. So for taking the least time, objectively, it can matter as much to hurry through there (which I don't often do) than averaging 12 or 20 on the main part.

I don't time trial my commute especially the Greenway part, but I like to see where I stand with moderate "commuting" effort. I'd had my speedometer covered up, and it felt pretty good en route but alas one of my slowest ever recorded at 17.4 average. Feeling fat and slow, older ... but on the bright side I notice that all of my slow points are in May so maybe I'll pick up the pace again.

[MENTION=206245]dcb23[/MENTION] I agree I had a stiff 10-20 mph headwind all the way in. I rode north / northwest and that was the direction of the wind today. I hope it mellows out by this evening. I am so tired of this wind. an it never is a tail wind.

Monday's 7 AM staff meeting got moved to today. So I had to drag my butt out of bed at 4 AM (more like 4:15) in order to leave the house at 5, to get to work in time for a shower and be ready at 7.

I'm always amazed at the difference in traffic between leaving at 5 vs. leaving at 6 AM. For one thing, this is the first time I've done the early 5 AM commute since the time change. HOLY CRAP THE DARKNESS! It was dark almost the entire 15 miles to work. But in 15 miles I had only 6 cars and 1 motorcycle pass me. 5 of those cars were in the first 5 miles, so in 10 miles there was only 1 car and 1 motorcycle that passed me. Pretty cool! And I had a nice tailwind most of the time, too.

15 miles in this morning, cool and clear, no complaints..............

Did the MTB commute again today. Feeling great, might have done some PR's. The forest is still gradually falling down from our big storm a month ago. There was one fallen tree leaning across that I knew about but had forgotten, and it's in the middle of a fast bit... I braked as much as I could, ducked, and felt my pack scrape it. Whew!

Lots of people out on the trails in the morning since the time change.

It's been pretty windy this month in Iowa... while it has taken a lot out of me, I know it's making me stronger for summer and #30daysofbiking will help too. :)

Really? More people out in the morning when it's darker?

No, I'm not MTB riding in the dark! This is mostly around 8am. But it's the time change that makes the difference in commuter traffic, for sure.

That's interesting. I don't change the times I commute, and it's SOOO much darker in the morning right after the time change. I don't see any difference in car traffic at 6:30 AM before or after the time change, either. I would expect to see more people out later into the evening when there's more evening light.

Probably, since I keep a later schedule than you, it's more about people on my schedule not wanting to ride home in the dark during standard time, or at all during Nov-Feb

I'm doing the #30DaysOfBiking too and committing to it has forced me to ride in on days that I might not have (this morning's -17C/1F, windchill -24C/-11F). I'm also riding on the weekend which, again, because of cool weather and no other reason to go for a ride, I'm doing anyway.

I'm posting my rides also to: http://www.bikeforums.net/general-cy...ys-biking.html

Keep up the good work!!

This mornings commute was nice since it is my first this week. The temp was 20f degrees with clear skies as the light started coming up. No winds today, lucky me!

A final blast of arctic air, but with no wind. It was a nice ride in today. I didn't want to get out of a warm bed, though...

Ride home last night was steady but slow. It took me two hours to travel the thirty miles. That's about 10-15 minutes slower than my mid-season average. I've got some work to do.

Rain today. But, tomorrow looks promising with only about a 30% chance of rain predicted in both the morning and afternoon. Sounds doable.

Colder than normal for the southeast in April: 27F at 7am. I had to bundle up as though it was February again.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=514028

ohhhh you were talking about more bike commuters out since the time change. Yeah I can see that. :thumb: I'm still the only lone bike commuter in my area that I've ever seen.

Yesterday was pretty nice going home. My Performance Ultra bibs are by far the most comfortable shorts out of all the shorts/bibs that I own. And I made a saddle adjustment the other day that seems to be working pretty well. Had a tailwind for part of the ride, also. Feels good man!

http://ct.iscute.com/ol/ic/sw/i60/2/...77083574d5.jpg

Coldest morning commute since probably late February here. We had a hard freeze and temps were in low 30s during my ride to work. I wore my winter jacket, tights, warmest gloves and balakava for the first time in weeks. However, temps are supposed to reach the low 60s this afternoon. Hopefully the wind will die down some or change direction by then. Stiff headwinds made for a tough ride home yesterday.

i was bundled up as well. 24.7F is the lowest I saw on the GPS [MENTION=366933]mgw4jc[/MENTION] sure missing the spring temps.

Dang, southern east coast states having a cold snap eh? Haven't seen any temperatures like that around Memphis and I don't expect we will. Coldest it's been in recent weeks is low 40's a few mornings last week.

Ice pellets in the face last night - snow ice today so I cheated and drove my car in. I do 17 miles one way rural highway/open fields. I watch the weather so I know what to expect but the one factor the weather forecasting apps seem to be unable to correctly predict is wind direction and speed. It seems everytime I see a nice East tailwind forecasted for my ride home - I am out there and riding into a wall. Maybe it is just where I live- we have a huge mound or as the ski hill calls it "mountain" surrounded by relatively flat/rolling hills. Nonetheless, off we go - I got to get the car back to the wife and then ride back. Luckily I have a flexible schedule.

Why don't we use the word wind like we use the word rain?

It winded at about 15mph from the west during this morning's ride.
It looks like it will be winding again this afternoon when I ride home.