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2016! how was your commute today?

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2016! how was your commute today?

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Old 04-04-16, 06:16 AM
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It was a bit annoying at a few traffic lights, but then again, I was in my car. Made a stop at bojangles for a cajun filet biscuit for breakfast. Gotta take home my work bike today (new rims should be arriving!) and plan on going directly from work to the trails to get in a little mountain biking. Finished building up my Proflex about two weeks ago, and everytime I have planned on giving it a good test on the trails, we've gotten a bunch of rain. The stars and planets have finally aligned for me today!
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Old 04-04-16, 06:38 AM
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I ended up taking off work Wed - Fri last week due to a sick daughter.

Good ride in this morning with about 45F. Mornings this week look to be colder than last week, but still nice in the day. I'll take it. I'd rather the hot summer mornings hold off as long as possible.
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Old 04-04-16, 07:31 AM
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It's still windy
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Old 04-04-16, 08:36 AM
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Absolutely perfect weather in NC today. Clear skies, mild temperatures and low pollen count for a change.
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Old 04-04-16, 09:26 AM
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Originally Posted by arsprod
It's still windy
Today appears to be the only non-windy day for me (13mph today) of the next four. Gale force winds are back starting tomorrow.
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Old 04-04-16, 09:29 AM
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Originally Posted by KCBikeCommuter
Today appears to be the only non-windy day for me (13mph today) of the next four. Gale force winds are back starting tomorrow.
I'd rather have rain... or even snow!
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Old 04-04-16, 10:15 AM
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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.
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Old 04-04-16, 11:49 AM
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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.
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Old 04-05-16, 05:13 AM
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32F/0C and a strong headwind the whole way in...I'm so over this spring wind.
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Old 04-05-16, 06:06 AM
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Cold. Cold. Cold.
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Old 04-05-16, 06:21 AM
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Great news @joeyduck. 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.
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Old 04-05-16, 06:25 AM
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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.
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Old 04-05-16, 07:03 AM
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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.
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Old 04-05-16, 07:04 AM
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Cold one this morning, -17C/1F with a windchill (not accounting for cycling speed) of -24C/-11F. However, this afternoon's ride home will be in much nicer -1C/30F temps with sun too.

Tomorrow's forecast is for 10cm/4" of snow. Silly me, I thought winter was over.

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Old 04-05-16, 07:32 AM
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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.
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Old 04-05-16, 08:22 AM
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@dcb23 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.
Originally Posted by dcb23
32F/0C and a strong headwind the whole way in...I'm so over this spring wind.
I am so tired of this wind. an it never is a tail wind.
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Old 04-05-16, 09:51 AM
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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.
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Old 04-05-16, 10:39 AM
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15 miles in this morning, cool and clear, no complaints..............
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Old 04-05-16, 10:47 AM
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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.
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Old 04-05-16, 11:18 AM
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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.
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Old 04-05-16, 11:27 AM
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Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
Lots of people out on the trails in the morning since the time change.
Really? More people out in the morning when it's darker?
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Old 04-05-16, 11:28 AM
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Originally Posted by PatrickGSR94
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.
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Old 04-05-16, 11:38 AM
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Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
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.
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Old 04-05-16, 11:44 AM
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Originally Posted by PatrickGSR94
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
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Old 04-05-16, 12:06 PM
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Originally Posted by ThermionicScott
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.
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: https://www.bikeforums.net/general-cy...ys-biking.html

Keep up the good work!!
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