The forecast called for steady rain, so riding seemed like a bad idea. As usual, when I decline to ride because of weather, I'm proven wrong. It's been raining steadily but not hard. I could have done it in comfort. Well, I did some nice weight lifting this morning, and that feels good.

Just rode across town to a clients office. That was interesting. The wind was blowing crazy hard from the west. When I was heading east I broke 30+ mph without too much effort. When I was heading north the crosswind was so intense that I would only go about 8 mph. I can only imagine if I was heading straight into it I'd be doing a bicycle version of the moonwalk.

Was riding by city hall on the way and noticed the Bloodmobile parked outside. I realized I was due to donate so I popped in to see if they had any openings in their schedule. They did, so I bled for them. Then I got a free cookie.

My first bike commute in two months is tomorrow. Is it weird that I'm almost giddy about it? Was checking weather just now... will be clear all day, 40+ in the morning and 60+ in the evening.

Winds - some helpful, some less helpful, and some just downright mean. But still a fine ride with no issues.

Took the cat in this morning to get her shoveled. Err... no... wait... spayed.

The cat doesn't like her carrier and has gotten out of it before, so I decided to drive to the vet so I could keep a better eye on her (versus hauling the carrier in my bike trailer.) About 1/2 mile from the vet I passed through a 4 way stop intersection. After dropping off the cat I came back through the intersection and there had been a pretty bad accident. Looked like three cars. Two had air bags deployed. One of them was up on the lawn of a house where it had hit a tree. The ambulance was just coming down the road as I came upon the scene.

I can only speculate that someone ran the stop sign at a pretty good clip, as if all cars had come to a stop before taking off there wouldn't have been enough momentum to do that amount damage.

Got back home and hopped on the bike to ride to work. Outside a brutal headwind, the bicycle portion of my commute was pretty uneventful.

Cool and clear! I took the longer flatter street route, clockwise around the lake, rather than the hilly MUP CCW, because I felt like going fast. And indeed my average speed was >13mph, unusual for me!

38F, clammy. Got buzzed by a flatbed tractor-trailer with a load of shingles that could not keep out of the bike lane until it passed me.

[MENTION=29263]Tundra Man[/MENTION] thank you for giving blood. Not directly, but I owe you one. And I can't pay into that fund because of my blood pressure meds.

it's windy as hell in the windy city today.

i was dealing with 30+ mph crosswinds on the ride in.

it looks like i'll be dealing with the same for the ride home.

at least i'm not riding straight into that bull*****.

37°F and clear. Nice amount of daylight already at 0610 in the morning. After this weekend I'll be back into the darkness for most of the commute until about some time in May.

First time in eight days I rode into work today. It was overcast, but the forecast called for clearing, and the sky did clear before I was at work. It was pretty windy, but it was a crosswind that was slightly behind me. I got to work in one of my fastest times. It was fun.

I rode my bike over wet surfaces the last few times, and boy, does it need cleaning.

Interesting. I'm on blood pressure meds too but they still allow me to donate.

However once I finally have my heart valve replacement surgery and I'm on blood thinners I'll be on their exile list. Only have four more pints until I hit the 5 gallon mark, so it'd be cool if I could make it to that mark before I'm banned.

Specific to my problem and my meds. They're not old-people blood pressure meds. My problem is hereditary and anatomical and no amount of Cheerios would fix it :)

You could try donating red cells through apheresis I think that would get you there immediately

Forecast is 60 km/h wind gusts in my face going home.:eek: Good day to be on an ebike...if I owned one.:(

I will have one soon! I'm hoping that having an e-bike will open up more commuting options for days when I might otherwise take the car instead of my usual road bike commuter.

Your 30 mile R/T would be tough to do every day. I think my 2x20km is just about at my own limit for doing it every day.

eBike would be a nice option for those days when I'm a bit tired, but I have no plans to get one soon.

Strong winds in my face this morning made the 1:15 commute last about 1:30. Stronger winds at my back made the roughly 2:00 homeward bound commute last less than 1:45. Winning!

Today is going to be one of those days where it would have been much easier to drive than ride. However it marks my 250th consecutive bicycle commute, so I wasn't going to let a bit of inconvenience stop me.

Today my son is competing in a National History Day contest where he has to present a research project he's been working on for months. The presentation is occurring at a museum about 4 blocks from the client's office from which I'm working today. Unfortunately it's happening in two different segments about three hours apart.

So knowing I was going to be leaving a few times during the day, I arrived at the office at 6:45 AM. My son's project is rather large, so my wife is bringing him and the project to the museum around 8:30 in my truck. It helps that she doesn't have to be at work until noon. I'll leave to be at the museum by 9:00. The first session should be done around 10 AM.

At this point nothing happens until 1 PM, so my wife will take my son back to school where he can catch a few classes. I'll ride back to the client's office.

Around 12:20 I'll ride home and get my truck, then drive over to the school and pick up my son. We'll drive back down to the museum for the second half of his presentation at 1:00. It should be over by 2 PM, at which point we'll load up his project into the truck. I'll drive him back to school so he can catch a few more classes, then I'll drive home and park the truck.

At this point I'll ride my bicycle back to the client's office and stay as long as I need to hit my hours for the day. Then I'll ride home this evening.

So while I'm doing a little driving in there, technically I'm riding my bike to work. Twice.

So technically it is your 250th and 251st consecutive commutes! Congrats!

Felt chilly this morning at 42F. I opted for shorts only, which made for some cold knees. But it is warming to about 75 this afternoon. Much less wind today too.

Cold feet this morning. I rode in cycling shoes with light socks and toe covers. Big mistake, given the temperature was in the lower 30's. I should have worn the heavier socks and full shoe covers. Not the end of the world though.

No wind and cool temps made for a very fast ride. Also sunrise was extraordinarily brilliant on this chilly morning. That part was awesome.

Cold wind this morning. It was a reasonable -12C/10F this morning but with the strong wind, the wind chill was -21C/-6F. Fortunately, the wind was at my back for most of the ride so I didn't have to suffer for too long.

Nice ride yesterday, though it seemed a little tough despite favorable wind direction. I'm wondering if it's because I'm running my old (heavy) rear wheel with cheap tire. Maybe the freehub isn't as efficient as the one I normally have, which I think needs new cartridge bearings at the moment.

I was hoping to ride again today because the weather is super nice, and is turning bad come Friday and the weekend, but I was just too tired. Didn't have it in my legs today. Oh well.

Back to winter temps 33F but no rain and more importantly no wind! I worked from home yesterday and glad of it - 30-50 mph winds

Yesterday I had heavy tailwinds going to work, and the wind didn't shift during the day, so I had heavy headwinds going home. My morning ride had an average speed of 14 mph, and my evening ride averaged 12 mph. The average of those averages is obviously 13 mph, so while I feel stronger lately, it's not clear that I'm getting any faster.

I was so tired from my efforts yesterday that I thought it would be a bad idea to ride in. I find it hard to ride gently lately.