Boy did I crank it up to 11 today morning or what! 18.4mph average, the fastest I have ever been on my commute.
It would be interesting to see how I keep my energy levels up for rest of the day now

Last night going home I was going down a big hill that has a stop sign at the bottom and then a right turn. I was behind a truck that made the turn. I had some space between the truck and me so rolled through the right turn kinda fast. But then the truck stopped due to a parked vehicle and oncoming traffic he had to wait for. I locked up my back tire and skidded a bit, but thankfully didn't go down. I managed to slow down enough until we could both go again. My heart rate shot up though.

Good morning ride. Mid 60s with mid humidity. I saw a couple of other bikers on one MUP which is rare. Not sure if they are commuters or not.

Yesterday's forecast was for thunder/lightning in time for the ride home so I decided not to ride in. Guess what? The weather forecast was wrong (I hope you were sitting when I shared that incredulous information!!! ) and it would have been, not only a nice ride in to work but a beautiful one home (although it was quite breezy so headwinds would have been part of the ride home).

Today's forecast is for rain mid-day but not during the periods of my morning ride in and my afternoon ride home so I took a chance (we'll see how that works out).

I took my Kona Sutra loaded down with clothes and lunches for the rest of the week (plus the other pannier with rain gear and spare clothes in case I was soaked on the way in) so, all told, likely a 22.5-25kg/50-55lb bike. However, I decided to try a slightly different pedalling method where I put in at least a little bit of effort during the complete rotation of the crank (not heavy all the way round, just, at minimum, some pressure on the chain all the way round) and it might have been why, despite the breeze and heavy bike, I completed the 17.9km/11.1mi commute at an average speed of 26.1kph/16.2mph which is quite good for me as I normally can't go much above an average of 25kph/15.5mph unless I'm riding my Look racing bike so I'm really quite happy with that.

It was a warm 18C/64F that "Feels Like" 24C/75F and with a 94% relative humidity, I was really sweating when I arrived at work. I was wearing a Buff to try to prevent sweat from escaping from the front of my helmet onto my glasses or into my eyes and I think it worked but some did sneak by but I don't think I had the buff far enough forward onto my forehead.

Hopefully, today's rain will be done by the time I finish work as I have a 35km ride to my inlaw's place then to home after that: they are at the cottage (locally, we call them camps but they are not tenting) and they have a doctor's appointment sometime next week and it is only on the calendar at their home so one of us has to go there to check it.

Have a great day fellow cyclists!!

I was just about to turn onto the Greenway this morning and a guy trundled by on a mountain bike, his rear tire completely flat. He hollered something about his tire, so I caught up and said I've got some patches and a pump if he wanted. He gratefully accepted, but he didn't want to patch it. He just wanted to put some air in it and see if it holds. I did ask if he'd just forgotten to air up and he said no, and I told him in a couple of different ways that it wasn't going to hold air for long, but he was sure that he wanted to try pumping it up. I felt pretty bad about letting him go, but what can you do?

Wow, nice!!! (I had to convert it to kph to truly appreciate it ). I can do that downhill!!!

How long is your commute?

Don't you hate those stop signs at the bottom of a hill?

Thanks! It's 17.5 miles (28 kms) one way.
You did pretty well too with that heavily loaded bike.

Yesterday when I left work it looked like there was a storm to the south (the direction I was heading.) It wasn't yet raining in the downtown area. The storm wasn't in the forecast and just suddenly formed, so I didn't ride my fendered bike. My son was playing at a golf tournament and I had to pick him up, so I decided it was in my best interest to ride hard and get home before the rain started, then grab my truck and head to the golf course to pick him up.

As it turned out, other than an occasional sprinkled raindrop, I didn't hit any rain the whole way home.

My son just a couple miles away, however, turned into another story. He and his group were on the 6th hole as far from the clubhouse as they could get while still being on the course when the clouds suddenly grew dark above them. I later watched the replay of the radar and the storm quite literally formed on top of the golf course. It started to rain hard. He and his group abandoned their bags and huddled under a tree hoping the rain would quickly pass and they could continue playing.

Then the winds rose to 70+ mph, lightning started striking around them and large hail started to fall. Being 14 year-old boys they got spooked when the tree they were under started to creak in the wind, and they decided to run for the clubhouse which at this point was at least a mile away. The group separated to retrieve their clubs and head back to the clubhouse.

Being that it was a tournament, all the players on the course were walking. The course was sending out carts to rescue stranded golfers, but after a few minutes the carts were getting stuck in the mud, piles of hail and impassably deep water from the flash flooding. About halfway back a course official on a cart went by my son and he hopped on, but after riding around for a few minutes they came across three other carts sitting in a low area with water up to the seats. They realized there was no way the cart was making it back to the clubhouse so they abandoned it and finished the journey back on foot.

He finally made it back. Other than being soaking wet, bruised from the hail and extremely tired he was fine. They're supposed to have the 2nd round of the tournament today, but as of last night he was still a bit spooked from the ordeal and wasn't sure if he was going to play or not.

Here's some of the hail:

Oooh, nice distance and nice effort over the distance!! Just less than an hour I estimate.

Yes, thanks, I'm happy with my effort today.

Uneventful ride. There were some kids out on the streets about 8:00 which threw me for a loop, then I remembered the school board caved to the teenagers and decreed high school now starts at 8:30 vice 8:00 for the rest of the schools. (Old fart moment here...) It did mean there wasn't as much traffic as usual, so that's a good thing for me. (Also a good thing my kids have graduated and left home so I don't have to worry about getting them to school and picking them up at two different times!)

Git on that saddle an git 'er done!

Jesus. This would be a time that I'm glad to wear a helmet. You can get knocked out with hail that size!

It has been a while since I have checked in on here and I am now caught up on this thread

I have been riding along. Last week I was off and at the beach and was going to ride 30-40 everyday I thought, but the headwinds and my route not being rideable I ended the week with less miles than I expected to get. I was 12.87 miles short of beating last year's July total and that is kinda disappointing. I am thinking that last year was my high mileage mark because this year I am just riding less. I am enjoying more of the riding though. More mountain and group road rides vs extra miles while commuting.

I have ridden for 55 days straight and am doing well in National bike challenge this year. I think I have missed only two days since may 1st

Yes Sir!!

Lightning be damned!!

Good to hear from you Matt. You are doing well in the challenge. I tend not to ride on weekends so I miss a lot of points and miles there. I've been bouncing around #1400 - 1500 nationwide and just under #30 for NC. What is your state rank?

Chapeau to you if you ride during most of the winter.

Not all winter, maybe a dozen days each winter. By winter, I'm referring to snowcover: one year, snow was so late I rode (in the cold) my Kona Sutra road-style touring bike until December 22 at which point, it snowed and the snow stayed for the winter.

[MENTION=366933]mgw4jc[/MENTION] I think I am 14th in the state! if I am reading this website right!

Here I am, feeling proud of how my speed has increased so much, and then [MENTION=439013]Amitoj[/MENTION] reports his time, and he's much faster. OK, so I'm really just competing with myself, not others. Today is my third day in a row riding into work, and I debated whether I would. I decided to take the heavier bike because it's more comfortable if I choose to ride gently. Well, I ended up riding really hard.

Now it's time for me to go home, and I think it's raining. Time to make a decision...

Well, that didn't last long. The ride back home dropped down to 17.4 mph average. Don't know whether it was the wind or the rain or lack of carbs during the day.
Riding in the rain is a mixed bag. While the rain drops sting on the downhills, they are quite enjoyable on the plains and uphills.

Today is my first bike commute to work this week due to having to deal with car issues and life demands. It was a pleasant commute with mostly clear skies. I saw something on the side of the road that I was thinking was a dead animal it turned out to be a big piece of trash and I was happy that it was not an animal. Funny the way that works cause usually I hate trash on the roadside . I guess I hate dead animals more than trash.

This looks like an interesting challenge. Is it annual?

Unexpectedly cool this morning, 11C/52F, so rather than getting up at 6am for a 44km ride, I waited till 7am when the temperature rose to 13C/55F, a bit more tolerable, and I rode the 9km route into work (2/3 of the ride was into a headwind, yuck!). This afternoon's ride home should be in much nicer temperatures so maybe I'll go for a long ride home (leftovers for dinner, the others can prepare their own meals when they feel hungry, I don't have to get home early to cook a new meal tonight).

Hope your ride was warmer than mine!

The thermometer read 61°F this morning, until I got outside and also discovered it was about 95% humidity, a 20 mph headwind and overcast with a light drizzle. I just wore my t-shirt and shorts (hey, it's still August!) About four miles down the road I was really wishing I had thrown on some gloves. I'm not supposed to be this cold in the summer.

Days like today make me wonder how I manage to commute all winter when I'm freezing in August.

I think this is the third year for the challenge. It's interesting to see where you fall across the state and country, but beyond that there is not much to it.

I would love to see a 52F morning! If it was going to warm up I'd probably still do short sleeves too.

67F this morning. The afternoons have not been getting too hot. I was locked out of the house when I got home yesterday. We are going out of town next week and I gave up my house key for the house sitter who will be coming. And apparently the remote entry to the garage door has a dead battery. My wife was out picking up kids and made a detour to let me in.

I could have gone for a short ride, but opted to just hang on the front porch. Then I mowed the yard, ate dinner and took the youngest to the pool for a bit.

We are probably moving kiddo to a different daycare, and so those (up to) 2 days a week I've been riding him to daycare might go away. It adds 4 miles to the trip, and exposes the kid to 3 more miles of artery roadside. There are bike trails, but they're too circuitous for commuting.