A pleasant uneventful commute this morning, with partly cloudy skies. I took a different route than usual and ended with same amount of distance. Also there was some debris in the roads this morning due to some storms passing through last night.

It was tough to get out of bed this morning. I had to keep telling myself how good it would feel once I got into work, and what would I do if this were the only means of transportation I had? That little pep talk worked, and yes I do feel good. There was a great deal of lightening to the south (in other words, the direction I was headed) this morning but fortunately- or unfortunately, depending on how you look at these things- I am not fast enough to catch a thunderstorm :). Very little traffic, no rain, it was a good ride. I am a little envious of those of y'all reported temps in the 60s' and below. I don't remember what that feels like.

It felt more humid and more sticky for some reason today. 74F and 73 dew point and 96% humidity. Ugh.
But tonight's low is supposed to be 64F, so that will be a big change!

I left a little later that I like to for work, so took the shorter routes. But then I was at the office early so added a little ride time up and back the MUP.

Woah, I guess so! Guess I'll stop complaining about riding in the rain!! Predicted cool down following the rains arrived - 58F this morning

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday morning felt like I was swimming to work. Today felt like it was like a regular ride. Yeeay for lower humidity. Got the car back from the mechanic. So did a park and ride today. Yesterday's ride to the mechanic was a bit of a slog. It was around 90F, humid and had a good head wind heading south west toward Newark. :thumb:

It was raining a bit too heavily last night, to bike home, so I caught a ride. A bit cooler this morning but still humid.

Glad to hear your basement was still dry. Only time I had a flooded basement was back in 1999 with hurricane Floyd. It was downgraded to a tropical storm but still caused some havoc with the stream/brook down the street. It overflowed and then the water went under the train bridge and down my street. There was enough water that you could paddle a canoe on my side of the block. My basement took about 1.5 feet of water. A little before that, I decided to shutdown the power main to the house in case it kept on going up. I fixed a crack in the wall on the basement back door since then. So it no longer floods like that. I also have never seen a flood like that and hope I never will again. We do pay flood insurance so it came in handy back then.

a bit warmer, a little hazy, and a bit breezy. Looking forward to a nice tailwind for the trip home.

Nice ride this morning. Heavy overcast and pleasantly cool, although the sun's come out so I might get cooked on the way home.

57F, heavy overcast. Just plain old overcast, not pave height vs tree height. Also, not forest fire smog either (yet)

Finished work late, so took shorter route home, but has a long steep hill to climb. Averaged a fast (for me!) 12.6 mph over 8.0 miles.

Broke 300 miles for the month, and 1,000 miles for the year. Last year, I did only 450 miles total, and my highest monthly total was 162 miles (also August), so will easily double that.

Lately, though, it hasn't been as much fun, or as enjoyable as it used to be. Fortunately, momentum is working in my favor as it has become routine, a set of habits. As the shadows get longer, earlier, I have to question how committed I will feel during September, which is when I quit last year. I don't want to let go of the mental and physical health gains, but the idea of riding in traffic in the twilight/dark is intimidating to me at this point.

Definitely some decisions, and some adaptations to make (if I am to continue into late September).

I grew up in Boston, so I know what you mean about the darkness. Then I moved to Stockholm and I learn what real winter commuting was like. Better infrastructure but quite dark and lonely (like a Scandinavian TV show).

I say get some studded tyres and keep it up :)

A nice uneventful commute this morning with the temp at 57f degrees when I left the house. Again today I took another route to work. This route passes a winery unfortunately they are not open at 6am.

I was running about 15 minutes late this morning, but gained about 5 minutes of that time back comparing it to my past arrival times at work. Got chased by dogs yesterday going home, as well as having a couple of minor mechanical issues that needed to be addressed.
Traffic was slightly heavier this morning, but I have to say that for the most part in my neck of the woods drivers are very courteous (or at least tolerant) from what I have seen so far. But my new personal pet peeve is garbage cans- those huge flip-top black ones. For some reason several people along the highway I ride feel it necessary to not only leave them out for days on end, but to not have any reflective material on them and to position them so that they are within three inches of the traffic lane to the left and the large eroded pot hole leading to a drainage ditch behind them to the right.

I only encounter them in a couple of neighborhoods. For the most part they are only out for a day, but I do have to watch for them. A couple of years ago in another part of town, a boy was riding to school on a sidewalk and hit one of those, causing him to go into the street and get hit by a car. Sad.

The temp here dropped a little to 70F vs 75 yesterday, but the dew point and humidity were much lower. I was much less sweaty (hardly at all) after riding in with a little bit harder effort than yesterday. We have nice weather forecast for the next few days.

53F this morning, put on real gloves! Almost got nailed by a pack of teenage boys. They were turning on to the trail and I was turning off - they were going way too fast (and if I'm honest I was too) and 6 kids riding in a pack is not conducive to tight turns. Somehow I managed to miss hitting any of them but was sure I was going down because I couldn't get my foot released. Just as I started to tip it popped out. I put on my best fatherly look and said "slow down boys." Schools back in session!

52F, blinding sun

Been really bad at riding this summer. However, I did commute in today and did 21km/13mi in a decent time so I'm happy with that. Weather was cool though, 10C/50F but I should be used to these temps this summer (bleh!!). My total distance cycling this year also is really down, currently sitting at just shy of 1900km whereas a regular year, I'm over 4,000km (for the year) so I have a lot to make up if I want to achieve similar distances this year too.

I have to find the energy over the next 3 weeks to do some really good rides so I have the ability to ride 4 centuries in 4 days for a charity ride. The charity ride will certainly add a lot of distance to the year and if I can get in ~1,000km between now and then, I'll be in good shape, both for the ride as well as for the year's distance.

Great morning for a ride! I think it was 62F when I started; that's a big difference from the usual mid-70s that go up to 80 by 8:00. I was so inspired I did a two mile loop around the office before I went in.

The daylight hours are getting shorter, and I will not let that discourage me yet. They're still long enough to enjoy.

Yesterday, I rode into work hard for the sake of strength building. I did well and had fun.

I stayed at work late and rode home at dusk.

Most of my route is on a MUP. I wanted to go fast, but I also don't want to be a jerk at it. Riding 20 mph in close proximity to people isn't the greatest idea, so I'm developing methods. I slow down when I get near people. Accelerating from a slow down can be a form of exercise.

Thinking about risk as I rode, I realize it's useful to calculate risk, and one way to do that is to size people up with respect to their predictability. A small child without a parent holding their hand is the most risky, so I pass them at something like 2 mph. One of the lowest risk types is the teenage boys doing wheelies. They tend to be skilled, and they ride in a straight line, at least when we are going in opposite directions. Everyone else is in the middle of the spectrum.

I have a sore throat today and am working from home. No bike! :cry:

cool, cloudy, and calm. I'm enjoying the still-quiet streets. School starts Sept 5, so I have a little more time before traffic really picks up again.

Made a couple of adjustments after getting to work. I noticed the chain on my fixed gear was a bit too slack. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that all 5 bolts holding the chainring to the crank were loose, and a couple were very loose. Got those tightened up (I should invest in some loc-tite) and adjusted the back wheel a bit. It's a brand new chain and new cog, so I'm hoping the chain hasn't already stretched.

Temps were only about 57F this morning, it felt really ****ing wonderful, a few degrees cooler on average and I might have to start putting on a jacket. Once it starts dropping into the 40's it's time to break out gloves. But still cool but sunny this morning was glorious. So far I'm at 7/8 commute rides for the week. I'll be heading to the community cycleworks this weekend which is an extra 20 miles as well. I think, I'll dig around their parts bins to look for a nice rear rack.

Good ... getting slightly cooler (it's 70F today) which a nice seaside temp for a short bike ride

There was Coxsackievirus going around at my son's day camp. My wife is a bit sick with some flu-like symptoms. I'm thinking that she might have got it from him. Hope you don't have it. But its usually one of those things that goes away in two to three days. Feel better!