Saw a road bike woman who went down in light rain at the bottom of a MUP hill where it turns fairly abruptly (where the Custis trail goes under 66, close to where it meets the WO&D). I see skinny-tired riders have problems with that place sometimes. She didn't unclip before she went down, which almost certainly contributed to the amount of road/bike rash on her pinned leg. But she was OK.

Nice ride this morning with a tail wind that gave me a nice 21mph ride in to work...Coming home was different..About 30 minutes be I left is started raining very hard so on with the DRI Duks..Cateye Velo5 crapped out on the way home..

Same place I went down a month or so ago. Tires catch that painted line and down you go..

There was a spot that our club rides regularly pass that was slick even in dry pavement. One guy even spray-painted a warning on the pavement. Someone else told the city and they went by and carved some grooves into that road at that corner. I thought that was pretty cool.

tonight; half Moon with just enough small clouds to make it even prettier. temp low 70s F. Polite, though fairly numerous autos. A good ride.

There is, however, a German Shepherd in the neighborhood who's always had it in for me. This isn't the first time he's tried to attack. But tonight I saw him when he was 30-40 feet or so away. He was coming at me in that head low, building up speed type of way. With just a bit of effort, I can develop a pretty good low baritone voice. I used that tonight and barked out a good, sharp "No!". It worked perfectly. He veered off with his tail between his legs. Maybe I'm imagining the "tail" part, but he definitely went from aggression to retreat.

A simple no, in the right tone of voice is something I might never have thought of by myself. It was a tip that I picked up here at Bike Forums. So thanks to BF and whoever posted that. It worked.

Dark as usual. There was lightning flashes overhead as I stepped out of the house. I raced to work taking the most direct route in order to beat the rain.
Darn! My route was blocked with road construction and large construction vehicles parked all over the place. I had to take the next street over. I got in with seconds to spare, big fat raindrops were already plopping all around me.
Ernest

I thought I was going to get rained on, but it had just stopped before I left. High 60sF and very high humidity. A little headwind.

I was in a downpour for the last few blocks yesterday evening. My gloves have been sitting out to dry, and were still soaking wet this morning.

Lightning and thunder this AM. No commute for me today.

Almost cold this morning.

This morning I had my first flat while bike commuting since I started in April 2007. That's not so bad considering that I've commuted close to 8,000 miles during that period. It took me about 12 minutes to fix the flat, and I was very careful to search the tire tread and removed several pieces of glass that probably cause the flat. It was a slow leak and I noticed it because my rear tire started feeling squishy.

I've had other flats during the past two years, but in the other cases my tires went flat overnight while my bike was sitting in the garage. I haven't had to fix a flat on the road until today. For some reason, I have noticed a lot of broken glass on local roads lately, I guess from slobs drinking more in summer and throwing their bottles out the window.

Lots of rain overnight but the streets were fairly dry this morning. Lots of debris on some streets and near the creeks. Only 50 degrees when I started out so had on my wool socks and long sleeve shirt under my jersey. Had to take that off after 10 miles. Had to break out the rear light for the first time since May <sigh>
Saw 4 other cyclists and one runner. Oh and I was doing 35 in the lane going down a hill where the speed limit is 35. No one else around until this minivan decides she has to go around me doing 45 or 50 about 2 blocks before my left turn. Whatever. Otherwise, very nice, thanks for asking

The ride home yesterday was warm and I was riding into a headwind all the way home so I got extra sweaty. I almost drove this morning, but hardly anything was falling from the sky so I went for it only to get caught in a shower about halfway through my route, it felt good though.
I listened to Jurassic 5 on the ride, it was fun.

Came in about an hour late today, nice ride. Too much daylight that late though, I like riding in in the dark.

The ride home yesterday was stepped up a notch from my usual steady pace. I passed a guy on an older bianchi road bike with a rack/pannier, gave a friendly 'hey' and a wave as I passed. He rolled up at the next light and we chatted a bit, mainly about timed lights and such. He mentioned that one of the notoriously long lights was actually timed (I always thought it was traffic-actuated - I'll have to look this afternoon) and could be beat if you hammered the 1/4 mile or so from the light we were sitting at. so, when the light changed, he started jamming and I followed suit, knowing that I needed to be careful not to blow up before the 700' climb home (and the 2 remaining rides in this week). Anyway, it's been a long time since I've hammered like that, and it felt good to push my quads a bit now that I've been back on the bike a few months.

We made the light.

Nice and cool this morning. Great ride in.

d'oh...rode the 10 miles in, forgot my lock, security wouldn't let me bring it in, rode all the way back home and got the car. Well at least it was a decent 20 mile workout.

I wasn't feeling too energetic today, not feeling well. So I had a nice relaxing pace into work, still faster than anyone not on a road race bike, in fact I didn't come across anyone faster than me today, maybe they were already at the office).

But it was one of the best rides I had.

Not only had I not been on the bike since last Friday (6 days ago) which obviously contributed, but since I wasn't in a hurry, I had time to enjoy things, look around, and wonder if it was about the bike, or about the ride.

down to 65F this am but I have to say the biggest difference came from sleeping in the cellar rather than in the upstairs furnace I mean bedroom.

I feel a lot better right now, riding in today after taking yesterday off after 3 long hot days previously.

well gee I thought I'd report on my rainy day commute but everyone beat me to it.

5:30 am I opened garage door to head out... whoosh the clouds opened and dumped torrential rain on the road. I thought.. let's wait 5 minutes. I was planning on getting a head start today but nope not gonna happen. Waited for the worst of the jungle rain to subside and headed out. splish splash I was taking a bath. rainy rides can be fun. first rainy day trip on my new 700c/28's UltraGatorskin tires. Was very cautious as they are slick compared to my old 35's. No problem to report but looks like folks out on BF had a few problems with slippery roads.

One RxR track on route. Driver races around me as I was approaching the rails and slams on the brakes. lord am I lucky not to have rear ended them. Those tracks are bumpity bumpity and slick to boot. Grrrr....

Made it to work safe and sound if not soaked like a wet puppy but hey I volunteered for this....

Now my clothes are drying under my desk but will be soggy for the commute home this after noon. Oh joy 10+ miles in wet bibs and shoes.

From Wet'Lanta your early commuter at work.

It was about 102 degrees when I left the office yesterday and after riding about 2 miles I decided it would be much, much wiser to take the water taxi and cut out a couple miles of riding in blinding sun and up two hills. It felt like Arizona out there. At least the remaining two hills I had to climb were in the shade for the most part but I don't ever think I've ever sweated like that before. It was pretty bad. And muggy. And today if it hits 100 I'll do the same thing. Saw many cyclists using the ferry to cut out that portion of the commute too.

There's this weird stench corridor in the 60's on Lex that had me gagging on the way in. Combine equal parts of putrid, sour rot and diesel exhaust and you get the smell. On the bright side, wool pants + Brooks saddle = silky smoothness. But if the heat and humidity continue to rise, I may ride home in my underwear.

Rugged. 55 miles home on Tuesday evening with ~3,000' of climbing from CT to western Mass. Then the same again back to work on Wednesday morning. Needless to say, it's not a commute I can do often!

So I'm not the only one with a double commute today. Forgot my work badge, so also my gym locker key and bike lock key. Mine's only 6 miles rt though, so not as good of a workout.

On the way home I saw the doe that I occasionally see in the same place on the MUP and just a little further, a very ragged looking fox.

MM

We broke another heat record for the second day in a row, the humidex was 39C...I managed to ride home and to LBS to have something checked out on my hybrid. The air quality sucks.

Holy $#|+. Rain! Buckets of it. Possibly the most rain I've ever had on a morning commute. Saturated my helmet pads. Stinging brine ran down into my eyes. I stopped under a bridge (on the MUP) and tried to squeeze the pads. I think that only made it worse.

Saw a grand total of 3 people (all runners) on the MUP, for a trail population density of 0.6 persons per mile.

Here's what my iPhone told me before I left the house. I live near the point far to the left of the crosshairs.