Hi Everybody,

This is my first post here, but I have been lurking in the background for several months. This forum is great and thanks to everyone that has posted their commuting experiences. This has really got me pumped and today made my 2nd ride into work. This is actually my first ride into work at normal start time. So I had to be up by 4:30am to get on the road by 5am to make it to work before 6 am.

I ride a Giant OCR2 that I bought a couple of years ago. The ride is 9.8 miles to work, but will be 15 miles on the way back. The reason is that my first ride I did, I rode back the same way and the big trucks, dump trucks, and traffic was not to my liking. So I am going to take a different route home.

Again this forum is great to build up confidence. I started back riding in January and kept pressing on. Still don't have a lot of miles built up, but the riding is getting easier. One of the reasons for getting back on the bike was to cut weight. I finally hit the 200 mark and decided that I better do something quick. I'm now down to 190. So not bad for a few months of riding, and just turned 47 last week.

Thanks again to all of you.

ty

Congrats and welcome. That's quite a long commute to start with!! You may see that you'll have to fine tune your route a little bit; I agree big trucks and big roads can be scary. Keep it up!!!

GOOD! this ia pretty cool forum community, welcome to the commuter forum. Its such a joy using your strenght to get to the workplace.

Stick with it and my June you'll want to stretch those ride homes to 20miles or more for the fun of it. When I get time and the weather is nice I'll turn my 13mi commute into 25 miles.

Welcome to the experience. It kinds of gets into you. The nights I have to take the truck to work, I wish I had ridden my bike instead.

Welcome to the forum and the world of bicycle commuting. It's good to hear you are enjoying the experience.

I am kind of a newb on the forum too and you are right, this is a great place and I have learned a lot here from just reading the posts. Even though I am kinda new to this forum I have been bike commuting and riding for over 30 years off and on. Unlike yourself my current ride to work is less than 3 miles. It only takes me 10-15 mins to get there depending on traffic and lights but I ride my bike everywhere else too since I don't have a car and hate public transit. I have been car free now for several years.

Best of luck out there on the road and ride safe!

I find traffic less stressful on busy streets when I wear a glasses mounted mirror. The busy streets on my route have wide lanes so I never get squeezed.

Just to give an update....I rode back home from work yesterday and it was a 15 mile ride back. So a total of 25 miles round trip. On the way home my quads were tired or felt tired because of the lactic acid build up from the morning ride, I would guess. After about 5 miles into the ride, my quads started to feel pretty good. This route back home was the first time I rode this route and it has some rolling hills on it. I had one hill that was a beast.

Getting up this morning, I felt like I would not be able to ride today. I hadn't planned on it anyway, but just checking anyway. My guess that doing two rides a week for a little while is about all I'm going to be able to do until my stamina gets better and I get better conditioned.

In any case, it was definitely nice to be able to ride to work and back on the bike. I can see how this could become addictive.

You all have a great ride today

ty

2 rides a week is a good start. In time you can always add in a day.

+1

I'm planning on doing that this afternoon including a couple of beastly climbs just because. Maybe my co-workers that think i'm nuts are onto something

Congratulations. the 20min ride in the morning and the afternoon are the best part of my day. And during DST, I'll hop on the road bike for another 10-20 miles in the evenings. Stick with it and you'll be a happier person.

better safe than sorry ...

welcome

I'm a long time lurker here too! You are definitely on the right tract and taking it slow should keep them unwanted injuries away.

Ride safe. Always!