Since I posted about my first commute here, I've been commuting part way by either carpooling with someone else or parking at a park and ride then biking the last 5-7 miles or so. My goal was to eventually ride all the way from my house (about 17 miles). The distance isn't what concerned me - it's the hills!

However I've been doing more hills and they've been getting easier, and I've been getting more comfortable in traffic so the few iffy roads that didn't have bike lanes didn't scare me any more. And... proud to say I actually did it today! I guesstimated it would take about an hour and a half and it ended up taking me 1:34, counting the part where I stopped to catch my breath up the first big hill.

Elevation along the route looks like this (as you can see, since I live on a big hill I have three hills to climb on the way home... gulp.):

Good job!! Keep it up!

Fantastic! Keep at it

Great job! Toward the beginning of the summer I finally made the leap and tried my 15 mile commute, it really is amazing how simple it seems after you do it for a little while. And on the topic of the hills getting easier, I'll quote Greg LeMond - "It never gets easier, you just go faster". I have two massive hills on my commute and nowadays by the time I reach the top I'm still as worn out as I was on day 1... but I do them in half the time. I bet you'll shave at least 20 minutes off that ride in a month if you keep at it!

Echoing all of the above. Great job! It'll get easier and you'll start to look forward to the climb home. My daily's 41 mi w/a 500 ft elevation difference...homeward climb. The Greg Lemond quote referred to above always comes to mind while I'm in the middle of a climb. Again, stay with it and you'll surprise yourself.

Congratulations on completing the first round trip commute. In a couple of months you'll wonder why you ever thought those hills were so hard.

Congratulations on the commute, but I should point out that I've been commuting a long time and I do notice some 7% grade on that trip. Be challenging for me.

I remember the first time I made the hills. Way to go!

Very cool. Your one-way commute is exactly the length of my roundtrip!

Yeah, actually if I expand the window in the app there is a portion inside there that is 9%.. but the average if you shrink the graphic down is 7% for that section. I think that's where I almost died. I pulled over and started digging a grave but then after I caught my breath I decided to hop back on the bike.

Excellent! I still have to commute both ways, I usually only do one.

Been there done that. My commute is like yours, only I do 11 miles going in and 15-16 going home. The route crosses several creeks and low areas and the uphill climbs on the other side are rough.
In the beginning, I stopped to rest at many points along the way. Today, I make them all in the mid range of the lowest chain ring on my triple. I can usually get a long way up them in the middle chain ring and climbing on the pedals, before shifting down to the lowest range.

It gets better.

Impressive.

And it's funny that your elevation graph looks like a sine wave.