Windy and cool.

Interesting conversation/debate with my buddy over twenty miles which ranged from the on-again-off-again special session of the Legislature, the local mayoral race, new restaurants in Midtown, whether thin or deep dish is the true Chicago style pizza, McCain's incredibly confusing explanation of his mortgage bailout plan, the pithiness of British political insults, what our kids are dressing up for on Halloween, and one of my young teammates who has begun to dominate the local group rides.

So basically we hit all the regular topics.

Coolest commute of the season- low 60s. Yeah, for you yankees that's tropical but for my thinned-out Texas blood it was a little cool. I rode in gym shorts and a t-shirt. Another cooler would require a long-sleeve shirt I think.

The commute was tough. Conditions were fine, but since I drove to work yesterday I took a ride yesterday evening after I got home- about 18 miles worth, and on my old road bike so my posture different than I'm used to with my hybrid or English roadster. As a result I was just kinda stiff this morning and never really felt.... right. I got to work okay, and probably not too much slower than normal, but it was a struggle.

bad morning.
had a very close call
damn car came out of the parking lot without stopping to check for traffic
almost ran me over
more like i almost smashed into her car

good thing i got those brand new brakes, it made a huge difference.

First below freezing ride and as I was about at my destination, I came upon 3 black bear, two cubs and a sow. They looked like black pearls shining in my Fenix Q5 helmet light.

Nice healthy looking bears. They at first started up a tree but as soon as I stopped to look at them, they moved on.

I ran over a squirrel on the way home.

I didn't kill it, mind you.... but it ran between the front tire and rear tire as I rolled by. I thought for sure I would squish it but he got through without mishap.

miserable ride home.. racing to beat the heavy rain that was coming... then a flat!

so replaced tire under the elevated train tracks, and managed to get completely soaked
on the last 2 miles.... gggrrrrrrrrr.....

Someday you will look back on this and laugh...right?

I had a good commute. Took a longer loop home. Had a lot of headwind and felt like I had a flat half the ride! Us single speeders have to suck it up! I love it though.

Met a roadie on the MUP yesterday afternoon and was promptly dropped like a summer fling when school started.

Pretty good ride home last evening. A little bit of a drizzle, but not too bad.

This morning's ride was sluggish. I left late and couldn't really get into a rhythm.

Beautiful ride today, slight chill in the air and a little fog in some spots. Really grooving on the DLG with the Romisen flashlights up front and the PB SuperFlashes in the back; seems like the drivers are giving me more room when they pass.

Weather was great, traffic was not bad, but my legs were completely gone. Still beats driving, of course.

Really nice weather this AM. Hit a headwind in an unusual spot - it's usually a tailwind there - but it was a short stretch.

Ended up behind another bike commuter I've seen on my route before. Youngish guy (20s probably) on a department store MTB (one piece cranks). Caught him going up a hill in traffic and had to drop down to the old zero-effort-gravity-does-the-work climbing technique (out of the saddle, super low cadence) in order to stay behind him. His chain was skipping on every pedal stroke and when I eventually passed him I said, "hey, sounds like your chain is in pretty rough shape." He didn't hear me, though. iPod, ya know?

Had to make a detour about 1.5 miles past my new building to go pick up my replacement badge. It's all good--I've been looking for ways to extend my commute anyway.

Saw 3 or 4 other commuters this morning...not including the commuters of the Canada Geese variety who landed on the road right in front of the parking deck. I love watching them come in for a landing, practically vertical.

maybe, but suckage was pretty high at that moment... bright side is while repairing tire in my warm and dry kitchen, I did manage to find the tiny tiny piece of glass that was in my tire that was causing my 3 flats in the past week...

i had a great ride yesterday, rode into town to meet up with a friend so we could go ride around town and over to the east end of town and enjoyed a couple brews and we had a speedy ride back to the west end of town, good times

this mornings ride was stellar too this whole week has been great

I only rode half the way home yesterday, then called for a ride. I was beat, and had drank a beer. Not a good combination.

Today, I drove.

I need to move closer to work, or work closer to home.

40F cloudy. I was a bit on the early side today and car traffic was way down so that was nice.

Ha - it's interesting reading all your cold weather posts when I live in Florida.
My car is in the shop today so I road the Trek to work. When I got there some women got the automatic door for me (I work in an office building) and as I get on the elevator I hear them comment that its cool I ride to work. At lunch I was leaving the building and a guy asked how I liked the bike since he almost got the same one. When I got to the mechanic's to check on my car some of the guys complimented me on the bike there too.
Besides being all sweaty when I arrive at my destinations - it is nice riding the bike to work. By the way, I do not go to the office in full team gear.
It seems that riding to work is viewed positively here - do you guys notice the same where you are?

I'm back! After 7 months in Afghanistan, I'm finally back at home and in the saddle again. Commute today was the best.

Welcome back and thank you for your service.

Today I rode to BloodSource for a platelet donation. I let them talk me into a double, which allowed me enough time to watch Batman Begins, but it might prevent me from doing tomorrow's group ride. I guess we'll see how I feel in the morning.

Also, I was a little annoyed to discover that they hadn't installed bike racks at their new building. I left them a note in the suggestion box.

The ride in this morning was beautiful - I think leaf color is about at its peak. Nearly ran over a snake - but when I turned around to check it out, I found out that someone already had I love snakes... When I was going through Deerfield, MA, I noticed that filming of some Mel Gibson movie is currently taking place on top of a small sandstone mountain called Sugarloaf. I've been hearing tell about this for some time, but they hav installed a huge lighting rig on top of the little lookout building that is up there - some kind of cop-terrorist movie I seem to recall. Damn good thing they didn't try to close off the road - it would have been something like a 3 mile detour, and I probably would have gone into a rant and ended up running the barricade... in any cas, I digress. A bit cool, but very colorful.

NDAZONE, People are very supportive of my biking where I work. I'm afraid I haven't inspired anyone else yet though, but they say lots of encouraging things.

Today, a cool ride in (40's) but not bad for this time of year.

I have a new bike (Quest) that's a heck of lot faster than my normal commuting bike. So today I worked on setting a new PR for the return trip (17 miles.) I was in the groove and cruising. At about mile 10 I came to a stop lite. Got in line. The lite turns green. The car in front of me starts to go. I stand up on my pedals to give it a hard crank so I can fly out of there. The car in front of me slams on her brakes (because the car in front of her did) My wheel hits her bumper, locks up causing my bike to cartwheel up resulting in me hitting the back end of her SUV with my head and upper back.

I'm ok, bikes ok, SUV's ok. The lady was super nice, apologizing for stopping so fast. But you know, I was tail gating... Could have been worse and it was my fault... A lesson learned. I was very, very fortunate.

Anyway, once she got out of my way, I cranked on those pedals and managed to beat my previous PR by a minute.. (that PR had also been set by this new bike last week.)

Other than scaring the crap out of everybody it was a great day..

Good ride in this morning. It's Canadian Thanksgiving so many people are in a holiday mood and crowding the MUP's. I swear Canadian astronaut Roberta Bondar said 'hi' to me while crossing a bridge on my ride in (I know she works in the area). I'm on days all weekend so I get to see the sunrise and sunset during my commutes. Definatly getting on the cool side but I've got this layering thing down to a science now.. Is it me or are bike shops more crowded these days?

WooHoo! Drizzle and some frozen! Nice and quiet... Good thing I re did the water resist on the tights and jacket. Just lovely...

Good day yesterday, too. Rode across town about 20 miles to take a test for work and both ways were nice and cool, foggy and chilled. Gotta say, I like cool better than hot. Don't know how you people in hot climates do it...

35 degrees and sleet. I was not looking forward to the ride...but the days that I want to take the car are the days that my husband would really need it to cart the kid around.

So, I put on my layers and my rain jacket and set out. It was not the most pleasant commute. There was a headwind, driving little droplets (pellets? needles?) of sleet into my face. My mind wandered back to when I was younger, when Sunday meant junk food and drinking and watching three football games back to back to back. I miss those days!

Anyway, I'm here, and now I know:
35 degrees + sleet = saddle up.