congratulations America

Finally back on the bike! Had a nice, uneventful ride in. I did have a driver roll down his window and say " that's a great way to start the day", which surprised me enough that all I could think to say was "thanks". I guess "yes it is" would have been a better response, but at 6AM I'm suprised I managed to emit something more meaningful than a grunt. Should be a beautiful ride home with the leaves at their peak, sunny, ~75F and a tailwind :-)

The first half was okay. Now I've got to ride another 6+ to another office building to get some information and back.

The total ride (both legs) will be just over 11 miles and will be my full commute beginning in January.

Ride home last night hurt. This is why I only do it once a week right now. 85 miles in a day, with tons of climbing, kicks my butt. It's like I never get a chance to recover during the ride. As soon as I cruise down one hill, the next one is staring at me. I think I need to pack lighter. Right now, I have ~20lbs of gear. But heck, I don't want to be stuck in the dark without proper tools and such. And right now I'm in the dark all the way - both ways.


This is one leg of my commute. From work to home. (notice the biggest climb peaks over the image.) God help me. I want to do this twice a week.

Sincerely,
Wimpy Boy

Real nice this morning. Low 40sF, no wind, mostly clear sky. Quite comfortable. I passed a couple of riders but didn't see anyone going the other way. I need to clean my chain.

Beautiful weather today, although I strangely miss the dark mornings. Somehow I feel more visible when it's dark because my lights light me up so much.

I didn't ride the past two days due to rain and meetings that required my vehicle at work. You might think I would feel all rested up today, but I was achy and sore. My shoulder hurt, my ankle was sore and my legs felt tired. Strange because I also got a lot more sleep than usual last night after staying up late to watch the election returns the night before.

Another rideless week. I had to go in Monday for a transjugular liver biopsy (not fun) and was told by the doctor not to drive for a day, so I took Tuesday off. I don't feel like pushing it too soon, but I do have to work this weekend, so maybe I can ride then.

It was only a light drizzle when I left my house in South Philly. 1 mile later, it was a downpour. It was awesome. Put my new Ogio RPG bag to the test, which I'm happy to report is highly water resistant.

I went to Target last night and bought some more base layer stuff. I also picked up the $6.99 Christmas lights to decorate my bike later in the month. Those things are awesome.

That said, I overslept badly this morning, and had to drive. Too bad, this is going to be the last good weather day in a while.

I caged. I have off-site meetings today and don't have enough time between them to ride.

I'm treating every commute these days like it's my last, because it easily could be. It snowed on the way home last night, just lazy flakes melting as they hit the ground but there was a little accumulation (which then melted).
The ride in this morning was abit toasty, i overdressed.

Yesterday's snow did not stick, and the ground is warm enough that ice is not forming. Sliccks FTW! Traffic has slowed significantly since last week, but there is more volume. It all seems to be working out...

Left work it was 45 degs. By the time the sun was long down it dipped into the low 20's. The feet were a bit chilly. It's time to break out the winter riding shoes for the commute home.

My legs are tired.
It was windy as all heck on the ride home yesterday. It was windy this morning. It will be windy on the way back.
Not just windy but cold and windy. At least I brought extra food.
That and I am already sick of rarely seeing the sun while riding. It gets light just before I show up to work and sets when I leave.
Enough whining.

We've been enjoying nice 65* afternoon weather. The thermometer on our house has read 47*F the last two mornings, but my ride drops into a valley for 4 miles, where my bike thermometer dropped to 33*F and there was frost.
This is the last day. Tomorrow they're saying cooler and rain, Saturday they say sleet/snow. I guess it may be time to put the studs on.

my legs felt a bit tired today too, probably because i ran last night and it's the end of the week...i have to clean my chain tonight it's pretty gunked up and i should probably check the tension as well

cheers all~

ok, so I was actually worried/scared about the ride home last night.
First real time in wet type conditions. No actual rain falling, but the roads were wet and my first commute from work since the time change. Darkness, but ahh.. I added the new NiteRider light.

Ok, it was just flat awesome. I was so stoked when I got home (sweating like a hog cause I overdressed), that I wanted to just go ride more.

This morning, well... it was a good ride in. I like the mornings. Always do.

Passed two other commuters on the way in, nice brisk air, rack only had 3 of us there, today.

Ok, today was by far the most badass commute I've ever done. Rain like you wouldn't believe and a decent headwind the entire way. My rain gear worked fairly well for the first 15k but by the time I got to work I might as well have jumped into the ocean. Not only that, when I got to work I realised I forgot to bring a shirt to work in. So here I am sitting in just my jeans and an old sweatshirt that left at work thank god. I'm looking outside and the the streets are flooding. I am taking the bus home. Gotta love living on the west coast of Canada.

+1

(knocks on wood)

Absolutely gorgeous morning. My buddy and I had agreed to go for an easy spin but we got into a pretty heated argument about Prop 8 and we found that we went much harder than expected.

Political arguments: the new training tool.

Hahahaha...so much for rec/recovery ride.

Rain wind this morning, mostly wind but temps near 60 deg. I'm hoping the wind will be at my back on the way home. I'm sure glad I added fenders. I have a new LHT that I'm anxious to ride for the first time but ever since I got it it's been raining and I've been hesitant to ride in the rain when I have another bike to ride.

Took the car in for scheduled maintenance today, so I drove.

Crappy. That's how it was. Though at least I didn't have to ride the T.

I forgot my fenders, so I arrived with a thoroughly wet and dirty butt. Ran over a piece of glass that managed to puncture my front Ultra Gatorskin (and of course, the tube). My Superflash developed a leak and was activating the button at random. My headlight's batteries died. Finally, some idiot turned off of a one-way onto the two-way that I was on, but did so apparently thinking that the latter was also a one-way, i.e. in my lane, directly toward me. That last one was only a close call, not a collision, but still . . . .

Here's hoping that the ride home is better. Luckily, my wonderful girlfriend was running late and was able to bring in my fenders with her, and I was able to make it over there during lunch, so at least there's that.