Did 28 miles before work this morning in a warmish drizzle. Really a lovely ride through the Yolo Co. farmland. Now, it's completely pouring so I was lucky to miss the heavy rain.

A first for me: I set off to work on my bicycle even though it was raining at the time. Well, drizzling. And 65*F. Baby steps, baby steps.

OMG 73F!
I swapped my panniers for a rack trunk this morning and just flew in and back. Even with lightening up my load this morning my rack trunk was packed for the ride home.
My intervals are paying off! :)

SRAM OG1070made such a big difference. With my 11-28t I didn't feel like I was training on each hill.

I hope some of that is headed this way, Data. Cold and icy this morning: 12F/-11C with thankfully light headwind. We ended up with 7-8" hereabouts (most of which seems to have fallen after my commute) yesterday. A cold but sunny afternoon left my ride home almost like normal (I guess it helped that the snowplow folks must've hit it like gangbusters given that they've been largely twiddling their thumbs all winter). That still left plenty of icy bits around though, and kept my studs on the bike (probably through tomorrow, too). Studs into the wind makes for a sloooowwwww ride.

And was it me just a week ago saying that it was probably time to put the winter tights away? Serves me right. :D

It's 14F here this morning, and I have to pick my sons from daycare and wait for an hour bus ride on the way home in a windchill in the teens this afternoon.

So... I'm bailing on the commute. :( I'll be driving my wagon with a doughnut tire on the back. Bummer.

Yesterday's ride home was a bit of a challenge on an un-plowed/un-treated MV Trail. The snow was crusted over with ice in many spots, pock-marked and rutted and, had drifts of powdery snow that were probably 12 to 18 inches. I was able to manage a steady 12 mph where there was still a few inches of powdery snow even where the drifts came up to my bottom bracket and clogged my pedals and cassette with ice/snow. I saw only two other riders (on mountain bikes) and managed to get home without dumping it. I slipped onto the grass a few times as I was riding as near the edges of trail as possible, that's where the best traction was. I made it home in about 50 minutes and proceded to shovel the front walk. I knew that the trail would be an icey mess this morning and, didn't even attempt it, will probably take the Metro the rest of the week as my rr. hub is loose and I have to get some cone wrenches to fix it.

Last night's ride was a b**ch! The wind and cold were just relentless.

This morning 8*F, no wind, nice bright sun...it turned out to be a nice ride.

I'm a firm believer it isn't the temp, it's isn't rain or snow or ice that is my nemesis...it's the freaking wind.

Rain, that's all I remember from this morning.

Gorgeous ride in, -11C no wind... oh and we didn't get the freezing rain followed by snow that was called for in the forecast, so the roads were great. Almost good enough for the road bike.

Saw my fellow commuter again, same time, same place. Talked briefly at the lights.

It's a beautiful morning here in Austin. Maybe mid 40s and sunny.

I rode the Cervelo today, as it's finally light enough in the morning that I don't need a headlight. I think I might take the bike out and cruise around a little during my lunch break.

15F this morning so I wore a Patagonia beanie and a shemagh wrapped around my face and head. Too much! I was so sweaty and hot when I got to work, steam was coming off my head. Even though my gloves are falling apart, my hands were fine thanks to silk glove liners. Feet were toasty thanks to snow boots rated to -40F.

drove due to lingering illness. Yesterday I felt so much better I was wondering about the tradeoff... if I was too sick to bike would I also be too sick to really function if I sat down at my desk? But it turned out I only felt better than the previous couple days. Today I have a functioning brain so used the car to get it to the office w/o asking too much of the lungs.

Hope you feel better soon Hardy. I felt weak today but I pretty much do every morning because I don't eat before I ride in.

I also overdressed this morning. 40 degrees and I had a jersey, 2 long sleeve jerseys, vest and arm warmers. Way too much!

It was 12F this morning with a very strong wind. And we got a fairly big snowfall, and the plowed areas are totally icy. So I didn't pedal in today. It would have been mighty painful.

It's been pouring off and on for the last two days, but I've been lucky to have dry commutes both to and from the office. Just lucky, I guess.

I rode, and it totally sucked. Could have been worse, I suppose; when I got to work I heard a spspspspspsps kind of sound and realized I had just punctured my front tire. And for some stupid reason today I didn't have a patch kit with me. Had to walk to a bike shop to get one. Looks like we're good to go for the ride home, though.

Coldcoldbrrrrcold, about 5 degrees F. Had to pull over to pull on glove covers, and it didn't help even a little bit. My fingers felt like they were going to break off by the time I pulled up to work.

Saw a guy on a flat bar road bike going very slow and weaving across the lane. He didn't look like much of a cyclist. No big deal, but as I maneuvered around him, I discovered his bike was this beautiful Colnago with aftermarket flat bars. I felt really sorry for the bike.

Don't make judgments like that! One day, someone will judge you badly. Maybe he's really a good cyclist. Or maybe he'll become one.

On a leisure ride on a hot summer day, I saw some "poseurs" with beer bellies and super-fancy bikes at a rest stop. One guy was quite a bit older than I was, but after a very painful mile, I couldn't keep up with him. That put me in my place.

It wasn't so much his speed, but the lack of bike handling ability while riding a top model bike which caught be by surprise. Plus, I don't see many Colnagos used as commuters.

Oh, and I secretly wished we could trade bikes. ;)

You coulda asked! And for all you know, he wouldn't have cared and said OK!

Ha ha! Good point.

Great commute today to work and back, it's still pretty wintery around here. It was 15F this morning and the ride home was 26F. We still have a lot of snow and ice but it was still a good commute. I'm so ready for spring.

Started hailing about a 1/2 a mile in to my commute. Fun.


(I wasn't worried about my wet pants, wet shoes, soaked socks, IPOD, or myself. I was worried about my blackberry!)