Cool morning, still very dark out. The Sun is out now and it's 70* ... taking the long way home tonight, for sure.
The new steed wants more and more and more and ...

mangosalsa, that's gorgeous.

For me, I'm full of excuses, excuses. I can't quite get ready early enough every day. I don't want to be late for work. The silly thing is that cycling takes only about 20 or 30 minutes extra. Today's excuse was rain. Now I'm at work and I realize I would have beaten the rain by an hour or so, and who knows if it's going to rain this evening? Even if it does, I'd survive.

Why do I keep avoiding it? I didn't cycle in last week, either. Every time I manage to do it, I have a great time, but I keep denying myself the pleasure and satisfaction.

Rain Rain Rain. T-a-B'd the 7 yr old to the dentist and then to school.



(one pannier is full of 14 apples sliced into 8ths, and a costco package of goldfish, it's our turn for daily snack in the 7 yr old's class this week)

After a couple of warm days back to the 30's f again. Nice and sunny though.

Saw a couple of white tails on ride in. Haven't seen any for years.

I make the commitment to ride the night before. In the morning I get up and go before I can think about it. If I stop to think about it or it is over. I am always glad I did once I'm out there.

Same here; took the long way home.

chilly and overcast but it's all relative. Felt warm in comparison to the last 4 months. a touch of the wind in the face both on the way in and on the way home- how does that happen?

this is a good time to ride the bike path that runs from Boston to Watertown. It's starting to get a few more joggers etc but pretty empty and no snow or ice left- makes for a nice ride.

BTW I like mangosalsa's rig, too.

"KLINGER!! How dare you wear that hat in formation?!"

"It's Spring, sir!"

43F/6C.

Another normal ride in 30 F (-1 C) and no wind. Tonight is supposed to be colder in the 20s F (-2 C).
First day of spring, so that is a good thing. Next week has promises to be warmer pushing up to 60 F
(15 C) during the day, so hopefully the mornings will be in 40s F (4 C). I saw 4 individual cyclists going in the opposite direction on Wed afternoon (it was warm), and none were commuting, but it was a pleasure to see that many cyclists. On Fridays, while cutting through the local college, I always seem to see a couple going in different directions.

Dude, I think you need a new thermometer. About an hour and a half ago, BWI airport was reporting temps of 43F--unless the Columbia you live in is not in Howard County...

28*F but it felt a lot warmer. Suppose to be high 30's and sun going home.
And I agree after months of single digits in the + and -, 30's and up feels great.

Of course forgot my damn key for my lock so had to leave the bike with security while I ran up to my office to get my spare, must be spring fever.

Mid-teens F for me. Light tailwind. More blue sky. Lots of geese floating in the lake. TGIF!

Oh man I hate to rain on all you chilly riders parade but it's been nice here in Atlanta. 46 deg for the morning commute but 67 yesterday afternoon ride home. Looks like it will hit 64 for the ride home again today. Clear weather is your friend. It is most definitely spring here.

Cool, not cold; and gently snowing! A beautiful spring morning.

Did 5 for 5 this week. Thats a first for 2009. The weather has been been quite nice although there has been quite the temp swing. A low of 17F for this morning all the way to a high of 73F on tuesday. All these temp swings means that I have quite the assortment of clothing lying around my office. Also got my first ever "get on the sidewalk" yell yesterday. I made no reply but it was hard to bite my tongue.

Hope I can do 5 for 5 again next week. Every one have a good and safe weekend!!

5 for 5 - well done! I only did that once last year for 170 miles. It was quite the milestone for me. I should do better this year with a shorter commute and padded liners! :-)

Those temp ranges sound sick. I wan to wait 'till there's a better balance but one can't avoid the abundance and variety of clothes, that's for sure.

+1 on the clothes

It's driving my wife nuts because I have 3 different sets of clothes out every morning as I don't know what to expect for the AM temperatures lately.

Exciting morning commute yesterday: halfway through my commute I saw a German Shepherd puppy running around on an arterial road, "playing" with cars and very narrowly avoiding getting crushed. A puppy-rescue mission ensued. Together with a local resident we managed to corral the puppy into her backyard and tie it to a fence. She said she knew the puppy's owners, and that the puppy must've escaped after they left for work, so hopefully it's been returned to its rightful home later that day. At least I was happy to see no squashed puppies on the way back.

Was late for a meeting because of all of this, but so was my boss, so that was all right.

7 degrees of separation? everything is related to cycling? last weekend while driving my car to bike on a rail trail I saw a squished kitty on the highway. it was near a trailer park

Good job on the rescue!

It is! I have actually been contemplating taking public transit that day, because I've been riding every day for a long time, and my injured legs have been complaining. Glad I chose the bike.

Nice ride in this morning, a little cool and dark, but still nice. This is the first week that I've ridden 4 1/2 days, I've ridden 4 days a few times. Tonight I have a party for a coworker so I won't get to ride home.

In spite of it being 20 degrees out, and thanks to Google maps and dumb luck, perfect! Found a great new route downtown. Shorter than the old one, and only .3 miles longer than the most direct (and dangerous) route along the main road. To top it off, I get to ride down a huge grass hill after I cross the bridge in order to jump on a scenic drive along the river.

Been a weird week. I had four days of off-site training, which happened to be right next to the American River Bike Trail. Still wanted to ride, as I have a heavy race schedule this month, but no place to lock up my bike or change at the training site. So each morning I showered, put on my bike clothes, put the bike on the car rack, drove to the training site 90 minutes early, and did a training ride. I changed by the side of the car with a beach towel and cleaned up with baby wipes and deodorant.

Kind of a hassle, but it sure beat not riding.

Extremely windy today which made for a tough commute.

Oh, and I got hit by a car. I was on a one way narrow street and a car tried to pass me without having enough space. His passenger side rear view mirror hit my handlebars. Luckily, both I and the bike were okay. The driver had the nerve to tell me that I needed to watch out behind me. The jerk.

Another slice of heaven today, in my part of the world, for my commute. I'm not fast, but it felt like I was flying all the up on the climb to work today, with great weather, beautiful views and pretty mellow commuters.

About 3:30 or so on work days I start glancing over at my bike sitting a couple feet away from me in my office and I start getting excited about my commute home. I start rearranging my gear hanging in front of the windowed door facing the sun, on my bike, to make sure those bibs are dry.

I also start thinking, what route home through the mountains should I take today? The straight run down? The ride up a bit with an even faster longer down hill run that pops out in a giant meadow over looking Santa Cruz and the entire Monterey Bay? Or, that same run, only at the top I drop down one of the fastest down hills in county, Ice Cream Grade, (yup, the same one you just saw Lance and the rest of the TOC climb in stage 3) then hit the coast and ride the last 8 miles home next to the Pacific with typically a monster tail wind this time of year that makes me think, "hey I've still got it?

Daymn, I’ve said this before, I’m one lucky SOB