I had something similar yesterday.

I noticed that my pedal stroke seemed a heck of a lot stronger when I kept my foot down on my foot bed. For some odd reason I had started letting it come up on the up stroke basically hitting the top of my shoe and pulling on that.
Anyhow, I was playing around with this on my fixed gear while riding home and increasing my speed from 15 mph to 25 mph somewhat randomly when I noticed a rider behind me. I figured I could drop him and 8 miles later he was still behind me so I shrugged and let him come along for the ride. It turns out at a light when we talked that he was lost and following me since I seemed to know where I was going. The poor guy looked exhausted.
Anyhow, I gave him a few instructions on how to navigate a detour and where to go. Unfortunately, he dropped back afterward. It was nice having company.

Fine day today, cool and light winds.

Passed another commuter this morning. First one this year.

I drove the car today-- parent teacher conferences meant a half day for me and a return tonight, so I skipped the ride.

A crazy road raging acura high way racer jerk darn near killed me. Didn't seem to like me passing a gravel filled dripping truck that was dropping pebbles and water all over my windshield. He came up from a quarter mile back, started flashing his lights right on my bumper. I tapped my brakes-- not enough to slow...

dude pulled around me on the right full throttle, swerved in front of me and smashed on the brakes. My quarter million mile 89 volovo wagon darn near flipped as I swerved into the middle lane to avoid him. He ran it up to 90 or so and swerved through the dense traffic ahead. Crazy.

Three months of commuting, and of course the most dangerous situation was while I was in my very own tank of a volvo!

The crazies are so much easier to avoid on a bike.

Cool south wind today as the high pressure system that sat over the west coast all week has broken down.

Had my good legs on today. It was awesome. I'm really hoping to get the opportunity to go on this evening's group ride.

a wonderful coating of ice everywhere kept me off the bike today. I knew that the 20C temperatures we had the other day were just a tease.

Amen. :roflmao2: Now try a motorcycle. It has a "teleport me now" twisty grip on the right hand side.

First Header!

I've been commuting a couple of weeks now to school and today was glorious, I've been getting stronger coming up hills, so I was standing up, heading up a hill on a bike path, watching traffick coming nearby and thinking "haha watch me now B******!" and then wham! i lost my footing and tumbled right over the handlebars

luckily due to some suggestions i read in this forum, i had bought a pair of gloves a couple of days ago, definitely saved some skin

the ironic part is that i go to medical school and today i was coming back from an exam on how to evaluate someone who has just fallen on an outstretched hand! i checked myself out and i'm okay :thumb:

scraped my grips and messed up a brake though, no big problems with the bike however

The ride home was warm and uneventful. Moderate traffic. I rode pass the house and went by the park.
Ernest

nice ride in, temps in the 60's.

The ride home, in a few minutes, it looks to be in the 70's

It was really windy. I'll take the wind over 4 straight days of rain any day...

What a wonderful ride home. 23 miles in 1:18 min.
Had an erratic tailwind. Also, my new pedaling technique enabled me to push my fixed gear on the flats with a sidewind to 29.2 mph. I was having issues maintaining that high of a cadence and had to back off before hitting my goal of 30 mph. Woo hoo!

did the double commute today. rode in this morning with a great tailwind. Rode home into a fierce headwind. Then come back this evening with another great tailwind. Rode home into a little bit more of a modest headwind.

Nice week of riding for me! A bit cooler than the norm this morning at 39F/4-ishC but the wind had died down some. A good deal of rain in the earlier part of it gave way to sunnier, windier days at the end (rode home with a glorious tailwind yesterday--gave me delusions of grandeur :D ).

Started taking a new way in this week--adds a couple of miles and takes me through a portion of the Maryland campus. A much more interesting ride, and there is actually less traffic. Unless conditions are wicked enough that I want the quickest, most direct route possible, this is now my preferred choice. Hard to believe it's taken me two years to get around to trying it... :o

A little cooler today. As the sun came up I saw low fog hanging over some of the fields. Beautiful.

Nice ride this morning. Low 30sF, sunny, no wind. I was just loping along happily. Passed a young woman on a cruiser. We exchanged good mornings. Later I spotted something dark in my mirror, so I decided to do some actual work. Spooled up to 20+ and held it for a while. Then at a red light the dude came up behind me. Nice road bike. He did some circles waiting for the traffic to clear, then ran the red light. I had a block to ride until work, so when the light turned, I spun up and caught him right before I turned. :p

Ride home today will be the scenic route once again. There's a variant I want to explore. I'm not even sure it's bike-accessible, but I'll see.

I was really enjoying the ride in this morning, bright sunshine a little cool at 4 C but a slight tail wind, life was good. On my way past a fellow cyclist I said good morning and she answered me with just a scowl. I guess I should just keep my mouth shut when overtaking other riders. Some people are better off in cars with the windows rolled up.

Gotta love it. From 'HotLanta. New very bright light on bike to replace the dead one. Ah well. The new light really was amazing. Nice ride in to work today at 5:30 am. 10-11 miles. 59 deg. 92% humidity. Came around a bend and a field next to the road was full of fog. Road was clear but the lower lying field was just a cloud sitting there. Lovely.

48F and sunny! The pollen seemed to really bother me today but I was determined to enjoy the ride. And I did until I got off my bike to walk up some stairs and noticed I had stepped in some dog poop. I cleaned it as best I could and then swished my shoe in a puddle near my office. It turns out the puddle wasn't just rainwater but some kind of toxic sludge. So I spent more time cleaning that up (thank God for Wet Ones!). The good news is I can't smell anything so I think I got it cleaned up. It should be a great ride home today, as long as I don't have a repeat of the dog poop incident.

Today is supposed to be our first hot day of the year, with a high in the upper 80s F. You wouldn't know it by this morning's weather, as it was in the 40s during my ride to work. I had a nice morning commute, just taking it easy since I'll be riding 50+ miles tomorrow morning. Gotta save the legs.

Update to yesterday's commute post; along with the day giving me mild temps, it also gave me this on the way home...
http://rad.smugmug.com/photos/519816245_6ua5Z-S.jpg

49 or 50F with a little fog - it felt great. Glad the rain stopped way before my ride in.
Tried out new panniers - what a relief to have a couple bags on the sides of the rack
instead of a backpack or too-small rack top bag.
Brought both panniers so I can bring work related laundry home after work.
Supposed to be 80F and sunny later.

Great weather, about 13C with light wind and lots of sun and dry roads. Made a quick stop at the bank to make a deposit for my landlady. At a stop a nice older guy in a van pulled up next to me, I was in the left turn lane, and complemented me on wearing nice bright colors and being really easy to see... I told him that anything I can do to stand out when on the road, I will gladly do. He then mentioned that the police do the opposite, dark unis with little reflective bits, dark bikes with black bags, makes them hard to see. I said well, maybe they think they are disposable... we both laughed, the light turned and I moved on. Shortly thereafter I was taking the lane on an uphill blind curve with little shoulder and must have impeded a cager in some way (no more than 10 seconds to enter and exit this curve by bike, in a car it is not noticeable) because I got a courtesy honk and an assertive pass. Passed her at the stop sign 50 yard further down the road.
Two nice motorists at the same intersection this week... must be something in the air... or the nice weather just means they are less afraid to roll down their windows. I'll enjoy all the positive interactions while I'm getting them, but I know the circle of life will complete itself here on LI.

Great weather. Today was the second time I rode in this week. I also rode in on Wednesday. I time myself from beginning to end. I am not any faster, but it is feeling easier. The ride is uphill nearly the whole 10 miles, and I didn't shift gears once. I'm feeling pretty strong.

First commute of the year, first on my "new" (used) Trek road bike. I rigged up a rear rack with panniers and a lunch cooler. Great temp and mild tail wind. Very nice.

Forecast for the ride home is 80 degrees -- yeah, and 15-20 mph head wind -- boo!!!

I need to get a gear rack and panniers. I also need a new crank. Mine's bent and getting worse each day. Also, my forks are bent.

Every day's ride is quite interesting on this bike.