I've been back in tights and wind jacket for the last week on the morning commutes.

This morning was cold enough to force me into the winter weight tights. The cold really messes with my knees. The heavier tights sure helped to keep them toasty.

I was happy to ride to work with my wife this morning. She normally goes in later than I have to be to work. (I actually came in an hour early just so I could ride with her. ) I can't tell you how nice it was to have the company of my best friend on the morning commute. I could get used to it!

I drove in today… it kinda sucked.

Got up 1/2 hour late this morning to reports of morning showers.

Got on the road, and felt a little stiff from the past two days fixie riding. Knee twinge. Got moving, loosened up, but slow.

Had to have the "feminist conversation" with workingman dood in pickup at the stop light, as he rudely commented on my fabulous posterior.

Immediately followed by obnoxious honking and doodette's comment "get on the sidewalk." Rain showers started, not too heavy.

Rain lets up several miles later, gray and windy.

Make it up the first of my two hills. Then a bird shat on my face and arm. Luckily I was quickly wash up with my water bottle.

Back on the road and a couple miles later more rain, heavier now. I still haven't bothered to but on the rain jacket. Oh, yeah, I'm pms-ing, too.

All said and done, I got to work on time. Another 20 miles to go home. I'm hating people and autos, and birds now. Hopefully the ride home will be an improvement over the morning.

Early mornings, the coming fall can be felt in the slitely brisk wind whistling through my helmet straps. Its darker now too. Everything was in shades of blue and purple, especially the mist covered river valley at the start of my ride. I'm now carrying the headlamp again, but still wearing just a jersey and shorts.

well, i just checked yahoo maps and the approximate distance I rode on sunday is about 35 miles. cool. most of it was flat as heck. i did it in 2 hours 50 min. the ride was to go to a quaker kids' camp, at which i had a lot of fun.

rode back the other way yesterday, but did it in two stretches: 22 miles to work from the camp and 12 miles home. Weather was good both days. And I'm not even very sore. :-)

Ugh. 15-20 mph cold Northwesterly winds here. My legs are very tired from a bit too much riding over the weekend and my arms are very tired from a bit too much sailing over the weekend so I'm taking it easy and keeping the hotpads warmed up. Slow commute (sub-17 mph average). I'm going to find that thread where midwesterners were *****ing around the cold and reverse my "appreciate it while you have it 'cause it'll be 100 before you know it" stance. 56 degrees and raining is a pretty crappy day for biking or sailing, especially in August. I get to do both...

This weather sucks. It's depressing to have to dig through your winter bike clothes to find something that will keep you warm on your commute in to work... in AUGUST!!!! It looks like we're in for this for the whole week. It's pretty bad when you hope it reaches at least 60F for high for the day. Other then that and freezing (I didn't dress right this morning) I still manage to have a good commute in. Can you tell I'm in a little bit of a bad mood?!?

Actually, I'm enjoying the weather (not the rain) here in Ohio. I wil not be griping until it goes below 20F, I think. We'll see.

54F at 6AM today, but only 85F at 3:30 for the ride home. Much better than yesterday's 96. Saw a lot of other cyclists today, waved to all of them. My Boss called a meeting just before gohome time. Seems our new agency head will be visiting Thursday during the annual Bar B Que & we're supposed to "spruce up a bit, tidy our work areas & try to look more professional. Guess that means I wear long pants instead of cargo shorts & park my bike in the supply room instead at my cubicle. One colleague brought up the "T" word. So far, ties are not required...Don

My sympathies, such non-events are so much BS Piled higher &Deeper. Of course in my field the usual phrase is we are supposed to "clean the s**t before it hits the floor" and always seems to occur when half the dogs in the hospital are there for vomitting & diarrhea. You just have to laugh.

My commute was delayed this morning while I picked up the 31 6d nails spilled at one intersection. It's not so much I cared about the cars tires, but I knew they would be in my path tomorrow. I figure I'm saving the time to patch a tire tomorrow, which will make up for the time I lost today. Perfect weather here, but the sun is mighty low on my way home.

Had a flat on the way home. A nail went straight through my Gatorskins and through both sides of the tube. Not much will stop that. One patch held, the other didn't, so I changed the tube. There are two pieces of good news:

It was lovely, but the City of Portland needs to consider a bike lane on Macadam. I gave a poor pedestrian a heart attack today, which is slightly better than the heart attack AND broken neck he nearly got when I tried to run over him. Due to heavy traffic, for about six blocks I'm forced to ride on the sidewalk. I swear I was going slow, but it was one of those where we came around a corner going opposite directions at the exact same time and I managed to swerve to miss him by milimeters. I apologized profusely, but until I can get off the sidewalk at this unavoidable point in my commute, I'm going to be paranoid.
On the upside, despite having to go slow through this six block stretch, I shaved about 10 minutes off of my usual time. I know progress comes fast early in your commuting career (this is only my 3rd week of doing it), but this doesn't detract from the feelig of accomplishment.

Smoky again this morning, but once again it had cleared slightly for my commute to work (still left me with a sore throat, I'm off to get a face mask later this week if things don't improve). Seemed to be a nice roll on the waves in the ocean this morning -- even if they weren't huge. They should pick up if the southerly stays.

This morning: A great ride in - avg speed 19.4!
This afternoon: OK, avg speed 17+

Saw a rabbit on a leash dash across the road right in front of me - most bizarre.

Hazy, Hot and humid. A rocky ride this morning. First the bike chain fell out of my new bike bag. 5 miles up the road I notice that I forgot water and security badge

Then on the way home, the handle bar bracket became loose, so I had to take it easy. Good news is when I encountered two sets of broken glass, no flats! Also the thinner shirts were much cooler than my jersey. Didn't know jerseys came in Winter and Summer...hmmm...

Tomorrow will be better!

N7,
Glad things are going better for you.

The ride home last night was bad. There must have been something wrong with I-75 because the side streets were extremely crowded with fast, pissed off drivers that liked to take the frustration out on me. People were flying by me very close, blowing horns and yelling. This is the worst I have ever gotten it. Then all of a sudden people were slowing down, giving me plenty of room etc. I looked over my shoulder to see a police officer on a motorcycle behind me. He got to my side and I asked him if something was wrong, he said " No nothing wrong, I am just going to ride along with you for awhile to make sure nothing happens" How sweet is that? I did not thank him enough.
Thats how bad the traffic was.

This morning was much better. Nice mild temps and not much traffic.

If you have any identifying info on the cop, send a note to the police department and thank him. His boss will see it and the note will go in his personnel file.

Good ride in today. The extra 4 miles added to the ride by a roadwork-induced detour is actually rather pleasent and picturesque - I may adopt this route permanently! It was bright, sunny and warm today which was a big departure from the torrential rain of yesterday morning. The ride was just 0.01 mph under the 19 mark, according to my high precision () cycle computer.

Cheers,

Ed

Yeah I am doing that today. Cincinnati police needs all the positive feedback they can get.

Today was the earliest I have ever started my commute. It was still dark so I had to break out the lamps and blinkys. I was in the office so early the lights were not scheduled to come on until 8 am. I had to get ready in the dark.

Good ride in this morning. Bit of a 12k head wind from the SW but it didn't seem to slow me down (still can't get over how strong I feel lately). Gonna start to up the training rides. Its nice to ride into work without a bag on my back, I feel much lighter. I noticed a couple of vehicles attempt to overtake me as we got closer to an interesection and they wanted to turn right. They must have mis-judged my speed, going too fast for them I guess. Looking forward to an extended ride home.

Brrr. 46 degrees F this morning. It's summer, isn't it. Had a funny run in with a maroon SUV last night on the way home. I was taking it easy, rolling down Cedar Lake Rd. just East of US 169. The road has recently been retarred and then had gravel layed. There's a wide parking lane with some parked cars and a bunch of the gravel that hasn't been compacted into the tar yet, so I was hanging out just to the left of the edge of the door zone, not really taking the lane at all (there are no stripes on the road yet). This maroon SUV is behind me and beeps the horn. I glance over my shoulder and decide there is plenty of room for him and me, especially as there is no oncoming traffic. The driver beeps the horn at me four of five times as he passes. I look over and glare and he honks again. It's a young guy, probably still a teenager. He immediately signals a left turn so I decide I'm going to let him know I think it's rude to honk at people and follow him. He notices me following and takes off... 4500 lbs. SUV scared of a guy on a bike. I chase him around the neighborhood a few times and he eventually looses me but it's clear he's circling around his destination. I decide to just go home. Pretty funny...

Summer? Hah! Thick fog, lashing rain, howling headwind. Two near misses, both classics - one overtake and turn right in front (we ride on the left over here) and one overtake, park and then open the car door into me. Are these people capable of thought or did the car keys come with a lobotomy?

Still, by the time I'd got off the roads and onto the cycle track it was kinda nice just pootling away in a granny gear staring into the murk - a zen experience.

I haven't had any run-ins with motorists lately. I wonder if I'm benefiting from some sort of TdF afterglow.

But I've been riding so sluggishly this week, what with the heat and my suddenly reduced aerobic capacity from giving blood on Monday morning. It must be the exact opposite feeling of being on EPO.

Just checked the NWS website: it's already 100F at 2pm and will probably be 105F by 5:30pm. (What's that for you metric folk? 41C?)