I loose my "boyscout" award for today. I was not prepared for the mid 30s temperature this morning. Was supposed to be mid 40s. Amazing how much difference that 10 degrees makes! So, I turned back and drove. I'm so ashamed. :(

Time to get all the cold weather gear together and back in the Panniers.

Nice'n'easy recovery ride today (did the NYC Century yesterday).

Had an incredible commute into work this morning. Up at 5:15, left the house at 5:45, drove to my departure point (I live 26 miles away from my work, so I split the commute...half car, half bike), and left my bike departure point at 6:10. It was a clear, crisp morning...first morning of the season here in SC that I wore my jacket...it was in the low 60s, so about 50 degrees as far as "skin feel" on the bike. I tried a new route today that allowed me to warm up for about 3 miles before hitting some pretty nasty hills that require a higher heart rate...I was much better prepared for them. The rest of the ride was pristine. G-d I love commuting by bike!!

Wow, it's HOT in Toronto these days! I am heading for the beach tomorrow!

I left the house pretty late as my first and only class today started at 12:30 p.m. and I felt the effects of the temperature for sure. But I am glad the warmth is hanging on - we have plenty of cold weather coming, there will be enough time to get sick of it...

On the way back I saw a couple of kids, aged maybe around 12 or so, who were actually riding bikes in the street on the right side of the road. The road is a residential one, but there were quite a few cars there due to rush hour. The kids weren't extra confident, but they were following the rules of the road - until we came to an intersection with four-way stop signs. They seemed to be letting every car go and didn't cross themselves! At first I thought they were just waiting for ALL the cars to pass (stupid, stupid kids!), but then I overheard a conversation - it seemed they wanted to make a left turn but found themselves near the curb and weren't sure how to do it. So, of course, they didn't handle the situation perfectly, but still good for them, for they are actually trying to learn proper cycling techniques, and I am sure by the time they are my age they'll be much better vehicular cyclists than I.

bleah and double-bleah. must be monday. nothing wrong with the ride or the weather, just me. awake at 7:16, got paranoid about packing enough lunch/snack/etc, not out of house till 8:30. was slow starting, slow getting there, and slow getting myself down to my desk. once over the bridge i followed up on a previous idea and deked one block down to do the last part on a more peaceful road, which is good only it doesn't go the whole way. seems like my destination area really is set up only for car commuters and trail/rec biking, nothing between those two things. bleah again.

slow leaving because slow getting in. just under an hour coming home though; surprising considering i only intended to get over the bridge and then take a bus. home. starving. eating half a cold pizza and thinking my birkenstocks probably can't stand up to this.

also notice (tentatively, hopefully) that i'm not paralytically terrified of that bridge anymore.

Great ride to work and home . Did not see any other commuter today .Made good time on the ss today .
Days like this I wish by ride was longer .
Have a good nite .

Two stories, one from yesterday's return and one from this morning.

So yesterday I'm crossing Midtown on 45th St as is my custom these days. I've just navigated Times Square (always a hoot) when a "fancy taxi" (like a fake mini-limo) pulls out from the curb right in front of me. OK, so I stop about 8-10 feet behind him and really have nowhere to go: if I go left around him, I risk getting creamed by cars coming out of a parking garage, and if I go right, well, there isn't much room there. So I wait about 5 seconds as cars start to accumulate behind me and what happens? The moron starts to backup! I gave my best frantic "HEY!!!!!". The guy looked surprised and annoyed and at this point I took my chances going left and made it through.

Today I was feeling reeeally good on the way to work so I decided to go for the mythical "three green lights in a row in Midtown", which I've never pulled-off. I've just crossed the second light and am really getting my mojo going, dodging jaywalkers and potholes when I feel something fly off of my person. I make a quick decision to ditch the three light attempt and pull over to the right. I look back and OMGWTFCELLPHONE!!! Yeah, my phone which I had only loosely secured in its little pocket on my backpack (intending to later stuff it in better, ha!) had flown the coop! A quick-thinking ped attempted to go for it to save it from oncoming cars, but was unable to get in. Amazingly, only one car slightly brushed it with his tires and the phone survived intact!

Had a nice ride in, passed two other commuters. Had one of them draft me for a bit, which just pushed me harder.

Not related to cycling but I had some dude do that to me. I pulled out of a gas station and this big, bad ass 4x4 pickup, waiting at a red light, suddenly started backing up,and backing up and backing up and backed right up into the front end of my Malibu. Some drivers make you say WTF.

The days have gotten humid again here in Houston. Last week was awesome (low 50s% humidity). Today and yesterday...94%!

Yesterday on my way home, I was going under an over pass. The lanes are such, far left = left turn only; center lane = left turn OR straight; right lane = straight or right turn. Since I am turning left and want to stay to the right side when we complete our turn, I stay in the center lane and take the full lane (so anyone going straight does not hit me). I am in the front of the pack waiting for the light to turn green. When it turns, I stay in the center of the lane and move through the intersection and gesture my left turn. The guy behind LAYS on the horn the entire time he is behind me while going through the overpass. I turned around and the guy (and his wife) must have been over 60 years old. Was I in the wrong or are they just further testimony of the road rage here in Houston? I have navigated that intersection almost two months straight and that is the first time someone did not maintain proper restraint.

Anyway....today's commute was yet again uneventful....BUT FUN! My ride to work is only 6.6 miles, but the commute is joy enjoyable I have pushed it to 10 miles both ways.

Later,

Chris

They must be transplants from the Northeast! Good reason to carry a little gravel in your pocket. :eek:

Great commute this morning. I stopped reseting my cyclocomputer everyday (to get a weekly, maybe monthly? tally) and I like that I'm no longer trying to beat the clock.

Also -- I had several people sitting outside, waiting for the bus, walking with a stroller, say hello. That was nice. I've already come to the conclusion that biking has made me feel more a part of my community, but mornings like this when the community is out, about and (whoa nelly!) even responsive, add a new and irreplaceable benefit to commuting.

Great Ride this morn...

I bet I was the only one with shorts on... saw more riders on the road today... more then usual!

My commute was rotten! Of course, it was in the cage ('97 Subaru Outback) to the dealership for a 75k mile service and its yearly detailing. Then I got a shuttle van to work.

All morning I've been yawning and feeling de-energized and lethargic. The reason seems obvious... I need my morning ride! I must be addicted.

I've been on vacation (central Fla) for the past week so haven't been commuting. What a shock when I hit the road this morning. What happened to summer? It was a little on the cool side today. Not my favorite way to start the day. :( I like warm weather.
Anyway, since I haven't ridden much in the last week some of the hills were a little tough this morning, :o but hopefully I'll back to "normal" by tomorrow. :)

I left late so I booked it and shaved another 40 seconds off my best time and averaged 19.8 mph. Felt great!

Summers gone! Fall is here!

It was a brisk 69 deg this AM and only 94 deg going home yesterday evening. It was the best ride home I've had in months, beautiful cool clear air, the first one since mid May below 100.

Al

Wow, my ineptitude paid off! I woke up late, and decided I'd better drive. As I drove, I thought I was being a lazy bum, because I could have made it by bike if I'd hurried up. But when I got to work, some people were moving the bike rack from outside to inside the secured back entrance, where I normally park. There was no way to get in there while they were working, so I would have had to park outside somewhere with my flimsy cable lock that is normally fine for inside of a locked building. My bike would have been stolen for sure, or at least messed with/stripped....

Good ride to work and home . I even had a good day at work. I hope the rest of the week is like this .
Have a good nite .

did my first night ride today, and it went quite well. My $8 head and taillight set from walmart did the job, the taillight is superbright, and flashes annoyingly if I want it to. The headlight isn't terribly bright, but it's bright enough for oncoming traffic to see me, and when there aren't street lights (there aren't for about 5 miles of the ride), it's bright enough to see the road.

On my commute home tonight I saw some kind of flying object in the sky. I saw it flying at about 10:15 pm, it was a bright white dot of light about a quarter of the size of the moon, and in about 3 seconds, it flew north west shrinking in size until invisible. I've seen big meteors before, big fiery colorful meteors, and other small little dash meteors, but this one looked a little slower, and didn't have any kind of tail. My first UFO. I'm sure I wouldn't have seen it if I was in a car.

that must be some fire they have going down in the valley. by the time i was coming down the hill towards the bridge the smoke looked like bad winter fog. i'm still mixing it up, trying to find something that will feel like a groove, but i don't think i'm there yet.

wore my runners instead of my sandals today, sandals in a bag. took a jar of peanut butter and a box of granola bars to work, to go with my bagels. also!! orange juice with plain yogurt in it, absolutely a keeper. my backpack checked in at 12 pounds on the scale but it was worth every caffeine-deprived second i spent at the sink this morning carefully inserting yogurt through the neck of an old coke bottle with a teaspoon. wish i could bike to work in my pyjamas, i really do. i could, if i weren't so short on the chutzpah for it. on the way home found a trail/track/empty space with a 2-inch path worn across it that looks like it will solve the mess of getting over once i'm on that side of the bridge. go me.

instantly tired the moment i set out this morning. i just don't grok that, but the strange thing is that a) coming-home time is staying constant or getting shorter and b) i do seem to recover faster once i've worked up a sweat. don't grok that either, but mine not to reason why.

came home into what i guess was a headwind. if i use that side of the bridge it might be a constant, since the traffic's oncoming to me. could also just be the direction the wind blows down the river once the day's winding up. guess i'll find out, over time. i don't think i'm QUITE ready to look down while i'm riding, not yet.

work just drags since i started commuting by bike. not sure why, really. mind you it's another of those grody doldrum patches, but i'm also just physically restless all the time, seems like. tired, to be honest. i think some part of me thinks that just getting there is a full day's effort and i should be allowed to go back home and sleep now. i think i really hate getting there late too; i sit around sulking and thinking 'what a waste of all that fine high energy and sense of purpose'. a day that starts at 10am just never seems to get off the damned ground, and then i get home late and sit up too late chasing the reset-my-head time i should have got before going inside to work. i ain't dumb; i just ain't thinking too good.

still, i think i might drive tomorrow. kid will be over on the other side of town and will probably need to be fetched. have to spend the day collaborating with someone whose thinking style irks me square on a cheerful day, so lets not set me up with a glycogen deficit. and my knees are being a little scary. stoopid insertion points.

eating spaghetti with antipasto-out-of-a-jar on it. would love an orange, but don't feel like peeling it.

In some (most? all?) areas honking the horn is only allowed for immediately dangerous situations. You sexagenarians were in the wrong. I don't know if you were in the wrong, too, but I doubt you were. :)

Edit: Heh, forgot to post about my commute. Last night on the way home I met-up with Ubie (BF member) to take him to my local shop (pretty good, quick one-man shop). That was fun. Ride in the morning was a bit uneventful. The most exciting thing that happened is that the HRM on my new Forerunner 301 was a bit wonky -- it was so cool I wasn't sweating enough for it to get a good signal!

use some water or electrode gel on the strap for your hrm to get a good reading. no commute today cuz i have to pick up some last minute bits for my roof rack so i can bring my bike on vacation in canada. day time's getting short so i have to get the rest of it installed before the sun sets.

On my way home last night I was riding on a side street, 25mph speed limit with speed humps and cars parked on both sides of the street. I was riding along around 15mph up a slight hill and a truck and car pass me as the hill crests. The down hill is pretty steep so I just take off. The truck has turned left and as I am approaching the car he puts his left turn signal on. I proceed to ride by him on the right side, between him and a parked car. As I am riding by, he blares his horn at me. I wave my hand back at him and he drives up next to me and tells me that I shouldn't pass on the right. I told him he was making a left turn and had his turn signal on, but he said that didn't matter. I was mad because it's a back road, not many people on it and he was turning left. Why should I slow down for him when he is turning off the road. I did not put him or myself in danger. I should have asked him why he passed me at the top of the hill if he knew he was turning so soon. Oh well, life goes on. I will probably encounter him again on another ride home.

Other than the idiot cagers the ride was outstanding this morning. http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoti.../happy/059.gif

After being on vacation and no commuting for almost a week the legs and lungs are back to normal. Now if I could just keep the years from catching up with me. :o

The outer bands of Hurricane Ophelia have delivered some wacky weather my way.
It's actually quite exciting riding through the crosswinds and horizontal rain. ;)
Too bad the humidity is through the roof again, I was getting used to the autumnal weather of the last week.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

You're my kind of person!

Back on the bike today after missing yesterday. I was so tired all day yesterday. Couldn't figure it out, since I slept fine. Today I have tons of energy, and it occured to me that I was depleted yesterday from driving my car. Bike commute is only like 20 minutes of exercise, but I guess it really perks me up. Any one else have this phenomenon?

Blah, it's humid out there. I didn't commute today, but I did more riding just running errands than I do commuting. Add to that making four trips, 3 blocks each way, to my car to pack up my camping stuff and I got some halfway decent exercise. Hopefully the rain'll hold out long enuff to put on the rest of my roof rack and I'll be set for tomorrow.

...5 hours later...

I finally finished installing the roof rack. I'd take 1 hour on Monday putting on half the rack while I waited for the clips for the other half. Today, It took 2.5 hrs. to install the rest of the rack (measured wrong on the rear part which set me back 30 min.) and put the two viper fork mount bike racks on and the wind fairing. Hopefully my bike won't fall off tomorrow.

For the first hour, an SUV across the street from me sat at the curb idling despite the fact that there's a 3 min. idle law in NYC. Then he shut down for 5 min., couldn't take the heat and started up again to run the A/C. What a stupid waste of gas and money when he could've just sat in the Starbucks 40 feet away.

None of this has to do with commuting, but I needed to vent. Good night all.