VTJim: 30 mph in the small chainring on a 40 lb bike?!? How fast do you go in the large chainring on the light bike?

About time BF got back up. I actually had to do work today! Ride in was fast (for me). Broke the 10 min. mark w/ a ride time of 9:34 at 13 mph avg. and a 2 mi. commute. My usual is 11+ mins and 11+ mph avg. And I still have a cold. I guess I was given some inspiration by the roadie commuter that flew past me going up a small hill on Lex. that later got honked at by some cager in a Chevy Corsica. I figured I'd try to catch up, but of course I didn't.

Ride home wasn't as fast as the ride in. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. I'm getting upgrade-itis as the Christmas season approaches. I think I need an intervention or I'll end up w/ $1000 worth of parts on a 15 yo bike.

EDIT: I saw a cab almost right-hook a bus today. Those knuckleheads will try to right hook anything. The bus driver wasn't about to let that happen so the cab driver backed off and waited for the bus. Pretty close though.

Decided to take the road bike instead of the hybrid today, even though I needed to tow the utility trailer. I have dreams about being able to get my act together enough to not need the trailer one day and and fly in and back on the road bike.

Saw three whitetails on the way in and then another doe by herself. On the way back I saw two more deer. No armored-dillos today.

Not sure if I'm seeing the same people, because some days I don't ride and on days I do ride it's aften at different times, but awhile back I started giving an acknowledging nod, smile and lip-synced good morning or hi or some other greeting to nearly every car that passes in either direction. Now more drivers seem to be returning my greetings with a nod or a wave or smile.

Edit-Of course part of this may be that this county only had 27,179 people living in it in 2004 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Edit II-Didn't think to mention it until AD-SLE said something, but there are a lot more ducks down than there were. I see them all day long at work. They didn't start showing up in any numbers until the last day of the first phase of duck season. That's okay though, the second phase starts in ten days.

The ride to work was good, it was snowing but surfaces were predictable. It's fun having better acceleration traction than the motorists

Coming home was not so good, there's dense chunky snow on the side of the road. It's also criss-crossed with tire tracks from vehicles that pulled into or out of the parking lane, which means I have to constantly be watching, anticipating, concentrating, adjusting... bah, I sent the street department an email. <Jedi Mind Trick> Plow The Bike Lane. </Jedi> At this rate, I should take "the long way" every night.

Of course, tomorrow we get another 2-6 inches of snow, so I'll mainly be hoping to hit the "sweet spot" in the plowing cycle.


What is this "impossible?" We have no such word in our language.

CommuterRun...so where are you that you have such a plethora of deer? Today I looked into the area where I saw my first deer. I realized that due to the hard 90 degree turn in the road, three lanes going to two and an uphill climb all at once has caused me to not once look into this wooded area. Odd to think I have never looked at something after 3 months of 75% two wheeled commutes but I guess it can happen if there are other more pressing things to watch.

Official temp somewhere around 22-26F on this am ride. Everything was white with frost which was quite pretty. But w/o booties I could not feel my feet. The one time cars and a long red caused me to unclip and put my foot down, I almost went down because I had no feeling in my foot. Even worse trying to get my foot back in and clear the intersection! Not sure I can wait until xmas for booties. Rode home in 100% darkness which is not too bright literally and figuratively. Month end kept me at work and I decided like a fool to ride home and ensure I avoided another 20 car miles. Have to drive kids in am as my oldest has unicycle club at 6 am at school! Worthy reason to burn dino fuel.

Short day today, threw in an extra 12 mile ride after I got home. Down in the low 40's today. That's cold for California. By January I may need to wear more than shorts and a long sleeve jersey...maybe. Fog around town and rain threatening all day, had to ride before it pours.

20 MPH swirling headwind at 35F makes one lousy commute home. enough said

extra...for me today! rode to main center for "training" on how to write tx plans that are beh generated.
anyway, ctr is 8.4 mile dst and after "training" rode to p/u and then deliver meds locally. my regular 6.5 mile commute increased to 34 miles and i got paid while doing most of it! life is good!

things were much more normal today. quiet, grey, some wind, some of yesterday's snow still lying around, but nothing very exciting developed during the course of the day. 2 degrees going in, 2 degrees coming home . . . it feels like being in wait-mode. one of these days we will all get caught at work by weird weather developing; we all know it. i'm looking forward to it mostly as an excuse to ditch in the middle of teh day. now that i've done kite-lifting wind and tree-drowning rain and a small bit of snow, serious snow is the next thing on my to-tick-off list.

nothing much to say about today. i am so very much counting down weeks to the end of it all. coming home it seemed like there was some frost building up as i came up the ridge towards home, but i can't say anything gave me any trouble. there seemed to be some squirmy patches here and there, but i don't know if that was ice or imagination or something else. at these temperatures i admit i'm glad it's not raining as well.

songs: tonight i fancy myself, the beautiful south; chain of sorrow, john prine.

The MDC bike path in Boston, MA has moved into winter mode this week.

On Monday I saw only 7 bikes on the path for the roughly 8 miles I'm on it. Far more joggers, runners and walkers.

Observations:
The non-migratory Canadian geese that have taken up residence along the Charles River over the past 10 years are actually learning to leave the bike path clear. There are still the occasionally surly rogue geese who strut into the path and hiss but for the most part Konrad Lorenz would be impressed with their learning curve and adaptability. I wish I could say the same for the headphone wearing pedestrians and joggers.

Squirrels can run more than 15 mph for at least 25 yards. I startled one today who ran parallel to me and it took me quite a bit of time to pass him and I was traveling at 19.6 mph.

Despite having all my rain gear with me I neglected to put it on for my ride home despite the threatening skies. Naturally, I ended up getting soaked. But it felt good because the air temp was unseasonably warm.

We dodge deers in suburban SE pennsylvania.

My commute to work is all rural with about half of it either bordering or through the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. Some of my fishing commutes also take me through the refuge. I think the deer I'm seeing are the same ones every day, since they're always in the same area. One of them is a big, reddish doe. I see her quite often on that stretch of highway.

That is my light bike. Always wondered how fast I could go on a very light bike.

Back to seasonal temperatures this morning. Mid-30Fs. A quiet ride in. Slight tailwind. Saw some ducks.

Oh I just realized... First day of December! I've now ridden to work every single month of 2005.

Woke up this morning with the distinctive signs of a head cold. So my commute was greatly reduced from seven miles to ten feet as I telework and try to avoid a full-blown illness.

Finally back on the bike for the first time in a week and a half yesterday. Also rode in today. Yesterday was a great day back, mid 40s in the morning and low 60s on the way home. Today was more dreary and overcast, but still in the 40s so it wasn't too bad. Had a headwind the whole way though but I should have a tailwind on the way home. Glad to be back on the bike

Second day commuting this week. I had to drive to a service call yesterday. Days like those require me to carry my laptop and a couple of hand tools, as well as project folders, etc.

When I got to work this morning, I weighed my case. It seemed quite heavy, and it was. 22 lbs of additional weight in today. Luckily I don't have to carry it all home tonight.

This was my first commute in upper 50F temps. It was cool when I first started, but it was nice not to be really sweaty when I got to work. We won't see snow here for quite some time.

Haven't driven the car in a week. The bus routes are getting more and more familiar to me, but I can't wait to get back on the bike again. Maybe next week?? Spokane got 5 inches of snow and the streets are solid ice...should be beautiful weather for my new studs when they arrive....

Business as usual. The snow that has fallen since the weekend is getting packed down on the side roads, and is being scraped off the main ones. So, half my ride is on pavement with the odd ice patch, and the rest is on various types of snow and black ice. I'm getting a bit more used to the handling of the bike, and I feel more comfortable at higher speeds. My commute time has increased by less than 5 minutes since I switched to the mtn bike with spikes. It's mostly timing with the lights, I think. I used to get to key intersections about 10 seconds after the light had turned red, now it's more like 1.5 minutes. It was a balmy -18C today, with snow forecast for this afternoon and evening.

Still battling my cold, but I think I'm over the worst and just have to deal w/ the coughing and congestion. Hopefully the fever's gone. Ride in was a minute off yesterday's all-time best mark, but that's ok cuz I was late anyways cuz I overslept. Still feel like I need some sleep though. A little chilly today, about 40F when I left so I had to throw a light corduroy jacket over my t-shirt. Had a nice chat w/ a new commuter in our bldg. that rides a fixie from East NY to midtown which is much longer than my short 2 mi. commute.

I'm enjoying having my studded tire with all this hard pack ice and snow. We are getting January like temps, our normal high for this time of year is 32F. We can't get out of the teens. The riding is good, slower, but good and I'm having no problem keeping nice and toasty warm.

A driver about gave me the left hook through a yellow light this morning, but I caught her eye and pointed at her with my disapproving look. She backed down.

Nice crisp ride in. Still wearing shorts, but I don't think that's going to last much longer.

First ride in two and a half weeks. Felt great. Had a fantastic tailwind. It looks like alot of the greenway projects are wrapping up (by the cruise terminal, above and below chelsea piers) and that the area by the wastewater treament area, they were digging this morning. Maybe they'll be done in time for them to pave after the spring thaw.

Cold this morning, low 30's. My fleece vest/commuter jacket combo worked well. I also had my full finger gloves and skull cap. The amazing thing was that I pulled a thumbtack out of my front tire last night (not sure when/where I picked it up) but, even though it had pierced the tire all the way to the head of the tack, the tube stayed intact and leak free. Luckily this was in my front tire, an Armadillo, the back is a Continental street tire that I don't think would have fared as well. I was a little concerned about the potential for a slow leak over night or on my ride in today but that appeared not to be the case. I'll check it after lunch just to be sure.

I drove my car to work today. But I saw a guy waiting at a light in Wheaton, 6:15 AM, reflective gear and plenty of lights -- enough that my first glance did not distinguish him from a car. It had started to snow, was around 24 F, and I thought it was so cool to see the guy commuting by bike that I wanted to roll down my passenger window and yell some encouragement. The light turned before I could do that, however.

I need to get back out there. A bout with the flu has kept me from even riding the rollers. I hack myself silly everytime I do anything aerobic.

Back on the bike yesterday after 3 weeks of no riding... Had to go to Mexico to dive and drink margaritas. Coming back from Mexico and on to a 20F commute yesterday was rough. My legs felt like day old burritos and I was freezing. But it made today's 10F ride more tolerable :-)

Working on trying to figure out the right set up for cold riding. It appears that socks and tennis shoes are not enough as this morning my toes were really cold. Better gloves will help the fingers too. I think a trip to the PerformanceBike store is in order tonight. Yippie ! I love going to the bike store :-)

Ordered my studded snow tires today too. Nokian 35mm's. There are 2 bridges on my route [in the zippy down hill section] that are iced nicely when moisture is present.

Feels great to be riding again... I felt like I was missing something

~Don~