I woke up at the time I was suppose to leave! :eek:

I forgot to set the alarm on my watch. :(

So, I jumped out of bed, ran into the bathroom to brush teeth and groom, then I jumped into my bikewear and out the door--about 15 minutes.

I was surprised by how much energy I had compared to other mornings that I had plenty of time to get ready. Usually, I drink at least one cup of coffee and sometimes have some toast. No time this morning.

I did more standing-climbing than usual and for longer durations--altitude change is +500 feet to work. Once I got to work, I felt fatigued--the kind that you get from a really good workout. Pressing the lap button on my Cateye, I noticed that I had set a new speed PR. Usually I average about 14 MPH with 15 MPH being my past PR. This morning I managed 15.9 MPH! :D

I better take it easy going home, though. I probably fried my legs this morning.

Ha! I just ran into a car while on my ride home for lunch.

I was cruising through a shopping district (low speeds - I can take the lane and keep up w/ traffic) following a little too close to a car ahead of me. The car put on his turn signal, slowed and turned left across the opposite lane into a parking lot. Then, for no apparent reason, the car stopped diagonally halfway across the yellow line.

I then skidded to a stop on his rear bumper. At first I was angry, and then I laughed at myself - realizing that if I had been driving a car and did the same thing, I would have been at fault.

At least the driver asked if I was OK as I pulled around him and pedaled away. I gave him the 'thumbs up' and got the heck outta there. :D

Jack, by any chance, was this on 9th Street in Durham? For some reason, drivers there are worse than usual; pulling halfway across 9th and then stopping is a regular occurence, according to my wife. She works at Duke Med and has to park near 9th unfortunately.

^ bingo !

The weatherman predicted rain with thunderstorms this morning. So, I got my bright rain jacket because I was determined to ride. I packed my shoes in the bike rack. Normally I leave this pair at the office. Needlesss to say, I lost my shoes somewhere along the route. When I get to work I realize that the blouse I was going to wear is missing a button and the jacket is way too big. Maybe I should go home, oh yeah, I took yesterday off for a mental health day. Yesterday was beautiful. Today, I will spend as much time in my office because I only have my bike shoes.

The weather can't decide whehter to rain or not. It was raining earlier. Just cloudy and a bit misty when I went in early this morning. Sun keps breaking out. I'm guessing its kind of hot and humid outside right now.

It was ridiculously gorgeous out today (compared to, say, Tuesday) here in Salem Mass; probably around 64 or 65 when I left for class, and sunny and just drying out from last night, yesterday's, and the night & day before's rain. Unfortunately when I got to campus, a group who was organizing ... some kind of barbecue, for something ... had taken the bike rack and shoved it behind some bushes. People were still locked to it, and I did, though you could really only lock the front part of your bike on either end (the rest of the rack was between bushes and a wall).

Coming home it was even warmer... the college's observatory says it's 69 now, and according to the graph's it spiked at almost eighty sometime around 2pm! Wow. Still bright and sunny with a slight breeze, and so nice, and I was in such a good mood that I detoured and stopped at a nearby park, which has a tidal river running through it with a beach, and I hung out and waded around in the water, which totally makes my week bar none. :D

Badger

The ride to and from work today was great, except for one thing: I commuted home with my fly open! I wore cargo shorts today, like every day, and when I went to the bathroom before leaving work I guess I forgot to zip up. When I got home and checked the mail, I realized that the barn door had been open for my whole ride home. :D

Well, bummer... no commute today. I was feeling pretty tired and unmotivated when I woke up at the usual 5:00 hour, decided to sleep in for a bit, and then was awakened 20 minutes later with big booming thunder - big storms rolling through, and me with no wet weather gear yet. So it was a cage day for me...

Good ride home. Light rain and sprinkles most of the way.
As I was leaving the college campus I go through, some @$$hole pulled into the bike lane right in front of me. Because of the slick roads I ended up running into the passenger door. No damage, just pissed me off.
I yelled at her and told her to get out of the bike lane. All I got was the one finger salute and some name calling when she passed me 1/2 block later.
Sure wish I could remember where I left that handlebar mounted rocket launcher! http://users.telenet.be/eforum/emoti...t/sterb132.gif

It was freaking beautiful out today so I took the long way home and took a loop around Central Park. I opted for the mtb over the fixie today cuz I had an extra laptop to carry on the rack. Coming down the big hill, I was pedaling away when I realized I was pedaling down the hill and almost spinning out when I could be coasting. Guess that's what riding a fixie will do to you, make you forget about coasting. And I think the roadie that tried to pass me down the hill was surprised when I kept spinning and kept alongside him. I doubt I made him work any harder, but instead I worked harder just for the hell of it.

The ride home was much better than the ride in. Sunny, warm and a slight breeze. There were lots of people on the trail so I opted for surface streets. Riding in traffic isn't nearly as frightening as I thought it would be. Well, until I almost got clipped by a moving truck. On the last stretch before I turned onto my street I had a close call. I'm going downhill approaching the intersection to turn left. On my right at the intersection there's a line of traffic waiting to turn left stopped at a stop sign, I have no stop sign or light. As I approached the intersection there's only one on coming car, an Explorer piloted by a soccer mom on her phone. I see her blinker for her to turn left come on so I start to turn left. Well, at the last minute she flips off the blinker and swerves back into the lane. At this point I'm around 19mph and going downhill. I lock up the rear tire, hit the front break hard darn near lose it and she doesn't bat an eye. Best part, the first car at the stop sign was one of Sacramento's finest who whipped out behind me and lit her up. How's that for karma for ya! :D

So, I'm coming up behind a car that is turning right and it stops! - thinking that I'm going to continue straight through and ride in front of a car turning right-why the hell would i do that and why would a car think I would do that? A quick move saved the day. We all got the cars paranoid I guess. Wet, windy and great ride home.

"oh and it's raining again"-Moby.

Nice Commute today.

I'm humiliated to post this but I didn't ride today. I'd been riding every day for 25 straight days and I could feel it was getting to me- a little overtraining feeling- but today, probably the best weather of the year 2006 thus far in Boston, I, who rode through the dead of winter, decide to take the bus. I miss the bus I need by seconds and then realize that the next one will not come until the time I'm supposed to be at my appointment. So I grab a cab because otherwise I'll be unbelievably late- $28!!!!!! later I'm downtown. Yikes! You've got to follow a schedule when you take the bus- oooh I'm out of practice.

[edit: truth be told I actually missed TWO buses.The second one I missed because I was sitting there reading the paper and looked up as it pulled away- aaaaahhhhh!!!- a bus bozo is what I am.]

Summer is here! Had a blast riding today, in such wonderful weather!

I picked up a bunch of cycling-related items on my way home, namely a Take-A-Look mirror and a new set of tires (to replace the fat knobby ones on my rigid-fork MTB that I use for riding around town). Riding in (moderate, thank God!) traffic with two tires over your shoulder can be tricky. :)

Now I just gotta undo those damned slightly rusty bolts that hold the rear wheel in place. Spray some WD-40 on them and pray that works... Damn, QRs sure do come in handy sometimes...

(It's not really commute related but it was on the trip back to the office after a doctor's appointment.) I was at a light, trying but failing to hold a trackstand and I noticed a guy on the other side of the street on a track bike. When the light turned, I yelled hi and he came over and we chatted about bikes. He asked me if I worked at the Capitol and when I said, yeah I do, he said he recognized my bike. It's a small bike world after all....

Sitting reading the paper??? Lucky you. Most bus stop around here don't benches or a place to sit. I guess that's one more reason why I don't ride the bus.

45 degrees; no wind; good ride in. 20.5 miles in 90 minutes (standard ride time). I really didn't want to wake up this morning, but once I start pedaling it's all good again.

Two cars (out of about 25) passed too closely. It's 5am people!! It's only you and me on the road! Move over to the second lane (which is empty) you stupid car. Moral of the story: always remember to pump up the Air Zounds. Those two cars deserved an air horn blast.

I skipped yesterday. Popped the valve stem while filling the tire. Didn't want to get too greasy and I had to be in by 7, so I did a ran back up to my apt, showered and was back in the elevator 5 minutes later. When I got to the lobby, the security guard who let me into the bike room earlier was standing there with the most confused look on his face, like 10 minutes ago he was in lycra and cleats and now khakis and a button down.

(not commuting related) When I got home last night, I was able to take my trailer out (sans bike) and let my twin boys get into it for the first time. They didn't want to get in together, but one would get in and then the other would pull. I bought them helmets a month ago that they love wearing them. I'll do this another time and walk them around, before I hook it to the bike.

Since the commute was over 400 miles yesterday, I opted for my partner's 2006 Corvette, which turned out to be slightly faster than the Bianchi.

It's a weird feeling knowing that you are, most likely, the fastest thing on the road.

nice commute this morning, 56 degrees when I left the house, 55 outside right now. A day off really helped. I think like buzzman I might have been experienceing a little over training, been doing a lot of 25 mile days and some 40 mile ones too lately and I think I was just wore out. This morning I got up right when my alarm went off, dispite being up till 11:00. Went through my pre-launch routine quickly, and left 10 minutes ahead of schedule! Which is WAAAAY ahead of schedule of you consider i've been leaving 15-20 minutes BEHIND schedule for the last week or so.

Ride was fast, and the only event worth mentioning was that a car stopped at a stop sign on a side street saw me pretty far off (I expected him to take off and was slowing) waved me through, AND smiled.

EDIT forum glutch, DOH! again with the not posting, then double posting...

A little cooler that yesterday, which was nice. Other than that same as always.

Frickin' sweaty today. It was warm enough not to need the jacket, but I left it on anyway. Dumb! I've been sitting here for 15 minutes and I'm still not air-dry.

there actually are little bus shelters at this stop, which no one ever uses. I was sitting on the lip of a low window of building reading a free newspaper that ended up costing me $28:rolleyes:

Yesterdays Commute Home:

Took my first spill of the year crossing the dreaded Comm.Ave trolly tracks. I was looking over my left shoulder for oncoming traffic and didn't hit the tracks at a steep enough angle. My front wheel got caught in the track and before I knew it I was picking gravel out of my hand. It just so happens that I wasn't wearing my gloves because they were full-finger and the day was warm.

Todays Commute:

Fairly quick pace, lots of cyclists out. I decided to take the ped. walkway over the B.U. Bridge as I wasn't in the mood for cager antics. I plan to bang out 25miles after work so hopefully things won't be too crazy today.

Blue skies & sunny. Low 50Fs. Saw a couple of riders headed in the opposite direction, and I came up behind a woman I've seen before on a mountain bike with panniers. She was riding wrong-way on a sidewalk :rolleyes: but it's a very low-volume road with a 20MPH speed limit (I passed her at the speed limit :D) so I suppose it doesn't matter too much.

Wore my Budvar jersey. I think it makes me faster. :o :rolleyes:

The overcast was mostly gone this morning so there was some sun on the ride to work. It took about ten minutes to get to the office.

For the week I was 4/5 for bike commutes. I screwed up the one morning as it looked wetter at the condo than it did on the rest of the way to work. For the year I am now -6 for bike commutes, in that I have failed to commute by bike on 6 occasions this year.

man, you've got the nasty Comm Av/BU bridge commute. would it be worth it to tack on some miles on your commute and avoid a lot of that? All those pedestrians, car doors, trolley tracks, busy roads, narrow bridge it's like the worst 3 miles of riding. My commute in from Newton could be done right down Comm Ave into downtown but I've opted for the clunky bike path instead. It has it's downsides (many of them) but I just can't keep my focus every morning and evening on all those possible collisions and falls. You've probably gotten pretty used to it by now and seem to handle it well but whew I feel your pain. Every time I go over those tracks I count my blessings they don't take me down.:eek: