The commute today? Not so hot. On Thursdays I meet my wife at the local bakery/coffee shop for breakfast. I always ride through the local college campus. For the uhh, scenery. Anyway, this morning since classes haven't dtarted I took a slightly different route through campus. There are some of those barrier gates for the pay parking lot that I didn't see until it was too late. My last thought was maybe it will break and I won't fall. It broke and I fell, hard. Road rash on the side of my face and my sunglasses dug in to my eye brow so I got several stitches there. Bled like crazy. First person to see me was an RN so she gave me some kleenex to help stop the bleeding. Plus, I missed breakfast.

Cold and foggy. Typical for Sacto in January. It's only in the 40s but the dampness just seeps into your bones and makes it feel so much colder.

So I had to laugh to myself as I passed a teenaged girl on a cruiser, jacketless and wearing sandals. Ah, high school vanity! I was going to offer her some unsolicited advice but thought better of it and just said good morning.

The wind was in my face steady but single digits on the way in. I can hear it gusting at 35mph out there from the same direction at the moment. Going to be a really tasty tail wind all the way home.

Tried to retune the RD last night, following some directions I found on the web. Couldn't do it. Maybe the hanger's a bit bent. Maybe I just don't know what I'm doing. Either way, the LBS will deal with it on Monday. Until then, my commuter is idle.

Took advantage of the warm weather - put my slicks back on and did my first commute since surgery. wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Beautiful day.

Hey, it was 40-36F this AM for my commute and I didn't have a jacket and was wearing sandals too.

(but I had wool socks and a longsleeve baselayer)

Al

I normally only post the ride to work, but today I'm doing the double

Very nice ride home tonight (52°F), it really felt like a early fall night once I got the body temp up. No scull cap beneath my helmet for the first time since...who knows when. Not much traffic either so I was able ride a slightly quicker pace than normal.

Ride home was nice and easy. Legs were tired after skating for like 3 hrs. today.

According to my Snapple cap, if you put all the streets in NYC in a straight line, they would stretch all the way to Japan. Now that sounds like a challenge to me. Time to get a map and ride to Japan.

to tango6: hope you heal quickly! when i was about age 12 and racing in an abandonned cement co, i focused too hard on speed to jump a set ramp, and hit the back of one of the truck's swing arms = hit head above eyebrow = blood rush + hsp!!
commute in was 60degf and sunny and after taking "clients" to evening group (w/Honda Van), commute home at 10pm had much less traffic! 4 blinkies used and space was shared!

Good commute tonight. I rode a little further than usual. It was still nice and warm out. It had to be atleast 45 degrees. I hope the rest of the week stays this warm. Have a good night.

I had a good ride around town, going to 2 dr's apts, and then to work. It took the bus for 5 miles, of my 20 journey today. On the way home, my chain broke....luckily the folks at REI in town were good enough to lend me a chain pin to fix it.

The ride home was nice this evening, absolutely perfect weather at 4:40PM and when I arrived home at about 4:50PM it was still wonderful.

I found a bunjee (sp?) cord on the ride home. I'm so happy!

I had a great ride in this morning. It was 39 degrees so I really cranked up the effort because I didn't have to worry about sweating. Rode arterials all the wayin and only hit 2 lights. I sprained my back at work when a 1000 lb load bounced back at me, so the ride home was by minivan with the bike in the back, then off to the hospital. Two days off from work, like I can afford it. ARRRGGG!

another build day, sigh. i drove since they weren't delivering it until late in the day and i knew it was going to be a long one. as the lead and i were locking it up finally at the end of the day she asked again about me and my biking life, how long it takes me to get home and all that. she said something about the weather too, and it's only occurred to me now to say that i'm only cold on the days i don't bike. it's true, dammit.

I've been commuting fairly consistently since October of last year. I've posted here inconsistently.

I'm illuminated like a randonnauer--cycling specific safety vest, ankle reflectors, bright tail light, headlight on the handlebars, and another light on my helmet.

This morning was my first ride in heavy fog. I had no problems with cars coming too close other than a school bus whose driver felt the urge to cross back into my lane fairly close on a 4 lane road. I honked my air horn at her and flashed my helmet light into her mirrors and windows after she passed to make her be better aware of her surroundings.

I had a f-ing bus almost shave me this morning ! LOL

I rode to the Las Olas building today... its a little longer, 7.5 miles .. and it took me 26 minutes (that was minus 1 minute for red lights).

I saw a road biker doing some training, he was over a 1/4 mile ahead of me when I started after him... I could not f-ing catch him... the best I could do was just barely see him ! LOL he was much faster than me... at some point, he turned away from the main road and I no longer saw him at all ...

so...

Average Speed = 60 / 26 * 7.5 = 17.3 mph.

Not as good as yesterday, but still good considering I just barely completed my first month of commuting, I think I started mid December 05... woot !

I awoke this morning to the TV weatherman saying that there was a bit of fog, but with a visibility of a quarter mile. Upon leaving the house around 6:15 or so, I found that he was correct.

Until I crossed the river, that is.

The fog was rolling so thick north of the James that I had to drop down to around 10 mph in order to dodge potholes/road debris/parked cars. It was a totally un-nerving experience, especially when I hit the idustrial area in the northside with all the tractor trailers leaving on thier morning runs. Yeesh! It was definitely one of the few times I felt totally unsafe on the roads, despite my lights, reflective vest, and reflective tape.

I went way out of my way this morning to make a stop by the doughnut shop. Totally worth it. I was surprised how fresh I felt when I got to work considering I had nearly doubled my mileage. They're predicting severe weather for the ride home, should make it interesting.

Good ride this morning! 38°F, clear skies, moderate traffic, no accidents . I noticed more cyclists today than in the past few weeks. They must be the people who will only ride in temps above freezing .

Warm this morning in the 40's so I took it easy to work to keep the sweating down. Had a cab pass by a little close and another car on my left that I was keeping pace w/ me try to right hook me. Of course, peds crossing at the corner meant I zipped right in front of him. Some drivers just don't even bother using their brains when they drive.

5 for 5 this week. That's a first for me in a winter month--I rode once last January, when it snowed a lot.

Back to low clouds and high, southerly winds, which is the direction I ride, naturally! Yet, it was still pretty awesome and relaxing. 55 F--just crazy for Cleveland. Supposed to rain later and snow tomorrow.

Got out of the house just in time to catch a little bit of the sunrise. My wife was still in bed [she has the day off], but promised that she would corral the cats into their carriers and get them to the vet on time. One of the cats has no eyebrows [really] and we want to know if it's just Feline Pattern Baldness or something more sinister...

Had to dodge a Bobcat in my driveway this morning. We're relandscaping our backyard and they were clearing away the demolished back steps this morning. My wife has hated the backyard since we bought the house 4 years ago. And the bonus for me is that it'll be a mow-free zone. Should free up another hour for riding every Saturday, right?

mites! its mites! I think you better start showering more than once a week there mills

I left late as NPR was doing a story on James Frey, the less than truthful author. It's a story that I have been paying attention to, even though I had never heard of him until thesmokinggun.com story came out.

So I left late, at 8:00 AM, when work starts. After about a ten minute ride, in perfect conditions, I arrived at the office.