I had an upper body injury at work. During the time off, I rode so much I gat an overuse injury of my left knee. I quit riding for two days. In the five days since, I have been doing only my 3 mile (one way) commute. these have been some S...L...O...W rides! I got my time down under 12 minutes on my mountain bike, now it's taking over 20. But the rehab riding is working. The pain is gone now; I'm just a little tight and weak now. I'm adding more miles gradually, but it will be a few days before I get into the big chainring or do any hills.

Last night, riding home from work at midnight, the moon was incredibly beautiful, so bright and full, trying to hide behind the clouds.

I tried a "100% legal commute" today. That is, signal for every stop, turn and lane position change; stop fully at every stop sign etc. It was a lot of fun. :D Sure felt weird at times.

Had to have a negative cager interaction today, so here we go: So I am on a four-lane road, taking the rightmost lane, when a cager passes me on the left, without fully changing lanes, WAY too close (forces me quite a bit to the right) and the passenger yells something out of the window. The funny thing is - the car has to stop right away cause... yeah, it's a red light ahead, of course.

So I come up to the side of the car and ask the passenger to repeat what she said because I didn't catch it. Well, you can guess it of course: "Get onto the sidewalk!" I tell her it's illegal - she tells me I'm gonna get killed on the road. I tell her she is ignorant - she doesn't say anything, the car drives away. Isn't it funny how this lovely couple in the car (the driver and the passenger) who expressed the most verbal concern about my safety are the ones who endangered me the most on the ride?..

Other than that - pretty uneventful. Except when I was almost at the end of my journey, I got passed by a minivan that just barely wedged in between me and the red light. Wasn't a close pass, but he had to go way beyond the yellow centerline to do it. I was turning right, so I passed him on the right immediately after he passed me. Complimented him on his high speed and congratulated him on getting ahead of the biker as I passed. :D

Nice ride in today, I did the crest climb on Friday last week (had the day off) then did the Albuquerque Century on Saturday, there was a lot more climbing than I thought there would be. I rested Sunday and did 20 miles in this morning. I felt the weekends tough rides this morning, let me tell ya! But, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I did make it into work so...I'm proud! :-) 150 miles in three days of riding! and no real suffering (once off the bike) to speak of. All my long commutes, and weekend rides are paying off.

It's hot as heck out there (93%) so I think I'll skip the long ride home and just do 7 miles.

Not riding today, really sore thighs from Aikido training this weekend.

It's nice to take a break sometimes and just carpool. I saw a cyclist as we pass by, I wanted to roll down the window and yell "Go Lance!" just for the fun of it, but I didn't.

no commute for me today either.

On my way home I saw an SUV parked half on the sidewalk and half in a bike lane....
and a ticket tucked under the wiper...
warmed my heart :)

Yay junkfood! I ate nothing but crap yesterday and today and rode 40 miles spread out over the commute, a lunchtime ride, errands and some laps in the park. Didn't feel like getting off the bike so I just kept riding until I finally figured out where to get some chicken wings for dinner. Then I loaded up on more junkfood for tomorrow. :)

back from vacation (rode 98 miles that week off); to the grind again. motorists, bus drivers, pedestrians all seemed "in sinc" today. another good commute!

Now that the kids are out of school my wife joins me on the commute to prepare for her first Tri. She runs and swims great but she says she has to concentrate much more on a bike and think about a lot more things. Hummmm. I guess if you are not a veteran rider perhaps this is the case. Anywho, she is doing great. I ran my first 5K ever which she of course won the masters, I was just happy to finish. On Monday we rode in and averaged 18.7 which is 1 MPH better than her last run. Nice to have someone to ride with. Makes an otherwise boring ride fun. 19 MPH here we come! Oh, ya, it is an 11 mile ride to work with 5 stop lights and plenty of 4 way stops. Anyone else get their spouses to join them?

Great ride to work And home . Have a good nite .

:D ate homemade greek salad and rode 12 miles. wonder if there's a message in that?


new bio-pattern. summer daylight makes me wake up at the first whimper of dawn, stay awake for a few hours, fall asleep for a few more of that super-heavy psychedelic sleep you get when you're much too hot, and consequently wake up at the proper time poisoned with my own narcosomine, shambling like boris karloff on novocaine. karloffed myself onto the bike and off to work without really noticing what i was doing.

:D one of the best rides i've had so far. the led readout said 23 degrees celsius when i passed it - at NINE FIFTEEN in the morning. i made a mental note to get into my gear for the ride home and then get under the shower for a minute or two just to get some transpiration cooling, but i didn't do it. it was overcasting by coming-home time, and the last part of the ride just caught the very first part of summer sunset starting. i was some of the fastest i've been both ways, and i didn't get hurt.

stopped in at the lbs that sold me my bike on the weekend to discuss maybe doing that 2-week tune-up. now that i've had it three months and all. not sure when, but it would be kind of nice to get my other 16 gears back.

first playoff game tomorrow evening, at the close park, then nothing till the weekend unless they plan to practice. how did this baseball season happen so fast?

Saw a rare sight yesterday on my way home -- three bike commuters, heading in the opposite direction I was going, riding together. :beer: One was wearing work clothes, one was wearing commuter type cycling clothes, and the third was wearing his full team kit.

Now for today's question. Who in the southeast US will stay dry and who will get wet today?
http://www.intellicast.com/IcastPage...p&prodnav=none

Still not back on the bike after a week off due to a conference up in Providence, RI. Had a nice week off from work but missed the bike. I have to drive again tomorrow for a job a few hours away and hope to be back on the bike on Wed. Gonna clean the chain and check everything tonight when I get home.

Not a great commute this morning. Drizzled the whole way in, got buzzed twice, didn't have any milk so skipped breakfast and now I'm hungry. Wah wah wah...

Bright...Ball of light...In sky. :eek: :p So the sun is out this morning, amazingly enough. I'd almost forgotten what it looks like. :rolleyes: Temp around 60F. Dead calm wind. I followed a woman-commuter all the way in. Saw some other cyclists here and there. A nice ride. No bunnies this morning though.

Lots and lots of cyclists out there this morning. It is bike to work week in Chicago, and at least some folks are answering the bell. I made a special point to smile and nod to the people who looked like first timers. I was feeling really good about the whole thing until I realized that out of all those bikes, mine was the only one that wouldn't be locked up with a U-lock when I reached my office. DOH! I could picture the lock (right next to the multitool--double doh!) on the shelf where I rest my communter at night. I have a cable lock, but it just discourages wheel thieves. Good thing the Ace Hardware opened at eight!

Walter.

My first commmute ever today... those hills seem a lot shallower in a car. I picked the route with little traffic, but it turned out to have some massive hills... the ones that get you into a low gear and then slowly sap your strength... I need some more gears, I think.

Congrats Rock. Try a few different routes to find a happy medium between traffic, hills, and distance.

Ran late today and faced more traffic than yesterday so I was off by 1.5 min. from yesterday's blazing pace and right about where I usually average for my commute. Faced the usual cager nonsense like right hooks and such.

First workday commute today. Ride was good, even had a positive interaction with a cager in the downtown area. I took the right lane when approaching the stop light, and during my shoulder check I saw the vehicle behind me began signaling for a right turn. I shoulder checked again and pulled to the far left of the lane and waved her past on the right. Got a friendly smile and a thank you. It sure felt good to make it all the way into work without needing my car. I even had my backpack full of my 17" laptop, camera, change of clothes, swimsuit (if I needed to use the public shower), and a towel. All in all a satisfying commute. Can't wait for the ride home.

EDIT: As an added bonus, I didn't crash approaching a stoplight like I did in my trial run this weekend. In fact, that very light was where I let the cager pass. I'm feeling more confident in my breaking, which is making me a lot more confident in VC.

Idiots were everywhere this morning.

First, my wife watched a pickup truck nearly side-swipe a kid on a bicycle (which meant I got a panicked phone call reminding me to be careful).

Second, I had a car pass me on a blind curve (again; drivers insist on passing me on this curve) in the oncoming lane as traffic approached. I could see the oncoming car, the passing driver couldn't.

Then I had this encounter: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=203336.

And finally, a driver in a pickup took the left turn so wide in front of me (I was behind him at the light) that he was driving in the bike line for a while. I'm certain he did it to intimidate me because I had the "nerve" to pull up to a light behind him.

I bring my bike into my office. There are security cameras at each door is eombdoy tried nabbing my bike from my office, which of course would have to be over my dead body

Gosh. I think of all of the horrible experiences I've had in Houston and San antonio in 2 years can't add up to what you Experienced in one day. :p Me thinks you need some of that "redneck Texan Hospitality" :p

Nice ride this morning. I was out the door rather early this morning, since I had packed the night before. Also, I replaced my broken clips/strap with powergrips, and finaly got some new shoes for riding. Made for a much more comfartable ride.

http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoticons4u/sad/1004.gif Sorry to hear it. My ride was dry. Still looks crappy outside.

All we had at my house was soy milk. http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoticons4u/sad/1318.gif Let's see if I can describe the "taste". ;)

I have a granola bar or Power Gel you can have. :)


Did you find a good BBQ place? After we parted last Saturday I thought about BBQ all the way home. :o

Double post!

Nice day to ride, I'm still dragging a little from my weekend madness, but I made it to work more or less on time. I'm really bumed though because I misplaced my expensive rudy project sunglasses sometime between the century on Saturday, and going to a picnick with the inlaws on Sunday. I thought for sure I just set them someplace strange, but i've practically turned my house upside down, and can't find them :-( my wife is the best though, she said if they are really gone, I can buy new ones. Makes me feel pretty guilty though...those puppies were bank!