Overcast and kind of foggy this morning. I figured out the sweet-spot for missing the elementary school traffic, but unfortunately it's about 30 minutes earlier than I usually leave. I'm going to shoot for it, though. Not much else today, still having sleep problems. Some sort of tension, I probably need to leave town for a few days.

Today's commute to work was "interesting."

The MUP is technically closed for a section today and tomorrow because they're fixing an area that was washed out during the very wet spring we had. I figured nobody would be out working early, but I was wrong. They were already there at 7:15.

I dismounted and climbed a set of stairs leading to a housing complex, and followed one of the streets to where I knew there was an access back to the MUP. Trouble was, I didn't see an obvious way to the access, so I had to carry the old Peugeot through woods about 50 feet to the trail. :) Then it was a quick ride through woods back to the main MUP, and normalcy.

I caught up to a roadie who, I think, was "relieving himself". :o He mounted up as I approached and I sort of hung out behind him at a spirited pace for about 1.5 miles before turning off the MUP into Burlington.

So far this week I've seen a raccoon, two garter snakes (I stopped and chased them off to safety), and a kitty on trail.

Wow - I could almost cut and paste your post! I'll see your lack of a granny gear, your wobbling headset and raise you a loose cleat - and resulting fall :( and stiffer than normal headwind!

Regarding the headset, I had recurrence of a headset wobble too. Have recently read this from Sheldon Brown regarding "Threadless Without Spacers" and using a clamp instead of a star nut, I loosened the stem and bounced the front up and down several times then tightened the headset. Repeated several times until I could no longer move the headset bolt. I'll bet I got another two full turns out of it that way. No more wobble on the other 11 miles of the commute. (fingers crossed!)

106°

'nuff sed

Wow....my commute in was 79 with a heat index of 94 -- and I thought I had it rough. Glad we are having a cold front!!

I haven't posted in awhile, but have just finished a full year of commuting and am now starting year TWO! I put just over 4000 miles since August 1 and am excited that my speed and distances are increasing. My commute is now 12 miles each way and today....used the new SHOWERS at the office. Woohoo!

It is already looking to be another great cycling year!

Chris

No red lights on the way home last night... that boils my legs by the time I get home. I usually haul on the way home, so at least one red light is a welcome break. My legs feel it this morning too :)

This morning was a plesant 61F with humitidy down to the 45% range. Crisp and clear. Had an idiot driver try to left turn over the top of me, but thankfully I have good brakes, and a middle finger. It was one of those zen moments when you know it's gonna happen before it happens, so I was more than ready.

Gotta zip home tonight, rack up a couple of MTB's for a ride at Ute Valley park tonight. That will add 8-10 miles of pretty technical riding for the evening.

Day 6 of overcast skies for the morning commute. :crash: I like sunshine.
Kinda reminds me of when I lived in Olympia, Washington many years ago.

My legs thought it was Friday. :(

Supposed to be sunny for the ride home. :beer:

Nice weather today for the bike commute. But the damn bus was scary. The damn bus driver was determined to try to force me up onto the sidewalk. For some reason he thinks bikes belong on sidewalks. He even uttered something about my not being "where I belong". How ignorant can some people be?

The ride in was calm and event free which mean only one thing...all hell will break lose for the ride home :eek:.

Here in Olympia we're taking a break from sunny summer for a coolish interlude of overcast.

Managed to coax the 5 yr old out of the house and into the trailer for his last day of pre-school; 'cause the 19 month old is banned from school until her upset tummy clears up, I just took her for a spin after dropping him off, nice jaunt out toward the end of Budd Inlet. I turned around early, and it turned out to not be a bad thing 'cause I found, after stopping for a bagel that the trailer had a flat. I had no patch kit, and it was 30 min from the earliest LBS opening, so I just pulled it home as it was.

I really need to get another patch kit.

Now I'm trying to convince her to nap while I telecommute. Little success at either so far.

My favourite gear was getting a little "skippy" under pressure earlier this week, and Synth (my favourite LBS wrenchman) determined it's worn teeth on my middle chainring. The shop didn't have any 110 rings in stock to replace it, so I have to go until tomorrow afternoon on either my 28T dinky ring or my 46T big ring.
I've been jammin' a 46-18 combo the past couple of days, treating it like a SS, and my legs are just not used to hammering something that tall up the final hill to work. I'm a little sore, but I'm also a little more convinced that my choice of a SS for my next ride is the right decision.

I had to drop my car off at the shop today [new ACT HD clutch - w00t!], then burn rubber to get to work in time for a meeting. I rode 40% farther than normal in the same amount of time as usual. My secret was to make every single light on the entire route, and pedal my ass off while doing so. I was crazy sweaty when I got in, but I don't stink. Yay!

I think I need a to take a break from commuting--or at a minimum, take a vacation from work.

I've chewed out 3 drivers in 2 days. The first one and the third one deserved it; the 2nd one was because I over-reacted.

But the reason I think I need a break is that I'm starting to be angry nearly the entire ride and expecting drivers to do stupid, dangerous, or mean/aggressive stuff. The cynics and pessimists here would probably say I should expect this behavior, because that's what many drivers do.

Part of my anger might be stress; been busy as heck at work lately (normally my job is boring), my wife is expecting our first child, and I haven't been sleeping well.

I need to find the joy in riding in to work again.

Thanks for letting me vent. Now back to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

Be careful out there. On my second day, I pulled up to an intersection and just fell over. Memory lapse. It was likely quite funny for the pedestrians and cars around me.

Good ride both ways today and I am excited that I am able to extend tommorow's ride to 60k.

Did my first commute to college today: 70 miles round-trip.
I think I over-did it...my legs hurt. :(

1) If it's not fun, don't do it.
2) Have a beer, on me. :beer:

Sounds like you have a case of the mean reds. Time for a time-out. Visit thine local tavern. Count to ten. Forgive the cagers for they know not what they do. Etc. Etc. :) Remember: It's the weekend!

My ride home was at night tonight, with my wife. Lots of bugs deciding our headlights were simply fascinating! :rolleyes:

Also a lot of people out in near-darkness without any lights at all. I often wonder what would happen if two of them met head-on. Reflectors only work if the other guy has lights, my friends.

been a nice week. it's cooled off dramatically, and now it's just about right - around 14C coming and going. i think i'm coming up around my 1-year anniversary for this commuting thing, so that's kind of nice. i'm enjoying the flashbacks and the non-baseball liberation, and just moseying just to prove that i can. liking the whole back-to-school feel of this time of year too. and i find myself actually looking forward to winter, just cause i already did it. i must be out of my mind.

random developer yesterday, who i had to go look for and then trucked me over half the building looking for another developer . . . kept turning half-round and eyeballing me sideways in that way people do. finally he asked if i'd brought my bike that day, and i said yes. he started to giggle, and finally it came out. 'you ride your bike all that long way to get to work, and then you wait for the elevator to take you up one flight of stairs.' humph. i told him i bike to work so i won't feel like i have to walk up the stairs.

A nice commute. The perfect temperature, little traffic, paced myself and hit the lights at the right time.

Well, nice until my chain snapped and spewed itself all over the road, that is!

Oh well. I had my chain tool with me (never leave home without it!) and was up & running late in no time.

Nice ride home yesterday. Warm, but not too humid. Same thing this AM, ~70F and dewpoint of 66. I was still a sweaty mess by the time I got to work, but better than previous weeks when the dewpoint was above 70. Saw another cyclist riding at ~6:30AM with no headlights. The only reason I could see him was because a car passed him. Sure hope he/she gets some lighting before getting run over.

Today has started off on completely the wrong foot. Up at 5:30, into the office to finish a report, down to midtown to turn it in, back into the office probably to doze off for the rest of the day, then home this evening to catch up on a week's worth of missed sleep. No I'm not on the bike today, I miss it...

Not happening today :( The montrousity hovering over Iowa is going to hit my area around 3pm today and linger to Saturday morning. I feel depressed, couldn't ride the last 2 days. :(

http://www.intellicast.com/WeatherImg/Radar/spi.gif

Your post got me to thinking and I realized that I had three chain tools with me today.

"Tell me ven you schtarted hating you mudder....."

Average ride this morning. Early on (under one mile out) I spotted a roadie and he caught up to me as I slowed up to go off the road and onto the MUP. We exchanged greetings and he looked at my bike, probably wondering how I could go that fast with all that stuff attached to it. :D I'm feeling tired and maybe a little bit of the beer from last night so I didn't ride with him.

Didn't see any other cyclists. Weird.

Oh, that's okay. You've got your primary chain tool, and your backup. You also have a third one, in case you are drag racing a rider beside you, and you both snap your chains, and he doesn't have a chain tool, and your primary chain tool is broken.

Makes perfect sense to me.