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.

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!

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.

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. 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.

Trip home last night was 3 miles of grid lock. I think there was a issue with the signals all green in one area since there were lots ot police directing traffic and multiple accidents in the intersections. I must have passed a thousand cars, just flying by with a big grin. I tried to avoid doing the point and laugh.

This morning was nice and cool... 61f I think it was. Rode in somewhat of a mind fog cuz I was up way too late last night doing nothing important.

It's Friday, my legs are tired, and I considered driving --- but I didn't.
The first 4 miles I was wishing for a nice flat road. Then I guess I warmed up cause the rest of the ride wasn't that bad. Waved to a new commuter that I've been seeing nearly every morning or afternoon for several weeks.

Way to go, Ron. Don't give in to the temptation. In fact, I've been in a sour mood all morning because I was forced to drive. I'm going home to get my bike. I'll be back in a few minutes...

The roadie is working commuter still in the garage for repairs. It worked fine till I started cleaning up and taking care of it. The orginal owner dropped by to see how I was doing with the commuter I was like not to good it isnt working before he said to me why did you go through all that trouble it didn't need it before and it probally didn't need it now. Sounded to me like this guy doesn't have a clue about preventitave maintenance but he might be right. I just figured something thirty some years old needs some cleaning? Oh yeah this is a how did your commute go thread not rant to the world thread. THe commute was funn stupid kids going to kill them selves everyone of them wears no helment swerves all over the place goes on the side walk and off the side walk in a unpredictable manner and when you go to public places there are just heaps of x-mart bikes lying every which way. Oh well they are just kids having fun on a bike I do like it when I whip past them and they just stare it is kinda funney because they tell me it takes them an hour or two to get somewhere and I tell them it takes me a fraction of that time

double posted- see below

Last night's ride was 105, but with only a ~7mph headwind. I seem to have attracted a scofflaw of mine own, albeit a low-grade one. This 45-ish year old guy rides an old road bike, and blows every light, going through town. I'll sometimes run them in there's no traffic/ nearby witnesses, but I'm pretty circumspect about it. Anyway, I've spoken to him both times I've passed him, without reply.
He hits the trail about the same place as me, too. Tuesday, he got way ahead of me, running the lights I stopped at, and I didn't catch and pass him for a few miles. Last night, I got on the trail before him, but I dunno how far ahead...

At a point where I was coming abreat of two joggers, he decides he needs to pass right now, splitting the trail between the joggers and myself. I stayed just off his wheel and to the left to see if he was gonna maintain the speed he passed with. Given the heat, I wasn't planning to race the guy if he really was going faster than I wanted to. After a few hundred yards, he hawked and spat a big ol' ****er over his left shoulder, narrowly missing me. I don't know if he knew I was there, or if he was thinking he'd dropped me after passing. I went ahead and passed then. He was pretty far back when I tuned off across the river, toward home.


oh, and ~85 degrees at 7am this morning. the clouds of riparian insect life have caused me to start wearing clear glasses for the riverside part of the trail. not quite to the point of wearing the bandito bandana to keep em out of my pipes yet, but I did swallow a few — thought not enough to determine if they taste like chicken...

Not a particularly exciting ride in, but that's a good thing. I am having trouble with fender rub, so I'll have to take care of that this weekend. Fender rub!

For the longest time I wouldn't leave home w/o box wrenches to pull over at a moment's notice and adjust my fenders. I still carry a multitool that is multi enough that it has several box-end wrenches on it. I hate fenders, except I seem to require them.

Nice ride in today. No errands, no kids to drop off, just straight to work.

Out of curiosity, I counted crank revs on the big chainring this morning; 140 revs over 6.5 miles using the 52t ring. Most of the rest was on the 39, w/ some use of the 30 here and there. The number would be different on the way home, so I'll have to check that too, if I remember to.

Happy to report I was in a better mood this morning (and thanks vtjim!). I got some help:

• About a mile from home yesterday a young guy yelled out the car window, "Pedal pedal pedal!". He was around the corner, nothing threatening, and you could tell he was just having a great day.
• Dentist appt. this morning with a new dentist. They had a bike rack in front of their office. Guy who treated me said when the dentist who owns the practice wanted to put in the rack, they all said no one would ever use it. The guy asked me all about commuting and distances, the usual. Felt good.
• No one honked, yelled, cut me off, or did anything else particularly threatening or dumb during the ride today.

I just commuted my 1000th mile for the (calendar) year this morning! :-D
(Although at 22mi/one way that's only 22 round trips in 33 weeks). Lets see, 18 weeks left in 2006, assume 3 round trips/week, 44mi/round trip, that's 2376 potential more miles off the car! woot!

I really wanted to ride the Caldaro to work today. She just hangs there in the garage, pretty as a picture, and I can hear her saying "I want to go for a ride!" Her Italian accent is so cute.

But I have to run some errands at lunch and there's no way I'd leave her locked up in Midtown. So once again I rode the Bomber to work.