I'm exhausted. The commute this morning was fine except that I had to push myself the whole 28 miles.
I think it may have something to do with the 60 mile recreational ride I took yesterday in the foothills.
I nominate the following thoughts as my most idiotic meandering bike ride internal dialog (this occured yesterday while cycling in the foothills):
"Gee. There sure are a lot of hills in the..... foothills"
"Holy crap! Another one!"
"Argh! I've ran out of gears. My legs are dying"
"OoooOooO! I'm at the top of this freaking steep hill" *looks around* "Holy cow! I have to go down that now? Ugh"

A good ride, warmer this morning than it was all weekend. Still, it was the first time in 4 months that I've worn long pants on a ride! It's starting to get dark in the mornings too, I'm glad my lights were finished on time. I hit nearly every stop light on the way, but no matter. I'm looking forward to getting that fairing, it will help with the cold and I'll be able to avoid wearing long pants or jackets longer than I ever could before.

Made it 4 miles into my 8 mile commute before a flat tire caught me unprepared.

First commute in the 60's since last April. Ahhhhhhhh.

It was a cool 47f this morning, crisp and clear. There seems to be a ton more traffic not what school is back in session. Seemed a bit slow this morning with the monday load. Not riding much for 3 days may have made a difference too.

Riding directly into the rising sun now. That's a bit scary. Makes me wonder if people can see me through their dirty winshields. Been keeping a close eye in the mirror for that one.

Going to try and get out of here tonight in time to bust out an evening ride with the little woman on the tandem. That's usually a 10-15 mile cruise with a stop at Starbucks and tour through Manitou Springs, a local touristy area.

I was cranky leaving the house today. The road 3 blocks from my home is still torn up, requiring some acrobatic manouevering to get over. When I got to 14th St., I dismounted and walked my bike across as usual. Two bikers were riding on the sidewalk going the direction I wanted to go, and they both gave me the "look" as they rode by. The "look" + scofflaw = chasing [by me]. By the time I got back on my bike, a third guy popped up, but he only had 3 m on me and was easy to catch. I must have been in a seriously pissy mood, since I caught up with the first two riders and passed them in <2 blocks. I stopped at the 4-way stop sign [as usual] and scofflaw #1 catches me, then when we get to the next stop sign and he blows through it into traffic, doing an aggressive merge. Scofflaw #2 is a little smarter and pauses at the stop sign but basically does the same thing. I waited for a gap to show up, then took off down the hill after them. I caught #2 as she was weaving around another cyclist, then made the light at the bottom of the hill, getting back to within 20m of #1. However, it was at this point that I had to give up the chase and make my turn to continue on with my trip to work.

Brisk (40s) and foggy. Could have benefitted from headlight. Next 2 days won't be heading in until after 9, so they light's summer vacation may yet make it through the weekend.

After 3 day Weekend Of Sloth, did not feel so bolt upright on the Felt flatbar bike (75.5* seat tube angle, 20" top tube length) vs the mtn bike (73* seat tube angle, 25" top tube length). I was >< this close to taking the mtn bike, too, at least a little 'cause big load in panniers today.

Did everyone commuting into Redmond this morning forget to charge up their headlights over the holiday?
6 people passed the opposite direction this morning, and 4 of them didn't have their lights on. One guy at least had a reflector vest and apologised about his light burning out. The rest just zoomed on by in the dark and fog as though it were a clear summer afternoon.

It's darker farther north at this time of year.

Ah! Fall is in the air. Temps in the hi 40's in the a.m and 70's in the p.m. Rounded up the tights, jacket, gloves and head cover (no hair to keep me warm ). The sun is definitely lower in the morning and evening now. Great ride in this morning!

Nice and cool. Did it flip to autumn over the weekend? We usually have at least one more week of 100F temps in September, but it feels like we just fast forwarded through the end of summer. I wore armwarmers and kneewarmers and could have done with gloves but forgot them at home.

I rode the Caldaro this morning and took a weird route. I actually rode directly to the office, dropped off my backpack, then out past Sac State, hopped on the American River bike trail, and looped back into midtown before stopping for coffee and a muffin. Very civilized.

Cloudy start to the day. Light traffic.
The gas station I ride past every morning and afternoon had new "low" gas prices. Regular was $2.49. First time gas has been this low in a while. Does this mean that the new crop of "high gas prices" commuters will head back to their cages? I hope not.

Way too mcuh traffic this morning (maybe because it is first day of school). 21 celsius and not much wind, was very pleasant.

took a week off due to a hamstring injury, still doesn't feel any better. Wow, the paths were busier today than I've ever seen them. Good on my fellow commuters for getting out there on the bikes.

Maybe you should play football to heal that hamstring. When Terrell Owens injures his, he gets on a bike to heal it....

Low 60s this morning and I decided not to take a jacket so it was chilly. Saw two deer and had to wait briefly for a train. On the ride home it was mid 80s and *gasp* low humidity! I had forgotten how that felt! This weather is beautiful.

Awesome commute. But on the way in I passed another biker who crashed at a light. Just couldn't get out of those clipless...he layed there for a long time on the side walk. When I hailed him, he got up and seemed OK. Hopefully, he made it to work!

I did my first commute today. I have a Karate Monkey on the way to build into a commuter, but couldn't wait to get started, so I put 60 lbs in the mtb tires, trued the rims a bit so the brakes would stop rubbing (it's a bike I use to practice trials stuff on and gets a lot of abuse), and did the 20 imles rt.

About 45 minutes each way...about the same as taking the bus in the morning. Faster than the bus in the evening.

The last part to work is all downhill/flat, so I arrived fairly cooled off. I was pretty sweaty when I got home though.

All in all, a good first commute.

had to get off and walk around the front end of a semi-with-problems at the bridge ramp this morning. ride home was enlivened by the most god-awful smell for three or four blocks of the hill. no idea what it was - wasn't any smell i've met with before in my life. kind of like they'd repaved the road surface with a mixture of fish guts and well-ripened blood, and then left it to sit all day in the sun. apologies to those eating dinner/breakfast.

Walked yesterday but rode today. Almost needed arm warmers for the first few minutes of my ride. I got over that pretty quick, but fall is in the air.

Back to work after a 4-day weekend. My legs seem to have adapted to the new Trek. I was cruising a couple of MPH faster than last week. Someone poked my thigh the other night and said it was like poking a 2-by-4. Heh heh.

It's squirrel season! They're everywhere. I also smelled a skunk but I didn't see it.

I did the 9 mile half-commute to the carpoolers house today. Its pretty dark outside at 5:30am now. Gotta got some more batteries for my Wally World headlight. Temperature is perfect (60 degrees)...sunny skies and no wind today. Gonna do the whole 36 mile roundtrip tomorrow. Weather should be a carbon copy of today...maybe a tad warmer. Man, 8-9 miles seems like a recreational ride now.

Was a good ride up until I stopped to adjust my headlight. My hammy cramped right afterward. I think I need to move my seat forward a little. I managed to get relief from the hammy by sitting on the nose of the seat the rest of the way in. Well maybe it still hurt but I was just too distracted to notice.

Nice ride in this morning, 50s, no breeze, light traffic (except around the school). I actually got in early so I had a nice, lazy start to the day

Loved it, especially after a few days off and wussing out something spectacular yesterday due to the monsoon during the morning hours.

Mid-60's, low humidity, brilliant. Now if that jackass in the Benz hadnt come out of nowhere and nearly cut me in half as I tried to navigate around a stopped bus, it would have been perfect.