mid 40's at 0700 for my 7 mile morning commute from Chesterfield County, VA to Ft Lee. I've been commuting this route for about 2 months. Gotta find a different route as 144/Temple Ave gets nasty. One of those divided highways with 0 shoulder for most of the route.

Gorgeous sunny morning, tacked an extra 5 miles onto am commute. Cold rainstorm due tonight (as opposed to last week's warm one), who knows when the next time it will be sunny...

I was totally running late today for my new job. The alarm didn't go off, and I had to change clothes in the bike lockup. Booooo! Anyway, I think more ice should melt tomorrow, so I should be able to get back onto skinny tires.

I was running late as well-up late...Had a 20.3 avg going until I hit downtown lights. Met up with a guy on the path and we did a few miles together. It was 34 in am. Hopefully it won't rain on me on way home.

60mph gusts today. Good thing I had the tailwind!

took the road route in on the way in this morning and back home on the bike path meeting up with my wife to ride the last 8 miles home together. Beautiful damp evening ride along the Charles River.

Had a good ride home, 35 mins with an avg of 13.8 - got a bit tired heading into a slight headwind both up Sherbourne and across the Bloor bridge - still managed to race/pass a few cyclo-commuters though Tired tonight, but will keep at it, hoping a good nights rest will work for me (really want to try for a 5/5 week).

I had a nice, brisk ride this morning. In addition to riding into a headwind, it was 31F. Not too bad, weather.com said 31F feels like 28F. The clock at the bank on the way in was reading 31F. My new route in takes me through some residential streets instead of crowded downtown, so in addition to avoiding traffic lights, I'm avoiding the majority of the crazies. Fortunately/unfortunately it adds a little bit less than .5 miles to my ride, but puts me on a bike lane for most of the detour. This wonderful detour also breaks up my end of the ride hill into a few "stair steps" - thus making it more manageable.

My ride in was fantastic, as well, with it being a bit warmer (45F), and it stopped raining only a couple of miles in. It was nice to ride home without my jacket for the first time in nearly two weeks. I made it home in good time, under 30 minutes, probably due to having the tailwind on the flat, pushing me to over 20MPH for extended periods of time, and I only hit one red light on the way home.

Drove half way biked the rest. Frightened a deer off the road/MUP as I bypassed the gate at the park entrance. Talked to some locals about a County plan to get permission to pave the one dirt section of the route.

The 36 degrees was felt warmer this morning. During work a windstorm blew through, rain, and a bit of snow, and completely dry for a brisk windy ride home. Adventurous as always...

finally got around to the bike store on saturday and got ma bike back and can we just hear it for the lbs that includes derailleur-straightening in their year's free service even when the derailleur's only bent cause the customer crashed? thought i'd be feeble this morning after not riding anywhere for almost a week, but nope. guess i must have been tired.

it was nice weather today. not actually raining so far as i recall, and not all that cold, but whoa nelly it hardly needed to rain cause it was humid. we usually hang in around the 80% mark, but today felt like much more than that. neat. very very novembery and atmospheric.

a nice ride home with some wind and therefore an interesting sky that was starting to clear in patches.

i got two mack trucks giving me the 'you're in my way' honk this morning. i don't understand that; same ride and same traffic i've been on for over a year without getting aggro, and then today suddenly i strike two of them in the same mile. coming home another mack truck followed me closely for a block or two. no honking, but i could hear them back there. told myself he was drafting me

I got up later than I planned and realized I didn't wash my shorts or jersey from yesterday. I tossed them in the washer first thing and they finished drying 3 minutes before I had to leave. Perfect timing.

While I was getting ready this morning, I found my old rash guard from when I was into body boarding. Instantly I thought "hey! That's made out of stretchy stuff that keeps me warm. *Gasp* I know! Wear it under my jersey and it will keep me warm!" So I plucked it out of the bottom of my drawer and tested it out. Boy, I wish I thought of wearing it sooner. It kept me nice and warm on both legs of my commute.

Thankfully, there were no mishaps on the commute and I arrived at both destinations in one piece. I must've had a tailwind on the way in since I made the commute in roughly a half hour despite hitting 50% of the stop lights.

Last night pulled up to a light and a van full of (what seemed like) high school students takes the right lane to turn right. As they go past me I hear them screaming at me and one of them gets out the window and starts yelling things at me. I felt like giving them the finger, but there was nothing to be gained by lowering myself to that level.

I happily pedaled home through almost non-existant traffic (these are country back roads) and a cool 50-something degrees.

GreenAnvil

Ride home yesterday was on autopilot, hardly even remembered most of it as I spent the entire ride daydreaming. Ride in this AM was very nice. New batteries in the blinky light definitely made a big difference in the brightness of the light. Supposed to have severe Tstorms tomorrow, so will most likely drive in.

Wet ride this morning, should be even wetter this afternoon.

Two nice commutes in a row. Yesterday my ride home was in the dark again, and it was raining. I like that for some strange reason. This morning it's in the high 40Fs and damp, but no rain.

I chuckled at myself this morning when I realized that if I ride my knobby tires enough, they'll turn into slicks all by themselves and I won't have to buy slicks.

Wow, it was foggy this morning, and cold, about 30. It was an easy ride in, though I rode closer to the line then normal (just to give myself more room from cars).

I saw the most suicidal biker I've ever seen too. One of the roads to my work place is a 4 lane (with a center turn lane) highway/main street with speedlimits ranging 55-65 (And in the area near the college, 70s isnt uncommon). They built a MUP on one side to link the college to the rest of the town and this is what I ride on the final stage of my commute.

Anyhow, I'm riding up the MUP, lights turned on on my bike, wearing a bright orange jacket, when I look over to the other side of the road. There, riding against traffic (55-65mph), wearing a dark black/blue jacket, no helmet, and as far as I could see, no front reflector, was a guy on a BMX bike, pedaling along.
I was stunned. I thought about calling out to him to tell him it's unsafe, but he wouldn't have heard me over teh morning traffic.

Yeesh.

Wow, thanks to the gods of weather and bicycling today. I felt a touch of a cold coming so I slept in a bit this morning. I was dreading the weather and put on my jacket, waterproof socks, and head cover. But I must have caught a window and had hardly any rain at all on the way in. Now I can watch the rain from my window until the ride home.

Yesterday was... interesting

The trip in was uneventful. I rode my bike to get some thai noodles over lunch, which aside from giving me a relentless case of halitosis, was also uneventful.

The bus on the ride home got stuck in a huge traffic jam. Today was supposed to call for snow, so I called my LBS on the ride home and had them price a new rear wheel with a megarange cassette. My 30t wasn't cutting it on one part of the trail this past weekend. Anyhow, once I got off the bus, I hit the LBS, picked up a new shimano-hubbed wheel and it was ready to throw a tire on. I Strapped it down to the top of my toolbox trunk and made the trek home (the LBS added about 2 miles to my ride home).

I'm pedalling along, not going all that fast, but not going terribly slow either, with a giant bike wheel hanging off the back of my bike parallel to the ground, and drivers are going around me no problem. Then, I get a road bike next to me all of a sudden. We're on a slight incline and I'm maybe going 7-10 MPH. I'm not in much of a hurry, I just don't want to lose my momentum going up the incline. I keep my cadence, and he paces me for a bit (100 feet or so) then takes off like a bat out of hell. The f'n roadie dropped me.

he pulled back down to about my same speed 50 feet in front of me. As we crest the hill, I pick up some speed, but he doesn't. There's no traffic in my lane and I'm closing on him (not trying to race, but us clydes pick up speed on the downhills). I move to the inside to get around him, and then he pulls in front of me and slams his brakes!

So anyhow, I got dropped, cut off a and brake checked BY A CYCLIST on my way home. My guess is I was going to slow for him up the hill and he was ticked at me, so I had to "learn my lesson".

People should need a license to breathe.

Ride home was uneventful and rather pleasant. I checked the weather last night, and it was supposed to be 15MPH but a tailwind this morning. Of course it switched direction, and I ended up with a headwind. I got a rack and panniers last night and tried them out this morning. I give them a thumbs up even with the extra drag. Unfortunately my marginal rear wheel broke another spoke on the way in. I hope I can make it home.

So close, and yet so far. I can almost ride my skinny-tire bike to work, as the snow and ice is almost gone from the route. Just a few more days...

Had a bit of a cool wind at some points, but had a great ride in - 34 mins flat. (Including the physio by-pass).

Rode with a guy from Cosburn/Donlands area right through to Richmond/Victoria on/off - He followed me first, then I had to blow the nose and was slow to get the glove back on at the next lights, so he came ahead and I followed, he went straight at Bloor/Sherbourne then I saw him again on Richmond - was most pleasant to know he was basically doing a similar trip to me, yet had a different route. Didn't say a word to this guy either, was just pleasant. I tried hard to catch him when I saw him again on Richmond, but the lights/traffic held me back enough to lose sight of where he went. Maybe another day!

No ride today, forecast calls for high winds and rain/snow. Ride home last night was plesant not too cold and no wind, with a couple of interesting events.

I rarely come across other cyclists, but last night on the bike path portion of the commute, I was not paying a lot of attention, and almost ran into an oncoming cyclist. He had a light, but it was easly lost in the lights from the nearby traffic. I spotted him when my own lights lit him. Actually, I think I picked up his reflector before I noticed the whimpy headlight. Must remember to watch out for poorly lit cyclists on the bike path.

Later, I was coming up on a stoplight in heavy traffic, it was green, a car was on my left and was pacing me. He was making a right and was apparently waiting for me to cross the intersection, and not cutting me off. Car behind him, layed on the horn, and then gunned it. Passing in the left turn lane with his tires squelling. All this energy just to catch up with the traffic about half block ahead. Maybe I'm getting old, but the average speed around here is 15-20mph tops, absolutly no point in this kind of lunacy.

Anyway, I'm getting a lot of use out of my light system, but it just barely has enough charge to power a one way commute even with careful management.

A beautiful day to ride in the nation's capital--it was in the mid-50's this morning. A cold front is coming through tomorrow (the one that is now in the midwest), so tomorrow should be stormy and cooler.

My new DiNotte 5W should arrive today, so I should be able to illuminate the cyclist and walkers without lights along the dark Mt. Vernon Trail. I find that the bikes without lights are the most dangerous part of commuting in the dark!

My new light arrived last night and boy is it bright. I was showing it off to my wife and she said "You're really going to annoy some drivers with that thing!"

Heck, I probably annoy plenty of drivers already just for having the nerve to ride a bicycle on the street. As long as I'm seen and can see the crap in the road.