Brutal headwind going home last night; *just* made it in time for my wife to hand over the kids and take off for her pm gig. Only 2 more of those nights now, then we will be a mostly daylight operation.

This morning, great ride, brisk, sunny, then I found myself locked out of my office. I knew last night I left my thumb drive at work, this morning, nose pressed against the door, I remembered that it was attached to my keys. In the past I would have just gone for some more biking, but w/ my screaming achilles tendons, lately, I just took the time waiting for someone else to show up to stretch and drink water.

I was STUPID and took the bus. An hour and 35 minutes later I squished my way into work, where six people promptly asked in tones of horror if I had ridden my bike. (I don't know where they thought I'd put the dang bike, in my pocket or something? They saw me walk in the door...) If I HAD ridden, I'd have had a dry change of clothes, I'd be warmer, and I wouldn't have had to walk twelve blocks because nobody in this city has any idea how to freaking DRIVE and the crosstown bus line was completely stalled since all the traffic lights were on flashing red.

I moved here to get AWAY from this kind of nonsense.

Well no commute today. I discovered yet another broken spoke. I will stop by the LBS on the way home and get some extra spokes but I'm getting tired of fixing this problem and wonder if I need a new wheel. I ride a Trek 7100 and just have the stock wheels on it. I'm a big guy at 230 so this most likely doesn't help.

Yesterday I alomost ran into a car because I was so tired (sick baby at home). I had thought about asking my wife for a ride and probably should of.

Aka - how to become a passenger door ornament. :mad: I've actually followed people into their parking lots and yelled at them as it was so freaking blatent.

Dude! I went to the Pioneer Museum location. It was great! Lots of people. At the end lots of bikers headed for the Santa Fe (?) trail. I tried to keep up with three "hardcore" mountain bikers I met at the event, but I couldn't. So that's a challenge for me to keep working out and getting used to Colorado altitude. I'll try to give those guys a better run for their money next time. Overall, great camaraderie; well organized event.

I'm looking forward to this activity again next year.

Oh, I just hit my first 1000 commuting miles yesterday! For some of you that's like a couple of month's riding, but for me it is a MAJOR milestone; I started last summer, and going from 200lbs to 175 (what I weight now) plus this milestone now is a great motivator to keep riding!

GreenAnvil

Sorry to hear that, but you have confirmed I made the right decision this morning.
Was even going to take the long way round on the pathway, then I looked over the
bridge railing at Nose Creek. *!!!!!! ....Lets just say the level was up a little. Which
meant i had to get a little inventive to deal with the road works on McKnight Blvd.
Wait for a break in traffic then cross to the center divider. Need a new rain jacket,
my current one was described as "shower resistant"...... some years ago. The
winter tights did a fair job though, with the cheapo nylon overshoes the bottom
half did WAY better than the top half, didn't expect that. Using Boeshield T9 on
the chain this week after a recommendation, it has been on for about 250km and
what was left still managed to keep the chain squeak free even in this downpour.
I am cautiously impressed. I had to track through some puddles big enough to
drown out a minivan or two, got a very strange look from the guy trying to get his
van started the other side of one puddle.:) My current bike lacks a rack and has only
vestigial fenders, waiting to get my Xtracycle fitted and didn't want to reassemble
it twice, (Soon, Buglady, Soon!) The other weather "fix" moves a step nearer as
the "new" forks arrived with the disc tabs, finally sent the correct ones this time.

I'm rambling a bit, all alone here this morning and no customers......they must not
feel like driving in this weather:D

I'm just grumpy today. Weather-induced migraine. Bleh. I think I'm going to go home and look at my bikes.

Congratulations! :beer: That's a great milestone.

Perky little tree bending headwind for tonight's ride home.
sigh
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Colorado Springs
Lat: 38.83 Lon: -104.72 Elev: 6201.12
Last Update on Jun 6, 3:54 pm MDT
Haze Blowing Dust and Windy

78°F
(26°C) Humidity: 12 %
Wind Speed: SW 33 G 43 MPH
Barometer: 29.33" (983.9 mb)
Dewpoint: 22°F (-6°C)
Heat Index: 77°F (25°C)
Visibility: 3.00 mi.
More Local Wx: 3 Day History:

Got caught in the rain for about 20 minutes on the return ride.Radar was about an hour behind actual. Just stopped and put on the rain gear. No problem

Rode like a demon for a 1/2 hour, spinning with titanium determination. I went down the hills like a madman, and glided over the flats butterfly smooth. 90f in San Antonio both ways; it was a short errand.

Went slow today. Still a bit sore from putting together our new swimming pool a couple days ago.

Flatted rear tire on the way home last night. No problem though, 10 minutes later I was back on the road with a somewhat spongy tire because my frame pump can only inflate to ~80psi...typically I ride with 120 psi. Still managed a swift 18 mph due to a nice tailwind. Ride in this AM was good. Weather is still very pleasant, though not for long as the dew points are supposed to start climbing. I have a fasted blood draw at 8:15 today, so am going to be ravenous by the time that's over with....already hungry.

Last commute for nearly 2 weeks for me. Heading to Banff, Jasper, Yoho etc for 10 days of hiking, canoeing, horse rides, etc....Hoping all the rains are finished for a while.

Nice ride in today. One foot down for the whole 8 miles. New Brooks B17 maiden voyage this morning. OMG....that thing is very slippery and hard as a rock right now. Still enjoyed the ride.

I wussed out and drove today...the image of sustained headwinds of 25-35mph with gusts up to 50mph just on the way home didn't sit well with me. I needed a "recovery day" and an extra hour of sleep anyhow.

I'll make up for it by going the whole way tomorrow (35mile roundtrip) instead of the biking halfway and carpooling. :D

The commute home was fine except that I lost one of my new, stainless steel water bottles!:mad: I was heading down a large hill (Speedo said 32mph) and hit a bump. Out it flew and I heard it hit the ground and then a resounding CRUNCH!. At the light at the bottom of the hill,the passenger in a Ford Explorer rolled down the window and apologized for squishing it. Oh well no more designer junk for commuting!:p

Sunny & low 40s. Switched to a long-sleeve jersey. Still wore shorts though. :p Annoying headwind but I plowed through it. Saw a couple of trail regulars.

There's a huge tent up in Burlington's Waterfront Park. It covers the bike path through the park. I don't usually ride through there but yesterday I did because I wanted to ride through the tent. :D It was fun. This morning I noticed the path was blocked off as I was riding by on the road. The tent is for the Jazz Festival, I imagine.

The worst of the wind isn't here yet. It was gusty, however. The boys and I have a short commute so should be OK.

Awesome ride today. Hadn't been able to ride the last few days so made the best of it and gave the bike a thorough cleaning. I could feel the difference today and combined with no winds and an amazing amount of luck with stoplights, I made it to work in record time.

I had a pretty easy ride in today. I slowed down substantially so that I could actually talk to my wife. It was good!

Had a sick day Monday, rode to a trade seminar both Tuesday and Wednesday, though - that went well.

Had a brief 'chat' with a cabbie over why he chose to all of a sudden race past me toward a line of parked cars. I asked him "Sir, why did you just do that?". Firstly he said because I was blocking the road, and I replied "Sir, do you see that huge yellow truck in that lane? That means I have to come out into this lane, you were not anywhere near me, what is the problem?" Then he said because I was 'dancing', I said "Well, no sir, I wasn't dancing I was riding a bike. There are red lights and stopped traffic in front of you, why did you do what you did?". He wouldn't move on from the 'dancing' claim, and waved me to leave his window (passenger side). I shouted back "Have some damn respect!" and went on my merry way. I wasn't angry, just curious to see what he would say. Ho hum :)

Went by a police officer with a radar gun yesterday morning, "Ma'am, did you get me?" she replied "No sir" and I was all "awww, damn" heh ;)

New pedals came in today, so I'll be fitting those and am now looking for some SPD-style shoes :D

Rested yesterday afternoon and today, legs are still in a bit of a state from Sunday (not helped by riding Tuesday the way I did).

Wind wind go away,
or at least spin around and go my way.

I seem to be out of sync with the wind. Head wind going in, big head wind going home last night. It spins around into a big head/cross wind this morning.
The big winds are supposed to stop by noon or so today... we'll see.

Hills eventually end, but the wind just works on you till it blows away your spirit.
Mean ol winds.

In the end, I guess it just makes for a better workout, so it's all good :)

My ass is happy too... see my Brooks_Thread if you need a happy ass.

Nice ride in w/ my wife. I realized that going through intersections by myself, I do things differently than with her (or, I assume, anyone). I might slow down to a crawl to see what's coming, on my own, whereas w/ someone else I might be focusing at least a bit on maintaining a similar speed, which kind of divides my attention a bit. Need to keep an eye on that.

Lovely ride in today. Saw a Merganser and a family of Canada Geese (with a dozen little fluffball goslings). Also saw rather a lot of debris on the riverside pathway so I think it may actually have been flooded yesterday!

In the last 24 hours I have received $400 in pledges for my charity ride on the weekend. Yay! (Guess that means I can't chicken out!)

The wind this morning (around 5:30a) was BRUTAL! Headwinds would just stop me dead, crosswinds almost knocked me off the bike. Sometimes I had to stop and hang on because the gusts would almost sweep me away. At some point I thought, why don't I just walk? But because I'm carless, I have no option (and I'm not whining); besides I need the bike this afternoon to run some errands and I'm taking off right from the office.'

I hope this afternoon the wind is not so bad (cross my fingers)...

GreenAnvil

Breezy but nice. And as a bonus, it looks like I may get out of here at a civilized hour tonight.

Steady rain on the inbound route, the rain pant expansion ripped at the back of the heel but my feet stayed pretty dry anyway.

Sun is shining now...hopefully the return ride will be warmer and drier.

On my morning commute I made a somewhat unwise decision. Instead of commuting straight into downtown, which takes me around twenty minutes, I decided I'd take a leisurely ride through the neighborhoods (East Atlanta, Kirkwood, and Edgewood) to the Candler Park MARTA station and take the train in. I managed to convert a twenty minute commute into nearly 45 minutes.

The commute home was better, although very hot.

Morning ride was pleasant, but there was a severe thunderstorm warning in the afternoon that kept getting bumped from 8pm to 7, 6, 5pm. So I wimped out and got a ride home with a coworker. :(
It was really windy. Been home for an hour and still no storm.

What is meant by "dancing" in this context?

Regards,

Ek