Still riding quite easy, and still too cold for my tastes first thing out in the morning.

The sky has been beautiful though. Now if I could just find a bit more energy. I don't quite know where it went.

Dry roads, -6 C (21 F) light wind this morning. Nice ride in, vehicular traffic was well behaved.
Windier on the way home last night, head wind first half, tail wind for the second half. I liked the second half a lot better.

One of the best weeks of the winter here in Oregon for cycling. It was cold in the morning (but not like some places, 26 degrees F . 'Had a sunny ride home for lunch, and a very nice evening ride.

Well, that's it for me this week. Tomorrow's Friday, and I don't ride my bicycle on Fridays. Last Spring, I told myself that if I got back on a bicycle after my accident, no Friday riding (2 trips to the hospital in 2+ years, both on Fridays).

I doubt the weather will hold for Monday, but it's been great this week.

John

Nice rain on Thursday night, and a shower tonight. The first time in two years I've had rain of any description every day for a week.

Woke up this morning to 3 inches of snow and 4 more on the way, drove into work this morning. Last nights ride home was a real character builder, first off I wasn't feeling that well because I have not been eating that well for the past couple of days, I think I'm on the beginning of a cold or flu, I left work and started out riding a little hard so that I wouldn't be late for an appointment that I had, it was 27 degrees and I was pushing about a 5 mph headwind. About 5 miles into the ride I grabbed my water bottle and chugged about a good 3 ounces of thick dish soap, my wife thought the bottles were getting a little dirty so she cleaned them for me. That slowed me for a while, traffic was heavy and the wind picked up as I got closer to hame. At mile 17, I pass a house that usually has a large black dog loose in the yard, it always waits for me to give me a scare, well now the home owner has 2 large black dogs and they're good at what they do. They chased me down and grabbed my ankle, I stoped and gave them both an eye full of dish soap, it worked, they run the other way. I guess my wife knew this was going to happen and armed me for it. I then went home and called the dog officer to file a complaint, we'll see what good it does. Well, have a great day all, we'll pick it up again Monday.

Six inches of very heavy, wet snow in DC this morning, The first mile was an effort -- everything was either sticky as molasses or compressed into ice. After that, the roads were all fine and it felt like I glided the final four miles. Travel is easy here today -- but only if you can manage to get out of your neighborhood. My office is empty.

Paul

Last night I was trying to make it across town in time for my spinning class at the gym. I think that gave me the motivation I had been lacking. I increased my average speed home by 3/4 mph, and felt good the whole way. I did my spinning class, then rode home. Best times, more distance and the gym all thrown in together.

Thankfully no dish soap and no dogs.. eek.

Very mellow. A bit cold and breezy (by NorCal standards) but super clear skies.

I need to find a good insulated bike bottle that I can put coffee into. My car commute tumbler doesn't fit that well into the cage and it splashes coffee on my pants when I go over a bump. Anybody here have such a bottle?

First time this winter I didn't ride because of the weather. By noon when I left work for a 30 minute PT appt, there was 10 inches on the ground, and by the time I returned there were 12 and it was still coming down like '78. That's when I made the call to close early and get everyone home, since we hadn't seen any snowplows. This being MA, by Monday things should be fine. I'm not sure I got home any faster by car today than I would have on my bike, but I had the energy to clear our driveway and 3 older neighbors to make up for not riding.
.

Nice ride home. Had a little light rain. My friday night rides, I usually see something interesting. Very quiet this week.

First day back in the saddle for more than a week (resting a bad knee). It was great to be back, bit chilly for the S England but Dawn was starting to break as I'm setting off. Made the ride a real pleasure.

typical monday ride in. Brain-dead drivers doin stupid stuff as usual..... man if i rode like some of these people drive i would be dead already.

A bit chilly this morning, -8F (-26C), but clear skies. The roads are all hard pack ice and snow, but with the cold the tires gripped pretty good. I just sqeaked and crunched along. I stayed nice and comfortable... except for my feet. It's not suppose to get very warm today, close to 0F (about -18C).

Had a long slow ride in to see if my knee liked they easier pace any better. It didn't. I then remembered that before all this knee business started happening I had my seat slid further back, so I slid it back and will see if things improve over the next few days. It was a rather cold ride in (not compared to some I know but it was a dramatic shift from last week for us out here in the desert). The temperature was around freezing and it made for a nice brisk commute. My feet were cold when I got in.

Today's a holiday and officially the office is closed for Lincoln's Birthday but I've got a ton of work to do. But I'm leaving early to take a long ride. Gotta love that, holiday or not.

I had a slow ride into work today. I went skiing yesterday, it being my second time this winter. Telemark skiing seems to work the thighs a lot more than biking. I was a tad sore this morning, so took it easy on the way into work.

Hoping to head out soon to avoid our next round of snow. Then one or two more days of normal temps before we enter the deep freeze again.

The ride to work was great. Coming home was into the wind and falling snow. Visibility was bad partially, I discovered on arriving at home, because snow was packing over my LED helmet light. The halogen was hot enough to keep it relatively clear, so I wasn't totally invisible. Yet another argument for running more than one type of lighting.

Big delay on the ride to work today. I stopped to offer assistance to a cyclist who had been doored. I'd just come off Tugun hill and saw it happen out of the corner of my eye. I only really saw the impact. At least the driver lent me his mobile phone so I could call an ambulance (saving himself from a severe verbal blast in the process). All I could do until it arrived was try to tell the cyclist to calm down (and silently curse myself for knowing nothing about first-aid). At least he didn't have any broken bones (but a very nasty case of road rash).

According to the ambulance staff he should be OK. I hung around to give my story to the cops, before going on my way. Somehow I still made it to work on time. I might call them later and find out how it went.

I don't get to post here enough recently so I've been doing summertime routes to boost mileage when I do commute. 20 on the way home today. Tomorrow I have an early meeting so I'm not sure how many miles I'll get in. I left the car at work so I have to bike-commute!!

Because I took less well-lighted roads and because my bike was strapped to my car and wasn't charging-up in my office all day, I ran out of battery "juice" for my lights. First time that's happened. Luckily it was within a mile or so from home. I also had a flashing LED on my messenger bag so I wasn't totally unsafe.

So just how did I manage to get sunburned today?

Yesterday I had a cold ride in, though the sunrise over the Forth Bridge was beautiful. Unfortunately, just as I was plowing in to the headwind (not strong but the air seemed heavy) my braces gave way leaving my lower back only covered by my shorts and not my longs.

On the way home the wind was very gusty, it was dark and wet. I had two rear wheel slides on cobblestones at the west end of Edinburgh and then (yikes!) a front wheel slide when grabbing the brake a bit too hard.

This morning was beautiful, calm clear, still damp, but the sky is now blue, I can see far enough to see a warship sitting further down the Forth, and there appears to be no wind. Should be a good ride home.

Steady there Chewa! Rear wheel slides can be entertaining, if expensive on tyres, but I've only slid the front a couple of times and ended up sitting in the road on both occasions...

Grimy, dull grey ride in this morning, and my front derraileur is playing up again. Still made a good ride of it.

Cheers,

Ed

Today was great, headed out with a 30kph wind at my back, thus making good time despite the -15C air. About half way through my ride I had to put a foot down around a corner... didn't notice it was icy before then. Once I reached the busiest street on my ride I noticed that the roads were VERY icy. We had a minor snow yesterday + high winds that combined to leave a thin layer of ice on the roads that were not covered in snow pack.

On my studded tires I was unaffected. Motorist on the other hand were not. Images of being plowed into by a driver on "4 season" tires danced in my head as I peddled hard to make it to work before something bad happened. Made it in at the usual 15 min mark. Imagine my delight when I learn that several of my co-workers were in their cars for up to an hour this morning! (usual driving time usually about 10 min for them)

Bikes (+studs) rule!

Pretty sure I found my knee problem this morning! I had been aware the right clipless pedal was going south on me but didn't realize that could affect the knee like that. One side allows my foot to rock side to side so it doesn't sit flat on the pedal. This would explain also why the knee pain was sporadic! Anyway, I am hoping I finally found the source. I am pretty sure this is it as it would also explain why it is just one knee, and also why it just started happening during a time of low mileage. Anyway, about the commute, that is what this thread is about isn't it? Anyway, I took the shorter more congested way in to save the knee some grief (it was here that it occured to me what the problem was too!) It was a warm morning and I was a little warm with all the gear I put on. There appears to be a storm moving in and the clouds were beautiful. My new Catey el-300 seems to do nicely as a light. My new bike had no handlebar space for my high end light set so I broke down and decided to try the Cateye LED system. I freaked a couple out who were walking along the side of the road last night. They didn't have any reflective gear or lights and I saw them in my light in enough time to get around them. They were pretty surprised when I shot around them, They really didn't know what to think until they saw me in front of them and knew what I was. They started laughing really hard, I think I about scared the b'jeebees out of them (of course they really should have been walking on the other side of the street facing traffic).

Today was cold with a cold wind at my back. not to much out of the ordinary. hoping it will warm up a few degrees so i can get some riding in.