Nice little ride today, but summers just around the corner it was at least 70 this morning and I sweated up some hills.

I've come to the conclusion that the first ride of the season *always* sucks, no matter what :)

I had an eeeeevil southeasterly headwind all the way home last night - pedalling on the downhills is never good - but this morning was much much nicer. A little colder than I thought so I had to stop and adjust layers (vest and arm warmers) but still made pretty decent time.

This is 4 days out of 5 on the bike; next week I hope to do all 5 days! Plus my "kms to date" display is now over 200 :D and I'm noticing I'm not tiring nearly as quickly. (The first 2 or 3 rides in, everyone was worried about me because I was all red and took a long time to cool down; now 5 minutes after I arrive, they can't tell if I've ridden unless they see the bike).

Mid 60's Sunny. Very dry except when I got soaked going through some sprinklers on the MUP. Today was my buddy's first commute. He's feeling it, but he did great. He's the one who planted the seed in my head to start commuting. I definitely need to get rid of the knobbies for road riding.

Yep. So just make sure your season never ends! ;) :)

You should have had them pass you a water bottle and then yell "!Venga! !Venga!"

Well, it didn't work out. I got an email yesterday saying that they'd have a camera crew out on Front Street near the Tower Bridge between 6 and 7. I have a feeling a bunch of people on the Sacto BTW mailing list got the same email. Unfortunately, I didn't make it. My daughter wasn't sleeping well and I was up with her last night, missed my alarm, and didn't get out of the house until 6:30. I hustled over to the Tower Bridge by 6:50 but they must have packed up and left. I Tivo'd it just in case and I hope they got some good interviews.

So then I headed over the American to scope out a route for a coworker who's been talking about bike commuting but is still pretty nervous about it. I tried to find a place where she could safely park her car for a split commute.

Then I went up the bike trail to see if the detour is still in place for Union Pacific's toxic clean up. Had to ride up a steep gravel embankment to the top of the levee.

Saw two young deer on the ARBT. Stopped to adjust my backpack and noticed that I'd ridden 10 miles with it unzipped. Luckily nothing fell out.

Headed back into town along H Street. I had an encounter with one of our most dangerous species: the well-meaning but clueless driver. She was heading west on H. She noticed a van wanting to turn left onto a side street. She jammed on the brakes in the middle of the street (nearly causing the car behind her to rear end her) and started waving for the van to turn. I slowed, afraid that the van wasn't going to see me in the bike lane, the van slowed (probably confused about the whole thing) and everybody honked their horns. When I rolled up to her at the next light, I knocked on her window and said "Ma'am I know you were trying to be nice, but that was a really dangerous move back there. You put everybody at risk, including me. No, ESPECIALLY me! Please don't do that anymore." She nodded and said "I'm sorry!"

Precisely my plan this year! :D I tried using the stationary bikes at the gym to stay in condition last winter, and that really did not work AT ALL. (I should have spent more time on the elliptical, I think) So yeah, this year I want to try riding through.

Mid 50's this morning with a hint of fog. Chilly with the wind. Very nice ride in to work and I noticed that there are much less bike commuters this morning. It must be the cold. Two incidents, annoyances really, happened though.

The first one happened while I was crusing at fairly good clip going down an overpass. A huge delivery truck passes me closely. He even went over the bike lane. Then 20-30 yards ahead he slows down and stops in the middle of the street and turns his right blinker on with me only 10-15 feet behind him. I was wondering what was happening and I realized he was waiting for me to pass! I slowly moved ahead and gave the driver a "WTF!" look then moved on. I guess I should be grateful that he stopped to let me pass but why speed up at all to pass me when you are about to slow the frack down anyway.

The second act of stupidity happened in my last half mile leg. I was already in the VA campus in a 15 mph, double solid lines, two way road which is strictly enforced by the VA Police. I was going about 17mph(I know I'm speeding) in the middle of the lane entering a left turning bend. Some overweight blonde in her humongous beat up sedan got impatient and passed me with engines reving, going over the other double line(no passing, biotch!) to get ahead of just to stop 15 yards ahead behind 3 other cars stopped at a stop sign. Again, WTF! I slowly passed her and gave her the "WTF!" look. I intentionally stopped at the stop sign in front of her. I usually do a rolling stop. I intentionally stayed in the left side of the lane just 15 feet behind the car in front of us and just made sure I kept her behind me until I made my left turn into the parking area. Somebody recommended that I should have taken her vehicle description and plate number and report her to the VA Police. I may just do that next time.

RANT over. (Sigh)

:beer:

Rode w/ my wife, so <12 mph, nice and relaxing.

First ride for me (to work) at mid-day. Temp of 84 degrees. Took in a lot more water than usual, of course, but a good ride. Had a headwind the entire time, which made me feel it a bit more in my legs. Feel good!

Kinda dark out at 4 A.M., but the 60 degree temperature was nice. Felt a little more fatigued than usual though. Hope I recover for the ride home at 5 this evening...Sun's shining, gentle breeze, 70 degree weather. Plan on riding down to the lake shore and back home along the river.

Been riding on and off for 25 years, and this never happened before. I was pulled over by a police officer yesterday on my commute home for taking the lane. He was polite, professional, and at least acted like he was listening when I explained my reasons. Said he's a cyclist too, and rides bike patrol, but told me I'm not allowed to take the lane. He told me if I had a problem I could take it up with the state legislature and DOT (yeah...they just re-engineered this dangerous stretch 2 years ago; they're not gonna touch this road again for a long time).

He had lots of other suggestions that just don't work either (find a different route, stay to the right, etc.). Told me if he sees me do it again, he'll write me up for impeding traffic (this road has 2 lanes in each direction, I asked him why drivers couldn't pass me in the left lane); this was a verbal warning.

Final bit of humor for me: my wife and I went out 30 minutes later to pick up our daughter at day care (we drove). We saw this same officer driving ahead of us, veering across lanes (crossing the white line...thank God I wasn't cycling there!) and changing lanes and turning without using a signal.

I'll be posting a longer, detailed explanation to A&S. I'm sure some will tell me I was 100% right, and an equal number will tell me I was 100% wrong. <wry grin> I'll also be sending some nasty emails and letters to the DOT and state legislators. Not to the police though, he was doing his job as he sees it.

Day 11 of riding this year. And the first ride this year commuting in to work with my wife (on separate bikes - she on her geared bike, I on my fixed-gear). Her commute is about 33Km and mine is about 35Km each way. She usually doesn't ride in with me, but drives, because she hates lugging her laptop around on the bike. Even with the backpack, she set a wicked pace.

Beautiful morning! Not much wind (especially compared to last Saturday's 200Km brevet in Rochester...relentless!), low 50s F (about 10-11C), clear skies. It was the first time either of us had seen a freight train next to the trail East of Hiawatha - but we made the railroad crossing well before the train arrived. The Midtown Greenway was full of commuters today - the trail seems to be more packed than in years past. I counted three wild rabbits on the ride in (down from six on Tuesday morning. Does anyone else count a particular species of wildlife as they commute? Humans? Pigeons? Squirrels? Red-wing blackbirds? Bald eagles? Mosquitoes? Lost count/38/13/1/1/3, respectively, today).

It's really great to see so many people commuting by bike! Stay safe and have a fun commute!

I'm dying for some riding. May is the best month we've had so far for riding conditions... and I hardly logged any miles at all! It's a bunch of annoying reasons piling up:

- first my grandmother was visiting and my parents were away on vacation, so I had to live in their house and entertain her etc. etc.

- then my bike broke (never completely fixed, still making strange noises but at least you can ride it now... it's an old overworked beater, may not be worth fixing, really. I need a new bike! :D)

- and now I have a mild cold that prevents me from doing longer rides.. in May, for chrissake!

At least I did a short 10-mile commute tomorrow and will again today... Still, I need more riding, cause no riding makes me cranky. I NEED MORE RIDING, DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!! You see... :)

still not quite done commuting for the day, but thus far it's been pretty nice. mid-60s on the way to work. just started riding again after a hip fracture last summer (which destroyed my old peugot :( ). The weather's awesome, but the loaner specialized hardrock is a little gooey for my taste, and i don't know if it's the gearing or the fact that i hadn't ridden in a year, but i can't seem to find a comfortable gear on the MTB while doing climbs--it's uphill all the way to work.

had to run over to campus mid-day to take a makeup final, which was awesome. mid-70s, really sunny, gentle cool breeze and a 2-mile downhill ride.

kicked ass on the test and decided to treat myself to a trip to the LBS to look at a 2006 fuji 1.0 that they have in my size and on sale. haven't ridden many roadbikes that are more modern than the peugot (mid-70s) and some travelers. kind'a fell in love. almost asked them to fit it up and handed them my debit card.

Such a gorgeous day, I decided to take the "long" way home (aka, I kind of got lost...). 26 km later (it's usually 15), here I am tired and thirsty but happy!

Edited to add - I was particularly amused that the long route parallels a couple of really busy roads. I passed about 50 cars all backed up on Memorial Drive, and even paced someone on the Deerfoot* for a couple of minutes! (boy was he mad)

*No cycling allowed on Deerfot Trail proper - you have to be semi-suicidal even to drive a car on that thing, IMO - but the Bow River pathway parallels it for a short distance.

The ride into work was pleasant but hot. I took a different route and really enjoyed the ride. On the way home it was a little chilly. The bike felt really heavy. I am going to have to check the amoun of things I put in my trunk.

Gas, the price of a can of beans

Great ride to work, another new route. Finally, find the best route with the least amount of traffic. Ride home was rough, strong headwind most of the ride. Felt like a convection oven, since it was near 100 today. Need more water. All and all a great ride both ways, I love my new bike!

nice quick ride in to Boston via the bike path (which is being worked on!- hooray!) had to use the other side of the river for a portion- made for a nice change. Put a new battery in my cyclometer it now works again. Had done about 300 miles with it not working. the security guard at my building, who has watched me ride in every day of the year since he started working there about 1 1/2 years ago told me today he is in the market for a bike to commute to work on- that's cool. anybody in the Boston area have a cheap commuter they want to sell- I think he can only pay about $125.

had a nice speedy ride back towards home and met up with my wife at her work and we rode home together.

Great ride in this morning. 50 degrees with a gentle tail wind. Left home at 4 A.M. and had the whole 5 mile route to myself, didn't even see one car. Felt real strong this morning, perhaps a positive result of the extended ride home yesterday (16 miles). Looking forward to the same extended ride home again today (if the good weather holds).

It was ok
 

Only 1 Moose today
 

Nice 20 mile ride on the trails to work on Friday. Low 40's at 5:00am & high 50's at 5:00pm. Birds have migrated North, so lots of song birds and shore birds. Saw only 1 moose on the ride. Usually see several. My record is 7.

Still need my long gloves and head warmer in the morning. 40 mile round trip is perfect! Couldn't wait for Monday so I rode again today.

Just finished a week dedicated to leaving my car in the garage. 5 days of commuting, 4 after work meetings/events, a Saturday of grocery and other fun shopping, not to mention my Sunday began with a nice little 70 mile ride in the country. 319.6 miles, some weary legs but a great sense of accomplishment! Still looking for saddle replacement for my touring bike but I must confess, the more I use my Burley Nomad Trailer, the more confident I become that I can reduce my driving to a tank of gas a month ......or less!

Good ride today. Its "bike to work week" here in the Raleigh/Durham area.....maybe the entire US? , so I'm hoping to ride every day this week. Was chilly but pleasant at ~ 45F. Ran into a really dense fog bank at Lake Crabtree, which made me pretty nervous for a while. Visibility was probably less than 100 feet. Thankfully there's hardly any traffic at ~ 6AM. I was out of it in ~ 5 minutes, so no big deal.

Low 40Fs, sunny. Light headwind. Nice morning for a ride.

On the MUP bridge was a squirrel. I was riding south. Coming north were two runners and a dog. I waved to get their attention ahead of time and pointed to the squirrel who was trotting along 10 feet ahead of me. :D It didn't take long for all of us to have that poor squirrel cornered on the bridge. The dog was whimpering and pulling at its leash. The squirrel was frozen with fear. I also stopped.

With nowhere to go but off the bridge, that's exactly where the squirrel went. Somehow it managed to scurry off the deck and underneath without falling into the river below. Very comical.