A little chilly this morning, but good. I was loaded a littler heavier than usual and I'm feeling it now. There was a roadie at the start of my route that took a weird shortcut through this gravel pit area that is pretty soft gravel. I took the left turn at the light on the downhill and caught a green one and hooked up to the gravel pit road. Probably the only time I'll ever pass up a roadie and leave him in my dust. I'm hoping to see him to tomorrow to found out how is road bike does and that sh*t road after that gravel area. I'm looking at getting a road bike in the next month or so and need to find a better route if the road is unridable on a roadie.

I came in an hour early for work today. Bleagh...

Ugh, hot and humid this morning, temp was almost 80 by the time I got to work around 8AM! Went to the post office about an hour ago, it's only a couple miles away but I was drenched when I got back. I am trying to cool down again. I rode my "new" Felt F85 today. My frame was replaced (F80 2005) since it was cracked and now I have a bright "candy" red bike Gonna be 97 and humid this afternoon...ugh.

Today's commute totally kicked my butt. 5.5 miles, 90 minutes. Did I mention I left my bike at home?

OK, so I'm on the wrong forum for running. I figured I'd mix it up a bit and run to work ("How hard could it be?"). I have a newfound respect for the efficiency of the bicycle. Man, what a slow runner(/walker) I am.

Some days it's just a happy ride in. Today was like that. It was really cold when I got up at 6am, so I just puttered around the house until about 730 or so. That made it the perfect temp. Besides it's Friday... who wants to get to work on time ?

Get to make a trip to the LBS this weekend to pick up last minute goodies for the tour. New tires, some un holy gloves, a dinger, new brain bucket, weeeeee bike stuff shopping is fun !

2 consecutive days of not riding to work (but at least I worked from home instead). One bit of irony: the 16-week-old slept through the night last night.....but I couldn't fall asleep and ended up only getting about 4 hours. Another of life's cruel jokes.

Nice ride. Straight commute, plain vanilla. Couple pushy drivers, averages out the couple friendly ones from yesterday (in number anyway, not necessarily in intensity).

Standing to pedal, is my guess. Which is interesting because the most famous English bike racing commentator often describes a graceful climber as "dancing on the pedals." But I'm guessing that this particular motorist probably doesn't watch a lot of bike racing on t.v.

As for my commute today, it was just wonderful. It's still unseasonably cool here--we're usually over 100F/38C by the first of June--and breezy. But at least I get to wear my favorite long sleeved jersey. I recently increased the gearing on the FG because I felt like I was spinning out on the open road. Only 6 gear inches more (42x16=69 to 43x15=75) but it was suprisingly heavy in the headwind. But once I crossed the Sacramento and turned back north, it was smooth and fast.

I had a nice chat with a guy in the full racing team kit for a while. Then he said "I'll let you get back to your ride" and pulled away with ease. Bastard.

And then back into town where there was actually a back up of cyclists on the Tower Bridge. Good to see that.

mirage1, Welcome to the HHCMF Club (Happy, Healthy Commuting Mutha F'ers). We take pride in showing off our well muscled legs and tight butts to friends and co-workers, using the money we save on gas and transit to buy cool stuff for our bikes like raccoon tails and grips w/ tassles (or better backpacks to carry our gear ), and only slightly embellishing our exciting tales of heroism and derring-do as we ride our trusty steeds to and from work surrounded by maniacal impotent death squads in SUVs.

Did you try to coast down the hills? That's the worst part of running

MUPs with intersections like that are generally dangerous. This was in Mississauga, right? I've been biking a bit through Mississauga this summer and noticing a bunch of them (Burnhamthorpe, Rathburn, Britannia...). In Toronto we don't have as many (basically just Eglinton and small sections of Martin Goodman) and at least they're doing something to highlight presence of cyclists at intersections (bicycle lights, separate bicycle crosswalk - or should I say crossride?, some attempts to improve sightlines). Mississauga isn't even doing that. They've slapped a bunch of paths parallel to sidewalks on various streets and put a mini-stopsign at just about every intersection that tell cyclists to STOP and dismount before crossing the street. Plus many of those paths cross driveways in addition to streets. They are basically no better than sidewalks, just as dangerous. And this has nothing to do with Asians driving Toyotas. Of course what that woman did was dumb as all get-out if she was actually proceeding straight, but just about any right-turning driver would most likely have overlooked you and blocked the crosswalk for you anyway.

I ran 1-2x/wk the last 3 wks of May, and I am nearly crippled from it. I've been spreading my achilles tendon tale of woe far and wide. Now I've stopped running, curtailed all riding but minimal commute (give or take getting kids to their places), and hoping to get my screaming ankles to calm down.

I did however buy some new running shoes (and bike shoes, and insoles for other shoes) so I'm going to try again. If not next week, maybe the week after...

It is amazing that from biking I've got the cardiovascular system to go wayyyyyyyyy past the tolerance of my poor suffering joints and ligaments.

Not a bad commute; however, I'd like to make an annoyance nomination, from a couple of days ago. Most annoying MUP user type: parents with strollers. Not only are the damn strollers enormous (think Babybago), but the parents love to push them along side by side while they yak/chat on their cellphones/whatever, and they also think nothing of just stopping right in the middle of the path to yammer away if they run into a friend or acquaintance. I and my child are the center of the universe, all beings must revolve around us...

It was a record low temp this morning; 32 F. Couldn't believe I had to wear so much, but it was pretty cold for June.

Great ride in spite of the cold. No wind and traffic was light (started earlier than normal). Even had a cager who had stopped for another who was turning left offer to let me cross the street in front of him. Mighty polite. Normally I don't accept, but did this morning as it can be a long wait for clear passage.

Saw 9 other cyclists, most looked like commuters. Our numbers appear to be growing...

Just imagine that you're on a narrow 2 lane road that goes into a subdivision. You're behind a beige Corolla at the stop light and the road that intersects is Burnhamthorpe (6 lanes wide around the City Centre area) and cars are zipping by. The Corolla in front of you suddenly goes on the red light and suddenly stops right in the middle of the intersection. In prime position to get side swiped by dozens of cars coming towards her on her left.

That's insane!

I'm well aware of right hand turning drivers. They only look to their left and never notice you. I usually let them do their right turn first and then proceed.

It is supposed to be 95 F for the ride home today. I always get concerned questions from coworkers about whether I'm riding in the heat. I love hot weather!

I get concerned questions from co-workers about: riding in the heat; riding in the rain; riding in the cold; riding in the wind (OK that one I do whine about!); riding when it might possibly rain; riding when there is heavy traffic; riding when there is no traffic and I'll be "all alone out there"; in other words, riding at all!

They mean well, don't they?

85F here now. Nice tailwind setting up for the ride home, too.

After you've been commuting for, oh say 8 or 9 years, they finally stop asking.

They do mean well but it's a bit wearing on the nerves! I think I'll try to get the 8 or 9 years worth out of the way really quickly, by doing a lot of long weekend rides this summer. Then my commuting will become less amazing, at least until it snows and I continue to do it.

The commute was great, sunny, perfect temp, but a little congested. I think Harvard is doing some kind of graduation ceremonies this week(end).

Had my first walk of shame today... And NOT from a flat... I had tools to fix that.... The Darn handlebar came loose... I didnt have an allen wrench, so I ended up carying my bike the 1.2 miles home... No biggie, but my shoulder is sore now....

Of course it's insane. To quote myself from my last post "dumb as all get-out". I wasn't disputing that. Was just commenting on Mississauga's bike paths.

Why wouldn't you just roll it??

I rolled it part of the way, but found it was easier carry it, faster...