My normal short commute was hottish and HUUUUUUMID. Rode some at lunch time for a nice little pick-me-up. I was plenty hot by the time I had to call it quits.

The temperature has been in the high 90's and we hit 100 yesterday.

My weekend was full of yard work, Sunday PM my legs hurt from all the squating and crawling and climbing etc. Sooo--- The Commute on Monday (godawful) AM was weird because it felt really slow and
difficult yet upon arrival I discovered that I had EQUALLED my fastest time on this commute to date.

What a Surprise to my little Brain!

Last week I was stopped by a jogger for riding, "in the left side - mile wide bike/ped lane-because the right side of the road has no pavement past the white line and there are blackberry canes swinging into the lane"-he told me I was a hazzard to all the correct-thinking bike/peds on the road.

Of Cource he was right! I know this, I just didn't want to die - just right then. This is a scary and difficult; to ride real fast with the speed of cars and have no room at the same time.

Take the lane. Maybe talk to the property owner about the blackberry canes. Good luck!

No commute today. I broke a fan blade on my car on Sunday and had to take wife's car! No rolling locker with clothes, diddy bag and computer bag - no commute. At least a couple friends from work and I got to ride a century on the local MUP on Saturday. That was fun and showed me just what 125-175 miles per week of commuting year-round on a heavy bike can do for one's fitness. It's nice to tow your friends home 50 miles after they're already tired.

I was sucked into a race today. :) I was riding along College St. in downtown Toronto - not pushing myself or anything but at a pretty decent clip. And guess what, I got passed by a middle-aged dude on a hybrid like I was not even moving! That sure set me going. :D Kept up quite easily until our paths split. Good job, middle-aged dude on a hybrid! :)

In the evening went riding with my boyfriend along the lake. Beautiful. I must say, probably the best riding I've ever done has been night riding. Touring Northern Ontario comes to mind. There was one night there we pretty much rode through. Kind of scary and very wonderful at the same time. Today wasn't scary, just nice. He and I did some racing too, on a very empy intersectionless road (Commissioners, for those familiar with Toronto). I just asked if he was intentionally trailing behind or something, and he replied "I was just wondering how come we were drag-assing along like this!", and I took exception to that. :D Must've broken the 50 km/h speed limit there for a few seconds for sure. :)

I beat the weather report yesterday and today. Yesterday was "100%" chance of rain. I made it more 2/3 of the way before the mist started. Started raining last night after I got home (hit a new top speed, 54km/h) and stopped before I woke up. Not a drop on me this morning! I hope I can keep this up on the way home.

I was on the mtb so I took a detour in the canyon to explore. This was actually a really bad idea, since it was 9 pm and dark out. I wanted to see if I could go through a canyon to bypass a huge 15% grade climb I ride daily and didn't want to take out the mtb tomorrow since I plan on a long road ride.

Well, I ended up riding down some of the most treacherous single track with washed out sections over ~50 ft drops, in the dark. The only thing that kept me going was the unfounded belief that I wouldn't have to pass that awful terrain again. There was hidden silt all over the place, and my semislick tires balked at the mere sight of it. I endoed once on an abutting rock and smashed my family jewels pretty badly while straining my neck. I rode about 20 minutes down this only to end up at a large, jagged rock embankment. It looked like some sort of hardcore erosion control, like you find on dwindling coastal points. I foolishly figured the trail wouldn't terminate after all of that, and wasted 20 minutes trekking by foot over these ankle-busting rocks carrying 40 lbs in bike and gear only to meet a gang of noisy toads. Those 20 minutes were some of the gnarliest of my cycling life -- worse than when I got lost at Vail and ended up skidding down a rain-slicked single track for a few thousand feet of vertical -- I actually considered just giving up and falling asleep on the trail for the night.

I'm just glad my 15w headlight held up. I wouldn't have made it back if it had died on me. Oh well, chalk it up to a lesson learned: there is no way through there :)

No commute for a couple of weeks -- this is work-from-home week and next week pretty much the same. Time for some road riding!

Ugh. Hot and humid. Other than that, fairly quick ride.

Not bad until I came up upon this other guy on the MUP. He was weaving side to side using up the whole width. I really had to wake him up because he was keeping me from passing him.

Only two problems: 1) drivers who don't understand the meaning of parallel white lines perpendicular to the road, and 2) suicidal rodents. One or the other is going to get me killed one day.

My weekend is Sunday and Monday, so today was the first commuting day of the week. I heard on a shop ride last night that several of the pro teams from this past weekend's Saturn Rochester Twilight Criterium were still in town and doing morning training rides on the MUP--the same MUP I use on my "long loop" to work when the mood strikes.

Despit the heat and mugginess, I took the long loop to work. Sure enough, shortly after stopping to help a girl with a huge case of chainsuck, the Australian team, Savings & Loans, blew by me in full kit on their way back from breakfast. I wasn't even able to grab a wheel.

It's official: I've been dropped by the best!

Or how about that big fat white line that they think they should stop in front of?

Nice commute this morning. Cool and calm, but will be warming nicely by the time I ride home. JAMs were even fairly well behaved this morning. I must be getting them trained well.

Pretty warm ride this morning, but I took it easy and arrived only a bit sweaty. I love taking the lane and (mostly) keeping up with the traffic down University Ave. Another cyclist stopped next to me near my workplace on King St. and thanked me for introducing her to some sort of short cut -- not sure which one it was. Thinking of heading home for lunch (need to save money), but it's supposed to go up to 35C/95F this afternoon.

When I got to work this morning, I felt abnormally exhausted. I then realized that I didn't have my glass or two of water with breakfast this morning. I won't make that mistake again.

Sunshine, no wind. We had to detour, as our normal route was dug up, with backhoes straddling both sidewalks.

Good ride out to the east end last night, first time I did the full ride with clipless and I got there fairly quickly not my best, but up there - able to maintain a much faster pace (23-25mph) than my usual (19-21) - on Bloor, not the north Sherbourne - I burned out a tad racing past all these other cyclists up the hill but still had enough in the lungs to yell at a car that decided to drive in MY bike lane (and was consequently stuck behind a bus, why he didn't just stay in his lane I don't know - the bus had it's 4-way hazard flashers on which should've been clue enough he wasn't making the light so no need to lane squeeze and rush).

Hot but good ride in, longer ride than normal as I stopped at a friends in the East.

Was showing off my clipless stuff and had my first fall :p Had my left foot unclipped and was making a very small/tight turn right to turn around in the yard, and kinda toppled off as I needed a foot down. No biggy, I just laughed my ass off having JUST previously explained that particular 'issue' of riding clipless :p

Nice ride in, just commute, no kids. Several other bikers.

A bit windy today, or maybe I'm extra wimpy. I don't think I ate enough yesterday. Meh.

Work is a bit crazy with one of my supervisors having been let go and everyone else running around like headless chickens. Not so sure it's worth hanging in there myself (or if I'll be given a choice). I'd rather be out on the bike, tired legs or not!!

First day with the new "Alert Shirt"....I really liked it. I think I'll be ordering more to use them in regular rotation.

Last two days' commutes have been windy and a little drizzly. The rain held off until about the last quarter of my ride and gave me incentive to book it up the final hill and into work. Thanks to the rain we're experiencing an uncharacteristically cool June. Temps only in the 80s and the strange wind has been keeping me from showing up to work drenched (in sweat at least). Speaking of, I hate hate hate headwinds! They're my nemesis. I've got a hill climb that always taxes me near the end of my ride and when there's a strong wind from the south it kicks my ass!

Also almost got bumped by a co-worker on the way in the parking lot. She decided to pass me by going into the oncoming lane and ignored my left turn signal, nearly clipping me. I avoided her SUV and followed her to her parking spot, where she didn't have the time to talk to me due to being on a conference call. Now wonder she didn't look to see me signalling.

I've been VERY thankful for my cyclocross tires and waterproof Axiom bags over the past few days. Keeps me on the road and my laptop dry. :)

Today's ride was awesome. I headed down to Freeport and I have a guideline that if I make it to the drawbridge by 7, I can take the Yolo County loop and be to work on time. I got to the bridge at 7:10 and noticed that a) I'd have a tailwind and b) my legs felt good. So I crossed the bridge and hit the gas. I was able to hold 21 on the crappy pavement and when I hit the new pavement near the W.Sac. city limit, I was spinning easily at 24. I crossed the Tower Bridge at 7:50. So I'd made up a huge time deficit. I just hated to see the Capitol -- just wanted to keep riding all day.