Ultimate fighting? You da man! I figure second day, third, hell.. next 30 days would be the worst.
Ultimate frisbee? Not quite as manly, but fun none the less. *high five*

Had to leave the bike outside for a while to drip dry last night. Rode home after the daily storms , but there was still quite a bit of water on the roads and such. Took the easy ride home since the bike doesn't have fenders. Was kind of nice actually not to be wasted from blazing all the way home.

This morning was another glorious ride. Weather was nice and cool and the cars were fairly well behaved. Seems like the later I leave the better the drivers are. Or the less impatient they are anyways. Between 6 and 730 they are in a big time rush to get somewhere. I'm thinking the weather may actually hold up today.. we'll see what 4:00 brings :)

Caught the Green Wave and a Tail Wind. Doesn't get much better than that :D

DOMS: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, the bane of athletes and weekend warriors. No known cure other than patience and time. Usually peaks on Days 2 & 3...

There is a cure.... Conditioning....Otherwise known as being sore ALL THE TIME! :D

Dropped by a folder :o

I was riding to a LBS after work to check out a Cannondale Synapse I'm eyeing up. Took a route I normally avoid because of the riduolous hill on a portion of it. I saw a fellow corporate worker bee on a folder up ahead and I soon passed him easily on my mighty 700c equiped steed. The hill starts somewhat gentle with a 4%+ grade, my speed frops off and I see my folder freind regaining the gap behind me. The grade increases another couple of degrees to 8%-ish and the folder is right on my wheel, we slow even more because of the long line of cages queing up to negoitiate a narrow tunnel, but he's still on my wheel as we go through the choke point. The grade now increases again to about an even 10% and I'm in trouble big time. [EDIT: toporoute say 12.3% for 1/3 mile] The happy folder dude picks now to engage me in conversation - something about the weather, nothing about how tough the hill is, or how high do we think our heart rates are - no, just some small talk about how today is less hot than yesterday. I gasp out an attempt at pleasantries - I am seconds from my melt down point (I suck at steep hills - its a package deal split between my legs and my cardio/pulmanary systrem) and sure enough, its time for me to take my customary mid steep hill break and I pull over and unclip. Folder Fred just cruises on by like its all just a Sunday noodle ride down by the beach.

I curse him....

Later I seek solace in thinking that his folder must have some wicked low gear, that or he had the benefit of youth and years on his folder practicing just for this day....

Today was nice both ways. I was a little stiff going in because of last night's group ride. On the way home I tried to keep my cadence above 100 as much as I could. I was paced twice by drivers who were looking at their speedometers, and then at me, smiling. Must have been going pretty good on the SS. I was sprinting from lights to get my heart rare up. I saw another rider on a road bike in old T-mobile kit. Waved back at me on my commuter ss. Not all roadies are jerks. I should know, my alter ego is one.

about yesterday:

1. My disk brakes saved my life today. Didnt see a stop light that was red. A car was coming off the expressway and I didnt see it untill the last second. I slammed my brakes and was feet from hitting that car. I would have been blasted to the next state if he hit me. That made me slow down

2. Took a swing at a car that cut me off in the bike lane. I need to work on my temper

other than that, it was a great day

Interesting ride home tonight. Five or Six young guys on bikes tried to cut me off around 11:15PM on Frederick Douglass headed towards Macombs. I was running 20-21MPH in the big ring as a livery came up in the left lane preventing them from blocking both lanes. I was able to jump on the the livery's bumper and blow by them. A little hairy clearing the closest guy and getting on the bumper without just slamming into the side of the car or taking young nimrod out. Cut it pretty fine. Not too anxious about it as it seemed like kid stuff, but; it sure was nice to be cooking along at a pretty good clip at the time, not to mention the timely arrival of that livery. Oh, and my rear blinkie, a Cateye TL1000, was malfunctioning. :( Found this out after covering 150 blocks. Used my helmet back up the rest of the way home. Not sure if I should change my route up or not.

whats a livery?

Delivery Van?

A generic non-medallion car for hire. It's a term generally used for car service vehicles. Yellow cabs have metal medallions attached to their hoods in NYC. Having a medallion allows the owner to operate a metered taxi. Medallion=cab, taxi, hack. Non-medallion=livery, car service.

Nice ride both ways. My sciatic(sp?) nerve has been causing me pain lately, b ut riding seems to ease it some.

Nice morning ride today. Sunny. ~60F. Mild headwind. I caught a guy on a touring bike with panniers about a mile into my ride and just let him keep pace.

On Friday I took a different way home, riding on more city streets than usual. I wasn't exactly sure of my route so I was taking it easy, riding along between 15 and 20MPH, and a Fred on a beat up road bike was trying like mad to pass me. :D :rolleyes: I could hear his chain skipping. I just stayed right and didn't speed up. He passed me, barely, then started blowing up. I was fixing to drop him but then he left the road and stopped. It was all rather amusing.

Different route home was okay, I guess. Probably not something I'd repeat. Nice 40MPH downhill part. Knobby tires are LOUD at 40MPH. Some woods/single track riding. Okay for recreational riding but not so much for a commute.

Construction workers installed a "bike lane" right outside my apartment building. By "bike lane" I mean they basically dug a ditch down the length of the road where I ride and then filled it with really rough pavement. and it's about 4-5" below the level of the road. I rolled off the sidewalk without even seeing it and fell over within the first minute of my commute.

OUCH!

Hey all, good commute this morning. Mid 70's nice aft 1/4 breeze....

5.43 mi @21min 16 sec = avg spd 15.32 mph!

I'm such a geek, I wrote a program for my TI-84 calc to work that out for me :D

Billy

So as of this morning, I feel like I am officially a bike commuter again.

The last time I rode to work was back on June 11, and even then, I only rode TO work (since I got a flat when I got there, and had my wife pick me up after work). But now, armed with my newly fixed rear tube and tuned brakes, I was a force to be reckoned with.

In fact, this morning at avg speed of 12.29 mph was my fastest ride to work so far. Looking at my bike journal, I can see that I had rides last year that had a faster average speed, however, that was when I had my old bike computer that I think was not as accurate in terms of distance (those rides claim my ride to work was 6.9 miles, but now my bike computer, which is actually precise, says it is 7.12 miles). Although now that I look again, I can see that I have a ride in Sept of last year that was with my new computer, on the same route I took today, with an avg speed of 12.80 mph. Damn. But I still kicked the crap out of my average times for the couple of rides this year :)

Today was also my first time checking out the new "green" bike lanes in Chicago. Nifty.

Back on the bike (thank God) today. I went on my first "little hike" with some friends last thursday and it killed my legs too much to ride Friday (and all weekend). But finally eased up enough to get back on the bike and commute in today.

Left the house about 8 or so this morning since it's "Lazy Monday". The temp was already well above 70.

Got buzzed by a loser in a new Corvette for no aparent reason. He must have a very tiny wee wee to need to buzz cyclists to prove his uber-macho. What a loser.

As I was thinking how hot it was while climbing the hill on the way in, I thought to myself, "six months ago I was wearing lobster claw gloves, balaclava, heavy jacket, and wind proof tights." It didn't seem so miserable after that. :-)

I have been instructed to "Ride like the wind" on the way home. I think I have to BBQ some animal for dinner.

Nice ride in today, but man is it going to be a hot ride home.... I found a faster route to connect my two pathway segments, so that was nice. This route has roundabouts (traffic circles) instead of stop signs, and less traffic than the other route I'd been using. I did see a roadie and a taxi driver arguing about the use of the roundabouts, though, so I'll be sure to keep my eye out.

Went rafting ont he Elbow River yesterday, which was very relaxing, but I added some interesting new tan lines to my collection :p (I now have a Teva tan on my feet and some weird swimsuit-strap lines to add to the standard issue biker tan, heh).

We got out the door on time, but didn't even make it to the sidewalk before my wife noticed she had a flat. Not a soft tire, but a full on flat. Better yet, it was her rear wheel, so I couldn't just give her a spare off of another bike. Of course, this is also the day that my boss gets back from holidays, so I don't want to be late. :rolleyes:

I get the tube changed [next time she can do it herself], and jump on my bike to sprint to work. At the end of my street, some yutz in an SUV has decided to pull a u-turn, and wants me to go through. Just as he motions me to go ahead, some guy in a car wants to make a turn into my street. The SUV is stuck halfway through his u-turn because he waved me through [which I actually don't appreciate], the car can't turn because the SUV is blocking his path, and I can't turn because the car has the right-of-way in front of me. I finally go ahead of the car and the SUV roars off, its driver cursing me out. I should have just careened out into traffic.

I sprinted the rest of the way to work, using the 185 HR to get my mind blanked out.

Light traffic out for my ride in this morning. Temp was higher than I expected and the humidity didn't help. Scattered storms forecast for this afternoon so I am taking my chances. Got caught in them twice last week so I figure I am due to miss them this week.

Nice ride; 1st commute since Thurs, so a lot of energy. Managed to use a lot of the energy, maintain good avg speed, and not stress out achilles, so that's pluses all around. Plus nice and sunny. Thing 2 not thrilled to be dropped at daycare, so that was a negative, but she'll tough it out.

DEFINITELY the latter! :D

Back before the baby (and the wife for that matter), that was my solution, playing 5-6 days a week. Alas, now I'm lucky if I get out once a week, thus the muscle soreness.

Commute stuff: I was nearly taken out by a van making a U-turn across 2 lanes of traffic this morning. As I saw him make the move I screamed, "What the ****?!" and he stopped, now blocking the traffic lanes. I passed him and he finished his turn, then caught up to me and passed me slowly to "apologize"--the passenger just waved at me. Idiot van-driver then proceeded to make a right-turn with his right-turn signal blinking. You, sir, shouldn't be permitted to drive.