Pretty good morning commute. Bit of a headwind like yesterday. Mid-50s. I saw a few cyclists and herds of squirrels. Oh, and a cat.

Yesterday I had a weird experience with a 4 or 5 early-teens. They were standing around talking, not in my way at all. As I passed, one kid says to another kid, "Watch out." The other kid says, "I don't have to move. $(@* him!" Snot-nosed little brat. I turned my head around, looked at him, and made an equally immature comment in return, which I won't repeat here.

No - it's 43 miles one way for me. I do it a couple times a week when I have the strength.

And as for green light mojo - I ain't got it. Last night traffic signals were turning red for no reason at all. I was cussing and fuming and a couple times people next to me had their windows down.

"WE CAN PUT A MAN INTO ORBIT, BUT A FREAKING TRAFFIC SIGNAL .... BLAH!!!!!"

My commute was 10 minutes longer than expected because I hit like a dozen lights on Franklin Blvd last night.

Nasty rainstorm down here in Fort Lauderdale this morning... by the time I was ready to go, no more rain !


I took my bad weather bike with fenders and fat knobby tires with platform pedals and sneakers for the commute to work .

5 easy miles, and my shoes were DRY the whole time ! WOW !!!!!!!!!


Here are 2 pics of the bike as-is.

It rained last night, and was misting this morning by the rio, so I wore my windbreaker. By the time I was three miles away from the rio however, the mist had stopped and I was getting warm. It was a nice ride.

It was awesome. I left the house when I actually planned, without waking the kids or the wife. My light was fully charged and my handlebars freshly wrapped. I swung by the parking garage and deposited my backpack in my bike locker before heading out on the ARBT for a little lactate threshold work. Managed to set a PR on my out-and-back time trial without totally burying myself, so that's a good sign.

On the way back into the garage, the city parking folks were handing out free coffee and donuts as part of their customer appreciation. And I was interviewed by the local tv station. I tried to talk up the benefits of bike commuting, especially to downtown Sacramento, where we have flat streets, mild weather, and a bike friendly grid.

wet! Also, when I plugged my light into the charger at work, it went into trickle mode, which implies the battery is dead, which it really shouldn't be. But a fun ride, anyway.

For some reason, there were a lot of really stinky cars out on the road today. Lots of exhaust in my lungs this morning.

The stupid cold from over two weeks ago still lingers on. Annoying. Nothing major, but some slight throat discomfort after a ride and a feeling of slight tiredness. Anyone know how to get rid of these stupid germs for good already?

I had something like that this summer, turned out to have morphed into pneumonia. Visit to doc for antibiotics was the solution (hold off on the antibiotics until you see an x-ray though). My hill-climbing greatly improved after that.

I woke up to find the bike splattered with wet cement from the construction crew that was renovating the apartment below mine. When they cleaned up, they must have hosed out their wheelbarrow and accidentally sent a spray in the direction of the bike rack. I was truly beyond pissed. I wiped it down the best I could and rode 4 miles to work. Nice morning, sunny, breezy. My coworkers teased me about going "baja-ing" and mud bogging. I sent an angry fax to my landlord (who had conveniently disabled the tenant complaint section of his website); awaiting reply.

Yes i do, i believe i mentioned it to you a year or so ago? It seems like the whole town is going there also, there are so many people

90% chance of rain later in the day when I left this morning. I rode the Fuji expecting to get soaked on the way home. It rained mid day. The ride in was warm.

early ride in today. rode in with my wife. met her on the ride home today, too. means my pace is a lot slower but it's quality time. feels like we're on vacation.

That's possible. I had the vague sense that I asked you that before. Sorry about the repetition.

Tell me about it.

Wasn't very good today. The weather had caught me off guard and unprepared bike wise. No fenders, and no back rack. On my way I was cut off by a guy in a van and since I am fairly new to clipless pedals I wasn't able to stop suddenly and get unclipped in time. I took a hard dive to the asphalt in the middle of traffic. Scraping up my hands and right knee. The worst was found out when I stopped and work and looked at my phone...the screen was white. My new blackberry 8100 that I have had less than a month. After all of this I got to put in an 8 hour work day and then bike back home.

Called the cell company and my insurance deductible on my phone would be $110...

I nearly collided with a deer this morning. It jumped right in front of me. Missed it by less than a meter by braking HARD. I stopped, and we looked at each other for a while, after which the deer (rather offended it seemed) walked off into the woods. Nice.

I just checked an online rain-radar-satellite-site-thingy, and the return trip is looking to be a wet one...

Overcast, low 60s(!). Started out kind of dark, actually. One of my faster rides, even with the strongest headwind of the week so far. 400 watts! I had a motive for going fast though. Two serious-looking cyclists were stopped at the entrance to the MUP near my house. One roadie with aero bars and a guy on an MTB all decked out in appropriate clothing. I said hi as I passed but they just looked at me. I thought I'd see if I could prevent a reeling-in, and took off at maximum cruise. Never saw 'em again. Either they're slow, or they weren't trying. *giggle*

Very humid and warm this morning. I was still sweating an hour after I got to work. Must have ridden harder than I realized. My green-light mojo finally returned today. Although I still caught my share of red lights, I didn't have to wait long at any of them. Made a big difference in my commute time. Left home 5 minutes later than yesterday but still got to work earlier. Good chance of rain finally moving into NC later today. Guess I'll snap on my Race-Blade fenders sometime during the day. I bought them in June but took them off after a couple of weeks because it never rains in NC any more since we're in the midst of a terrible drought.

Today's commute was uneventful ... which is good!

Switched to a bigger backpack though as I am packing my lightweight rain gear now as well as work out clothes for the gym I have use of at school.

Makes jumping curbs a little sloppy but I need the space for my stuff.

I had to ride 14 miles to the light rail like last week. Nice fun short ride.
At least today I did not overheat. Riding hard and then suddenly stopping throws my stomach for a loop. This morning I started removing clothing in the last mile or two. That worked much better.

Picked up a piece of glass in the rear tire (why is it always the rear tire these days?) for a flat. On the plus side, had my easiest/fastest time yet at patching it and getting back on the road. The rest of the ride was less crowded than usual, having missed the worst of the schooltime rush.

Humid and warm for this time of year but a nice ride in. Saw 2 deer walking down the MUP, just minding their own business and completely unperturbed by me.

It's not just "these days". It's usually the rear tire, since it carries much more weight. I personally don't recall ever having a puncture flat on the front.

Cool and dry. Sunrise is getting late enough that I'm leaving just as the orb is picking its head up above the mountains. It's pretty, but can be a bit blinding at times.

Pthoooey!

My commute takes me along about 1/2 mile of the towpath of the Delaware and Raritan Canal near Trenton NJ, and for the last couple of evenings the air has been thick with thousands of tiny gnats. Since I leave the house while it's still dark in the morning, I've forgotten my sunglasses... so I ride along with my head turned to one side, leading eye closed, other eye squinting... picking up hundreds of bugs on my face, caught in my ear, stuck in my beard, clothes, arm hair... it is really disgusting, and they tickle. I hope I remember this on my way home tonight, I'll take a detour to avoid them.

Ack!

Nice cool morning, A little headwind in the beginning. I left the house 15 min earlier then normal. WOW what a change in traffic. I think my new step off time will be 0530. I really like the lighter traffic. Have a great commute everyone.