Nice and cool - about 40 when I left my house. It bucketed down cold rain all day yesterday (seldom have I been so happy that I work from home on Thursdays!), but today is clear, with snow on the mountains all around town.

Got a late start, so I rode the less beautiful and more hilly route to the bus stop and took the bus much of the way. Last time I tried it, it took 35 minutes to get to the bus, on slightly underinflated tires and without enough breakfast. Today, my tires were fully inflated and it took 30 min - but I noticed that once again I really hadn't had enough to eat before starting out. Maybe with a better meal in me I can get it down to 25 min? Must continue this experiment....

Welcome tyro!

On days like today I can't imagine why anyone would want to sit in a car when they could ride a bike.

Since my commuting days have been cut I came up with an idea. Instead of just sitting there while I study I locked the bars on the stationary bike and just read half of the diabetes chapter in my Medical-Surgical Nursing book in 7 miles. While it may not count even in my book as a commute, I learned that pedaling allowed me to concentrate on reading much longer than I normally can otherwise.

At the end of week 1 post-studs, it still feels like a whole new activity and I am still totally energized and loving it. It was real work pushing those damn knobby sticky things up the hill.

Grrr..I shouldn't be riding today, but two weeks off the bike and i feel like a chain smoker on cold turkey. -9 Degree celsius without the windshield factor..but where I ride it's pretty open ground and knife stabbing head wind. My therometer on the watch was reading -19 degree celsius....there was a half inch of slush and snow on parts of the ground.

I'm just going to complain some more...but my saddle also developed a clicking sound half way through the ride....hahahah....*snaps

Finally installed fenders on the beater - and was rewarded with a dry bum and clean face. :)

Today was another really fast commute - of course the traffic was extremely light on a Saturday morning. An amazing thing is that I picked just the right combination of clothes, and was perfectly comfortable but not at all sweaty during the ride. That doesn't happen too often, frankly. I am a warmth-loving creature and tend to overdress.

I pumped the tires back up to 75 psi. I had been running them at 50 and man what a difference. I did 10 miles on the stationary bike while studying before work last night and I guess having my muscles warmed up helped too. It felt like I flew to work. This morning on the way home I should have let a little air out since everything was coated with ice. The freezing rain started before 5am and by 6 it was nasty out. thank goodness for studded tires! I made it home ok, but had a little trouble after I stopped to talk to one of my new neighbors.

saturdays commute seen me with another flat i must be getting real unlucky here so i think a change of route might be the order of the day this week just in case.

on the plus side the new pump is awesome

Flats suck. A colleague has just changed to kevlar reinforced tyres as he has have a bunch of punctures recently. I think all the heavy rain has washed all the glass / twigs etc from the gutters into the roads.

Ordinary commute today. Nothing much to report. Light drizzle.

No commute for me today (Federal holiday), but the weather here is remarkable--light scattered showers and a 4:50 AM temp of ~60 degrees F! It really does feel like Spring out there.

Why the hell am I up this early on a day off? Well I always am. This morning though, I think I'll just lounge about a bit, then ride out for a breakfast and a stop at the market. After that, I have my Bridgestone/Nexus project to finish building up today, so that should keep my interest engaged...

I drove to work today because it was raining when I got up and it's supposed to continue all day. I got enough of riding in the rain yesterday. My friends and I were supposed to ride a metric century, but everyone bailed because it was so cloudy and a few minor sprinkles just as we were starting. They turned back, but I decided to stick it out. My decision appeared sound for the first 30 miles, but then the sky got very dark and it started raining. Not a soaker, but it rained lightly and the roads were wet for the rest of the ride. I ended up with 52 miles, not bad for a solo ride with the last 22 miles in rain.

My bike was filthy when I got home, so I spent about 30 minutes cleaning it and my commuter bike, which got caught in the rain one day last week. That is the worst part about riding in the rain -- cleaning up afterwards.

fricken fracken razzen stiff headwind into work All I can say is - it better still be blowing when I get out so I can enjoy one heck of a fast ride home courtesy of that (potential) tailwind.

I rode my Feb century on Saturday and my legs still have not recovered.
It was my fastest to date but I think my electrolyte balance went wacky 3/4 of the way through.
Anyhow, I took my MTB since it snowed a bit yesterday and rode the shorter 10mile each way route.
No snow anywhere! Oh well. At least I was in the mood to lazily ride to the light rail and ponder why trees keep getting cut down along the North Platte trail. It was a nice 18F smell the roses type commute that everyone needs from time to time.

good one this morning - nice and warm although wet - really need to get those fenders!! took a little performance hit as well since I did not wear my bike shoes and instead wore my street sneaks so my bike shoes would not be wet the rest of the week. My sneakers kept slipping off the pedals!

Drizzly and mid-thirties on the ride in this morning. It could have been worse, I suppose, as I woke up to a torrential downpour.

My "avoid-the-main-thoroughfares-at-all-costs" route has been decimated by pot-holes this winter. :(

Usually I don't commute Mondays and tuesdays as the wife works, today is an exception, I got home for lunch and it was 70 degrees in FEBRUARY!!! So I ate quick and road my new road bike in, took 23 minutes to go 7.5 miles, fastest ever for me, nearly 20mph avg!! So as maryland weather is ever changing, it was 45, windy and raining on the way home, took 27 minutes, not bad considering on my winter commuter I take 28 mintes on the best of days.

Raining here, all the ice is gone. Probably should have pumped some more air into the tires. I'm still commuting on the mtb with studs, both because you never know what happens during the day, the ride home might be on ice and because it's my only bike with fenders. During the weekend I did however inflate the tires on one of the road fixies (700x23c). Man what a difference hard narrow tires make. I think I'll get some poser fenders for that thing and use it for a good weather commuter in summer.
The mtb got a speedometer and power grips over the weekend. The speedometer is there mostly to whip me on, if it's there I'll become obsessed with keeping the avg speed up. Today with the studs I made the trip in 22 minutes, avg speed of 19,5km/h (hilly terrain). That's almost up to last summers avg speed, but with studded tires. I think the hard trips during winter have paid off in better shape. Now I'm excited to put the slicks on and see what I can do on them. Better wait another month though, weather is bound to turn. The Power grips seemed nice on the first trip. I could feel that I was pulling the pedals up and I didn't feel trapped in them.
I realize what 19,5km/h does not seem like much, but it's what I'm doing these days. In my defence, the commute does include a fair bit of climbing and downhills where I can't really build up much speed. I do a bit better on the road bike, but without significant flats or fast downhills it's not a whole lot of difference. Now it sounds like I'm obsessed about this :D

I had a 20+ mph tailwind on the way home from work. That was a fun ride.

34 degrees hot hot hot hot hot hot

Great ride in this morning, this on a dinner of bbq pork rinds and a bloody mary (I had a terrible craving for this, what can I say?). I woke up with terrible heartburn, a stomach ache, and a little dehydrated--go figure.

Just below freezing, but almost no wind. The Historian accompanied me on the ride to my carpool before he headed back home.

Back to seasonable here--just above freezing with a stout little headwind.

Was treated to a beautiful "moonset" this morning, though. Nearly full, I caught a couple of glimpses of the whole thing. Mostly, though, it was backlighting some long, low clouds. Would have stopped to marvel longer but I, insect that I am, had to be on about my own business.

WIndy. I witnessed two accidents on the way home yesterday. Sigh, why can't people learn to drive.

The weather is getting nicer week by week. Yesterday the high reached the mid-70s, but I didn't ride because it was raining when I got up and forecasters said it would continue all day. They were wrong. Big surprise. The sun was out my late morning and it was a gorgeous day, although windy. I did ride this morning and it was a great ride in. The mornings are getting much brighter and pretty soon I won't need my headlight to see at all. I'm looking forward to the day when I can wear something other than one of my yellow or neon jerseys. My red jerseys are very visible in daylight, but not when it's dark or dim outside.

The hard part about dressing now is wearing clothes that are warm enough for the morning commute, but not too hot for the afternoons. Somedays my seatbag is more full riding home than going to work because of all the layers I've had to shed for the afternoon ride.