nice and sunny. Brisk. Supposed to hit the 60s this afternoon!

habernac - In Seattle we have our marathon in the end of NOVEMBER, when it in in the 30s and raining. The University Hospital has its annual Ride to Work month in JANUARY! (They call it "Ride in the Rain" Departments get points for staff members that ride each day in January for prizes, recognition, etc...)

I guess they keep their costs down that way.... ?

Forgot it was Bike to Work Day today, slept in (technically I work at home anyway, and bike to school... :)). I'm tired and my class isn't till 1 today so I decided to forgo my usual 9:00 start in the library and just relax at home. Which may have been a mistake because now I have had time to notice what a disaster the kitchen is... :rolleyes:

So yesterday i did my second day of commuting (Wednesday Last week was first day). What an adventure!

So my 13.8 mile ride in is on 2 lane state highway and main roads except for 1 mile of paved rail/trail. It mostly downhill due to the 1900 foot elevation change from my house to my office. I enjoyed the two double takes of car drivers as I was keeping up with them at 35 mph and 47 mph at to different times. I wasn't so pleased to hit a pot hole at 30ish and get a pinch flat which has also put my rear wheel out of true slightly (~1/8th inch). Even lower on my happy meter was the same tire developing a second flat in the one stretch of road without a berm of any kind and riding a flat ~ 1000 ft until it was safe to stop. It seems the second one was my fault as I didn't seat the tube and tire right and picked up a second pinch flat. That is what happens when you don't change a flat for over 4 years I guess.

Ride home is 18.4 miles The day was really tiring for me so I had a very hard and draining ride home up the gravel Allegheny Highlands Trail (mentally tough and physically draining). The website says average grade of 1.5% but I think its slightly higher than that on the 16 mile stretch I take. Regardless, 16 straight miles of pedaling without any downhills or opportunities to coast (25 mm road tire don't coast well on crushed gravel) is much harder on me than my other rides with more and steeper climbing on roads.. So I felt compelled to stop twice including siting on a picnic bench for 5 minutes. I almost fell asleep at that time. I was so beat when I got home that I ended up taking a cat nap to recover. I'm glad I did the commute but that was hard!

see, I wouldn't mind a cooler marathon. But bike to work day in Calgary in April is just dumb. I thiknk last year's was about the same time and it either rained or snowed a ton. I think they do it early so they won't have to hand out too much free stuff. Fewer cyclists.

Yeah, all of the GOOD marathons around here are in the spring. Vancouver, Capital City, North Olympic, Whidbey Island... They just couldn't compete, especially with Vancouver, which is Canada's biggest. Too many other events in the summer, I guess. They still draw 15,000 people though. I prefer the small, friendler ones, myself.

Lots of bikes in Seattle too, I'm noticing, now that I'm riding... Events and groups included.

Rough commute this morning - big snow dump yesterday that melted and froze overnight. Most of the bike path was good (they are good about plowing them here) with short sections of black ice. One cool skid out!

Then I hit a section of the path that was unplowed and a jumbled mess of melted and refrozen footprints with a narrow icy bike track. Slow going (40 minute ride took over an hour) but good adventurous stuff!

Today, the sun was finally shining, and it was over 50F.

Very nice for commuting.

A little chilly on the way home. Didn't wear a jacket today because it was nice on the way in. Way home, was fighting head winds and a misting of rain at about 52F. Face and arms are all red now.

Sunny and 73 on our ride to get ice cream today. we got home well before the rain

After an evening of light fever and the shakes, I crawled out of bed and onto my bike. I think I was still doped up from decongestants. I was unable to turn properly for the first few blocks, until I almost went into a snowbank and adrenaline kicked in. All the snow will be gone by the end of the weekend, as we are expecting +20C temps on Saturday and Sunday. +17C on Monday is the forecast high, but we'll see just how warm it gets...

40's-50's.

25 mph headwind there, 25 mph tailwind back.

This whole week has been pretty nice. We had our first glimmers of reasonable spring weather. Nice, easy commutes, cruising through the neighborhoods. I definitely love my single speed bike. Pure bicycle.

[QUOTE=coldfeet;6499530]Is that supposed to be JHFC? I laughed for a minute reading this bit.

[QUOTE]

I liked the JHTC version, it is precisely the sound I made when I looked out at the snow. Somethng like a stifled sneeze crossed with trying not to swear :)

Last night's commute to work was AWESOME. The weather was crisp but not windy, and I decided to mash big gears and ride as fast as I possibly could. I thought it would be fun. It was!

Unfortunately, during the night, I got a flat. On top of that, I had to work an extra hour so I was too lazy to fix the flat this morning. I got a ride home.

I came in this afternoon and fixed the flat. I hope it lasts through the night.

Today I was exposed to the world's stupidity and sadness. Nothing directed at me (other than a totally ignorable honk by some idiot), just depressing stuff. Kids dumping trash out of a car, a road rage incident, a homeless guy in diarrhea-soaked pants (I know, forgive me the graphical details, but at least you didn't have to smell it...) So despite sunny skies I was kind of down. Maybe it's not the commute's fault though; maybe just my general mood.

Being on a bicycle does get a person out of their insular little car-world and outside with the elements (human and otherwise). I've seen things, both good and bad, that I would have never seen in a car.

True dat. I guess that's ultimately a good thing in the end.

I also get angry at myself sometimes for just observing bad things and doing nothing. I could have confronted the trash-dumping kids for example, but didn't want to be accompanied by a van full of obscenity-screaming teens for the rest of my ride. *sigh*

Upper-30s. Overcast. Light tailwind. Saw a regular bike commuter I hadn't seen since last "season." We exchanged happy greetings. The MUP is almost 100% clear of snow. One short section of edge-to-edge frozen granular, and that was it.

I attacked my chain/gears with cleaner and lube yesterday. Felt a little faster today.

about 40 when i left the house this morning and the sun was shining and the birds were singing

the whole week is supposed to be stellar and getting warmer as the week goes on
this makes me happy
:D

35F and the day after finishing the Houston to Austin MS150 - a good day for a morning commute! I put the rack and lights back on last night and was ready to roll this morning. No drama along the ride and my legs felt pretty good too. My butt on the other hand...

Nice day. Ride was a little crowded and had to actually ride/roll around the cars because it was so tight. Saw another BFer waiting at an intersection and shouted out to him.

I was hoping for rain, so I could try out my new Foxwear rain pants. No rain, alas, but they are very comfy.

bmx'd in. fun.

good ride in today, finally got my commuter bike back on the road. The weekend was amazing. Sunny and 20C, a little breezy on Sunday, but got about a 3 hour ride in. Only I could possibly get a sunburn in Canada in April.