Great morning for a ride - ~69* F as I pulled out the driveway at 6:30 as the sun was coming up. Wind was with me this morning (won't be so nice on the way home this evening) and I felt as good as I've felt since I started back on the bike. The bubbas were out though - obnoxious pickup truck drivers, all must have been late to work on a Monday morning. Almost took a side mirror to the back of the head... Made great time, too...

Uneventful ride to work this morning. Temp was in the low to mid 50s, overcast and it's starting to get humid, so I sweat like a racehorse. Being a new commuter, I'm still getting used to the drivers around here, who are not particularly adept at sharing the road with cyclists, although I am not at the point where I would consider myself a real "cyclist."
The highlight of the ride was in the elevator at work, a woman who works a couple floors below thanked me for wearing my hi vis jersey. She said that she sees too many cyclists and runners that blend into the background, thus making it hard for her to give them enough room on the road. Makes me glad that I invested in that gear as part of my overall safety gear.

chipcom - i feel for you.

Looks like I'm a cager for the foreseeable future. I got a big ole puffy knee. :( Self-diagnosis is tendinitis in the Hamstring Tendon. I've been having lots of trouble keep loose on long rides. Cramped bad yesterday over the last 12 miles of a 60 miler. Think it did a number on my knee.

still getting used to spring weather. It's warm enough that I can leave the long sleeved mid-weight wool jersey at home, but not so warm that I can just go in short sleeves. Kept on trying to decide if I should take off my arm warmers or not.

Marathon Day in Boston meant that traffic was refreshingly low ebb. I did a double metric century on Saturday and legs were still feeling a little knackered, so I spun easy for most of my way through Harvard Sq. and Kendall Sq.; but then lost my discipline when I climbed over the Longfellow and came up to a red light with a fellow commuter on a Giant OCR3. Then, it was red light sprints all the way into Post Office Square. I think we split 3 for 6 on that.

Racing side-by-side in the right hand lane of Cambridge St. through Government Center was great. Having dead quads while walking around the office today? Not so much.

God, I hope I don't see him on my way home.

Almost got creamed by a city bus downtown! I was in right lane, bus was in middle lane. I was coming up on the bus fast, probably pulling about 25 or so and started passing. Got halfway past the bus when I saw the directional go on. Immediately slowed down since I did not know if it saw me or not and was waiting for me to pass. Maybe I should not have been passing - this particular downtown street is three lanes wide and I can easily do 25 if I hit the traffic light timing right. Here is the street (I was headed south in the right lane - ignore the "ONLY" in the right lane - it is no longer there and is a through lane now):

http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&h...286,-78.636686


other than that, very nice ride in this morning - no rain which I was expecting. hopefully the same goes for this afternoon as well. Didn't check the temp before I left, but I guesstimate in the mid-50's.

I disagree. There's no more real cyclist than one who rides to work.

Good legs today. No, check that. Great legs today. I was testing out my new TT position on the bike trail this morning and I was flying. A la chingada as my grampa might say. [I know that the ARBT is technically a MUP, and that I was breaking the 15mph speed limit, and it's a frickin' zoo on the weekends, but it's pretty safe to go all out on weekday mornings. No walkers or rollerbladers were harmed.]

cold today, 30F. No hail at least. Just sorta spun my way in, pretty low avg speed.

First commute on my new bike. I love her. She's a beauty. Treated myself to a new trip computer too but it's not picking up the signal from the wireless transmitter. However, I can tell you that it was 18.5 degrees centigrade when I set off in the evening so it is definitely spring! And to top it off I saw the first Swallows of spring - or were they House Martins? Not sure - they were too high up.

Late start out, so more cars to contend with. Timing off on a couple of blocks, so red lights. Idiot college kid riding in front of me, so looked good to the cute teachers in front of the school.

Conditions were near perfect. 69F, little to no wind, slightly overcast. Rode in high gear more than ever before. Starting my 4th week and the hills keep getting easier. I'm hooked.

The ride to work was brutal. I left the house late. When a driver leaves the house late, he or she can just push the gas pedal down a little farther and watch out for cops. When a cyclist leaves the house late, there's physical punishment involved! My legs were screaming at me!

The ride home was brutal, too. OMG headwinds. Good thing today is my Friday.

Still sick. Still no riding. Still :-(

bgreen - don't assume a higher gear is better. Pedalling faster in a lower gear is also an option. Kinder to the knees, and it might be more efficient - and certainly gives a good cardio workout! I started spinning faster in lower gears about 6 months ago, and gradually increased my speed and stamina. Eventually I just gave up on changing gears altogether, as I could go as fast as I needed in one gear and still climb the hills. Then I bought a singlespeed bike! Lots of fun!

Crashed coming home. Pushing too hard, there's a dumb bit where the bike path enters a train station, yet there's no way to get from the path to the carpark without going through dirt and up and over a kerb. Took a stupid line that didn't make sense, caught the kerb at a shallow angle and sprawled onto the ground. No major damage, but a couple of nasty scrapes to elbow and knee. Jumped straight back on and pedalled before the pain could catch up with me :)

Steve

stevage - ouch!

Living through your commuting stories again today. :( Knee feels better today. :) I don't think I'll need to take more than a week off. Yesterday, I wasn't so sure.

Low 50sF and hazy this morning. Mild headwind. No gloves. Shorts. Long-sleeve black jersey underneath red cotton Canadiens (5-0!) shirt. ;) Reeled in a young woman on an MTB. Stayed behind her for a while, but not stalker-close.

Squirrel bolted out from leaves. Hit my foot. Ran between my wheels. Lucky squirrel.

58F this morning. A little wet on the pavement but no rain at all. Yesterday on the way home I got caught in a 5 minute downpour and very strong headwinds. Tstorms were moving into the area so I guess I got lucky.

1st commute
 

Hey all, finally did my first commute this morning. I've been waiting for a day when my morning schedule was light and the low temps were out of the 30's...just so happened to be earth day. I have a shower at work and a locker so 20 minutes after getting here I was at my desk, a bit phased, but still good to go.
Some details...ride is 20 miles each way from my girlfriends house (it would be 30 from mine, a bit too much). I left at 6:00am, was at work by 7:40am with a 10 minute break halfway through. Roads are mostly 45 MPH somewhat rural (for NJ) roads that are heavily commuted on; North brunswick to Branchburg for those who'd like to look. Other than an ice cream headache for about the first 40 minutes it wasn't too bad. I'm really looking forward to the ride home, mid 60's and a lot more downhill :D
My plan is to do this twice a week, anymore and things just don't work logistically. The bike is an '83 Miyata 610 small frame with nitto northroad bars (upright) and a Brooks B17. I have a PB superflash, a Fenix L2D and a nice army surplus medic bag as my trunk bag, there are pics maybe 10 pages back on the commuter bike pics thread. Ok, hope everyones doing fine!

50F, tailwind, and sunny. I hate to say it, but that's as darned close to a perfect commute as I can get. Took the 8 mile route instead of the 3 mile route. Been smiling ever since.

50F, slight breeze, and cloudy. I have been working from home for a while, so this is my first real commute in several days... I had forgotten how heavy all my junk is. (I was riding, but without full panniers.)
Wasn't in a rush, so I took my time a little more than usual. More pleasant for me that way.

Cotton T-shirt and slacks.

This and last week has just been great days for the commute into work. Sunny, but not hot. Light breeze and hardly any traffic. Coming home at 11:30 is nice too, warm enough for a tshirt and more downhill.

Great ride in today--the roads were slick enough to provide a little less resistance (or maybe it's in my head) without being dangerous.

Waiting to see if the forecasted showers will appear. They never really did yesterday.

It started snowing last Friday and hasn't stopped. We're almost 20C below our normal daytime highs, and there is no sun. :cry: The roads on half my commute are covered in snow, and somehow it's remaining unconsolidated. In other sections there is glare ice, in others, bare dry pavement. It's supposed to warm up on the weekend...

Last night as I was leaving the office I thought I lost my keys. Dumped out my bag: no keys. Went through every desk drawer: no keys. Went through my locker: no keys. Had to call my wife to come get me and started to fret about how I was going to get my bike out of the bike locker.

The bike locker!!!

Which is where my keys laid, right on top, where I left them. D'oh!

God, I'm lucky. I had stored not one, but two bikes in there--my road racer and my TT machine. (Yes, I know that neither is the optimal commute bike, but May is going to be a heavy race month and I need to make every mile count.) So relieved.

Damp-to-wet. Also, round-trip. Work pc still dead, so home to work on the domestic machine instead.

Nice ride into LODO this morning. The 16.9 miles flew by! Sure is nice having a route to the office that only has 2 grade crossings until I get off the green-way near Mile High Stadium. Temp was 37F to start. A bit chilly, but warmed quickly as I got out into the sun.