Sweaty!! But otherwise uneventful.

Very warm and humid here, with temps in the low 70s at 6:30 am. Took one of my faster road bikes this morning rather than my regular commuter, expecting to make some time. However, I rode into a stiff headwind all the way to work and caught almost every red light, so didn't ride as fast as I expected. High temps are supposed to reach the mid to upper 90s here for the next week, so springtime is over in reality if not by the calendar.

Damp. It was raining when I got up, but not when I was riding, fortunately. Mid 50sF.

I rounded a bend on the MUP and in front of me was a wall of flashing lights and orange paint. A huge (but dead) tree had fallen on some power lines and over the MUP. Fortunately the trunk wasn't at ground level so I could easily ride under it. The electric guys were up on a pole fixing things from a cherry picker. There were two large trucks and one utility van on the MUP and I was worried they were going to order me to turn around, which would have been unpleasant.

But I made eye contact with one big dude, said hi, and he said hi, then "Watch your head!"

Very foggy. It was eerie being able to see only small sections of the trail at a time. Made good time with a slight tailwind.

Light, steady, rain. The forecast was for severe thunderstorms, yeah right. Must be an awesome job to be right 20-25% of the time and still get paid. Saw other skinny tire tracks as I went under the bridge that goes over the bike path, made me smile.

Moist ride in, my back was pretty sweaty when I arrived at work, I may consider a cetma rack so I can avoid this.
Brought the rain cape for the ride home, I heard it is going to get wetter.

More rain

Commute was good. It started out with a nice headwind, but after about 15 minutes of riding I met up with a guy in my class who decided to make his first commute today. His apartment is less than 4 miles to school so he has it pretty easy, but I have the fun part with hills mostly down hill towards his place. Unfortunately those rides home kind of suck, but with a little tail wind. So I have 3 new recruits to my credit to add to the regular commuter list!

Ride home last night was downright hot... at least upper 90's. DW said her car thermometer read 101 just before I left - not the most accurate thing in the world, but pretty close most of the time. Not that it matters - the difference between 99 and 101 is entirely psychological... Head winds were fun, too - 20 MPH steady, gusts up to >30. So I took my new wind approach - head down, spin spin spin, ignore speed, time, and all other arbitrary measures. Seemed to work fairly well, though I did notice that I was a good 4 gears lower than normal on the two steepest hills. That means I was in the small ring, biggest cog, and STANDING to make it up the last one... Got home hot, sweaty, satisfied with my effort... And as a reward for a good ride, DW had steak marinating and ready to go on the grill - wahoo!

24mph headwind through about a third of the ride, but I took it easy and it was a very nice commute. 75º and humid, but the wind kept it from being too oppressive. Looking forward to a nice tailwind on the ride home.

Great ride in to work today, until my rear derailer cable decided to fail on the last 2 miles! I guess I have a single speed for the ride home. I'm not looking forward to the 2.5 miles of rolling hills on the way home!

I stuck myself behind a bus, but other than that it was a fine ride in.

Commute was good, no wind this morning... fast ride in. Really enjoyable.

nice ride in this morning. Attached my new PB SuperFlash last night and used it for the first time this morning. I think I noticed a little difference in the way people went around me - could have been all contrived in my head though!

on the way home yesterday, I passed a dad, mom and a little one on training wheels all riding in the road (very light use residential road downtown in the Oakview area) - while passing said hello and some small talk - it was nice to see a family out on the roads for a ride. Just got my wife a bike and upgraded my sons to a geared Novara and once my youngest turns one I will be putting the seat on and we'll all be out there as well - can't wait!

I got to come in late today, yay! It was a nice, warm midmorning commute. I had time to stop for coffee (w00t), which put me in good position to go down a really big hill! I had to deal with a lot more car traffic than I do when I leave the house at 0500, which was interesting, but it went well. No close calls.

17 miles of rain in the morning, 17 miles of strong headwind going home. Coulda been worse, I guess..........

I had no desire to come into work today. I took my time and stopped a few times to adjust things on the new bike but still managed to show up early. WTH**********????

rain rain both ways yesterday. Nice and slow coming in today, kept it on the 36t ring.

21st Street is usually empty at 6:30 am, but not this week as all the car commuters looking to avoid the I-5 shutdown are filling up the surface arterials. There was an article in the Bee this morning about bike commuting increasing in the area with the double-whammy of $4 gas and the I-5 project. That and it's been an unusually cool May.

Yesterday afternoon riding up the MUP I looked over at the canyon to my right and saw something moving FAST up the the opposite ridge. Didn't look like a mountain biker (no paved road there, but there are some dirt trails) - then saw it was someone on a horse, going at a fast canter up the ridge. Looked like he was flying!

This morning it was cool and foggy. I've been steadily getting faster over the last week or two - last night I covered my 14 miles home in 1 hour flat. Feeling pretty smug!

Rode home late last night, around midnight. Riding through the city is great at that time. Just watch out for the cabs trolling for fairs. The warm weather brought out all types, the Manhattan Bridge bike path was full of drunks singing, homeless ****ting, people coming home from dates and bike messengers smoking doobies. Rain started in my last 2 miles or so, rained all night ending just in time for my am commute, love them fenders...

Rode home late last night, around midnight. Riding through the city is great at that time. Just watch out for the cabs trolling for fairs. The warm weather brought out all types, the Manhattan Bridge bike path was full of drunks singing, homeless sh*tting, people coming home from dates and bike messengers smoking doobies. Rain started in my last 2 miles or so, rained all night ending just in time for my am commute, love them fenders...

Tell me about it. I ran out of the house this morning because I was running behind, slow rainy commute, I show up a half hour early somehow and say to my one other co-worker this morning..."man, are we the only ones in here?!?!?!"

off-topic rant...

I'd ridden into work the other day and walked across the street to the bike shop around lunchtime. I was looking for a different quill stem for the bike I carry my daughter on. The guy's asking me more questions than he needs to and then gets all in a snit and gives me some safety-nanny rant when he hears that she's riding in a front-mounted bike seat.

...blah, blah... I'm going to fall on her during my inevitable crash... stems weren't "made to do that"... etc. - as if noone's ever ridden on a handlebar before.

This was the only bike shop in town I could tolerate, but I think I'm done with them as well. Came back and ordered the stem online.

All Star on Falls... I probably won't be back.

Commute today = broke speed limit, traffic light laws, and door to door speed record.

Low traffic.