Mars

Day two. I ride with a buddy the final 8 miles of my commute in and the first 8 going home. He is a very fast rider, PLUS he just took his high end road bike out for the first time today. Needless to say, he was flying. So, in addition to the extra long miles, I am now riding with a psycho. After the 8 mile sprint, he gets in his car and goes home while i have 14 hilly miles left to go. My thighs are pretty sore tonight, but I will not be stopped! Eventually, if I keep riding these miles, I will crush him like the insect he is!

BillyBob: have you considered baby wipes as opposed to the health club? That is what I use and they work really well. Come on, $3 for the wipes, and get on that bike!

DanO: 30 miles on a single speed. With a lot of hills? You are on your way to becoming a bicycle commuting GOD! There will be Zeus, Appollo, and Dan. I think of myself as a cycling god, but maybe the god of buttons. Or the god of baby wipes.

Bloodstallion: that is awesome! If I can make a suggestion, though, get slicks for your bike. You will find it much easier to cope with the long distances. I run a knobby front tire in the winter. Now that it's gone, I feel like I am breaking the sound barrier when i ride. So much easier and faster.

Maryland: I HATE long mild uphills. It doesn't really feel or look like you are going uphill, but there you are, working your guts out and now going anywhere. It's like, WTF? Why can't I get any Delta v up?

Brian Ratliff

Monday and Tuesday are down in the books. Did my thing with alternating driving and riding. Tomorrow, I ride back home and leave the car at work.

The ride from my house to work is 21 miles and takes a little over an hour and has a lot of downhills. The ride from work to home is 24 miles (have to take a different route to go around an impossible hill) and includes a two mile uphill at the very end of the ride. Now that I have riden both ways a couple of times, the ride is a lot easier. When the days get longer (right now I have to leave work a bit early to beat the sunset), and I get back in shape, I will start riding the route both ways every day. It's the only way I have to get some exercise. I simply cannot justify exercising for the pure, artificial sake of exercising.

christie133

Though I can justify exercising just for the sake of it, it is much harder than combining exercise w/ something fun and/or purposeful. If I exercise just to exercise, it doesn't last long. Anyhoo, I'm happy that things are going well for everyone. I feel like my measely 30 mi rt commute makes me more of an associate member than a full-fledged member of the very long commute club.

The commute was fabulous today. Excellent tailwind coming home. Much-needed ride after a grueling day! It sounds like it's going pretty well for you Mars. Your story today reminded me of the woman I used to ride home w/ sometimes last year. She would always say "Just so you know, my legs are kind of tired today. I hope I don't slow you down." Then she'd tear off at breakneck speed all the way home. I loved it though, because it's rare that I get to ride w/ other strong girls.

And Bloodstallion, I agree w/ Mars about getting slicks. I bet it'll shave lots of time off your ride.

DanO must have the knees of a robot.

frozin

i'm not exactly sure about how many miles my commute is, but it's at least 60 miles roundtrip. i've been doing the whole thing a couple days a week now that it's getting warmer and there is more daylight, and i'm really starting to want an actual road bike instead of my heavy cross bike. i'm hoping to get strong enough to be able to do at least a one way ride on a fixie, or even just a ss. i hate shifting!

the ride has been pretty brutal too.. half is rolling hills, then other half is a mellow bike path, i'm assuming marylandnewbie and i are riding the same trail... (b&a?) however it's super fun getting out there and doing something. plus i always listen to music, so it's a good time to get into that too!

Mars

Brian, Christie, and Frozin: way to go! I love to hear other people's experiences with their very long commutes. It inspires me to keep going on mine. I think in the morning, well if the others are out there, right now, riding then so can I.

Day three: cold, gloomy, and breezy. Riding a little slower today. Are any of you like that - riding slower on crappy days and picking up when it's sunny and nice? I feel like I must be solar powered or something. Forgot my messenger bag and water bottle at home, which sucked. I carry clothing options and tools with me. I had a couple of bananas that I was really looking forward to when I got to work. got thirsty too. (sob)

But made it the whole way, both ways. 44 miles more behind me. I'll be out there again tomorrow. Will you?

Dchiefransom

When it's sunny and nice, it depends on the temps. I find that I don't go as fast when it's hotter. When it's in the upper 60s, I can cruise fairly well. The headwinds are another story.
It was raining here today, and might tomorrow, plus I've got a killer cold. I might not even make the weekend club ride.

JohnBrooking

I just gotta say, you all are very inspirational. You have my admiration.

- John, a member of the short-commute club.

Marylandnewbie

Frozin -- All I can say is "you're a better man than I Gunga Din!" Actually I ride the Capital Crescent trail that loops around the west side of DC from Silver Spring to come into Georgetown. At 11 miles of railroad grade it is child's play compared to your ride. I was finally back in the saddle today to do the whole trip. Monday and Tuesday other commitments prevented bike commuting and yesterday's torrential rains pushed me to the car. I actually missed riding so its nice to be back in the saddle. Today I passed 100 miles on this longer commute, so its a minor milestone.

christie133

I slow down a lot in the cold. When it's hot out (the hotter the better!) I can cut about five minutes off my commute--fewer layers, no old injuries aching from the cold...

Way to go Mars!! I'm really excited for you, and everyone else, too. I had yesterday off, and today and tomorrow, too, so I'm not commuting. I would bike my errands, but they have so far involved things like buying 50 lb bags of mortar and 100's of lbs of slate tiles and a wet saw. All a little hard to tote around in my backpack. The kitchen floor's lookin' good, though.

I'll be back to commuting on Monday, but I'm there in spirit w/ you guys.

frozin

Well I'm lucky to not have to work tuesday through thursday so the rain didn't stop my commute, but tuesday I got out there and tried out a different route in hopes of cutting some mileage off, and I think it will, but there are a couple murderous climbs on that route which I'm not in any shape for right now! Another month and hopefully that will be nothing. I also forgot my water bottle which was definitely a bad move!

I definitely move quicker when it's warm, if it's too cold I tend to take it easy on the downhills and easier on the flats, if I don't it kills my lungs! I'm a pretty small guy so the cold and I don't get along very well at all.

One thing I don't like about my long commute is carrying around my bag, it's not bad when it's cold because my back stays warm, but it's the other way around once the weather is good. I'll probably wind up leaving a change of clothes at work instead of getting a rack and all that jazz, i've never been into that stuff...

Can't wait for tommorow's ride though!

TheDL

This is a great thread. I hope to contribute next week. I'm waiting on headlight I ordered. At the hour I leave there are some zero light regions I go through. My commute is about 34 miles round trip with some good climbs.

DanO220

Well I only made the ride into work once this week because of the rain here in California. But today was awesome. I had to beat a storm to work, and a head wind was kicking my but all the way. It only took me about 10 minutes longer, but it seemed like forever. It's hard to go to the whip and beat those lights when your toes are numb and your hamstrings are cold and stiff. And it's hard to keep with a 30 mile commute when you're only managing to git-'er-done once or twice a week. I hope we get back to our usual drought conditions out here. Here's a couple pic's of my ride. Anyone else?

DanO

christie133

What a great looking ride there, DanO. My ex had a Surly and was pretty durn happy w/ it.

I don't have any pics (don't have a digital camera, heck, I don't even have a cell phone or a microwave), but mine is an Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel, in Omaha Orange, w/ white stars on the fork. I got it recently to replace my old IF that was light blue w/ white stars all over. It was demolished when I got hit on my commute in September. It's worth a lot more than my car, which is part of the reason I prefer to bike to work!

It's not all commutered out, but my ride is only an hour each way, so no big deal. I do think I'll get one of those fenders that clips to the seatpost though, as March and April are pretty wet months in Denver.

Dchiefransom

Which light? You know you just can't tease us like that and walk away!!

TheDL

I dunno if anyone here was following the AA battery light thread this past week, but I opted to try the CatEye HL-1500. A 4+ watt halogen light. I got some rechargable batteries already I can use in it. So we'll see how it goes.

Mars

DanO, that IS an awesome bike! Yours sounds fabulous too, Christie. We really do need to see pics. I am planning on taking some pics of my commute, which I have to admit is very beautiful, once the trees have turned green and the lake has thawed.

Thursday was my strongest day yet. The sun was out and there was no real wind. On the final 8 mile sprint with my riding buddy, I hit and sustained a 27 mph burst. And that was after maybe 16 miles of previous commuting at 18 mph or so. Just felt really good for some reason. On the way home, shaved 15 minutes (!) off my earlier times.

This wraps up week one of my very long commuting. I am not going to work tomorrow, so I hereby declare that I have reached my goal of commuting, 22 miles each way, for the entire week

Next week, I will be out there again. I'll be going to my inlaws for the Easter weekend, so only a light ride on Friday. Best wishes to all you long distance commuters until Monday! Gogogogogogo!!!! You can do it!

DanO220

I will be MIA next week. We're on vacation... going on a road trip to grannies in Oregon. But we bought a bike rack for my wife's car so we can continue riding while we're gone. So I'll be training for when I get back to the very long commute.

DanO

TheDL

Anywhere near Portland? We gots much bike love up here.

DanO220

I'll be in and around Albany. Looks like a lot of rain up there next week.

DanO

Bloodstallion

Thanks for some of your suggestions. I finally put some Specialized Fatboys on my wheels and I have to say that it was an epiphany. Being at the end of my gears never felt so easy. Instead of the droning of my knobbies there was just this silent whirring. I had always felt like I was fighting my bike to go forward but now it feels like it's just flying with barely any input from me. Thanks for turning me on to slicks. I'm looking forward to cutting my commute times by a quarter or more. Now I just need to get in better shape so that the hills don't take so much out of me. Before I got slicks I biked 10 miles to my church with about 30 pounds on my back. I weigh about 205 now and let me tell you, those hills were murder. As I commute long distance I'm looking forward to losing about 30 pounds and getting back in shape. Can't wait till the commute becomes easy.

CommuterKat

I will be joining the ranks today. I don't actually have to work today, but I am riding my commute route today to see how long it will take me after 3 months off for winter. It was taking an hour and ten to an hour and fifteen minutes for a fifteen mile commute with a killer hill in the middle. The temps are up in the 40's today, and I just can't resist!!
Tomorrow begins the real commute into work, can't wait!

TheDL

Looks like rain will be my riding partner as I start my commute tomorrow and for the rest of the week. I was planning to ride all week but some 10-day forecast calls for winds and that can be dangerous along some parts of my route (i.e. bridge). So I may bow out on those days....wish me luck.

CommuterKat

Well, I did my commute route today, and it only took me about 15 minutes longer than last fall. Not too bad after so long out of the saddle. I did manage to get a little sunburn on my way into town though. I am looking forward to not using the car for days on end soon!!