Well I'm glad... I think?

LOL! It's always good to know someone more nuts than you.... Then when you tell people about your cold rides, and they say "you're nuts!" - you can say, "I know this guy nuttier than me!"

the ride home last night was a lot of fun; I got to ride the first 18 miles with my buddy Doug who works up the road, and commutes regularly. He picked up a new bike last week; a carbon flat bar Specialized. While not my cup of tea, it's a nice bike. And while it certainly looks faster than my LHT, it wasn't yesterday....lol.



the ride this morning was crazy warm, so much so that I only wore bibs and a jersey; no vest, and no jacket. Looking forward the sunny and warm ride home this afternoon, and the start to my 3 day weekend. Then, it's off to the races next week as my schedule will allow for more commutes than usual.

I didn't ride in Monday through Thursday, and I didn't feel like riding in today, because it's cold and windy. But I made myself do it, and I'm glad I did. I feel really really weak and slow on the bike. It really felt pretty bad, but the ride is the first step in getting better, so it's good I did it.

This is promising to be a great day. It was about 45 degrees F and dark this morning. The moon was up and pretty but there wasn't really enough of it to illuminate anything. But I'm working in Salem today so hope to catch an earlier bus out of town than usual and get in a longer ride home. It's supposed to go up near 70.
Shorts both ways! If I can't get on the early bus due to a full bike rack I'll have to decide if I'm up for the full 35 mile ride home or wait for the next bus at 5:30. I'll get home about the same time either way.

that is a beautiful picture. is that with phone or camera? i like it. thanks for sharing.

haha i like that logic.... i know a guy .... so funny

looks can be deceiving. I like the surly better! I cant imagine a flat bar carbon bike.

It was with a "Camera Phone".

Phone is all I had with me. Quality isn't great if you try to enlarge it, but good enough for some web sharing.

41f/5c this morning. The aftn was steady light rain. 51f/10c. I wore the Glacier gloves I bought back in January. I've been waiting for the temperatures to warm up to see how they do They do great in 30 degree weather. 50 degree weather is enough to make it a little cool for the hands. My hands stayed comfortable the first 20 mins then started getting warm the last 10 mins. I figure by the time it gets too warm to wear them then it won't matter if the hands get wet. But riding in a freezing rain or a cold rain like I did the other week, then they perform extremely well. The fit is tighter than hell, almost a size smaller, and I did consider returning them. But I decided to keep them. And my hands are starting to fit better in them each time I put them on.

Spring continues its march forward. Birds chriping and runners are out by the dozens. Ran the DC Rock-n-Roll marthon on Saturday so legs are pretty sore (ok...full disclosure--ran 20, hobbled 6.2...was really not prepared for that.)

a tad cooler than i'd like, but i was dressed for it once i started pedaling and generating heat/warmth A nice 4.5 miles and wayyyy more cyclists on the road. headed out earlier than usual and saw garbage trucks and school buses which was kind of nice - reminded me of the normal in this city

Those are the two halves of a marathon: the first 20 and the last 6.2. Congrats on gutting it through.

My wife helped me clean up my older road bide yesterday: Giant OCR circa 2003. It rode nicely this morning.

A pretty cool ride in at about 44F, but getting into the 70s by this afternoon.

Mid-50's for the morning commute, but a fairly strong head-wind. Supposed to be near a record high temp later today (82F), with a very strong tail-wind for the ride home.

around 48 degrees if felt cooler until was able to get warmed up. It felt good to ride. I am hoping that I can get into a routine with riding this week. I have a charity ride planned for Saturday so I hope I dont burn my legs out.

Dropped the tax return off at the post office on the way to work, so I got an extra mile or two. Weather is absolutely perfect. Mid 30s, no wind. It's supposed to get near 60F today. Some flowers are coming up in my garden. It won't be too much longer until Spring!

We also gained a bike commuter at work! I helped push him over the edge, but he was thinking about it already. He only lives 2 miles away and was driving. It's a much tougher sell to the people who live 8-10 miles away, but I'll get them eventually.

The weather is looking pretty nice this week for a change, with the only rain expected on Thursday, but that could change in a hurry. I'm not complaining though, as we're supposed to have sunny skies and and afternoon highs in the 70s today and tomorrow. The pollen is already kicking up and I could see it in my headlight beam this morning, even though the usual main offenders (oak and pine trees) haven't started pollinating yet. April could be rough around here if early pollen counts are any indication of things to come.

Got a late start today, 48F and sunny with a pretty good headwind - I'll take it especially if it's still there for the ride home (which it never is because the bike god's hate me and it'll switch directions)

Fun


Untitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

OUCH! I hope you didn't go OTB. And that's a very nice looking bike!

Back to commuting to the office most of this week and started nice with temps around 50F and clear. Clouds moving in and threat of rain... you think I remember to bring a jacket? Might be a cold wet ride home or incentive to ride harder to keep warm.

Actually it was no problem. Die Cherman Enchineers at SKS gave these fenders a snap-out for the stays and the plastic fender just folds, and so as soon as I got it pulled back out of the caliper and bent straight enough it didn't rub, I was back on my way.

Nice design!

Cool and pleasant morning commute. It's still dark the entire 16 miles into work. Taking the motorcycle home because it's my wife's birthday and she wants to meet for dinner.

Clear dark start this AM, and then in and out of fog patches as the sun came up.

I rode Friday and it felt horrible. This morning, I had more going for me.

I stretched a little. I never stretch. All I did was try to touch my toes and hang for a bit. I can barely do better than touch my knees, but any stretching is good, right?

Mr. "Always check your tires" had underinflated tires! They were under 40 psi, and these are 35mm tires. They are also knobby tires, which I put on for the snow. I had meant to take them off this weekend, but I didn't get around to it. I don't remember where I've been keeping my round tuits. So I pumped these up to 60 or 65.

I didn't have stiff headwinds today.

So all these factors contributed. I felt strong for a change, and I am even carrying more baggage today than I was on Friday.

I took an alternate route today, along the Harlem River, so here is the Harlem River, facing north.



Same path, a little farther north:

Heavy snow yesterday morning, over freezing point yesterday afternoon and evening, very cold last night. So the snow melted and the water froze over night, there was a lot of very tricky spot this morning so I went slow.
The forecast is for another 5-7 cm of snow tonight and tomorow morning so probably no bike for me tomorow.
Last year at the same date I had twice as many bike ride as I have this year so far. It's not a good winter for biking long distances.

43f/6c this morning. The aftn was 66f/18c and still climbing. We might hit 70 by the end of the day. First ride home in shorts. Short lived. We go back to 40's and 50's the rest of the week and probably the rest of the month. So they say.