How Was Your Commute Today?

We're having beautiful riding weather this week, so after missing quite a few days in early November I'm back in the swing of bike commuting. Temps in the high 20s in the morning, low 50s coming home. I only worked a half day, took my panniers along and did my Thanksgiving grocery shopping on the way home. I only need to make a couple things to take to dinner at a friend's house tomorrow, so it's not like I pedaled home with a turkey and all the fixings. But I was still pleased that I didn't really even consider driving because of the shopping I needed to do. In past years, I probably would have opted for the car.

I'm getting better at figuring out layers and such, and barring snowstorms, I plan to keep riding til Christmas. After that, it'll depend on what kind of winter we have. January can be really cold, like -10 F in the morning, Last year that never happened and a couple of my co-workers rode all winter, inspiring me to try to do the same this year.

I made the decision that I wasn't commuting in the dark this year, so I'm missing it. It's been a month already. I still have plenty of time to ride, but I miss the gas savings, and the way I feel after riding to work. Luckily, it's only one more month until the days start getting longer, so it won't be that long until I come back to this thread.

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Originally Posted by redrhodie

I made the decision that I wasn't commuting in the dark this year, so I'm missing it. It's been a month already. I still have plenty of time to ride, but I miss the gas savings, and the way I feel after riding to work. Luckily, it's only one more month until the days start getting longer, so it won't be that long until I come back to this thread.

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21 degrees this morning but the layers worked fine. Yesterday at 32 I realized dropping off the car at Enterprise that I'd forgotten gloves... but yes, my tolerance has gotten to where after three miles fo alternating tucking hands under clothes, I didn't need to. I really liked the dry briskness this a.m. (and not havign to drive a car thing, much less watch a bike crash into a car as happened yesterday...)

Wet! I had an appointment downtown. It was raining but I injured myself running and can't walk without pain for the moment. My choices were to drive, park in the parking deck, and walk 10 minutes to my appointment, or ride my bike and park in front. I opted for riding. Rain won't melt me.

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Originally Posted by tulip

Wet! I had an appointment downtown. It was raining but I injured myself running and can't walk without pain for the moment. My choices were to drive, park in the parking deck, and walk 10 minutes to my appointment, or ride my bike and park in front. I opted for riding. Rain won't melt me.

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So biking was the least obnoxious... here's hoping walking and running get less painful for you soon!!

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Originally Posted by Geonz

So biking was the least obnoxious... here's hoping walking and running get less painful for you soon!!

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The bike ride was not bad, even with the rain. The walking will get better. I suspect the running will not matter, as my desire to run has diminished considerably after this incident. I just don't see the point; it's too easy to get injured running, it's a slow way to travel, and runners rarely smile. I'm sticking with my bike!

Got a late start this morning so I didn't need my headlight. Unfortunately I didn't think ahead to the ride home when I decided to leave the light behind. My afternoon meeting ran long so I ended up sprinting (well, my version of sprinting, which isn't all that fast) home in the last 20 minutes or so of light. Not quite the relaxing ride I had in mind but fun in its own way. Still having mild, dry weather - I keep thinking it can't last much longer, and then it does.

Finally back commuting after having to stay off the bike, nursing bruised ribs for about 4 weeks. Still a bit sore on the left side, can't sleep on the left side, but due to nerve issues from old car accident sleeping on that side was never anything I could do for long anyway. Now that it's really dark in the morning, and my ride home is dusk, I am glad I went nuts 'over lighting-up' myself. Bought yet another tail light, something new from Serfas, the 'Thunderbolt'. USB rechargable, high/low, and high/low blink, with a rubberized outer surface and rubber straps so it's on and off in seconds. Quite bright, and the rubber straps are replaceable, unlike their more basic one where it's toast once the straps break. Gonna get another this weekend, it's perfect for the road bike and weighs next to nothing.

Perfect weather today. Not too cold in the morning, my thick shell jacket and short sleeve shirt, regular full finger gloves and jeans were just fine. Must have been close to 60f.

As my workplace shuts down the whole X-Mas week through New Years Day I don't worry about commuting when I envision the number of drunks on the road is highest, but I still feel concern about the week before, as X-Mas eve is on a Monday. I guess office parties will be the previous week so I may not commute that week. Anybody else feeling concern with 'Christmas cheer'?.

Congrats at getting to be back on the bike.

Crazy weather! I'm a little relieved that it's cooler again. Having a 70F day in December around here just doesn't seem right.

I believe that statistically the holiday drunks are as much a threat to you in the your car as on your bike, unless I'm remembering that wrong, I don't have a study or statistics handy though. My attitude is, if it's safe enough to drive, it's safe enough to bike. That has been the case with snow & ice, rain & wind. I think we tend to be stupid about the conditions we are willing to drive in, when a better risk-benefit assessment would keep us at home entirely in those conditions instead of choosing to drive over biking as the "safer" option.

Man, I think the holiday cheer has started already. Not 2 miles into the commute home today, I almost get doored by an idiot who opened the driver door without bothering to even look. Luckily I have a rear view mirror that I had just glanced in, and I knew the right lane was empty so I was able to zig out of the way, yelling "DOOR ME!". Yea, I know, not too inventive, but it just popped out of my mouth without thinking. My next word was "idiot" muttered under my breath. I had a Stella 150 blinking away on my helmet and a Mininewt 600 on the bar- she should have seen me IF she looked before opening the door...

One mile further, I am riding in the farthest right lane of a busy 2 lane each way, with a third, far right lane that is usually filled with parked cars but sometimes is open to traffic in spots, no cars parked and I am in the middle of the lane. Approaching the light, a car zips past me on the left, cuts across in front of me and makes a right and I jammed the brakes, she was close- I could see into the passenger side and she was looking at me- What the hey! Why is shaving 30 seconds from your drive so much more important than my life? I am not riding in the gutter, filled with glass and crap as drivers would only be encouraged to drive too close and share a lane that really does not have enough room for both. I was in front, she should have queued up behind me and made the right from the right lane and not from the middle lane which is illegal.

Normally my rides are quite quiet, but not today.

Mine was wet! Luckily, pavement wasn't more than a mile out of the way. It was tough pedaling down that road and keeping the balance but I made it. The weather was wet and foggy, but no rain... and pretty nippy! Had no problems with drivers or pedestrians, but I arrived in town and at home soaking wet. I took this picture on the way out as I was walking out of the driveway.

http://i49.tinypic.com/28l6yhk.jpg

(If you're wondering about what's duct-taped to my handlebars, it's a water-proofed zippered pencil case that I use to carry my phone, chapstick and keys.)

Today was lonely...... I saw exactly one other bike (pulling a trailer with a dog standing in it :)).

I know that's probably the status quo for some of you, but I think it's the first time it's ever happened to me here-- eleven miles of commute, 7 or so on a heavily-commuted MUP, and the last mile around a university. And it wasn't even raining (wet from overnight rain, and foggy, but no active precip and 47 degrees-- I'll take that in mid-Dec).

I am so happy it snowed. My commute is infinitely better now. I have nice new tires on my commuter, retrofitted fenders to fit said tires, and all my cold weather gear. Yesterday morning it was 0F and today was 7F. I might not be as chipper if my commute was more than a couple miles but for the time being it's great. My s.o. is out of town with our only car so I have to ride my bike to get to work on time and I'm actually kind of glad I can't just decide I don't feel like riding today.

It was lovely to have a warmer ride today but-- I can't seem to get the clothing right. Two days ago I forgot my long johns & wool socks and I about froze. Today I remembered everything and I sweated!

The nice thing about the sun & warmer temp today was that the frozen slush melted a little. It was actually a little harder to go through than after it had frozen solid, but there was more dry pavement. I'm a little sad to see the nasty roads turn nice because it means I'll be cranking around with these pointless (ha ha) studded tires, but the re-frozen slush was so difficult to bike over, even with the studded tires, that I'm not very sad.

I had to come back this evening to finish an experiment and I drove. I was not interested in tackling the re-re-frozen slush albeit somewhat less of it in the dark, with or without studded tires.

Yesterday was one of the few days that I said "I wish I'd driven".

A couple weeks ago I shoveled snow and although I tried to be careful not to lift much at one time, nevertheless the next few days I had some soreness. (Maybe also because my daughter has been teaching me butterfly and I was doing worm drills for 30 min right after that.) It wasn't too bad and it was getting better until last week I had a couple long days in the lab of standing for hours with no breaks. The lower back injury blossomed and it hurt to move. Stairs and standing in the pedals were challenging. So was getting my leg over the top tube of my bike. It was worse on the right so I switched legs.

Have you ever tried to mount your bike from the opposite side you are used to? Or to start and stop with the other foot than you usually do? It was awkward but I didn't wreck.

But.

The shifter on my bike had been acting up and it broke completely. My bike was effectively a single speed locked into a high gear. My mechanic who makes house calls tried to lock it into a lower gear but could only get it down a couple notches.

For a few days my back got worse every day instead of better. I used my daughter's bike (she sure isn't riding it in the winter) which has a slightly lower top tube and--more importantly--gears. Over the weekend it wasn't necessary to bike which was good because my back was still getting worse.

To make it all just a little worse, I bit my tongue badly. So hard that it bled. OW. That was the second time that day pain had brought tears to my eyes--the first time, I was walking downstairs (going DOWN was fine) and slipped. I didn't fall but I screamed because it hurt my back so much.

Yesterday's morning bike ride was excruciating and that was when I said "I wish I had driven". I was feeling better, but I still couldn't get my leg over the top tube without using my arms, and it was tricky to balance the bike. I didn't look at the temp before I left and realized halfway here that it was very cold. Turns out it was about 5F!

However yesterday was the first day it was better than the day before. By afternoon I was able to roll over. I could bend down and pick something up off the floor. (I never noticed how often I drop stuff until I couldn't pick it up. Especially while cooking!) My mechanic had gone to St. Louis this weekend and bought new brake pads and a new shifter. He picked up my bike last night, fixed it, and dropped it off this morning.

My bike is better. My back is better. Life is looking good! SO glad all these trials were only for a few days-- nothing like what people with chronic pain have to put up with. I told my dad "If this is what it feels like to be old, I feel so sorry for you." :P

Because it was the weekend I didn't try to get in to see anyone, but first thing Monday I got on the OMM (the osteopathic manipulation clinic) call list. To my surprise there was a cancellation and I can get in tomorrow. Since my back is so much better I have mixed feelings about going. But maybe it'll do some good, either for this or for unknown issues going on in my back, and it won't do any harm, I guess.