OK, I made to school in one piece. Will comment later on the ride home. I left at 5:45, with the sun fully up. It was 45 out and beautiful. I think I was a bit overdressed in the core, but I was able to unzip, etc to control the sweat. So, my drive is usually 13.5 miles, but I have a highway I have to get across, that I can't ride my bike on. I knew this would add some miles. There's a couple of alternatives, so I tried #1 this morning, which turned out to be 17.2 miles .After about 5 miles I have a steady climb for about a mile, maybe a bit more (School St. in Acton). This is nothing during a normal ride, but I was feeling my age at 6 AM on this one. I got to the one intersection which had been bothering me, not because of horrible traffic, but it is one where you have to stop on a little uphill and I would be turning left onto a busier road. Anyway, the light was red and there were no cars behind me. I looked across Rt 27 and there was one truck slowly making its way toward me, nothing from the other direction. I admt it, I went through the red light! There is a sensor at this intersection, but bikes are too light to trip it and there's no "bikes stop on the line for green" sign... it was about 6:30 or so and I knew I would be waiting awhile at the uphill, so I went. I've seen other cyclists do this here. The only other option is to get off, push the signal and walk across, which wastes time. Once I got here, I was on familiar riding roads, but I was really tired. Anyway, I made it in 1 hour, 11 minutes, which is about what I expected. Not as fast as when I am just riding, but I'm OK with that!

SheFly, I would never ride my bike on the rotary! What I meant was if I ride down Barrett's Mill to the rotary, I can go right, right onto 2A, without really being on there for more than 10 seconds (by the prison farm). At 5:45 AM there are no cars. It would be much quicker for me than riding up Strawberry Hill Rd. at that time of the morning for me. I need to warm up a lot more each year and if I was going up that hill, it would really add time and be painful, since it would be after a mile downhill of going down my street. Then I would make a left across 2A to Concord Rd. and then a left into some neighborhood that gets me to Piper Rd. to cross Rt. 2. I think that is shorter, and I will test it in the car tomorrow.
There's a lot more traffic going home, so I am not sure how I will go, but it might be even more miles. I feel good now, but man, I was sweating when I got here!

Robyn