How Was Your Commute Today?

[radacrider]

Not really a report on my commute today. I actually have not been on the bike much at all this year (not sure why), but maybe like 5 times (includes a few of our Portland Sunday Parkways rides).

Anyway, a local organization puts on a Bike Commute Challenge for the month of September. About mid-month, the team captain for our work asked if I could do just one ride to help with their percentages. I should note, my commute would be 30 miles round trip and about 600' elevation gain each way.

Have to say, it was challenging, but I actually did 3 commutes for 90 miles in a 7 day stretch. It was great, though, and was just the extra push to get me on the bike. Poor legs, were pretty tired, but emotionally I was feeling pretty good. Had the timing down to 1hr 15min each way.

I wrote this summary to our team captain:
So as I drove in to work this morning, and a bit before, I reflected on my bike commuting contribution. 15 miles each way, 30 miles per day roundtrip.

* Hard? Yes. But I expected it to be hard since I have, basically, not done any riding, except for a few Sunday Parkways and a couple of under 10 mile roundtrip errands.

* Hate? Yes, still don’t like the Barbur/Tigard hill, but, slow and steady and I did get up and over it 6 times. 3500+ ft of elevation gain for my 3 day total.

* Time? I realized that I do not have a sense of time or how long it is taking that I do when I am driving. When driving, my speed and progress are totally at the mercy of everyone else on the road. When I am biking, save for lights and things, I am only at the mercy of my own conditioning. I do not feel controlled in a stop and go environment.

* Ego? Yes, boosted. Again, given my training foundation, I done okay.

[Melalvai]

What a great story! I hope you have many more commutes. That is a good distance, I can see why you might not do it daily but 3 times in one week is great.

[radacrider]

Thanks, Melalvai. I am thinking of trying to do maybe 1 per week. The good news is that in December, our corporate office is moving to downtown Portland, so my commute will be 6 miles 1 way. I am planning to primarily bike.

[tangentgirl]

Got up, jumped out of bed with determination to ride to work today! Put on my bike clothes, got me some coffee & breakfast, went to my bike and - flat tire! No problem! Fixed the flat, opened the garage, started to ride out and found some strange substance seemingly coming from the sky? Wha? Is that rain? Surely just a little mist, I said, headed down the block, got around the corner and realized, nope, my glasses are covered with raindrops and I can't see without a windshield wiper. Came home, got dressed, jumped in the car, drove in. Boo. Rain through Wednesday.

[kiwi girl]

I came off my bike on the way home tonight.

Got my wheel caught in the tram tracks and just tipped over. I have a hole in my riding tights and a bit of a bruise but no real harm done. Except I came off directly across the road from my 'local'. If anybody saw me my pride will be the thing most hurt when I next go in for a drink on Friday night.

I generally avoid the square on the bike because of the tram tracks and because of the number of buses - particularly in the evening commute - but my regular route home is still cordoned off because of the severe damage to this building in the earthquake - just my luck to be affected by one of the very few road closures still in place

[e.e.cummings]

I have not posted in a while, I have just been doing my commute quietly every day. Then I received a birthday email from Team Estrogen and felt all warm and fuzzy! Thanks, TE!

My commute last week was the soggiest week so far - it rained EVERY day, sometimes it came down in sheets. It felt like the tail end of a hurricane. All the rain gear was out, the full nine yards - a person from work joked that even riding home, I was probably going to be drier than they would be walking to the metro with their umbrella. I don't mind rain that much when it is warmer. I even wore my sandals, it was mild enough for that. The nice thing is that the bike path is virtually abandoned when the weather is like that. The bad thing is that the rain and wind brings down more sticks and leaves on the path, it can get slippery.

The skies opened up this week, but I could feel the seasons click - have put away the sandals and shorts and am wearing shoes and longer pants. Must enjoy what is good about this season - cooler weather for riding and beautiful fall colours.

[Duck on Wheels]

Am camping in my sister(Trek420)'s spare room while on sabbatical in CA. Just a few more days of this visit, then back to Norway for 2 weeks. Today we biked to BART. I borrowed SIL's lovely rescued Giant (aka Cedar), now safely parked at BART's free valet parking. About to head home early today. Trek gets off early and will show me the reverse route home from BART (didn't have time this morning to stop and memorize how things would look on the way back). Next visit I'll have my own old Trek (aka Big Red) down from Sonoma, so should be doing lots of bike commuting this coming year.