Fall/Winter 2010/2011 Commuter Challenge!

[Tri Girl]

4/5 this week for me. Could have been 5 of 5 but I thought our Wed. meeting was going to be later than it was. I don't mind the dark riding to work (drivers are friendly), but dark on the way home scares me (drivers are more impatient).
Next week we're supposed to have snow and rain- I'll see how many I get in.

[pfunk12]

4 for 4 this week. After being off several days during the holidays and several early departures from work prior to the holidays, I was surprised to see how much daylight we have gained in the evenings.
And TriGirl, I completely agree with you. Drivers in the morning seem to be more patient and there aren't as many but in the evening, they are definitely more impatient and also, the roads are packed.

[out_spokin']

2 for 2 this week, I'm at a happily surprising 80% for the winter so far. A mild start weather-wise helped, but this week was definitely winter - I had to take some detours yesterday with still-icy streets and an icy & rutted MUT.

I too noticed a bit lighter sky - a nice crescent moon in a midnight blue sky over the black silhouette of the mountains was yesterday evening's reward.

Yay for a renewal for wool socks!! But I gotta say, one of the things I love about my wool is that I have no qualms pulling them out of the hamper and reusing them if the laundry is delayed.

And yeah, evening drivers are worse. I've happily noticed though that since installing new batteries in my SpokeLits I'm getting their attention (and thus they're not rolling through stop signs and such in my path) more easily again. Yay!

[radacrider]

5 for 5 this week, with the added bonus that my 14 year old son is enjoying the biking escort to school, 3 days/week. He was thrilled as he can now ride hands free (with a little coaching ).

I must say, it is fun to have company for part of my ride. Home to school is about 30 minutes, then I continue to work for another 15.

I've got a few coworkers to continue logging their commutes into last year's BTA Bike Commute Challenge trip log (no contest, but you can record your commute days). Been fun to see the numbers and all.

5 Commutes, 100% commute rate, 65 miles (for January 2011).

[blackhillsbiker]

Only 2.5 this week. Monday was a half because I almost didn't get to work with all the snowdrifts. I decided not to face them in the dark on my way home. Yesterday I felt awful. Today the wind was crazy! It was blowing at 30mph this morning, with gusts up to 45. I'm bummed. The weather is warmer, the streets and paths are dry, and I wanted to ride the Felt instead of my Dew. Sigh.

Deb

[7rider]

4 for 5 for me this week.
I don't think I do that many commutes during the summer.
I think this will slow down, however, if/when I sign up to do Pikes Peek - a 10K run on April 17th. I'll have to start up with the training again - running more than once a week.

[Melalvai]

5 for 5. I guess that means I'm back on my bike!

I still like spin class but I felt really silly biking to spin class. But not as silly as if I drove!

I probably overtrained if anything this week. I got back to the gym and talked to someone about how I keep injuring my shoulder. She said to put the rowing machine on the lowest setting (25 pds) for several weeks. For the purpose of meeting someone who is active in bike/ped stuff, I met up with a running group in addition to spin class. Everyone in the running group was a very fit male except me. But the person I was there to meet ran slower with me, by "slower" I mean I could keep up and occasionally gasp out a reply. After the run I wrote down everything I could remember that he told me, including two more names to add to the list.

[Rebecca19804]

I feel I'm joining the party a little late... but better late than never, eh?

Christmas Day was my first day back on the bike since my knee surgery in October. Over the holidays, I pootled around a few miles every 2-3 days. Last Tuesday was my first day back to work and yes, I cycled in! (It's 9.65 miles each way.) Then I did something stupid at work and injured my knee a bit, so wasn't able to cycle home til Wednesday evening and I 'cheated' and took the train part way.

So this morning I saw my physiotherapist for the first time since 20th December. She is very pleased with how I'm doing. She's ratcheted up several of my exercises, just enough to make me realise how easy they had become! And we have agreed my cycling goal for the rest of the month is to cycle into work Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with train assist home each evening. That'll give me about 15 miles a day, 3 days a week, with Tuesdays and Thursdays as 'rest' days.

So this is my Fall/Winter 2010/2011 Commuter Challenge, officially started. FINALLY!

[Tri Girl]

So this is my Fall/Winter 2010/2011 Commuter Challenge, officially started. FINALLY!

YAY!!!! Better late than never.
Glad to hear you're back at it- I'm sure you missed it like crazy!

[Geonz]

Oh, I'm chiming in late, too -- but I decided 2011 would have less Facebook and more Other Stuff. Today I took the bus; 3-4 inches of teh white stuff. I've got studded tyres on the Gazelle, but cars slide too and now that I've figured otu the bus I'd rather do that than pick my way along saying to myself sternly "Pedal! Pedal! The snow will not reach up and grab your bike and hurl it to the ground! Pedal!" It's good for my character, since it's one of the few things in life that make me anxious and I deal with anxious people all the time, but... I like missing it
The driver was neat this a.m., helping people get to the destinations what with the snow tangling up schedules a bit. We've also got a reasonably good online thing that gives estimated arrival times based on GPS as opposed to the schedule.

[girlsubobscura]

5 for 5 two weeks running.

[Tri Girl]

0 for 5 this week.
I was sick two days, but had to go into work anyway, and the other three days included ice and below zero temps. I'm semi-hard core, but not THAT hard-core.

Great job to everyone who got out there this week!

[pfunk12]

3 for 3 this week with a very interesting commute home last night. Because of the little bit of snow we got on Tuesday, I knew the bike path would be covered with snow and ice but I decided to try it and take a chance. I saw on the trail website that the DC side was clear because they plow it. But once I got to the Maryland border...wow. Needless to say, it was interesting riding the Madone (with skinny tires) on ice and snow but I was surprised at how well it handled it. I was thrilled when I got to the one short section that Maryland did plow and after that, I was back on the roads.

[radacrider]

Continuing at 100% bike commuting - I've seen rain, cloudy and warm, windy and cold, drizzle, showers everything but snow/ice.

[blackhillsbiker]

4 for 5. We had an Epiphany Dinner to go to tonight right after work. I wasn't sure I'd have time to get home, cleaned up and dressed up before we had to be there. Pity, since it was a nice day and we have snow in the forecast for the next few days.

Deb