FotoTomas

These stories make my little 8 mile round trip seem simply benign. To think I get paid to ride when at work is the top of the heap however. Of course the Florida weather right now is the best it will be for the entire year. Cool and mild with wonderful rides on the bike.

I looked at the LBS at a street bike on Wed. for the commute. Seems the faster bike with the skinny slicks might be in my future and the Mountain Bike for work. Life is good.

rainedon

In my 3+ years of commuting, I've never managed the five day commute. Mostly due to work/social commitments, but sometimes it is fitness related. I'd say that I average 3.5 days per week.

It is Thursday now and I've got all 4 days this week so far. I don't have any reason not to ride tomorrow, so if everything goes right I'll have conquered the 5 day commute that has so far eluded me. If it works out, I'll have 160 miles commuting this week.

I'll let you know what happens. I hope that I haven't jinxed myself.

Nate

Mars

Yeah Nate! Spin those pedals for one more day!

TheDL

Go for it Nate, break the streak.

Mars

Only one more day to go for the week. Today, there was a strong headwind on the way home. My thighs are still sore form the workout of 20 miles into 15 mph gusting to 25. Whew.

Rain forecast for tomorrow. Sucky, but I will be riding. I'm getting stronger and have noticed that I can hold a higher heart rate for longer periods of time.

dave ford

Hi I'm new to the forum, I have often viewed it and found it a source of information and inspiration. Three weeks ago I started commuting again. It's 17 miles each way. The daily ritual of lining up your kit on the bedroom floor for the next days commute, eating properly, sleeping more and drinking less has really made me feel invigorated and energised. Sleeping at night has been easy, and when you slide into the bed at the end of the day you have that lovely physically knackered feeling.
I find myself gearing my whole day around my rides (much to the annoyance of my collegues), they really don't know what they're missing, but I guess they just think I'm crazy!!
Most of you guys seem to live in the US, so when I leave in the morning it is probably 2am for you guys - if you are still up (and you probably shouldn't be), send some positive thoughts to keep those cagers from bitin' at my heels.

Regards to all.

AndrewP

I took my17 mile commute for the first time of the year because they open the Jacques Cartier bridge to bikes and peds on 1 Apr. My wife got herself a new digital camera and gave me her old one. The weather was rather depressing so the pictures show some camera shake.
1 Outside my home - there is a commuter train crossing at the bottom of the street - 10 mins to downtown.
2 St Jacques, a nice cycling road with wide lanes and no cross streets.
3 The road I take when I drive the car to work
4 The St Henri fire station
5 Atwater Market
6 Lachine canal - the bike path goes down the RH side
7 Locks and the Redpath Sugar refinery - now condos
8 Ice and water where the path goes under roads
11 Where I landed when I came to Canada 38 yrs ago
12 Jacques Cartier bridge with St Helen's island on the right and Molson brewery on the left.

rainedon

5 of 5 days commuting this week. First time ever.

AndrewP

For the second half of my journey:
2 St Helen's Island - the dome was the American pavilion in Expo 67
3 Jacques Cartier br from the point where it crosses the St Lawrence seaway - the views were a lot better before they erected the antisuicide barriers
4 The St Lawrence seaway - in the distance are the St Lambert locks where you can cross at river level in the summer but bike access wont be opened for another month or so
5 the blocks are long and narrow going away from the river, following the original farm layout which gave each settler a piece of riverbank.
6 Chemin Chambly - another good cycling road with wide lanes. most of the traffic goes in the opposite direction. I take this road for about 3 km. In the summer there is a bike path I take but it is clay and crushed rock surface so I will wait a month for some maintenance to make it usable.
7 St Hubert airport with Mont St Bruno and Mont St Hilaire in the background
8 Parking at work with shelter from the rain, there are also security cameras around the building.

TheDL

Right on man! I think that deserves a few beers this weekend.

rainedon

I almost screwed up my streak with some premature celebratory beers last night. The Delta Cafe served me a 40oz Pabst Blue Ribbon in a champagne bucket along with my chicken fried steak and collard greens.

5:00am came early this morning, but I made it.

christie133

Woo hoo! Excellent! Can I celebrate for you?

My week of commuting was up and down. Some great, lots and lots of wind, some snow, etc. I'm about to leave work though, and it's a gorgeous sunny day, I think about 65 degrees.

One more week down. Mars, everyone else, are you going for week three?

TheDL

Yeah, I'm up for next week.

Mars

Ladies and gentlemen, 220 commuting miles this week. Average speed 17.6. Average heart rate 138. All 5 days, two of which were raining. I totally want the big Pabst in the champagne bucket. Top speed: 31mph. Top sustained speed: 27mph. I feel great, my cold is history.

Congrats to the rest of you for your commuting accomplishments this week. Rainedon, that is so great that you went all 5 days! Are you going to try it again next week? Andrew P, those are great pics, man! Any others got pics of their long commutes? I would like to see the bikes you ride too.

Christie, I am absolutely committed to the long commute for week 3. I will be starting the new thread on sunday. How was your commuting this week?

OhiOH

They haven’t torn it down?



Thanks for the photos. I wasn’t aware of the mountains outside Montreal. Glad the ice is gone away here!

Mars

Go get them Dave! I too am sleeping much more deeply now that I am rinding more miles. And you are right, it feels good to slide between nice clean sheets with that heavy, muscle tired feeling.

I see that you ride 17 miles each way. great commute. I bet many here would be interested in some pics. Got any?

Hey, don't you guys use kilometers over there?

JohnBrooking

Great job, everyone!! This short commuter salutes you.

AndrewP

OhiOH - the plastic panels on the US pavilion burn down over 30 years ago, and only the framework survives. An ecology exhibit has since been built inside the framework. Those arent really montains but there are about 5 lumps of granite ranging in height from 400' to nearly 1000' sticking up from the St Lawrence flood plain - Montreal is one of them. I wont ride to work again until the weather gets a bit warmer, and then I wont ride for 2 days in succession.

nesdog

Starting this week, I'll be riding to work (14 miles each way with some hills) at least once a week and hoping for two or three. The other days I take our daughter to school when my wife is at work so that's out. I'm also training for my first Century in May so I can use the mileage.

I'm lucky enough to work at a high school. I leave clothes the night before, have a shower available and the training room has a small washer and dryer so I can have the same gear for the ride home.

I did this ride last year until the days got too short. Now I'm ready to re-join the club. (and save some $$ on gas, which in Socal is already hitting $2.50 in spots. Gonna be $3.00 for sure this summer.

Sheldon
OCR2

Mars

Cool nesdog! and an added bonus, maybe some of your students will be inspired to try it themselves. Hmmm, maybe they wouldn't initate a teacher... well, maybe some of the other teachers and staff will be inspired!

nesdog

Well, not really a teacher. I'm the computer network admin for our campus which makes me mostly invisible! There are no bike racks or riding allowed on the grounds itself. Thankfully, I've got an office to keep my ride in.

Some of the other staff ride on weekends or compete in Iron Man races but I'm the only one commuting at all as far as I know. The kids? ha! Most of them have better cars than we do!

Sheldon

Mars

Haha! We had a department picnic this year and my car was by far the crappiest. What ever happened to the concept of starving grad students? How come it has been replaced by starving faculty?

Machka 

"Very long commuter club" .... so how long a distance does one have to commute to be part of this club?

My commute is 70 kms (43 miles) round trip.

TheDL

I don't think anyone has ever mentioned a minimum round trip distance so that one would "qualify" to be a member. So far I get the feeling from those participating here that 20 miles round trip seems to be threshold to breech to be considered "Very Long Commute". Again, that's just the feeling I get from these discussions.

Welcome aboard Machka. Please standy by to receive the top secret handshake and decoder ring.

Dchiefransom

Be careful talking distance with Machka. Her weekend rec rides tend to have three figure distances for a total,........ 200,300 400 kilometres...........................
Way to go, Machka. I've only managed three times so far this year.