Tales from today's commute....

[wafter]

I'm lucky in that on Fridays I only do half day.

Sounds ideal for a nice afternoon run back in the summer

My commute is down big time. I used to have a minimum of 11 miles to the old office and it was delightful to extend it. We moved office though and the new office is less than a mile from it. I also moved close to a group ride start. I did get of early for a while but its not an exciting commute so most days (which is only twice a week at most) is just the minimum 4 miles to the station and the 0.8miles the other side, and I get back for the group ride in the summer or turbore training in the winter.

Crikey, you are keen aren't you?


A fantastic ride in this morning. Managed to get to sleep at a reasonable time last night as I was utterly exhausted and my sleep pattern is that ruined that the clocks changing doesn't appear to have had as much of a destabilising effect as it usually does.

Out a shade late, chilly but clear and bright. Well-fortified in LS ¼ zipped base layer, same format fleece, thickish gloves, lightweight walking trousers and merino socks. Cycling cap / sunglasses and beard doing a great job of keeping the significant windchill off my face pushing out into a reasonable headwind.

Traffic wasn’t great but very much better than usual thanks to the absence of the usual selfish school run dickheads. Today the knobhead crown goes to my fellow cyclists after a few totally inconsequential but irritating run-ins.

It felt amazing to be out in such lovely conditions; the ride rewarded further with some fantastic sausages once back at the office 😊

Viewing the ride back with trepidation however since it’ll all be an hour colder and darker..

 

[spen666]

Muchvlighter this morning adter the clocks changed, very sunny, crisp though. Strong Westerly wind

However the big takeaway is that its school half term and therefore the traffic was so much lighter everywhere.
20 miles before work and feeling good

 

[ianrauk]

Unlike rubaixtuesday I don't tough it out in shorts. Been there done that. My knees now thank me for wearing leg warmers on the commute if the temperatures are below 10°.
It's a lovely morning for it, though we still have the remnants of the storm that passed through so still a bit windy.
It was nice leaving home in the daylight, but won't be long until it's dark again .
So for this early evenings commute, first time in the dark for this season.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Rewarded for my first properly dark commute of the winter with a bat escort and an owl serenade.

 

[HLaB]

First commute after a week and a half working from home in an attempt to not spread a bug. It felt mild this morning compared to the weekend, it was daylight and I had missed the rain so it was quite a pleasant ride in.

 

[fossyant]

Rain had stopped before I set off. First commute in three weeks due to injury and holiday. Mucky out there, big change on the various paths with the leaf fall.

 

[biking_fox]

Rain had stopped before I set off. First commute in three weeks due to injury and holiday. Mucky out there, big change on the various paths with the leaf fall.

Yes distinctly LeafMush season has arrived. My bike was clean on Monday morning.

 

[fossyant]

Yes distinctly LeafMush season has arrived. My bike was clean on Monday morning.

My bike was clean this morning. First dark commute home coming up.

 

[ianrauk]

Weird old weather this morning. 13° and raining when I left home at 7am for the station. Got fairly wet, luckily it's only 3/4's of a mile. On the train, off at Bromley to dry weather and 2° colder. Wind has dropped too which is a bonus.
Did the A21 blast and it was one of those very rare occasions where all the junction lights were green for go. Not stopping and waiting for them to change makes a great difference to the average speed.

Anyhoo
Rainy commute # 25 for the year
30 Rainy commute for the same period last year. And funnily enough, last years morning commute on this day was also a rainy one.

 

[fossyant]

Rinse and repeat. Rain stopped sometime before I set off (was rattling the windows at 5am). Cleaned bike last night for it only to be mucky again. Chain cassette and jockey wheels need a good wipe tonight. Full of crap (leaf mulch).

 

[Chappy]

Had a lovely 30 miles to work this morning. No wind and the expected rain never appeared, I even had a faster overall MPH so was toasty warm when I arrived. It will be sods law however that going home will be the polar opposite.

 

[wafter]

Went to the pub last night and rode back at maybe half eight / nine - really bloody cold in fleece / gloves / beanie having sat outside for an hour or two slowly getting colder... still pushed into town and out again for about 13 miles total for the day but that's only about half what I'd do typically in the summer.

This morning was an interesting one. Got out on time but jaded by a fresh round of life's knees-to-the-knackers; beginning the day with some weights and the Manics' debut Generation Terrorists for breakfast. A tailwind assisted a particularly rapid ride into town which saw most of my time on the drops / tucked on the hoods with no quarter given; thankfully the traffic coming out was minimal so I had that carriageway largely to myself to bypass the car park heading in.

Sausages acquired I'd made great time so pushed the ride out a bit further for about nine miles total; again pretty quick as corroborated by a mean HR of just under 70% and peaks pushing occasionally into and through the '80s. This is highly unusual for me - possibly aided by yesterday's shamefully high intake of questionable carbs and lesser distance covered.

While it's inevitable that my diet will worsen and mileage shorten as the winter draws in, perhaps there's hope yet for maintaining some fitness if I can get the speed up, while anything high-intensity has been conspicuously lacking in my current cycling itinerary.

I'd like to think I can do a bit more tonight however the cold, rain and dark are hardly conducive to racking up the miles. Probably ought to go to the shops, but tbh all I want to do currently is curl up somewhere warm, dark, quiet and well-removed from the world.

 

[wafter]

Took the long way home as it was mild, dry and I want to try and keep the mileage up.

An unprecedented amount of dickheads were encountered; the crown going to some vile, vacuous old woman who literally drove into me as I was attempting to cross the slip road onto the A34.

I stood at the crossing with none of the stop-start traffic pausing to let me across / leave the crossing clear. Woman crawls across it and stops blocking it. I cross in front, pause to assess what's going on in the other lane to be crossed and feel something pushing against my leg. I see it's her bumper. I look straight at her and she keeps crawling. I have to pick the bike up and move it out of the way to stop her pushing me and it over as I had nowhere to go; trapped between it and her. I scream at her to pay some f*cking attention - she just stares blankly through me as if I couldn't matter any less.

Had my movements not been hampered by the bike her car would have got an exterior remodel.. as it stood all I could do was cross and get on with my journey. Lesson learned - head torch on all the time from now on and anyone who does similar will cop it straight to the face to leave them in no doubt as to my presence.

 

[katiewlx]

council & utilities have picked this half term week to blitz all the roadworks in the area, consequently the roads Im riding still feel just as busy as normal as everyone rat runs again. mostly uneventful dry ride in, was hoping the rain forecasts werent as accurate as they looked, and they werent, they were worse.

first proper night ride home of the autumn series, not ideal with the rain, or the slightly gusty conditions, in the dark, and with the extra traffic on the route. I mean I have two lights front, two lights back, in fluo green jacket I feel Im visible, but still had the feel of one of those people arent paying enough attention situations as plenty were getting way too close for comfort, I know I shift slightly more right to keep out of the depressions in the road where the water pools, but still, and there was some really really sub standard driving, stuff even in daylight in the dry would be stupidly dangerous.

 

[blackrat]

Took the long way home as it was mild, dry and I want to try and keep the mileage up.

An unprecedented amount of dickheads were encountered; the crown going to some vile, vacuous old woman who literally drove into me as I was attempting to cross the slip road onto the A34.

I stood at the crossing with none of the stop-start traffic pausing to let me across / leave the crossing clear. Woman crawls across it and stops blocking it. I cross in front, pause to assess what's going on in the other lane to be crossed and feel something pushing against my leg. I see it's her bumper. I look straight at her and she keeps crawling. I have to pick the bike up and move it out of the way to stop her pushing me and it over as I had nowhere to go; trapped between it and her. I scream at her to pay some f*cking attention - she just stares blankly through me as if I couldn't matter any less.

Had my movements not been hampered by the bike her car would have got an exterior remodel.. as it stood all I could do was cross and get on with my journey. Lesson learned - head torch on all the time from now on and anyone who does similar will cop it straight to the face to leave them in no doubt as to my presence.

"..and anyone who does similar will cop it straight to the face to leave them in no doubt as to my presence."
However, would I be correct, based entirely on reports from various news outlets, should, you have administered a good slap across the face of the cretinous hag, wouldn't she then be in her rights to have you arrested for GBH? If so, a way must be found to administer the said corrective action away from public scrutiny.