On the Road Again

Blackie hiding from the rain

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I started riding my bike to work again (bike commuting), hooray!

Here are the notes I have so far (sort of my commuting diary):

Monday, 25 Apr 11

Brought my stuff in to wear the rest of the week.  So far I've lost 7 weeks that I had planned on riding.  If I could have ridden 5 days a week (not really even planned because of bringing clothes one day, but I'm looking at max losses now) I would already have ridden 35 days, 18 miles a day is 630 miles.  If I can ride 4 days a week from now until 1 Nov I'll have 26 weeks, which is 104 days, which is 1,872 miles.  3 days a week from now until 1 Oct, or 22 weeks, is 66 days.  I will make a goal of 75 commuting days (9 weeks out of the 22 have to be 4 day weeks).  22 bike commuting weeks is about half a year (52 weeks minus 2 weeks vacation is 50 weeks).  50 weeks, plus 7 holidays plus 2 floating holidays is 241 working days a year.  73 days is about 30%.  At $4.15 a gallon for gas and at 25 mpg that's (4,338 miles / 25mpg = 173.5 gallons) $720 dollars savings.

Tuesday, 26 Apr 11

No Go.  It was raining too hard and I decided that that was no way to start this year.  I'm not sure of my timeing and the logistics, the only rain jacket I have is camo and on top of that I can't see in a rain.

Wednesday 27 Apr 11

Blackie needs a bath

IN - I was planning on getting out of the house by 3:45, but didn't take off until about 3:58. It didn't feelfast, but it was 36 minutes from my garage door to the front door between AP31 and AP32. The back gate wasn't open when I pulled up, but the guard was just pulling up too. I glanced at my phone and it was 4:29 or 4:30 so they must open that gate at 4:30. That means that it doesn't do me much good to leave before 4:00 unless I WANT to ride around to another gate. I put the bike in the open cubicle near me because it's expected to rain all day. We'll see how well that works.


HOME - It had rained throughout the day and the bike trail was very wel and flooded in some places. I had to ride slowly to minimize the splashing, but it wasn't as soft and mushy as I had feared. I saw a lot of the backs of houses that I had before because of leaves. Even though I have a back fender, I had mud splattered all over my bags and the back of my jacket. I washed all of it. By the time I got home I was very cold and tired so the hot shower felt extra nice.  Well, that's 1 day, 74 to go.
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