This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Slogged it in today on the promise of a free (and boozy) lunch. Bloody freezing and slow!

Boss texts me at 10am saying hes had to take his kid to the hospital so he has had to reschedule.

Did vote though

Worst part is I made a hole in my new pro team base layer on its first outing.

Damn. S or M perchance?

First cycle commute since Oct 4th (due to lurgy, apathy and ankle) which included a stop to vote.

Made it in mostly dry and ready to watch the downpour out the window.

Will go home via the shops to stock up on beer and mind bleach as the telly clicks over to 22:00:00 and the exit polls are shown (GE thread >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>).

Ran to work this morning. Have to say, bicycles are a miracle of efficiency.

What's bonkers is that the marathon record pace is faster than the majority of my cycle commutes.

With my ankle mostly recovered I'm building up my running again (doing C25K on the recommendation of the physio to slowly increase the load on it). Adding a max of 10%/week means doubling distance or volume every 8 weeks so I should be aiming to be back to my 11.5km run commute early March.

Small.

Joking aside I'm probably off to A&E this aft.

@bigshape stupid thing is I know this particular spot gets bad, I was following someone in in Jan/Feb who did the exact same thing. Difference being I stopped to check he was ok, unlike the car driver who drove straight past me on the floor today.

What's bonkers is that the marathon record pace is faster than the majority of my cycle commutes.

Yeah don't even start, it's insane. Generally, record paces in everything are just insane. I'm not exactly a natural runner (a bit blocky and heavy for that), but have done a good bit of rowing before, and comparing myself even at the peak of my fitness, which wasn't bad, to world record paces is just... hopeless.

HealTFU. Sadly no repairs on base layers but I can help if you want to buy another

Thanks. It's not bad, just annoying.

Above 50% of record pace is my usual base target.

Saw someone cycling in bobble hat and ski goggles this morning. In Brighton. It was drizzly.

Grim ride in, ill with a cold after a clammy shivery night of weird dreams. Sweated like a pig even though I was riding Extra Slow (for me, that’s really saying summat).

Haven’t voted as queue was mahoosive, loadsa millenials in the line which seemed ... odd for my neighbourhood.

Commute for me, twice a week usually, sometimes three, is a twenty mile (each way) schlep along roads where some motorists get up to motorway speeds. Use cycle lanes as much as possible but there aren't enough to cover the whole route. I hardly see other commuters, certainly none that do the whole trip. Many drivers are fucking dangerous loons. I've already made the trip longer to miss out one bonkers section that was certain death. Now have to do another work around in a different area after the second near miss on a busy roundabout. Car was so close I could have reached out and touched it. Would have been broken femur/pelvis for sure if I had been hit.

Still, it was a miss. Got to count that.

After I’d endured 45 minutes of a meeting I gave my apologies and bailed on the Christmas lunch. Went back to the office and curled up and shivered under some coats in a back room for a couple of hours waiting for my wife to pick me up. Really shouldn’t have gone in today.

Worst part is I made a hole in my new pro team base layer on its first outing.

Mesh? If so, now it's just more meshy.

It’s rare I get to ride my bike to or from work these days, but after the work Christmas do is always a favourite of mine with the 2am+ deserted roads. Tonight was a headwind all the way, cold pissing rain and legs that are getting too old and puny to push 48x17 gearing. Loved every mile of it.

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Bike looks nice there. What is it?

Also, it's 48x19, right? Apparently excommunication from LUFGOOSE occurs if heterodox gear ratios are used.

Thermal. Now featuring elbow vents.

That’s my Russian XB3 that I’ve had for years. Was ratty gold, now ratty black.

Lol re. the gearing. I usually have 48x18 on this bike but the disc is a tub which is bigger than the clinchers. The smaller cog at the back buys me a couple of mm to stop the tyre rubbing without having to change the chain when I swap wheels.

One good thing for the morning: I have kept seeing some idiot haring through Kentish town on an electric scooter with a tiny child clinging on to the up-right. No helmets on either, and the guy jumps reds on 4 way junctions.

Saw him getting pulled over and given a dressing down by the police today.

That's terrifying, the poor child. So many people don't know that using these scooters is illegal. (Good typo with 'uptight', though--predictive text strikes again.)

Man that thing looks surprisingly good with the disc. Wasn't it a bit windy tho?

Cheers! Yes, it was pretty windy - and in the opposite direction this morning!

Yeah I noticed it too. I finally managed to get my Chinese deep carbon wheels onto my commuter (pretty much purely for style points), and while they behave pretty well in cross-winds overall, there's still a little bit of a twitch noticeable in sudden strong winds. Can't imagine how a disc must feel in the proper gusts we've been having off and on in the last few days!

That's terrifying, the poor child.

Yeah, they're so small their head doesn't even reach the handlebar, they'd be mush in a crash.

So many people don't know that using these scooters is illegal.

I've been tempted to tell people, especially when they're blocking me passing in a cyclepath, but its not worth the grief.

There is a woman doing the same in Greenwich, full throttle, stiff neck.