Wheee!

The weather is finally beginning to cooperate! Yesterday's ride home was the first time I didn't have to wear all the extra things (ear warmers, jacket, footies to keep my toes warm.) It was great. I really am getting into the swing of things as far as this commuting thing goes. Soon, I'll be able to do it daily. The only problem is, right now, I'm always glued to the weather sites to see what I should bring in for my ride home and for what to wear at work the next day.

For those that don't know, because of the relatively long commute, I am a one way bike commuter.

This means I put my bike on the bike rack of my car and drive to work in the morning. I bring with my riding gear for the afternoon and clothes for the next day. Then in the afternoon, I ride my bike home 21.5 miles. The next morning, I ride in and put my bike back on the bike rack of my car. Typically, I've been doing this once a week, but soon I think that it'll be easy to do two sets a week. (Damn five day work weeks!)

I used to, and still do, get a lot of strange looks when I explain to folks what I do. But more and more I'm meeting people on the trail that do the same thing. Last week, I helped a guy with a flat who commutes from Leesburg to DC (Leesburg is home, DC is work) in this way.

Working only eight hours a day seems to help with the extra time for commuting. (That's a whole other story.) All told, it takes close to an hour and a half extra each day to commute this way. With all my commitments this is an hour and a half that is hard to give up. But then again, am I really giving it up to be doing something healthy and fun?