Today was the final day of Bike to Work Week. I had a nice treat for my ride today: I got to ride with Sox! My mom was looking ater the kids at home, so Sox was able to ride to work. It was a short ride to downtown, but then I was off to Oak Bay.

The ride home was pretty uneventful too. Just the way it should be.

My mileage this year was nothing like last year, but it was sure good to actually spend some time on my bike. Some day I will actually install those fenders that I bought a long time ago. That would have helped keep me dry this week. 🙂

Biking today was not too bad. The ride in was pretty easy albeit a little cold. No major traffic issues.

On the home stretch to work I could see a lot of cyclists in Oak Bay. I was a little confused at first, then I noticed the Bike to Work people had a celebration station at the Oak Bay municipal building. I was tempted to stop in for a coffee and muffin, but I ended up riding right past it.

At the end of the day I didn’t ride home right away since I had an ulti game first. By the time the game was done, the wind was still blowing, and it was raining. I got quote soaked on the way home, and to top it off the game ran late so I took back a back route home that was a little longer.

Still, it feels good to be back on my bike. Through the summer I intend to ride quite a bit. Hopefully I can stick with that plan.

The weather was much nicer for today’s bike to work. I also bumped into a friend of mine I haven’t seen in a very long time. The first few minutes of the ride I could immediately feel yesterday’s ride. That eased off the closer I got to work.

The ride home was a hard one though. A big head wind most of the way.

The only incident I has was on Old Esquimalt road. A car passed me with it’s right turn signal on. The light was green, and it is a short one. We were also on an uphill. Right after the car passed me I saw the lady shoulder check, then slow down and stop. She looked for me out the passenger window and seemed a little confused when I didn’t pass her. Enough people. Don’t pass a cyclist then stop and wait for them to pass you on the right. If it is too close and you may not safely get around the corner before the cyclist, then slow down and turn behind the cyclist.

I will not pass a car on the right when they do this.

Bike to Work Week is upon us again. I rode in today despite the horrible conditions. My shorts were soaked through by the time I hit Esquimalt ave. The closer I got to work, the less rain there was. By mid day the sun was out.

The ride to work was pretty easy despite the rain. I met up with Sox before going to the office to hand off something she forgot at home.

At the end of the day the weather was still looking decent. I got a call from my son who wanted me to ride in front of the car on the way home. Not sure what that was all about, but I agreed. I was going to meet up with them at Beet’s daycare, until I saw that I had a flat in my rear tire. Thankfully I had the tools and spare tube necessary to fix it. I found a bunch of glass shard embedded in the tire, and I had to scrape those out with some keys. I was on the way in no time.

The ride home was hard though. It was very windy with lots of strange cross winds. At one point I had a cliff and apartment building on my left and the wind was bouncing off those, directing me out into traffic. More riding planned for the week, but apparently the weather forecast is pretty crappy for the whole week.

Friday was my last day of Bike to Work Week. My main goal for the week was to break 80 km so I could get a free beer 🙂 Then on Thursday night once I had surpassed that I thought that I should try for something more lofty. At first I thought I should make 100 km a goal, but when I arrived at work on Friday I noticed I was 4 km shy of the 100km mark. Too easy.

The goal changed to be 120km for the week, which meant I needed a long commute home (over 24 km). My day transpired against me, so I was only able to eek out approx 16 km on ride home Friday which lead to a week total of approximately 112.35 km ridden. I am still very proud of that number, and it is something I am aiming to beat next year.

Over the week I came to love riding my mountain bike turned road bike. I put some fat slicks on my green machine, and wow, was it ever a blast to ride. I know the balance points on that bike really well, so I felt very comfortable leaning it into corners. It also has a favorable geometry, comfortable seat, cushy front fork with 5 inches of travel, wide handle bars, and some nice hydraulic rim brakes. Fun fun fun.

The other thing I grew to love was riding with my messenger bag. I bought a plain jane MEC Brenta Courier bag. I found this way more comfortable than a back pack, and offered more visibility when looking for traffic. I also thought that my gear was more stable on my back when twisting to look for traffic. Overall the slicks and the pack were excellent purchases from MEC.

I was up late last night due to Ulti, so I dragged my butt out the door late this morning. By the time I got going, the rain had picked up and I was not looking forward to my ride. Again I took a meandering route to work trying to avoid some traffic and to have a little fun.. By the time I got to work my lower half was soaked. My jacket did a great job of keeping my dry, but I don’t have proper rain pants.

I had a dentist appointment, then my ride home from that was longer. I took a route down by the water which was really enjoyable. With this ride done, I have beat the 80km mark for the week, and have earned my beer 🙂 I still have 1 more day to go, and I think I am going to see if I can surpass 100km commuted by bike for this week.

The ride today was interesting. In total I rode just under 23km which is pretty good. The ride in I was rained on pretty good, but the slicks I have did a great job of shedding the water and not spraying me with it. I was actually surprised at how little water was being thrown. I was cold on the way to work though, but still very sweaty. The twist to today’s ride is that I was towing Sprout in the trailer.

Climbing some of the hills to and from home were hard! He is not a tiny boy, and his added weight behind me led to a great workout. I think I’d like to do that again some time. The downside was that the ride took a lot longer. A 20 minute ride stretched into 45 minutes. This made me late for dropping Sprout off at daycare, which meant he had to come to work with me for a short while as the daycare provider had some errands to run. Oops.

Our office is doing Bike To Work Week again this year, with some added challenges. Two people in our office have ponied up some extra prizes for participation. Each year our office has succeeded in 100% participation. The extra prizes are a beer to anyone who cracks 80 kms traveled to and from work in the week, and the person with the most mileage gets a bottle of liquor of their choice (or 6 pack).

Today was day 1, and also fday 1 for me back to work after a month off. I took a pretty direct route to work which ended up being 8.8 km. The ride home I stretched out a little so that it was 11.3 kms. This gives me a day 1 total of 20.1 kms. Nice start I would say.