My 6th ever commute today - I've been doing it twice a week for the last 3 weeks.
Today I had to take a different route after taking the car in for a service.
Worst. Commute. Ever.
The way there wasn't too bad...
- Bright blue skies at my house when I left. Took the car in - weather looking hairy. 5 minutes into the ride - bucketing with rain.
- Headwind the whole way to work.
- Minding my own business, on the left side of the bike lane - car misses me by less than half a foot. He didnt hit me, but the shock was enough to knock me off anyway.
- Went to the gym on the way to work. Realised I hadnt locked the bike up properly. Then realised that I'd left the keys in the car! Had to leave the bike there in the rain - although I had a second lock, so it was at least locked up properly. And then had to walk the 4 blocks to work, borrow a car, and fang it back to where my car was to get the keys before a meeting. (In positive news the drive, which would ordinarily have taken 20 minutes each way? I did the round trip in 25)
Now, that sucked. But it was positively dreamy compared to the ride home.
- Couldnt take my laptop to work cos I rode - so had to do the ride with my back in agony. (Back problems were why I started riding)
- The route I took was a disaster - long and slow.
- The wind had gotten stronger since this morning - and had also turned around, so another headwind.
- There was something up with my seat. It came loose twice, meaning I had to stop, take the bag off, take the QR rack off, fish out the multi tool and tighten the seat again.
- I didn't quite realise how horrific the last 500 metres was in terms of climbing for a relative noob. 7-10% the whole way - even with a bad back, it's the hardest climb I've succesfully completed. Got to the top - realise my rear tyre had a slow leak and was half flat.
Maybe the ride back doesnt sound as bad - but only if you can't get an appreciation of how bad my back was/is. 5 hours later, I'm still knackered - tomorrows ride is now in danger