How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

[wombatK]

Hi All,

Just started commuting to (and from) work yesterday

My ride is pretty much 20km each way (19.81km on the way in and 20.21 on the way home).

I am going from Blacktown to Penrith mostly on the Great Western Highway. and then back the other way in the arvo/evening, it is pretty good as the majority of the traffic is heading in the other direction.

Great work Matt and 25 kph is a good average speed. Blacktown to Penrith is downhill overall (going from ridge of the Nepean Valley down to the river), and uphill in the arvo. So you should notice a difference in your averages. 30 kph should be possible, but don't try to tackle it too quickly - that's the way to injure muscles and joints. Just build it up slowly and steadily, mixing in slower recovery rides with harder efforts.

[leximack]

Hi All,

Just started commuting to (and from) work yesterday

My ride is pretty much 20km each way (19.81km on the way in and 20.21 on the way home).

I am going from Blacktown to Penrith mostly on the Great Western Highway. and then back the other way in the arvo/evening, it is pretty good as the majority of the traffic is heading in the other direction.

Have done pretty much no riding at all and am feeling pretty good although I did have a great, and long sleep last night......

I though I would be be sore this on this mornings ride but seemed to be ok, except for my fingers feeling like they were about to drop off, not sure what the temp was but is was definatley colder this morning compared to yesterday. Time remained consistant with my average speed actually increaseing from 24.23km/h to 24.95km/h. My commute home last night had an average of 25.56.

I am hoping to be able get this up to about 30km/h. Is this possible, at the moment it is hard to imagine travelling 20% faster than what I am at the moment, I think my legs would drop off.....

Anyways, better get to work.

Looking forward to the ride home.

Cheers,
Matt

would it be easier to ride on the m4, very smooth, flat and fast. Just have to watch out for debries.
Must be a pain to have to stop at all the traffic lights on the highway.
Is the highway safe, i dont recall much of a shoulder to ride on so you would always be mixing it with the traffic.

[wombatK]

would it be easier to ride on the m4, very smooth, flat and fast. Just have to watch out for debries.
Must be a pain to have to stop at all the traffic lights on the highway.
Is the highway safe, i dont recall much of a shoulder to ride on so you would always be mixing it with the traffic.

Worth checking out M4, but as he is travelling opposite to the peak, might need to be careful with fast-moving traffic at the exits - especially around M7 and Wallgrove Rd off-ramps. Highway might be better from that point of view. While there's quite a few cyclists using the M4 in the peak direction, it's rare to see anyone riding in the opposite direction.

[martinjs]

Cold start at 0.2c and a -1.8c with heavy fog, I had 3 layers on. I've recently started with a different approach on these cold mornings. I pick a lower gear then usual and start with a higher cadence, it works to a certain degree. On the whole it wasn't a bad ride, I still had trouble maintaining a good speed but I didn't get to cold and there was no wind.

[jasimon]

My first commute in six months.

Was a nice day in Sydney to get back into the commute. Relatively warm and a nice change from riding the bus. But I'd forgotten how stop start it can be. Oh well, just means I can afford to go faster because I know there will be a red light somewhere in my future.

[bigfriendlyvegan]

'Twas a pleasant evening and a mate of mine at work decided to ride my way home with me. I showed him some of the different ways to get places on my side of Victoria Road. My 11km trip home turned into 30km of very pleasant riding. It's always nice to break the routine.

David

[Missy24]

last night... headwind.

this morning... hardly remember it at all (I need to do a coffee shop run)

[Runjikol]

Tried a different route today, http://www.bikemap.net/route/252185 , that shaves 2.8kms off the one-way distance. I had good energy for the second half of the ride being able to sustain 34kph for the flat bits. I was stoked. My wife convinced me to let her pick me up (the BOM mentioning thunderstorms helped her case). Today was a good indicator of improved fitness. Very happy.

[Aushiker]

G'day

This week I started interval training as part of my ride. Got the motivation from this BikeRadar.com blog posting. So far so good, but I did do a Contador yesterday when I hit the Ocean Reef wind zone.

Andrew

[Mulger bill]

Rain and more rain at 0500 today.

Jeez the MTB is slow.

Shaun

[gdl_gdl]

My only commute this week was today thanks to being too over eager on the weights last weekend! Pulled a stomach muscle which meant I couldn't stand up straight until yesterday!

Nice cold ride today (5 C). Forecast evening showers tonight but hopefully I'll be home before they hit.

Cheers,

Gary

[gdl_gdl]

Cold one again today but a great ride! Set off at 6am and was great to see the sun rise over blue skies at around Greenwood!

Had a pretty quick ride (27.7 km/h) for the 40km trip given all the stops but was still passed by a bloke who must have been at least 10 years older on a flat bar with a couple of panniers! That's the beauty of cycling I guess!

Cheers,

Gary

[Missy24]

Police where having a convention on Swanston Street (Melbourne) this morning... Everyone seemed to be behaving!

[bigfriendlyvegan]

I rode in with a newbie commuter today. She rode to her local train station, trained to my local train station and I showed her the way in to uni. It revealed to me how much I have changed as a cycle commuter with respect to fitness, confidence and technique. She plans on riding in again next week. Soon she'll be riding all the way from her place to uni (~30k). It's simply too addictive.

David

[fitnhealthy]

Last night Police were having a field day on Magill Rd SA, the bonus of riding a bike is you don't get caught up in the traffic, but just scoot up the footpath..., until I could get across the rd.

[Runjikol]

Commute in was great fun. I felt full of energy and then found that my avg. speed had dropped by 2.5kph. Finally realised it was the cross-headwind as it made my ears cold.

Return was a slog: headwind with gusts up to 40kph. A fellow commuter agreed with a choice expletive. He was pulling on his gatorade prettty hard whilst I took a short break in his draft. Respite behind the hill north of Dandenong Creek that Canterbury Road crests helped me achieve a greater speed. I was thinking that I'd be home about 7:25pm but rolled in 7:09 - happy.

[Kev365428]

Had a wonderful commute this morning - about 1deg C when I left home. Frost covering the ground, and frozen fingers.

For the first time on my commute, I passed a fellow commuter on a recumbent.

Not much chance of missing him, as he had purchased all of the reflective tape on the market and has sewn it to every conceivable place on his kit, including his hat (which was over the top of his helmet I presume).

And he had a full, bushy grey beard.

Kev.

[gdl_gdl]

Note to self, I need to buy some "proper" gloves as the three quarter finger gloves just don't cut it when it's 2 C outside!

Other than that a great clear ride into the city today!!

Funny moment was spotting a gentlemen with a "grey fluffy" bike jersey riding down St Georges Terrace. When I caught up with him it turns out he was bare chested and he was covered in body hair! The word ape did spring to mind! It would have been about 8 - 10 C at the time!

Cheers,

Gary

[Missy24]

Coppers on Swanston (Melbourne) again this morning... they where hiding, sort of! But it was a good commute!

[Tale]

Returned to hilly commuting this week after nearly two months of extra work and an illness where I lost fitness and gained weight. Did a couple of rides last week to break the cobwebs, rode hard all week, and now I feel like a proper cyclist again.

First full week I've commuted on the road bike (a double, wearing a backpack) instead of the tourer (a triple, using a pannier). Broke the speed record this morning!

Nothing like sitting back with a glass of wine in front of the cricket, knowing that you are doing no wrong.

I've decided that I really need more tail lights. I've just got one Planet Bike Blinky Superflash which is awesome (Ay-Ups and a backup flasher on front), but one day it switched itself off randomly, and now I see the benefit of multiple lights. Saw one guy on a flatbar with bright red lights on his bar-ends which looked very effective, but I'm on drop bar bikes. Might put lights on my helmet and backpack.

[Mulger bill]

Saw one guy on a flatbar with bright red lights on his bar-ends which looked very effective, but I'm on drop bar bikes. Might put lights on my helmet and backpack.

Check out T7 mate. Pretty sure they had both.

Shaun

[Boognoss]

How fantastic is Sydney's weather this morning? I did an extended 42km route to work (usually 27km) starting before sunrise and it was beautiful (riding east into the sunrise). Not too cold for a change either.

[leximack]

How fantastic is Sydney's weather this morning? I did an extended 42km route to work (usually 27km) starting before sunrise and it was beautiful (riding east into the sunrise). Not too cold for a change either.

+1
awesome morning for a ride
need to ditch some layers though, it was warm

[RobRollin]

Possibly the worst conditions Ive ridden in this year. Wind, the rain was coming down hard and hail at the top . Coming down the hill(238metres Ele) it was hailing, lots of water on the road. The front tyre was spraying as much water away as it could but I still washed out twice which was exciting at 50kmh. Didn't go down though. Brakes had a workout just trying to stop.

[gdl_gdl]

Another clear skies ride into Perth! Great to see the sun rising just that little bit earlier each time I ride!

(Give it another month or so and I'll be riding in daylight for the outbound and return journey!)

A fair amont of low lying fog today, would have made some great photographs!

Finally succumbed to a decent pair of gloves, constantly stinging fingers due to the cold need a bit more than a HTFU comment!

Cheers,

Gary