My Morning Commute

[Emm]

@GovernorSilver 125423 wrote:

That’s why I haven’t seen it yet. I usually get off MVT at 14th St. Bridge. I’ve been holding off exploring the north side of MVT until after tourist season.

If you do the Arlington Fun Ride this weekend you’ll go right past it! The Arlington Loop is actually alot of fun and it’s a good ride for people getting to know the area.

[GovernorSilver]

@Emm 125425 wrote:

If you do the Arlington Fun Ride this weekend you’ll go right past it! The Arlington Loop is actually alot of fun and it’s a good ride for people getting to know the area.

This sounds like a better idea than my original weekend plan to do a test ride with my water-resistant pants + Vasque hiking boots combo (the skateboarding shoes I wore Tuesday are still soaking wet from that storm) – was going to do Holmes Run Trail then hit the grocery.

Thanks for the heads up!

[GovernorSilver]

Aww man, forgot I have to go to work Sunday.

[KWL]

I, for one, made a horrible decision and drove in to work today. I would have arrived at work pretty soaked, but nothing worse than what I’ve done before.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@GovernorSilver 125427 wrote:

This sounds like a better idea than my original weekend plan to do a test ride with my water-resistant pants + Vasque hiking boots combo (the skateboarding shoes I wore Tuesday are still soaking wet from that storm) – was going to do Holmes Run Trail then hit the grocery.

Thanks for the heads up!

Take out the insoles if removable and stuff the shoes with newspaper. Putting them in front of a vent or fan also helps.

[Judd]

@DrP 125383 wrote:

Where did all the people go?
Normally I am about 150-170 on the monolith in the morning. Today number 25! Only about a dozen pedestrians and about that many cyclists – mostly by Gravelly Point (few (two? three?) on Custis).
It really wasn’t raining any harder than the past two mornings.

I didn’t bike commute today based on the forecast of 20 mph winds during the evening commuting hours. The winds didn’t materialize. I’m bummed since today’s drizzle is far less than the other two days I biked in the rain this week.

[KWL]

@Judd 125442 wrote:

I didn’t bike commute today based on the forecast of 20 mph winds during the evening commuting hours. The winds didn’t materialize. I’m bummed since today’s drizzle is far less than the other two days I biked in the rain this week.

Same here. I find I always regret when I bail out of riding. I need to keep this in mind for Freezing Saddles.

[GovernorSilver]

@ShawnoftheDread 125440 wrote:

Take out the insoles if removable and stuff the shoes with newspaper. Putting them in front of a vent or fan also helps.

Thanks! Insoles not removable but the newspaper removed a lot of moisture in 24 hrs. I just replaced it with fresh newspaper – should be on pace to be dry for my next commute ride on Tuesday.

Went for the test ride yesterday with the Vasque + water resistant pants + Pearl Izumi jacket combo, . The rainfall was more like a mist than the 2″ downpour that soaked my skateboarding shoes. But it was a good preview of what to expect. Climbing the Telegraph-Eisenhower overpass my initial thought was “this isn’t working”. The Vasques felt slippery on the pedals and this contributed to my tentative pedaling on that initial climb. OTOH, the big surface area of the pedals helped keep the Vasques from slipping off entirely, as long as I avoided high-cadence spinning. After about 40 min. of riding, I felt more comfortable pedaling with the Vasques and finished with a good climb up the hill to my house, which is steeper than the overpass, using a more horizontal torso posture.

[Tania]

First ride in on my new bike and it was glorious. Stuff it, metro.

[Raymo853]

@Tania 125501 wrote:

Stuff it, metro.

One metro ride last week ended my idea of riding it this winter.

[GovernorSilver]

Metro train left my station 9:02. Arrived at work 9:50. Train was forced to hold for 50 sec. at 2 or 3 stops – no explanation offered.

Looking forward to riding in tomorrow.

[Tania]

Metro ridership is way down.

‘[The report] attempts to attribute some of the ridership decline to increased reliance on non-rail modes of transportation, especially cycling, which has the potential to cut in significantly to the number of Metro rides shorter than seven miles. “

[GovernorSilver]

I’m hoping Metro somehow gets sorted out. If I ride 5 days a week I won’t have any more time to do my other exercise programs. It’s more than 1 hr each way for me by bike.

Well, I guess I could figure out a multi-modal approach that utilizes bus routes.

[Steve O]

@GovernorSilver 125528 wrote:

I’m hoping Metro somehow gets sorted out. If I ride 5 days a week I won’t have any more time to do my other exercise programs. It’s more than 1 hr each way for me by bike.

The more relevant metric is what is your marginal time. If your metro ride is 45 minutes and your bike is 1:05, then your marginal additional time is 20 minutes. Investing 20 minutes to get 1:05 of exercise is a very efficient use of time.

Another person was complaining about Metro in today’s Washington Post Letters to the Editor.

[GovernorSilver]

@Steve O 125531 wrote:

The more relevant metric is what is your marginal time. If your metro ride is 45 minutes and your bike is 1:05, then your marginal additional time is 20 minutes. Investing 20 minutes to get 1:05 of exercise is a very efficient use of time..

It takes me about 40 min. for a training session on the parallettes/rings, followed by shower/change and 40 min. on Metro. So yes on my bike commute days I actually arrive at work about 30 min. earlier than on my strength training days.

OTOH, I arrive at home later on my bike commute days, except of course when there’s a snafu in the Metro, which seems to be happening more often.

Otherwise you guessed pretty close to my actual metrics.

[Author]

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