Thinking of packing it in over the winter

andy83

prawny i do feel for ya,

Im really grateful i have a 5 mile commute as an option in weather like this.

Think id struggle to motivate myself to do the longer commute in this weather, lets face it, its bloody cold in the mornings now

and it seems drivers are getting worse

cjcp

prawny wrote:

I think I'll be going that way for much of the winter. I've decided I can't face the train I;m just going to have to suck it up and stop being a gurl.

Yep, it's not pleasant at this time of year and, frankly, I'd take my urban commute over the wilder countryside. But stick at it.

wyadvd

just nikwaced my roubaix tights this morning and im off!
i just take it down two or three cogs , pedal like crazy and pretend im going 10 mph faster.

welkman

I was to be seen this morning shouting 'is that all you've got' to the sky while braving the weather on my coastal essex commute. I find this type of weather wakes you up a treat!

welky

russmcp

Mine is only 8 miles each way, and this morning was horrid, wet and very windy.

I'm going to try and continue as I've always been a fairweather cyclist and this year I want to keep gong all through the winter.

I do feel good for it I must admit

prawny

Took the car this morning, mainly because the shrimpette kept me up half the night and I overslept by an hour and 15 mins :oops:

Was glad not to be on the bike today though, blooming wind was blowin the car around :shock:

bennj

Valy wrote:

bennj wrote:

Mate can totally relate, my commute is 31 miles door to door so 62 total. (into Manchester).

I try and do this twice a week, other days I am on my motorbike, or on a train to london!

Yesterday took me 16 mins longer than usual on the way in due to the headwind all the way, and I was wrecked when I got into work! I thought seriously about taking the train home.

anyway I left an hour early instead and enjoyed the tailwind home and thought about another 31 miles in the bag against the weekly target ,

still yet to go by commuter train this year, I would rather be cold and wet than pay for the pleasure of standing up for an hour and trying to not breath in the air from the coughing and sneezing masses...

hope it works out for you prawny,

What were your speeds like - with the head/tail wind? :P

But that is pretty epic - a 30 mile commute. How long does it normally take you?

Hi Valy,

Normally I do it in about 1hr 45 -50ish depending on weather, how I am feeling, I f I have laptop and papers in my pannier etc.

Tuesday times were

In 2:11:05 avg 13.9mph

out 1:51:19 avg 16.7mph

As you can see I am no speed demon

5milestogo

I've had a year of it with a new little 'un, job move & house rebuild so have had forced time off the bike (not to mention a snapped seat tube). Winter commuting 18 miles into London still appeals but not daily - maybe 3 times a wk mx. I'm stacked with reading up for work and stuff like that so PT has helped to get that done and alleviates the mindless boredom when on board. Winter may also see me take up the Boris Bikes if economics work out with the Oyster. Be interesting to see who keeps these winter mileage promises as the season gets deeper!

Hot Orange

16.7mph over 30 miles looks pretty decent to me, bennj. When I manage that over my 9 miles, I see it as a good effort.

I used this morning's torrid conditions to wimp out... I mean, have a well-earned day off.

rolf_f

Oooh, swapped the pedals on the Dawes to M520s last night and cleated up my new Northwave Celsius boots. My toes were not actually frozen when I got in this morning. This is sufficiently unusual an experience that I was a bit confused about the state of my feet when I got into work

Clarion

Prawny, 20 miles is a serious commute. I pride myself on mine, which is a mere 19km each way of Londonshite.

The weather's suddenly changed from very mild to quite severe, but it'll be back to normal soon. That means cold, occasionally wet, a few days of snow and then into spring again. It's good to ride, especially if you don't keep getting caught up by motor vehicle jams or endless traffic lights.

I won't say HTFU, cause you'r probably pretty much hard enough already. But keep at it.

Mr Plum

I'd say MTFU, but 20 miles each way is some pretty serious daily commuter mileage, so I don't really blame you when the weather is currently as shite as it is...

wyadvd

just done my 15 miles with a 40 mph tailwind! i feel like lance ....average speed 28 mph! whooooooeeeee.

will3

wyadvd wrote:

just done my 15 miles with a 40 mph tailwind! i feel like lance ....average speed 28 mph! whooooooeeeee.

Have fun on the way home.

The scary thing with a tailwind like that is that it's so much easier to go faster that you forget that it's more difficult to stop, so your braking distances shoot up rather dramatically!

wyadvd

will3 wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

just done my 15 miles with a 40 mph tailwind! i feel like lance ....average speed 28 mph! whooooooeeeee.

Have fun on the way home.

The scary thing with a tailwind like that is that it's so much easier to go faster that you forget that it's more difficult to stop, so your braking distances shoot up rather dramatically!

yes, very good point , well made!

on the way home its a bit of delusion on my part ....just pretend im going 10 mph faster than i am. then i must be mad out in this weather anyway! cant stop myself though.

I used to be a farmer , out in all weathers , and I used to relish foul weather back then so its more of the same on my bike , now im a healthcare worker!

Valy

wyadvd wrote:

just done my 15 miles with a 40 mph tailwind! i feel like lance ....average speed 28 mph! whooooooeeeee.

Wow, that is awesome. THough it's probably [from what I've gathered] a 1 in a million chance for me to have a massive tailwind. Usually will be a head or side wind. :P

wyadvd

yeah and the wind always turns the other way before the end of yer shift?

vorsprung

Rolf F wrote:

Took me not far short of two hours to do 22 miles on Monday! I can only dream of 20 miles in one hour; instead, I have 1500 feet and

+1
same story in Devon
Riding back soon into a 25mph headwind

Valy

wyadvd wrote:

yeah and the wind always turns the other way before the end of yer shift?

Sometime in the summer it used to be really windy on the way back - not too much wind in the morning, but some proper mahoosive wind on the way back...

There have been quite a few times where I happened to have "tailsidewind" and thought that I was getting a bit of a headwind... no question about headwind on the way back though.

rolf_f

I left early to avoid the worst of it and to get over the Chevin whilst it was still light (combination of 52mph gusting cross winds, no lane markings and random verges didn't seem very appealling) - I actually didn't have a bad run. Much of my route, though uphill and heading to the west was sheltered from the winds - only the last section of the Chevin was totally exposed and hard work. A later stretch into Shipley should have been much harder than it was (right into the wind) and, then when I turned back towards Leeds, I actually got pushed up the hill to Idle!

rolf_f

wyadvd wrote:

just done my 15 miles with a 40 mph tailwind! i feel like lance ....average speed 28 mph! whooooooeeeee.

So, wyadvd, how was your commute in this morning?

BG2000

My only motivation to continue would be the prospect of winning races after getting in all those miles. Presumably if you weren't doing 200 miles during the week, you'd not be doing anywhere near as much training. So at least you're in the position to give training/racing your best shot - you don't know what's round the corner, and may not get another chance...

russmcp

Going home last night I felt like I was actually going in reverse, the headwinds were constantly in my direction.

This morning was lovely

Kieran_Burns

russmcp wrote:

Going home last night I felt like I was actually going in reverse, the headwinds were constantly in my direction.

This morning was lovely

Ditto - I was tooling along at 20+ with almost no effort and could not feel any wind. I looked down at the grass by the road and it was laying flat.

So far the wind has not abated so this evening could be.... interesting