Bike commute day 2, return home

Temperatures: 39°F at 17:00, 37°F at 18:15
Clothing: Top with 2 layers, with closely-woven wool-acrylic cycling jacket included; Lycra tights; ankle socks. Thinsulate gloves. (Cool, just still comfortable. A higher speed helped.)
Time: 0:45xx for 12.5 miles

17:45—depart from work, with a bad break of just getting to a red light at Research. Only a short wait for traffic at Woodman. A family of 3 walked toward me, and then two cyclists.

17:57—trestle remains at Linden. There was still a faint smell of skunk north of Burkhardt, but much less than the perfume there in the morning. Two pedestrians at the Airway crossing helped stop traffic and allow a quicker passage, and a motorist in the west-bound lane also stopped for my crossing. How nice. Maybe this year will be one of courtesy. I whistled at a runner as I approached the Smithville crossing, and asked if he was cold with the bare legs. "Yup" was his reply.

18:08—west gate to Eastwood Park. I pushed a bit harder through the park to make sure that the clock didn't flow past another minute. I felt pretty good about my time so far, and still nothing à bout de soufle about my work. The minute didn't click to 09 until I had crossed the creek and crested the rise to the old railway path, so lots of time to spare..

18:18—passing the zig-zag up from the Mad River Bikeway, as I travel on Monument Avenue. I had a red light at Webster, and was able to ride through all of downtown without another, until I got to Forest-Riverside. Even then, I slowed a bit on the bridge, and timed myself to a green light by the time I got to the intersection. The climb up Grafton hill was a bit hard, since I was under fatigue from the harder ride through the city.

The crossing at Salem was against a red light, though I stopped long enough to see that no traffic on Salem was closer than a couple blocks. I pressed hard up the Bryn Mawr hill, shifting down once to get a higher cadence.

18:30—arrive home, with some energy to spare.

Now it's time, after finishing this post, to shower quickly and make it to the dinner meeting for the Dayton Bicylce Adventures Online Cyclists Group.