didn’t see this coming, but this morning I knocked ten minutes off of my 14-mile commute. all without changing my route.

the difference? music. not headphones – riding with headphones sounds like a big no no — but by mounting my Blackberry on my handlebars and having it play at a medium volume.

for whatever reason, it really helped me maintain speed going up the hills on my route into Boston.

I’m so psyched…if I can keep this up, it means that biking is just as fast as taking the commuter rail (well, driving to the commuter rail + taking the train + taking the subway + walking to my office). driving is a half hour off peak but can be an hour and a half in rush hour.

I’m in D.C. this week with my family. my wife very kindly took notice of a bike-rental operation in town and suggested I “scratch that itch” so I headed over. $30 later I had a Trek road bike which at least had a carbon fork and maybe more (not sure exactly which model it was). I’m not really the right shape for a road bike (yet!!), but it was either that or a leisurely “comfort” hybrid so i took the chance.

It was quite a pleasant surprise. Most of all, the bike seemed to get up to speed incredibly quickly (compared to my Trek Soho). I also liked the easy thumb press to upshift. and having a real “granny” gear again (vs. my 8-speed IGH) was nice. I didn’t like having to downshift at intersections though, and there are lots of them in D.C. But it makes me think I might want a road bike for longer and less-interrupted weekend excursions. Also made me wonder what sort of road-ish bike I could get that would take a rack and fenders…maybe the Trek Portland?

Anyway, here’s a picture with the rental (oops, it’s cut out) on the steps of the Capitol, overlooking the Washington Mall and Monument.

a beautiful 30-mile round trip ride alongside the Narrangassett Bay. just love it. fairly flat too, though with a reasonable # of road crossings.

I’m sure others had it much worse than we did, but the weekend rains waterlogged our basement carpet. spent 5 hours on my hands and knees slicing up the carpet and carrying it out to the trash. arms and legs are really, really sore from this. so, even though we’ve had amazing weather I’m just not up to riding. maybe a few miles tmw… still hoping to do a 35m route on Saturday

today was going to be the day – the first day I rode all the way to work and back. 29.5 miles round trip, including Bellevue Hill.

remarkably, I am not exhausted like I thought I would be! next up: get to the point where I can do this every day.

go to the “More” drop-down and click Cycling. switches the view to

– dark green for bike paths

– light green for bike lanes

– dotten green for roads that lack bike signage/lanes/paths but are nonetheless ridable.

it’s not perfect, but a very nice first version! bye bye mapmyride…

I’ve been building up to this for awhile and gave it a go today: the round-trip from home to work.

it was abbreviated by a couple of miles each way since I had to meet a biking buddy and was behind schedule, so I drove to his house and we started from there.

but from his place we rode the 11.5 miles in, along the Southwest Corridor. and on the way home, I tried reversing the Jamaica Plain path (13.7). it was a bit steep (for me) through Olmstead Park, and I almost had to stand up on the hill in front of Faulkner Hospital, but after that it was a quick trip down VFW parkway and Route 1 to Dedham Square. Interestingly, the route home was faster than the way in despite the extra distance. Next I’m going to try the Hyde Park route to skip Bellevue Hill (though it didn’t seem that bad this morning).

I was most pleased that the cars were so considerate on VFW. there is a nice healthy shoulder except at the intersections, and they gave me the right of way there.

It was 26 miles round trip. If I had started from home it would’ve been 30. Now that’s a healthy ride each day, if I can work up to doing it every day!

I reported a pothole at the beginning of the inbound Washington St. bike lane in Roslindale using the Hazard Reporting tool on the city’s website:

http://www.cityofboston.gov/contact/?id=179

I submitted the request at the end of the day Monday, expecting to hear back maybe in a few weeks. But I got a note back from Nicole Freedman, Boston’s Director of Bicycle Programs, on Friday morning saying that the pothole had been fixed.

Needless to say, I was floored. I rode by to check, and sure enough the pothole was gone.

dropped my car off in Needham for repair this morning but still needed to get to work. green line to red line = unfun. I so rode up Needham/Centre st and then Beacon pretty much the whole way to MIT.

I was amazed at the bike lanes in Brookline on Beacon St., especially near the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. Not only are the bike lanes nice and wide, but they are separated from the car lane by 2-3 feet of stripes.

absolutely fabulous. sort of makes me want to move northward…only sort of though 🙂

Next pickup is definitely a Xootr Swift