I rode in this morning. That’s two days back-to-back, and makes ten trips in September. Which earns me a jersey. I’d cavort a bit, but I’m too wiped out.

The morning was overcast, which had three unexpected effects: 1) It was significantly warmer than it has been lately, 2) there was a lot of pre-dawn light diffusion going on, making it lighter than normal, and 3) I got some glimpses of a beautiful sunrise — hot pink, fuchsia, and orange.

As I said, it was a bit warmer than I have gotten used to. When I was talking to my brother (an experienced bike commuter) last weekend, he said the first thing he does in the morning is check the outside temperature, and use it to plan what he will wear. He selects from different thicknesses of tights, different layers, and various combinations of fingerless gloves, full-fingered gloves, liners, and overmitts, so that he will be comfortable riding to work.

I have not yet attained such wisdom. I was sweating within minutes of setting out, the little ensemble that has been just warm enough for the last week suddenly felt like a sauna. Other than that, it was a perfectly normal commute.

Well, except for the peckerwood in the red CRX that buzzed me on the bridge on Barbur. When your car is that small, and you move over that far to the right when there is a bike in your lane, I have to believe it is intentional. That it’s your way of sending a message. Here’s hoping your little plastic car develops some persistant and nondiagnosable engine problem, ultimately costing you thousands of dollars to repair.

After returning home tonight, I will have put about 200 commuting miles on the bike this month. Now, I know that some people could bang that out in a weekend (*cough* bbbach *cough*) but for me that’s an accomplishment. The trick will be in finding opportunities to keep it up over the winter.

And I should keep it up. I have noticed some of my slacks seem to be getting tighter, so I stepped on the scale this morning. Yup, I’ve put on some weight. Clearly, the additional calories that I’ve been allowing myself since I’ve been exercising regularly have not been fully offset by the exercise itself. That means going back to more, shall we say, regulated eating habits. Sigh.