Ok, everyone else in the cycling blogosphere is doing it, so I may as well also…

I guess technically, December 07 was my first *full* month, but I only rode to work 5 times the whole month. Compare that to 17 times out of 22 times for January 08, and December doesn’t count. It was warm up at best. A toe in the water. Given that January is the coldest month of the year by averages over the last 80 years, and it was my first bike to work month since college, I didn’t do too bad. It’ll only get better from here as the weather warms up, and instead of fighting the cold, we start fighting the heat. Doesn’t that sound grand?

Some thoughts and observations on my first month.

• January is cold.
• Cold weather isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, until it gets down near zero.
• Drivers along my route are, by and large, very considerate, friendly and forgiving.
• I’ve never been waved at or given encouragement by a police officer until I started biking to work. It happened three times.
• My fingers and toes need extra attention during cold weather. My face is impenetrable.
• A warmer day is enough to keep the motivation up. It will also very quickly spoil me and kill any cold weather acclimatization.
• The Kona is a fantastic commuter.
• I’m tougher than I thought I’d be.
• I’m not as tough as I thought I’d be.
• Figure that one out.
• I’m a numbers geek. I love analyzing the data I’m generating with my Edge and the data I’ve gathered about the weather.
• It’s more important to ride than to track your rides.
• I have a lot of lights on my bike, but I need something eye level, like on my helmet or something.
• I’m nowhere near as tired or winded when I get to work or get home now, as when I started this crazy stuff.
• Pannier bags aren’t as cumbersome as I thought they’d be.
• I like the sound of knobby tires on roads.
• Not showering after my ride into work isn’t a big deal.
• T-shirts under my work shirts make all the difference.
• More people than I thought, but less than I’d like, admire those that bike to work.
• People get really nice when the weather is foul and I’ve ridden to work.
• I’m excited for the rest of the year.