Like Scott and Michael, I often ride my bike to work. I have a nice commute between Dupont and Old Town Alexandria, which is a little under 10 miles each way. About 6 miles of my commute is on the Mt. Vernon Trail, car free and along the Potomac River. The rest of my commute is through rush hour traffic in Downtown DC, which is actually much easier on a bike than in a car (suckas!). Generally, it’s a pretty nice way to start and end the workday. Along the way, I pass the White House, the Washington Monument, the Tidal Basin (and its cherry trees), the Jefferson Memorial, and National Airport. I see geese on Gravelly Point, right under the flight path for the airport, where planes roar past just a short distance overhead.

I get a lot of miles in this way. Some would call them "junk miles," but sometimes this is most of what I can manage during a busy work week. While it’s true that they’re probably not the best in terms of specific training miles, they are a pretty good base. Biking to work is quicker than Metro (which I sometimes take on rainy days), and far less stressful than driving (yuck). Also, I feel pretty lucky to have bicycle commuting as an option, which is not something that everyone has.

I generally move at a pretty good clip, but I try to remember that I’m on a multi-use path and I need to be courteous to other trail users; so I tend to take things easier when I’m around others. Also, you never know when someone is going to come to a dead stop on the trail, or if they might suddenly turn around, or whatever... People are aware of their surroundings to varying degrees, and sometimes do unpredictable things. This isn’t so much of an issue in the mornings, when there aren’t really a lot of people on the trail; but it can be tricky after work, especially when the weather’s nice and everyone is out.

While I may get a little frustrated by the heavy traffic on the trail, I get most annoyed with the behavior of some other cyclists, particularly those that treat a commute during peak trail use times as some sort of time trial. There’s a time and place for this sort of thing (there are many organized events in this area for doing so), but Tuesday at 5:30 pm on the Mt. Vernon Trail is not it. Now, I totally understand about trying to make something out of those miles and getting in a decent workout, but I see too much sketchy stuff. And why don’t I see you guys when the path is practically deserted in Winter? And stop trying to give me "The Look," you fool.

Oh well, anyway... This week, my bike commute was interrupted by kind of a freak thing. While entering the Mt. Vernon Trail in Alexandria, I broke my bottom bracket. -I wish it was as butch as it sounds, but I hit this dip in the trail and, snap, both of my crank arms were at 6 o’clock.  Sweet.  Luckily, there was a bike shop nearby, so I took my bike over there. They had a look, we had a good laugh, and they had to order a new part so I left the bike with them for a couple of days. Then I duck walked about 10 blocks to the Metro in my cleats and multi-colored spandex, much to the amusement of the local youth (several of whom were not shy about heckling or asking "where’s your bike?"). -Good times... Since then, I’ve been enjoying catching up with my reading on the Metro; but I cannot wait to get my bike back (hopefully today) so that I can resume my normal commute.

- - - posted by josh