#365daysofbiking Grimness:
November 29th – Although we’re approaching the shortest day – when the advance of night is defeated and light gradually seeps back into my life – this next three weeks are the hardest commutes of the year.
This evening I noted from the bike computer that sunset is now before 4pm for the first time this winter, and it will creep almost ten minutes earlier as the weeks wear on.
The commutes will be heavy with seasonal traffic, there will be grim weather and the trains when used will be a mess.
It’s the same every year and I hate it.
March 19th – Things that happen when you’re not looking….
Sunday must have been the mathematical vernal equinox: When day and night are equal in length at 12 hours. Today, with sunrise at 6:13 and sunset at 6:17, the day was longer than night by four minutes.
Of course, the equinox isn’t as simple as that; there’s a full explanation on Wikipedia here and the true astronomical equinox, when the earth’s equator passes the centreline of the sun, occurs on Tuesday 20th March this year (2018).
This is another little milestone to longer, better days; with the coming of British Summer Time on Sunday next weekend, it will feel like summer is just around the corner.
Hopefully, the weather will oblige too.
January 30th – It’s on the way back up. As my lungs clear, my on-bike performance is improving; my average speed over the same commute journey has gained 1.7mph in a week.
It’s still not up to it’s usual 13-14mph, but I’m getting there.
I’m also really liking the Velo utility for the Garmin Edge 1030 on IQ – it gives some great speed tools in one nicely laid out large data field.
December 6th – And there you go; if you don’t like the weather in Britain wait ten minutes. in 24 hours, the air temperature had risen 9 degrees and it now felt positively tropical.
Still grey and murky, though, but at least it was warm.
Let’s hope the air clears in the next few days.
September 1st – As I arrived home in darkness, I caught sight of a critical milestone on the bike computer: Sunset was now taking place before 8pm. From now until November, the darkest will positively gallop onwards, and summer, with it’s warm and light evenings will just be another memory of a season passed.
How I hate the encroaching darkness.
