The Annoyances of Mixed-Mode Commuting

There are days when I enjoy the fact that I commute via multiple modes of transportation. And then there are days where I am indifferent. This day is neither of the two. This is one of those days where circumstances, whether within my control or beyond it, have left me feeling annoyed, nonplussed or otherwise dismayed.

First on the hit list today is the weather. While 58 degrees is by no means cold, it's not exactly warm. It's hovering in that range where you're not quite sure what to wear. As sunrise will be after I get to work there is no relying on the sun to add a bit of warmth. 5 degrees warmer and shorts and a wind breaker are I need, 5 degrees colder, and the arm and knee warmers come out as well. On this day, I opted for the wind breaker with knee warmers which would have been fine had I not missed my train.

This presents the second issue I have with mixed modes of travel. When you miss a connection, in my case a train, it occasionally leaves you standing around doing little more than thinking about what annoys you most about commuting. During the summer I don't much mind this. Usually its warm, but not hot, so I'll just ride around and explore the parking lot or cruise up and down the road a bit to waste some time. Other times I'll pull out my camera and see if I can find a good view of the sunrise or the city off in the distance. Today, it was sit and shiver or ride around to try to stay warm.

This I will admit was due to some bad decisions on my part. First, choice of attire. As mentioned above, just a wind breaker up top with a T shirt under. The issue with this is that cycling apparel tends to be designed to wick moisture away from you in an attempt to keep you cool and/or dry. In the case of top layers, usually the latter, and it works fairly well when moving. Once you get that buffer layer of warmth between you and the fabric there's usually no issue, that is until you stop. At that point, the moisture wicking properties of the fabric come into play and about 3 minutes later, 58 feels like 48. Normally, this would not have been a real issue as I generally try to take it easy on my 4 1/2 mile ride to the train station, but on this day, I got running late.

Enter bad decision number 2. When you see that you only have 15 minutes to make what, when in commuter mode, at your best is a 15 minute ride, either A. pocket the bagel and book it to the train station, or B. plan on catching the next train and eat the bagel on the road. What did I choose... eat the bagel and try to catch the train. This lead to a cascade of events that ultimately left me cold and sweaty, standing on a train platform.

The cascade goes like this: I chose to eat on the road. I'm pretty sure that over the mile and 1/2 of concentrating on chew, swallow, breathe, I probably lost 30 seconds versus what I probably could have done had I not been so encumbered. Upon realizing my error, I then went into time-trial commuter mode, as opposed to time-trial while eating 1/2 a bagel commuter mode that I had been in previously. Both of which contributed highly to the reason I was rather damp when I arrived at the platform. Now, I'm fairly confident that had I not lost that 30 seconds, I probably could have made the light that turned red about 200 meters in front of me 1/2 a mile from the train platform. Especially since the road was a false flat downhill, and I had a slight tailwind. In turn, had I made that light, I wouldn't have lost the 2 minutes I spent sitting waiting for it to turn green (or a unlikely sizable gap in traffic). When the light turned green, I went into commuter sprint mode, again contributing to the level of sogginess. And when all was said and done, I roll up to the platform to see the train I was trying to catch had left about 30 seconds prior to my arrival.

And thus, the cold, damp wait.