How I've been doing.
I'm hoping to get a plugin written for the area over on the right there which will display some statistics about my last few bike rides. Ever since I got my new bike computer (the Cateye Astrale 8), I've been keeping track of all the data it produces, which is to say trip time, trip distance, average speed for the trip, maximum speed for the trip, and the total distance odometer. I haven't tried to graph any of it yet, but I'm sure that'll come soon enough. In the meantime, it looks like I'm getting faster on average (from 19.2 km/h (12 mph) on my first trip to 21.2 km/h (13 mph) on my most recent trip). It's around 17.16 km (10 .66 miles) to my office and back, and I've gone 175 km (108.75 miles) so far. Of course, I've actually gone farther than that, since I biked to work before I got the computer, but I'm happy to ignore those trips for the purposes of tracking my distance.
Does anyone have any guesses as to what the stats will be by the time it gets too cold for me to bike anymore? Personally, I don't think that I'll get too much faster, either on my max speed, or on average. My trip distance will probably increase by a little bit, since I've found some neat paths that are just a little out of my way, and I think I'ld like to take them. And I'm hoping to more than double my total distance, which should be a no-brainer, since after two more weeks (or 10 trips to and from the office), I'll have doubled it, but I'm not sure if the weather will hold out that long. It's been mightily chilly up here for the past few days. It was only 4°Celsius (39.2°F) when I rode to work this morning, and I could really feel the bite of the wind, even through my tiny cotton gloves. If it keeps up like that, I might have to buy a real pair of biking gloves, or stop biking for a while. Though I've got to admit, it was a nice feeling to not be all sweaty when I got to the office.