New Bike Route

Thursday night was a busy night, so the schedule got thrown out the door. I did get in a 4 mile run on the treadmill, but that was it.

Tonight was time for another long bike ride. I'm tired of riding around the neighborhood and having to stop at all the stop signs and lights. So tonight, I decided to try something new. There is a new toll road that runs close to the lake here. The access roads have wide shoulders and hardly anyone uses them. I have heard from others that they ride on them and I thought I'd give it a try.

I headed out to the lake to park my car. From there, I road to the access road along a road that was part of the triathlon I did a few weeks ago. There wasn't much shoulder on that road, but it wasn't bad. When I got to the toll roads I decided I would just ride the loop until I got my miles in. I was hoping it would be a longer loop, but it only turned out to be about 4.5 miles. But, only a couple of stops to cross the bridge and head back the other way, so still much better than the neighborhood.

On the side heading south, there was a major headwind. And the road is almost all uphill. It's not a steep hill until right before you get to the bridge to turn around, but the whole thing is a gradual incline. Nice practice. I think I did between 13 & 15 mph on this side.

On the side heading north, it's downhill at first, then flat, then a slight uphill back to the turnaround area. I did between 18 & 21 mph on this side.

So it was just me and the road. And a few cars here and there. And a few cows. There was one cow that seemed to watch me everytime I passed. He (or she - not sure) was quite cute. :) I was happy with this ride and ended up getting 30 miles in. I could have kept going, but the sun was going down and I was wearing black. I wanted to get back before it got dark so people could see me on the road. I think I'll be heading back out there for some more bike rides in the future.

Tomorrow morning the team is scheduled for a 10 mile run. Should be fun. Have a great weekend.