Biking: July 12th, 2009

Posted on July 12, 2009 One Comments

Earlier this year I bought a new bike and vowed to ride 1000 miles this summer. Since then I’ve caught the bug and have spent this summer going for longer and more challenging rides each week. I may have to reconsider that 1000 mile goal.

Unfortunately, I bumped my bike computer today and it reset itself so I’ve lost the season’s odometer. Upon the completion of today’s ride I believe it should be right around 660, so I’ll go with that and just try to track the accumulation. Since I need an excuse to put stuff here… well, I’ll try and write some articles to help track miles.

Today’s ride was a great one. After multiple misadventures, I finally managed to find a route from home up to Cherry Creek state park. I cheated… bought a map.

Cherry Creek is a bit of a big deal around here as it seems to be where a lot of the “big kids” go to train. I’ve driven up there a few times, but I’d rather ride than drive anytime.

I think the ride was right around 40 miles (+/- 2?) and I was averaging right around 18 mph for the first two thirds until the computer reset.

The red dot towards the bottom is (more or less) where I started and finished. Started by dropping a bit south to get on the trails and going north on them– that would be the more “windy” routes to the right. I did a clock-wise loop around the park and then came back more directly on roads with a small side-loop at the bottom. (that red dot is at a major intersection nearby. It is not my home).

There’s a very clever kid just south of the south park entrance (on Jordan, north of Arapahoe). How clever? He runs a little Gatorade and energy bar stand at the end of his driveway. Very smart, yes? I bet hundreds of bikes a day go by there on the weekend. I stopped there on my way back south for a Gatorade. Only a buck and it definitely hit the spot. Alas, this is also where I reset my bike computer.

I’ll work up a GPS mapping solution for the next run – I’ll definitely be doing this ride again. I used Gmaps Pedometer for the map. Works well but pretty tedious for a long route. Maybe I’ll revisit TrackMe again.

Today’s ride: 40 miles (est)
Summer total: 660 (est)