A New, Longer Route

My bike route this morning was a hilly, 6+ mile route that took me about half an hour. It nearly killed me and it's the closest I've come yet to stopping mid-ride. I have longer routes mapped out but it looks like my conditioning is going to have to improve first.

Counting the added weight of my bike, I'm still pushing a considerable mass down the road, with all the aerodynamic qualities of billboard. I've been especially disappointed with how little my downhill inertia translates into uphill distance. More than once a nice old man in a motorized wheelchair was making better speed up a hill than I was. Oh, well.

In the last two weeks I've cycled almost 60 miles and burned about 5000 calories. I've averaged 11.35 mph, which seemed really slow to me at first but, now that I'm done a few hills, I can't believe it's double digit. So far: no wrecks, no flats, no dog bites, no soccer moms in minivans running me off the road… yet.