I’m going to admit something: fitness and speed are really secondary objectives for me. I mostly ride to go interesting places under my own power, get outside, and take a few pictures. I don’t race, and I don’t want to. Not because I lack competitive drive, I just don’t want to be responsible for crashing other people out of the race.

I’m trying to get over my mindset that any ride of less than 50 miles is a waste of time. Frankly, my longer rides really don’t build fitness, they’re mostly for exploration and to satisfy my curiosity.  It’s nice that I am in, by all accounts, extraordinary shape because of cycling, but it’s really just a side effect of my curiosity.

That said, speed and fitness are essential for getting where I want to go, particularly out here where 100 feet/mile of climbing is the norm. So I designed this, and I’ve been riding it daily for the last four days. I’m trying to bore myself into focusing on exercising, rather than being continuously distracted by my surroundings.

Twenty miles, 2100 feet of climbing, lots of gravel! It’s the least boring boring loop I could design. I decided to document it today, since it was day 4 of riding the loop and I was taking it a bit easier to recover. Some pictures for you:

It’s still quite cold out here, as you can tell by the pictures. I’m really tired of riding in the cold, so I’m keeping my rides <30 miles for the next week or two. Hopefully I’ll make up for that by getting out every day, though. Soon I hope to get back to exploration and route finding. Click on “Worth the Trip” to the right if you’re just here for the 50-100 mile routes.

John

medicalwriter.net