Spring in January

The weather has been very spring like lately often times with temperatures in the 70's. Sometimes I think it even smells like spring. All I can say is "enjoy it while you can".

Last week was a good week for me on the bike. I rode five of seven days which is pretty normal for me, but I increased the distance. For Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I did a 30 mile loop; I call it Hour Loop plus Scenic. I did group rides on Saturday and Sunday (Three Amigos and Sunday Afternoon Ride). I ended up with around 175 miles for the week. That is actually pretty good for me and may be the most I've ridden in one week for a long time.

I have been wanting to ride Hour Loop plus Scenic for some time now, but never really had the time. I like the Hour Loop because it is simple and takes me a little over an hour. I have always liked Scenic 25, but I just don't ride it like I use to. I've come to the conclusion that I MUST start riding Scenic Highway more just to get the hills in. So, by combining the two routes I get a route that is a little longer, has some hills, and combines two of my favorite loops.



I am hoping that I can make this route my standard ride. I have created some variations that add the Escambia Fill and/or UWF in order to add a little more distance to this route. The biggest problem in doing the longer routes is going to be time. As it is, this route takes me close to two hours. I am hoping that I can start riding this route twice a week (maybe Tuesday and Thursday) and then on Wednesday ride something a little longer. I have a 50 mile route that I'm really wanting to ride, but I'm not sure I want to try in solo.

So far this year has pretty good. That's nice, only three weeks. Hope your year is going smoothly as well. Later...

Map My Ride

I've created some more routes on Map My Ride. I have posted about this before, maybe a year or so ago. The mapping tools are much easier to use now. It is truly easy to map a route now.

I mapped the Firestone & Summit Hurst Hammick route that we rode last Saturday. What I haven't been able to figure out is how to mark the route as a "Must Do".

I also mapped out some of the routes that I either ride or would like to ride. The route that I ride most often these days is what I call the Hour Loop which incorporates most of the Airport Loop. The other routes also include the Hour Loop but add more distance. You can see all the routes that I've made public on the right side of this blog.

Posted 3 routes

Today was a windy dreary day with rain in the afternoon and evening. I started out to ride around 23 but cut it short to 15. It was so windy. I realized that I wasn't enjoying the ride and had other things that I could be doing. None the less, I'm glad that I rode. I rode the Spanish 15 today.

I mapped 3 routes today on MapMyRide; they are included in the list of rides on the right panel. I've been thinking about it for a while, but haven't really been able to take the initiative to sit down and map the routes. After doing the Three Amigos route this past Saturday, I knew that I better get these routes mapped out soon. Besides, I keep referring to the Spanish 15 and Loop-T-Loop in the blog. Those are the routes that I've been riding the most of lately. The Scenic 25 is still one of my favorites, but it takes time and energy. So here are the new mapped routes:

• Spanish 15 - A fairly flat spinning route when there isn't time for a longer route.
• Loop-T-Loop (23mi) - A variation of Spanish 15 which includes the Airport Loop and finishes on Scenic Hwy. This route is rather compact and doubles back on itself a couple of times with very little duplication.
• Three Amigos - This is a Firestone & Summit group ride around 45 miles.

Map My Ride

It has been either hot or raining. I've been staying up too late to get up early to ride. And last week I went to New Orleans. So, I haven't ridden in a week. What I have done is get familiar with MapMyRide.

MayMyRide is really cool. I've been having a lot of fun creating routes and have spent hours and hours doing this to try and make the routes perfect. The possibilities seem endless.

Below are a couple of routes I've created. There are several others I've created as well: 100k, Century, 200k. As of this writing some of the routes still need cleaning up. Some have directional arrows. It's hard to decide on how many arrows to use. Click here to see my profile which list all of the rides I've created. I have also listed rides in a list on the right on my blog page.

Here is the Firestone & Summit group's Super8


My favorite training ride - The Scenic 25