Yesterday I was able to get in a really good ride. 37.7 miles with over 2300 feet of climbing. Total ride time was 2 hours 45 minutes.

I left the house at 6:30 a.m. and rode down 50 to Radford to 56. I then took 682 up to the Plains, and made my way to the bike path and back to town. Once arriving back in Athens, I headed through town to Cable Lane. Cable Lane hurt pretty bad, but, and I was able to get to the top again. I was pretty impressed with this, considering I had already ridden 20 miles before arriving at the base of the hill. Next time I do this route I may try to get off the bike path at Currier Street so I can take the hill on Second St., which would give me another couple hundred feet of climbing.. This was the longest ride I’ve had this year, and definitely the most challenging. I arrived back home at 9:15 a.m., and was greeted with a plate of chocolate chip & banana pancakes with bacon. Awesome!!

Yesterday morning @cguder and I took a nice long ride on some of the best roads in Southeast Ohio. Route 56 recently got a new coat of asphalt, and we have been itching to get our bikes on it. Rt. 56 is a little sketchy to ride on during high-traffic times, but at 7:00 on a Saturday morning, we only saw about 5 cars the whole time we were on it. The climb from Athens to Union gives you a nice little warm up, and there are lots of rollers all the way up 56 to 691. There is a huge climb at the intersection of 56 and 691 that will really test your legs and lungs. We really enjoyed the hills, but we were definitely grateful when we finally made it to the bike path. Overall a wonderful ride. Total trip mileage was 32 miles in 2 hrs 20 minutes ride time. I also broke yet another spoke in my rear wheel, which is about the 3rd one this year on my road bike alone. I’m thinking once some funds become available, I’ll need to get some newer, stronger rims.

Had a great ride with @cguder today. We got started at 6:30 this morning. We had originally planned to just ride the bike path, but we were feeling energetic and decided to mix it up a bit. This was the first time I have climbed up 682. It wasn’t a bad climb at all, and since it was so early in the morning, the traffic was minimal. We had most of the roads to ourselves, which was a real treat. The climb out of the bike path up Currier and Second Street was a pretty good climb, and got us both breathing pretty hard. Total mileage according to my bike computer was 17 miles, and the total ride time was 1 hour 15 minutes.

I took a little vacation time this morning, and here’s what I did:

I rode this with Chris. It took us about 3.5 hours including breaks to cover 43.5 miles. Actual ride time was about 3 hours, and we averaged about 14 miles-per-hour. According to Sanoodi, we did about 2800 feet of climbing. There were quite a few hills, but we managed to keep on trucking.

It was truly a fantastic day for a ride. For future reference, I drank 2.5 bottles of water and I ate 2 protein bars and a granola bar.

My colleague, Chris Guder, and I took a ride today. Here’s what we did:

And here’s a little video of the ride:

Librarians on two wheels from Chad on Vimeo.

It was a lovely day for a ride, and we had a blast.