Dr. Bicyclelove, or How I Learned to Love the Riverwalk

As quick update on riding around my house, I went out again this past Tuesday and it was slightly less terrible. I tried to maximize my speeds downhill so I had less pedaling to do uphill. I'm probably the first person to ever think of this, I know. If you notice the image to the left you can click on it and read some notes that I made about the ride.

Looking at the elevation data on the graph, it seems pretty apparent that the GPS in my phone isn't quick enough to update the elevation accurately as I'm going fast (fortunately, this doesn't happen often). This is probably a problem with any GPS to a point, but this if the first time I noticed it. If you look at the left half of the graph, you'll notice that the elevation data is much smoother (faster). On the right, however, the elevation is much more defined. In theory, the elevation data should be a mirror image because it's the exact same route. Just goes to show as much as I love my phone, I can't rely too much on it for super-accurate GPS data.

This time, however, I wanted to talk about the Riverwalk that was constructed as part of the market street bridge project. The bad news is that I have to drive to get there (ok, ok, I suppose I could ride my bike - but I won't), but the good news is that it's very nice and relatively easy to ride on, depending on the IQ of the people you share the path with.

The route I rode on 7/13/2010 started and ended further east down the bike trail, closer to Montoursville (and Club Fred, the local strip joint!). I was going to do a shorter route but parking was an issue, and I could use the exercise.

So far I consider this trip to be my best, it was almost 9 miles and I kept my average speed up to almost 14mph. The whole route was pretty flat, and if it wasn't for having to slow for ignorant users of the path I could have probably had my average speed above 14mph, maybe closer to 15mph.

If you look at the graph, the last stretch of ride was flat and practically deserted road, so I tried to finish strong. I wasn't in the super-duper-racer tuck position but I was pedaling about as hard as I felt I could get away with, and it looks like I kept a solid 20mph for a half mile or so. In real cyclist terms that's probably not that much of an achievement, but again I felt like it was a good effort on my part.

After the ride on the 13th I was itching for another ride. The following Sunday, Amber had some shopping to do at Lowes and Walmart so I thought I would pick up the bike route there and ride the riverwalk loop and back.

I wasn't in any particular hurry so I wasn't trying to set any speed records, I was pretty pleased overall with my effort. 15 miles in 1:15 is fair for me, especially considering the foot traffic (average moving speed of 12.4mph). This was my first relatively long ride and aside from my wrists going numb I felt pretty good. I think I could comfortably go longer distance, assuming I could find a route long enough with few hills and little-traffic. My best bet is probably just to do a few extra loops of the riverwalk, but we'll see.

For some nice validation, Amber told me that she was happy I was getting some use out of the the bike. This weekend we're going to be away with some friends but I may take my mountain bike along if I'm feeling ambitious (i.e. not a chance).

Not surprisingly, I've found that I've been sleeping better on the nights that I've been biking (or exercising), and sleep has always an issue for me. I'm guessing my body never gets tired enough from sitting behind my desk all day - who knew this exercise stuff was actually useful!