Route Boredom

Scudder76

Mostly venting here...

I am bored with my most logical route options. There are a couple of issues/problems:

-I am pretty near the geographic center of New York CIty. Road everywhere, but clean riding has to be ridden to. This is generally a flat 15 mile (each way) run up busy bike paths (still better than riding 6th Avenue) until crossing into the HILLS of the Hudson Palisades. That's my standard ride, and I am bored.

-As far as a relatively clean 20-30 mile ride, over to, up and down that bike path is pretty much my only choice. And I am bored.

My options for variety on linger rides involve driving the bike to a start point, or riding out parallel-ish to a commuter rail line (with crappy city riding for 10-15 miles), and catching a train home. I'm going to start playing with these ideas next week.

Moaning complete...

mdstamand

Your post really made me appreciate living here in Vt. I have seemingly endless options to ride. I can ride relatively flat routes if I ride East and stick near Lake Champlain, I can hit mountains all day by heading west or south from my house. Lots of rolling country roads too. To break things up I sometimes (like this coming Thursday) grab the mountain bike and head out on dirt roads and trails. The only problem here is the sometimes less than optimal quality of the roads and constant lack of shoulders.

I guess I'll not complain too much about the latter as the former more than makes up for it.

Hope you find some interesting miles for the occasional change up.

katozdad

My route options aren't limited, but I tend to ride the same route for convenience most of the time. I would suggest you start logging on Strava. You may find that other riders use the same route or a segment of your route. This function is great for motivation by having a virtual race and gradually moving up the leader board. Be careful though, remember safety first. If you have any hilly areas or a long stretch between traffic lights, then you could create a segment and try beating your personal best over time. There is one particular hill that I look forward to and really go for it.

The other thing is that thinking back to your commute before you got on the bike, how did it feel? For me, I was in the car queuing or stood outside waiting for the tram after a short drive in the car. It was really boring and took as long as it did on the bike. I was also six stone heavier when I first started biking and there is no way i'm going back no matter how boring it gets.

Hope it helps, I do get a bit evangelical at times, but the Strava app has helped to bring another dimension to my daily commute.