The last "substantial" ride I took was a week ago Tuesday, and between the traveling and the weather I haven't had another chance. It was chilly this morning, but it felt pretty good after lunch, so I took it down to the park and did five miles.
Five miles is "easy" to say the least, and can be done in 25 minutes or less. My brain still remembers good riding technique, but it's mismatched still with what my body is actually capable of. I used to be able to climb without losing too much speed, but now a slight grade causes me to down shift two gears just to keep my cadence up. If I could reach a less quantitative goal this summer, it would be to not have that condition.
I went down to the Metroparks, which kind of surround Cleveland in the "emerald necklace," as they say. The problem is the points closest to me are nearly at the highest evolution, so going west/north is a whole lot of down hill. Going east is more up. The bigger problem is that going east is a whole lot of non-interesting. I went west/north this time a mile and a half and it was actually pretty even, so I may continue to push in that direction.
I want to do an hour of riding on these park trips, which would probably settle around 12 miles depending on what the terrain and elevation change actually is. I'd be happy if I could get into enough of a routine to do that three times a week.
After feeling tired running around hilly east PA parks last weekend, it only reinforces that I need to get into some measure of fitness, post haste.
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