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Monday Motivation: Route Finding– Looking for a new loop to train on? Need to find a route for an event or just for fun? Sure, you can sit at your computer and find a route using any number of on-line sources, or you can grab a good paper map and get dirty. Riding a new bunch of roads with friends can be a great time in and of itself, but probably more importantly, it can teach you about the land. You can see landmarks and get a feel for the terrain that no digital based resource can touch.
Get analogue! Go out and ride some new roads and bring along some friends for the fun and adventure of it all.
Hi Guitar Ted. I enjoy getting your feed. So jacked that “Gravel Grinding” is a real “thing” now. It’s my favorite form of riding and racing. And, the more gravel races that pop up the fewer cycylocross punishments I have to endure. Anyhow. just a note to say that your banner head made me laugh. Not sure if it’s on purpose or not but there are certainly times I’ve felt like I’ve been in the “Riding Grave”
Just to clarify. My browser window cut off the “L” in gravel. When I stretched out my screen the L came back.
Thanks for that observation! That does change things without the “L”!
While I was out riding this evening—one of my pancake flat, straight as an arrow, out and back, get ‘ir done, Ankeny gravel routes—I thought of this post and of other things Guitar Ted has written about planning vs asking for gravel routes.
I think asking a friend for a gravel route is like asking for a music suggestion, or better yet, getting a mix tape. I get to experience some thing I may not otherwise have experienced. And I get to experience being “with” that friend even when I’m riding alone.
Thoughts that I can have on those rides…
“Ah, I bet Steve went this way just to get that minimum maintenance section.”
“Oh, Kim must love the view across this valley.”
“The sunrise here would be gorgeous on one of Sarah’s rides.”
And as I get more adept in planning routes, I hope that when I share them, my friends will see me in them.
I’ve never thought about routes in that way, but that is a very insightful and interesting way to think about someone elses routes.