I just joined these forums and my intro is here
in my intro section thread.
I just completed a short 3.4 mile "rookie" loop that I mapped out myself on my local roads. It has a really nice combo of some mild+ grade climbs and descents. For now, I'm channelling most of my effort on the climbs and coasting through the descents since I am still sort of gaining mastery of balance and shifting and this affects my efficiency with both. I was real happy with my 22 minute perfomance (9.1 MPH avg.). Once I start pedalling the descents this avg will go up quite a bit.
I also took care to make sure I wasn't in the highly travelled areas too long. The loop starts and returns to my front door.
This cycling thing is cool!