Road Cycling - Where to ride?

Since the snow/ice/slush mix here in VA is refusing to melt quickly, I am forced to find other places to ride my bike. The trail I usually ride at lunch is still covered, and I am too lazy to load my mtb into my car every morning.

I figured this is my chance to learn how to get around Reston. Do I just hop on my bike everyday and see where I can go in an hour (great excuse to by a computer), or do I carefully plot my routes by car this weekend so I know mileage and general traffic patterns?

Thanks for the input :D

Just hop on the bike and explore! Or get out a map --- Mapquest, maybe? --- and devise some routes that are mainly in residential neighborhoods.

Just my $0.02

I suppose it depends on how comfortable you are riding on unfamiliar roads. You probably don't want to do what I had to do once and find yourself walking down a hill because it was too steep, too blind, and too narrow. Even so, I've never hesitated to ride a road just to see where it goes.

I do like to have a map with me when I explore. I've found a great map site

here (http://www.yymap.com)

It's called yymap. It will download a control when you first visit (small file, quick download). Its maps are detailed and print in high resolution. Of course, I used one of these maps before the ride with the infamous hill.

Originally posted by cyclochica
or do I carefully plot my routes by car this weekend so I know mileage and general traffic patterns?


Maybe you could carefully plot your routes by bike this weekend. It would give you a better idea than attempting to do so by car, and you'd get some extra riding in.

Wow Prosody, that's the best mapping site I've ever seen! It even has small gravel roads marked. Thanks for the link. :)

Hey Prosody,

Nice link to that map site... I've been looking for something more detailed than mapquest usually gives!

As to the where to ride question, I like checking out the route by car first, because I can cover alternative ground quickly. A friend of mine always carries a tape recorder when figuring out a new route, then he can listen and write a cue sheet in detail... though I don't know if your lunchtime excursions will as complicated!

Have fun! -mags

Originally posted by Prosody
I've found a great map site

here (http://www.yymap.com)

It's called yymap
Yep. That's a keeper. Thanks!

Its really no fair - we normally don't have to deal with actual winter until January / February around the DC area. I take up cycling, and suddenly it has been nothing but cold and snow, today with freezing rain.

Gak.

I find that if I don't know where I am going when I start, I make it a much shorter ride, something about fearing that I will get too far away, take too long getting back, and overcompensate.

Perhaps its my mental makeup - but I like knowing what I have to tackle, and how long until I will be finished. In other words, I am more relaxed and tend to go further if I know where I am going and for how long.

I am too much like RollingGeek and will probably plot my new routes this weekend. Thanks everyone for all the input, hopefully the trail will be clear and I can get back on that soon.