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09-21-09, 09:56 AM
I posted a while back that I would be moving to the area. Well, it's been a long 2 weeks and I hadn't ridden for about 2 1/2 weeks by the time I jumped onto a bicycle yesterday for my first foray into the area roads.
That, coupled with the fact that I wasn't in top form to begin with, positioned me for an unexpected beating. I live close to I20, just on the south side, in between Robinson and Carrier Pkwy. I took Robinson down to camp wisdom and hooked a left towards Duncanville to Clark Road. Well, along camp wisdom, after stopping at a stop sign, I hit a bit of a brick wall (been having a bit of an illness lately) and had just no energy. I nearly made it to Clark, but at the top of an incline, decided to turn around and head back as I wasn't feeling well and suddenly found out why I was hurting. I had been climbing for quite a while and now it was downhill and 30+ mph over some seriously gnarly asphalt.
On the positive side, I was a bit spoiled by clean, wide shoulders north of Denton and was worried about riding down Robinson with traffic and along camp wisdom with no shoulder. Both of them were fine and most all of the cars gave me plenty of room.
So now that I've got a bit of a feel, what is the predominate loop around Joe Pool Lake? And what other good loops are there? I'm going to try the camp wisdom/clark/belt line (FM something or other) loop for a while just to get back up to speed after time off, but I'll be excited to take some longer routes soon. I'm also looking to upgrade from my BD aluminum special (HEAVY) to a Specialized Roubaix pretty soon here. That should help with the rough surfaces.
That, coupled with the fact that I wasn't in top form to begin with, positioned me for an unexpected beating. I live close to I20, just on the south side, in between Robinson and Carrier Pkwy. I took Robinson down to camp wisdom and hooked a left towards Duncanville to Clark Road. Well, along camp wisdom, after stopping at a stop sign, I hit a bit of a brick wall (been having a bit of an illness lately) and had just no energy. I nearly made it to Clark, but at the top of an incline, decided to turn around and head back as I wasn't feeling well and suddenly found out why I was hurting. I had been climbing for quite a while and now it was downhill and 30+ mph over some seriously gnarly asphalt.
On the positive side, I was a bit spoiled by clean, wide shoulders north of Denton and was worried about riding down Robinson with traffic and along camp wisdom with no shoulder. Both of them were fine and most all of the cars gave me plenty of room.
So now that I've got a bit of a feel, what is the predominate loop around Joe Pool Lake? And what other good loops are there? I'm going to try the camp wisdom/clark/belt line (FM something or other) loop for a while just to get back up to speed after time off, but I'll be excited to take some longer routes soon. I'm also looking to upgrade from my BD aluminum special (HEAVY) to a Specialized Roubaix pretty soon here. That should help with the rough surfaces.