Originally Posted by David Bierbaum

Most of my "I'm going to ride now" prep time is just putting on the bicycling clothes. I feel up the tires, and if they don't feel too squishy, I'm out the door.

I'm too old and poor for modern electronics. So no GPS or fancy cycling computer/phone gadgetry, or even el-cheapo cycling computer for me. On the rare times when I plan a route that is unfamiliar to me, I do google-maps the day before, and use the zoomed in satellite view to get a good idea of what I'll see on the trip. I also use google maps to figure out how far I rode on my longer trips. How fast am I? I have no clue, and I'm actually happy with that.