Map out a route?? I just jumped on and went! I am just jesting of course. Good idea to map things out, but if you have decent weather and time is not an object I highly recommend just going for a ride. My January Century was 100.3 miles, and I did it by the seat of my tights It is a good mind exercise to mentally plan where you are how far you have gone, how far you have to go and what routes you need to take to get there. People sometimes ask what do you think about when you are riding, and I often think about "Where am I going??!!" Good Times