Literally. That's what I did today. There's basically one road that circles the entire town of Reno, called McCarren. Think Foothill Expressway with less than half the stoplights and two big climbs with the rest of the miles being rolling. There is a BIG bike lane the entire length with the exception of 1/4 of a mile where North McCarren becomes South McCarren near it's eastern most point.
I've spent the last year in the North Eastern "flatlands", and the last three months riding in my basement, so I had planned to take the easy route for my maiden voyage. On a map, it all looks flat. There was maybe 1 mile of flats for the whole 3 hours. Sigh.
Anyway, this kind of riding is the best way for me to get my bearings---and get familiar with my new surroundings. No matter where I was, I was surrounded by 7000' to 9000' climbs---with the bigger peaks of Mount Rose in the distance. The air is dry dry dry. The whole ride I had that dry throat feeling. I loved it!
Something Mike had mentioned yesterday, but which I really hadn't experienced before (I never "push it!), was the feeling where my legs felt great---but I felt like I was breathing through a straw. Usually my aerobic conditioning is good and my legs give out. Altitude training. Funny thing was I felt fine on the climbs, but the flats were where I was feeling "tired".
In any case, I had a lovely ride. Reno has that small town feel---very spread out. I suppose in the bay area we call this "sprawl"---and perhaps in a few years, they'll call it "sprawl" here too. But right now it's pretty nice.
As I turned onto Mae Ann and headed home, I had that headwind to deal with. But it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be. The climb home is about 1000'---it reminded me of my ride home in San Francisco.
We start working tomorrow officially! Happy Sunday!
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