The winter weather has faded away and I've been able to get back on the road again for the past 3 weeks. I really enjoyed trying to bike through the snowy winter on a mountain bike and do some different type of riding but it's been nice to get back on the road an catch up with some people I haven't seen in a while. I actually rode with George this past weekend. It was good to see him riding again after the accident he had in the fall. Even though he said he is only about 70% recovered he rode good enough for me to have to switch to the big chain ring to catch him a few times along the ride.March is the beginning of the riding season which makes me start to think about new rides I want to try and setting my goals for the season. Last year I decided to do more hilly rides and work at becoming better at climbing. 2010 was a good year and all the hills I climbed got me into really good shape.
This year is going to be a lot different than last year mostly because I'm going to be working on a new book "Best Bike Rides Philadelphia". This book is going to have the best road and mountain bike rides in and near the city of Philadelphia. The rides will mostly be in the 15 to 30 mile range and meant for new or less serious riders. I've already started doing the research and doing some of the rides for the book. What I'm discovering is that Philly has a lot of nice and cool places to ride. For example they actually close MLK drive on Saturdays and Sundays in the summer just for bikers and runner to use to ride along the Schuylkill River. There is also various parts of Fairmount park which has a lot of good paved and dirt trails some of which they actually plow during the winter. I was able to ride an 11 mile trail along Pennypack Creek even through there was over a foot of snow on the ground. This is going to be a fun project but is going to take a lot of my normal riding time.
I still plan to do some rides with the club but I won't be leading as many rides as last year since I will be riding outside of the usual club areas. As I did with the Road Biking NJ book some of rides I will put into the freewheeler will be rides to explore the areas I need to get the book done. These will include areas from Doylestown to Wharton State Park to Newark Delaware. So keep and eye on this blog and the rides I put in the freewheeler and join my as I explore some of the roads in and around Philadelphia.
