Biking

It has been just under 3 months since I graduated from Oswego, which means it's only been about 2 1/2 months since I have owned a bike. The bike was a gift from my girlfriend and her whole family since I had expressed interest in one so that I might bike to Dartmouth and back from my apartment thereby saving lots of gas and therefore tons of money.

Although the bike was meant for graduate school, I am very impatient when it comes to having new things... I like to put them to use right away. The bike was no different. I wanted to hop right on and start riding. It wasn't very long before I made my first trek out onto the roads behind my house. The trip is only about 4 miles round trip, but the hills killed me. Having just gotten done watching Le Tour I found myself in awe at how great of athletes those guys truly are; I always knew they were good, but I discovered they are pretty much not human.

Anyway, to get myself back into shape I started riding more (weather permitting) while on my breaks from hockey school. This meant I wasn't riding a whole lot. The other day, though, I went for a ride down a road I hadn't ever been down before and quickly found myself in the next town over (West Henniker) so I turned around and pedalled back to the house and googled the distance (thanks to google maps). A total of just under 7 miles, I thought that was a good distance, especially considering the hills that plague the roads of NH. I noticed, though, that there was a loop that would lead back to Hillsborough off of that same route. Today I tried that loop.

Turns out, the road that leads back to Hillsborough is closed (well the bridge at least) so I couldn't get across the river. Thus I was forced to ride up to Henniker (well maybe not forced, but I decided to go that way) and came back 202/9, a main highway between Hillsborough and Henniker. I found out this totalled about 12 miles, give or take, and adding to that my adventure to find air for my tires, I travelled a total of 14.7 miles (thanks again to google maps). I'm proud of this ride. The hills are long and steep and the distance (at least for me) is quite long. And only taking about an hour to ride, that's a good pace in my mind. I've taken a liking to bike riding, it's refreshing and a fantastic leg and cardio workout. All this makes the trip from an apartment to Dartmouth seem simple. So thanks again to those who helped contribute to the bike, it's well worth it and I've found a new hobby!