Now that I am in my big training block, my long bike rides are getting very long.  Tomorrow, my ride is scheduled to be five and a half hours. 

I can go a long way in five and a half hours.  Last year, I tended to split these rides into two loops, so I could stop back at home to reload my water bottles.  While this approach worked just fine, I found myself riding the same roads over and over again.

This spring and early summer, I have been exploring a lot more new roads, and have found it to be a lot of fun. As a result, I am now trying to find new routes and roads for my very long rides.

On my swim at Moraine State Park this morning, I was able to confirm that the water taps are on at the beach areas. This gives me an option to refill my water bottles, without returning home.  This in turn, means I can go explore much further away from home than before.

The photo above is a snapshot of a bike route planning website called ‘RideWithGPS’.  It allows you to plan bike routes and then upload them to your bike computer.  I have just spent the last hour, playing around with possible routes for my ride tomorrow. I am going to be traveling much further north than I have ever done before …. it should be fun.