Yesterday I tried out another "less stops" and "kinda less cars" commute. I hit up the 51 at Grovers and took the bike path north which got me under the 101 and onto Reach 11. This took me over to Cave Creek Rd and Deer Valley. I proceeded north on Cave Creek. It was OK. I'm definitely not a roadie (though I am pretending to be one on these commutes) and having traffic fly by at 50 MPH was a little bit weird. Some sections were worse than others as there are places on the road where there is a 20 foot shoulder section. The other sections were the standard 3-4 foot bike lane.

This got be to Dove Valley which was a great ride. Nice road condition and more people on road bikes, but everyone was on the other side of the road going the other way. All in all a great section. I cut through the edge of the neighborhood and then made my way over to Dixileta which sees very little traffic except for the people leaving the dump site. This leads to a nice easy crossing of the 17 and then a little used (for now) frontage road which got me back into some neighborhoods for the final section to home.

Even though this is about 4 miles shorter than my other "long" commute ride, I think I prefer the longer one. It goes through some nice neighborhoods and isn't as isolated. It won't matter much, because I think the long way home is going to get cut once the temps get over 100. I'll just want to get home. 1.5 hours in the heat will be good enough. I'm really going to try to keep this up through the summer. We'll see.

I do need to get fitted on my bike. I didn't notice it when I had more stops, but when I have bigger chunks of just spinning, my positioning is off, and I experienced some hand numbness.

I'll get that taken care of soon.

It's been a while...

It has been a long freaking time (almost three years!!!) since I've posted anything. I have good reason to start again. Keep reading to find out...

I've been commuting via bike again twice a week. The shortest route I have is 23.5 miles. I have various options I am checking out to add mileage typically for on the way home. The first optional route I looked at checked in at 36 miles, but has a nice stretch along the AZ canal that means I get to avoid all vehicle traffic and stops. It's a slick setup, it's just too bad that it's a bit out of the way for me to get to.

The commuting thing has a couple of benefits. I get some good base training, at least six hours per week just for the commutes, with minimal impact to the family schedule. Score! This on top of my mountain bike rides will get me between 10 and 11 hours per week on the bike.

Why so much time on the bike? Well, first and foremost... I really need to get/stay in shape. It's a great stress reliever and it's great exercise.

Second, I need my butt in the saddle a lot as I have committed to doing the AZT 300 next year. Feels funny to type that, but this race has been on my radar for years now. After completing several AES rides and a solo overnight bikepack adventure, I feel like I just might be able to tackle this beast.

My only goal is to finish.

So much to do. My family knows my goal. A few of my biking friends know. Now it's out there on the internet...

More to come. It's gonna be a crazy year.