I haven’t been cycling as much as I’d like lately because I’ve been traveling a lot and the weather has been pretty rainy. I started up again this week with the goal of getting past 25 miles.

I did my usual route along the Minuteman trail, but kept going when I got to the end (after a 2-3 minute break). There’s a cycling club called the Cambridge River Wheelmen that does some group rides in the Carlisle/Concord/Chelmsford area, so I just used one of their routes once I got to the end of the Minuteman.

One of the plusses of riding on rail trails is that they were designed for trains so they have nice and low grades. Roads are a different story. There were times when I was crawling up hills at 7 or 8 mph. On the brighter side flying down the hills at 30 mph is lots of fun.

Anyway, I ended up doing 39 miles in 3.5 hours (3 hours of pedaling) at an average speed of 12.6 mph. Next goal: 50 mile ride. Other goal: Pedal faster.

Map after the jump.

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