I was originally gunning for 16 to 20 miles, but just kept going to the end of the Rillito path. Great ride! I’ll probably feel it tomorrow.

I just got back from a just-over 14 mile ride on the Rillito River multi-use path and it was my first chance to play with my new Garmin Edge 305 GPS Bike computer. Except for the fact that it was in the high 80’s from the start, it was a great 50 minute ride with 10 minute cool-down!

The GPS came with a heart rate monitor that I’m planning to use to make sure I don’t kill myself trying to work too hard and to make sure that I’m not slacking too much while riding. Though it didn’t come with one, the Edge 305 supports the use of a cadence sensor that I may look into getting to make sure that my pedaling is consistent over the entire ride.

One of the biggest reasons I bought the new bike computer was so that it lets me track rides and heart rate (and, if I get the cadence sensor, that as well) on my computer so that I can better work towards getting in shape. My near-term goals are to get back up to 30+ miles and push to 40 miles, while my long-term is to one-day do the El Tour de Tucson (109 mile ride around Tucson… I can dream, can’t I?!).

[Map removed due to the website being stupid]

Lauren and I biked the river walk last weekend and greatly enjoyed it, so I went back again today on my day off. I decided to take it easy and only do 10 miles until I get back into riding shape. I brought my GPS to track the results and created the above map of my ride.

I started at the Craycroft parking lot and rode west. I would HIGHLY recommend taking the left at the bridge marked in the above map as the road is NOT paved just past there and made for quite an interesting ride. Overall, it was a great ride and I look forward to building up to go much further up the River Walk.