On the afternoon of July the 3rd, I did the first full test for the Pittsburgh to DC ride in July. It was a fifty mile ride from our house to Pymatuning State Park. I picked this campground because it is far enough to be a true test of a long ride then camping, but close enough that if things went horribly wrong, Erin could come and pick me up. You can see the route I took below.

You can see a few waypoints are on the map where there is a trail head. I was planning on taking two trails as part of the trip, but as it turns out, both trails will barely suited for walking, let alone riding a bike. First lesson: don't believe Google's bicycle maps.

The second lesson, your effective average speed is significantly less than your rolling average speed. What do I mean? I left around 2pm and got to the camp site at around 7pm so 10 mph effective average speed. I don't have a bike computer because I'm trying to be zen about speed, cadence, etc., but I know my average rolling speed was more than 10 mph.

No when your out on a club ride, this doesn't matter much. When it's the different between arriving before sunset and after sunset, it matters a great deal. I've factored stops into our ride schedule and found out we need to leave about 1/2 an hour earlier than planned on our longest, 95 mile, day so we aren't riding through Cumberland, MD in twilight.

Being without water for the five miles or so was a hard way to learn lesson number three. I was expecting that I would pass a convenience store somewhere, I was wrong. On the big ride we have planned stops every thirty miles, so I'll be alright.

The rest of the lessons were about setting up the campsite and I shot some video for that.

\[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHJKi9iAnHI?rel=0&hd=1\]

Finally, after doing this ride once, I think I've found a better route if I ever do this again, and if I wanted to do a loop, here's a westerly route back to New Castle.