I'm a relative newby and went for a 21.95 mile ride today. It was broken into two parts: a friend came to my house and I took her to a town that was two towns south of my house and back (12.25 miles); then rode to my DH's work, stopped for Starbucks, stopped on the way back at a LBS, then home. I learned a lot:
- water bottle cages don't look 'that' bad on my bike (bought/installed 2).
- lip gloss attracts flying insects especially gnats.
- pedaling down hill in a harder gear actually made me feel MORE stable on my bike versus riding the brakes and praying all the way down.
- going down hill without applying the brakes is more fun than I thought (overcoming my fear of falling).
- riding nearly 22 miles, with breaks along the way, was easy for me.
- LBS dude informed me that I am way past due for new brake pads and I have an appointment to get them replaced (can you tell yet that I use my brakes a lot?!)
I also worked on cadence per some of your recommendations I read on another post on the New Rider page.

Anyway, that's it. For me it was a wonderful day for riding. It was just over 70, sunny with a light breeze.


Did you learn anything?