Quote Originally Posted by aicabsolut View Post
madscot, where do you usually ride? time? pace? I know a lot of route options between DC and Poolesville. Most of them are too long for IGGY right now--but IGGY, there are some places to park and do smaller loops if you're interested. I'm not good with NoVa routes yet, but there's supposed to be a good, challenging hill ride route in Arlington that I will try to learn sometime this fall.
I took the cue sheet for the "Arlington Hills" ride from the PPTC website and it's a good workout. (Actually I modified it to start/end at my office Ballston.) Also Babes on Bikes has a bunch of hilly rides posted on their website. I think they all generally cover the same area of north Arlington, with some venturing into parts of close-in Fairfax County, like McLean.

For Iggy, I was going to recommend WABA's classes that madscot already mentioned. You should definitely look into them. And yes definitely the best thing is to just get out there and ride and you'll become more comfortable and in better shape with practice.

One place that I like to ride is Beach Dr in Rock Creek Park on weekends. The road is mostly closed to cars from 7 a.m. Saturday to 7 p.m. Sunday between Pierce Mill and the DC/MD line. There are lots of other cyclists, joggers, etc. out on the roads but it's wide enough to pass or be passed without problems. My guess is that it's about 8 or 9 miles if you ride from Pierce Mill north to the DC/MD line and back again, so you could do that a couple of times, or ride up and down a shorter section a couple of times, or whatever you like in order to ride the distance you're comfortable with. It's a really pleasant area, with lots of shade and for several miles you are right next to the creek.

Also I agree with your frustration with the PPTC ride groups - although on paper I am totally a CC-level rider, I usually am too slow to keep up with CC rides, but the C rides usually are not long enough or hilly enough for my purposes. It's hard to find exactly what you're looking for.

If you guys plan a ride let me know, because I might be able to join you and/or get a couple of other people who could join in and provide advice and route ideas. (Some of them are guys, but they're nice.)