Also pick your roads and pick your times.
That's something I'm really trying to be conscious of doing. Until I'm fairly comfy with the new bike, I've been doing a 3 mile loop to the local park and riding 4 miles on the track there (they allow bikes on it). I'm also pretty nervous about picking a road, running into a rough patch, trying to avoid it and realizing there's a car right on my tail too late. It doesn't help 90% of the roads around here are notorious for being horribly maintained!