a new route

[totient]

With the new office location has come a new route to and from work. This one is asymmetrical, to avoid left turns onto or off of Middlesex Turnpike: I ride out along mostly the same roads as I used to, taking in the rolling ascent of Springs Road past the VA Hospital in Bedford that makes for such good interval training, and the distance is only slightly less than it used to be. Riding home, I follow the other side of Spring Brook (whose source is more or less in my office park) to the Shawsheen River at Page Road, and then climb 170 feet in just under a mile to the top of the hill and Grove Street near the Lexington line before descending to the Paint Mine, climbing another 60 feet or so into Lexington Center, and then following Mass Ave and Broadway home as I did before. It's a mile and a half shorter than my old ride home, has much less traffic (and fewer traffic lights), deliberately goes right over the top of a hill instead of going around, and generally makes for a great workout. Sprinting the whole way up Page Road is just at the edge of my ability, but when I manage it the ride home is over 20 mph door to door.

Comments

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Wow. You're very nearly riding past the house I grew up in, and past my elementary school, I think.

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

I grew up on the corner of turning mill + partridge.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Diamond Road near North Emerson -- my mother still won't tell me which of our neighbors was really Patty Giacomin, but she claims to know.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

before descending to the Paint Mine,

?!?! All these years I've thought that paint was something manufactured, not something pulled out of the ground! Do the miners come up with green- and orange- and blue-lung?

[palmwiz.livejournal.com]

Long ago there was an ochre mine (http://www.lexingtonma.org/conservation/Lands/Paintmine.html) in North Lexington. Usually by the time I get home I'm ready to trade the ochre for some salt, though.

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

I grew up in that "paint mine" part of Lexington.

[ceo]

Do you take Hancock St in from Grove St? If so, you go almost past the house I grew up in and where my parents still live (it's on Brigham Rd, just before the Hancock-Clarke House).

[palmwiz.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. Wow, high school reunion in my LJ!

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's a lot of Lexingtonians in fandom.

[http://users.livejournal.com/cgull_/]

Yeah, Page Road is an excellent way into and out of that general area. For whatever reason, I tend to use it coming back into town rather than heading out, too.

If you REALLY WANT HILLS, it's not hard to swing a little west on the way home and paste on some of the Burlington/Winchester hills on the NEBC hill ride. The climb to the radio tower off Waltham St, south of 5 corners, is a particularly lovely little sufferfest.

(briefly, the hills are: from 5 corners, Lexington St., then up the steep part of Waltham St, then up the steeper driveway at the intersection of Waltham St. and Grace Rd to the radio tower's parking lot and building. From Rt. 3 and Blossom Hill Rd, take the most direct route up the hill to the top on Girard Rd. From the south end of the Winchester Country Club golf course, climb up Hutchinson Road to Ridge St.)

You should try racing again. It'll definitely make you faster. :)