36-Mile Ride in the Valley

Following up on my last blog post, I upped my cycling mileage by what I hope is an appropriate amount this week, and did a 36-mile ride up and down the western side of the Pioneer Valley. It came 2 days after a hard hill climb up Chesterfield Road (Northampton to Chesterfield, MA), and one day after an easy trail run with Jen on Yokun Ridge in Lenox. The very scenic route was much easier than the hilltown ride, with plenty of long, straight flats, fewer big climbs, and a lot less elevation gain all around. As a result, my legs felt fantastic when I finished, humming with that happy-to-have-been-exercised buzz rather than a holy-crap-I-feel-overworked ache. Here's the map and elevation for this one:

(map rotated so north is to the left)