Riding/Running every single road

[jamiec]

I can't seem to find the post from a few years back by MattTuck (I believe it was him) about riding every single road and street in his county. I needed some motivation so I took his idea and did it with running.

I work in Glens Falls, NY and have been running at lunch. So I planned on running every street in the city. I don't live in Glens Falls so it was pretty neat to run around and see everything. It was also a great motivator, had a "mission" and something new to run each day.

Anyone else done something similar with riding or running?

I am almost done, have a few more runs left, not sure what I will do next for my lunch runs to keep me motivated. Any ideas?

[sandyrs]

This would be utterly impossible where I live but I make a concerted effort to try new routes, does that count? :D

[JStonebarger]

...not sure what I will do next for my lunch runs to keep me motivated. Any ideas?

GPS art?

https://www.google.com/search?q=gps+art&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF3cz67afLAhUEuoMKHboABfIQsAQIHA&biw=1200&bih=1460

[Bostic]

The amount of stopping and restarting the GPS to get the letters A and Y for example in this ride is enough to squelch any desire I would have for gps art. Or am I missing something obvious and there is an easy way to get that done?

http://www.strava.com/activities/438105526

[sandyrs]

The amount of stopping and restarting the GPS to get the letters A and Y for example in this ride is enough to squelch any desire I would have for gps art. Or am I missing something obvious and there is an easy way to get that done?

http://www.strava.com/activities/438105526

At first I didn't think there was any starting and stopping but then I saw what you're referring to. I definitely have no interest in Strava art anyways (who likes turning around a bunch? not me) but that seals the deal.

[jamiec]

GPS art?

https://www.google.com/search?q=gps+art&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF3cz67afLAhUEuoMKHboABfIQsAQIHA&biw=1200&bih=1460

That looks like it requires a bit too much planning. But if I did do them I could be the record holder for a jellyfish or owl strava segment . Real bragging rights!

[oliver1850]

Three years ago I started an attempt to ride every road in the county, which is approximately 30 x 35 miles. The roads are mostly on a 1 mile grid, although there are bigger gaps and places where parallel roads are closer than one mile apart. I figure there are about 2,000 miles of roads in total. I made good progress at first, but since I live in one corner, a ride to the opposite corner results in a 90 mile ride. I have to ride out 25 miles now to get to a road I've not been on. It's been a fun exercise, but I'm not making much progress towards the goal lately, as I don't often want to take the time for 50+ mile rides.

[Cicli]

GPS art?

https://www.google.com/search?q=gps+art&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF3cz67afLAhUEuoMKHboABfIQsAQIHA&biw=1200&bih=1460

Thats cool. Who drew the penisis or peni? though. GeeZe.

[MattTuck]

My original post. (http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=115641&highlight=road)

To be fair, it was only roads in a single town, not a whole county. But it was a great way to give my riding some purpose and feel like I was accomplishing goals.

I'm glad to hear that it inspired someone else to tackle the challenge in their own way.

One of the nice things about a challenge like this is you can print out a map and track your progress visually. So you get some pretty immediate feedback after each ride, and you can look at the whole thing and see where you stand.

If you like this type of approach (and want to keep it limited to running), you're sort of limited to the same roads that you've already done. Maybe you could keep the focus on exploring roads with a certain structure around it.

Print out all the names of the roads (should be in some town report) and put them in order alphabetically. Now, start planning your runs so you cover all the A's before moving onto the B's, and so forth. Again, idea requires you to go do every road, and provides a way to track your progress.

One other way that I can think of that could be sort of interesting is to focus on intersections, instead of roads. Print out the map and put a red dot on each intersection that you hit.

Those are off the top of my head.

[MattTuck]

Three years ago I started an attempt to ride every road in the county, which is approximately 30 x 35 miles. The roads are mostly on a 1 mile grid, although there are bigger gaps and places where parallel roads are closer than one mile apart. I figure there are about 2,000 miles of roads in total. I made good progress at first, but since I live in one corner, a ride to the opposite corner results in a 90 mile ride. I have to ride out 25 miles now to get to a road I've not been on. It's been a fun exercise, but I'm not making much progress towards the goal lately, as I don't often want to take the time for 50+ mile rides.

Yeah, that is a pretty ambitious quest... You should adjust it to ride every road within a 30 mile radius of your house, bringing in the other counties that are closer to you than the distant parts of your own county. There were a couple roads like that on my goal as well. 10 miles as the crow flies, but took 35 miles to get there and back.

[MattTuck]

This would be utterly impossible where I live but I make a concerted effort to try new routes, does that count? :D

Yeah, I'm not sure you'd enjoy riding every road in Somerville. Most of the roads around here are atleast enjoyable to ride.