i've been wondering this for awhile... are you guys (i mean ladies) comfortable with riding and running alone? How often do you ride or run alone... etc?

I tend to ride alone a lot in the summer/spring and for the most part, am very comfortable with it. However, my parents always hate to hear when I've been out on the road for 3+ hrs by myself. I've also had guy biking friends tell me it's not smart for a girl to ride alone. I can totally see where they are coming from as I've had a couple of decent crashes and car run-ins. I have also been known to bring my bike with me, when I travel for work. I’ll ride really early in the morning or after work by myself in some obscure city/town that I don’t know quite as well as I should.

It’s hard to always find someone to ride with and who wants to do the same type of ride. If I want to go hard, I call my guy friends who will push me...if I want to ride easy...I call my girl friends who tend to like to chat while riding. And when I just want to do my own thing, I go out alone and ride and love it! I'm 23 and live alone, so it's not like I can tell a roommate the general direction or duration of the ride. I would feel ridiculous calling someone just to tell them that I'm going out on a ride and am way to "independent" to do so.

I do ALWAYS ride with my cell phone and can manage the basic bike mechanic mishaps. However, last summer I realized when I was riding up the north shore of lake superior and was watching the sunrise at 6 am (I was LOVING the view/ride) that I was riding on pretty empty roads and was 20+ miles away from my hotel room, very far from family and friends, and had spotty cell service. The ride was not the best decision I had ever made...in terms of safety. To tell you the truth though, if I had to do it again, I would...it was an awesome ride!

So, I guess I am also wondering, as females, do you feel like you sacrifice your safety in order to complete a solid ride or run?