My old background (mid-late 90s and early 2000s) was mountain biking, Tilden, Redwood+Joaquin Miller, Morgan Territory, etc. Nowadays I live in the Valley High neighborhood of Pleasant Hill and got my road bike about 3 weeks ago. 7-8 rides so far and it's been a blast, can't get enough.

So far my usual ride has been consisting of Alhambra / Alhambra Valley, up and over Pig Farm Hill and then back again. ~17 mi, ~1+ hr... last trip I averaged 15.9 mph

My longest ride so far was basically riding around Briones, my usual route on Alhambra Valley, + Bear Creek (at least one of the bears), Happy Valley Road to Lafayette, and back home via Pleasant Hill and Reliez Valley. 25.7 mi, 1:46 (only 14.5 avg)

My first "real" ride, I'm hoping for a 40+ mi ride that will include the Three Bears loop and doing Pig Farm Hill as well as some extra back-and-forth getting to a friend's house in El Sobrante.

So my questions are... are these generally decent routes and how fast can I expect to get when I'm up to a decent fitness level? I can make it up the hills without issues but I get the feeling sometimes I'm going so slow the cows are laughing.

What else is in the neighborhood that is recommended? I've checked websites, they mostly point to where I've already been (one of these days I want to hit El Toyonal, though).

Also, when are the best times to ride? Due to my work schedule it's mostly been weeknight PM so far, but nobody else seems to be out there then and it seems kind of dangerous due to commuting cars and the position of the sun.

Thanks for any feedback!

to answer your time to ride, between 4-6 is rush hour in the bay area. A lot of people take "short cuts" which are popular to cyclist to get home during these hours. I wouldn't recomend riding during these times, although I have to because my school gets out at 3, so i have to ride during these times.

I'm not sure exactly where you are, but other climbs you could do are: wildcat canyon (by el toyonal), grizzly peak, Pinehurst (north and south), redwood.

Also watch out for motorcyclists. They hate cyclists (not all though, im not being stereotypical). I was riding in a group of 4, and a motorcycle went by us and we yelled at him to slow down, and in turn he flipped us off and sped away.