Flat and boring
I am on vacation at LBI this week and have notched up about 140 road miles since Monday. This place is flat and dull for road riding, so you have to invent games to play to make it more interesting like drafting cars down Ocean Boulevard where the speed limit is 25 mph and well enforced. Chasing down other roadies and then sprinting past them at 30 mph while looking back as if to encourage the chase is another favorite. Of course cruising slowly and counting the joggers is also cool to do.
Anyway, I vote the road works for MTB training, endurance and plain leg strength. I agree with others who say the road provides instant riding out of the driveway when you are pressed for time, and I have even come to enjoy riding north out of Metuchen towards the Watchung reservation and hitting the hills up there and around the great swamp area. Sure, traffic is a beatch but getting up early solves that problem for the most part. I have a real road bike but also modified an old Jamis hard tail with skinny tires that I use to commute. If you cant afford a roadie grab another set of wheels and some IRC smoothy training mtb tires that you can pump to 100psi and off you go. I can keep a good 16-18 mph on the Jamis that way and it offers a real MTB riding position.
An interesting observation about roadie attitudes this week. I have teamed up with at least one other rider each day here this week, working the draft and chatting about bikes, surfing, boats etc along the way. No bad attitudes and a ton of nods and waves from others going the opposite direction. Then again, none of them were wearing matchy matchys.