Self identifying myself as a wuss with this question, but so be it - more experienced bike riders abound here. Rode bike to work for 2nd time from our new address. Took ~30 minutes to cover 4.7 miles, including 5 minutes to walk my bike up the 2nd part of a hill - couldn't make it up this hill the first time I did this either. Looking on Map My Run, I've found an alternate route. House(~200ft) is high point of either route, work is low point (~60 ft.).
Route A (the one I've actually used): 4.7 miles - first 1.5 miles are residential and not so bad - however upon exiting neighborhood, I am right around the same low elevation as work. Next mile is uphill - all the way back up to where our house is - not very steep for .6 but the next .4 miles is my undoing - goes all the way back up to same height as house. Both times I've done this route, I've gotten off the bike at a convenient spot and walked it for about 5 minutes as I just didn't have the last .1 or .2 in me, even on my lowest gear. Past that point, no problem. This route is either on pretty calm residential roads, or has bike lanes.
Route B: 4.5 miles - exit the neighborhood a different way and much more quickly. This one keeps me at the same height as my house for the most part - quite flat. Pretty gently downhill to the office once that part starts. Downside is this route involves ~1.5 miles on a fairly heavily used 2 lane road with little shoulder and no bike lanes. Other than that 1.5 miles, pretty much same situation as other route - residential or having bike lanes.
I'm tempted to try route B because it looks easier on paper, but I'm not eager to use that 2 lane road. So, which way would you go?
<Edit> - Corrected Typo