18.6 Mile Ride from Colonie to Voorheesville to Albany
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Ran to class this morning. Started out pleasantly cool but it got pretty hot by the end of the two hours! Some highlights:
- doing a doubletake as a wild turkey ran across the sidewalk a couple of blocks away from my house. Boy was he lost!
- running through the Pine Bush! Pavement blows, trails rock!
- splashing through a very cold, knee deep pond that flooded one section of Pine Bush trail. My very own Leatherman's Loop!
- another wild turkey crossing the trail in front of me in the Pine Bush.
- a wide variety of birds - everything from crows and turkey vultures, ducks and geese, red-wing blackbirds and mockingbirds, and even a hawk or two.
Unfortunately, I did find two ticks crawling on me later in the morning, so I guess I'm not the only one who likes the warmer weather.
After classes wrapped up and I took care of some office work at the school (as well as washing the outsides of the front windows and practicing Cheon Kwon, a new kata Master Hillicoss taught me several nights ago) I hopped on the bike and headed home via a scenic route - after a couple of miles of busy roadways, I headed out into the countryside on Rt 203, not realizing just how far it would take me before coming to Krumkill Rd or how long a hill I'd have to climb partway there. Still, it was a gorgeous sunny day, and other than my legs being mildly fried from running to class twice and riding there once over the last three days, it turned out to be a good ride. I did opt to avoid the two steep Krumkill hills by cutting over the New Scotland Ave and taking that back to Albany. A bit more traffic than Krumkill, but missing those two hills made it well worth it.
Tomorrow I will get up and probably be slightly bummed that I'm not running the Muddy Moose or the Leatherman's Loop (which apparently reached the maximum number of runners during pre-registration and is now closed.) I had originally planned to do a long run (approx 16 miles) but we'll have to see how my legs feel. It may make more sense to give them a rest day and do the long run either Monday or Tuesday after work.
JMH
