the Way of the Turtle

BACK TO THE GERBIL WHEEL
15 Mile Ride on the Mohawk-Hudson Bike Path
Tuesday, January 8, 2008

I had originally planned to run today, but the unseasonably warm weather (high 50's/low 60's) was too much of an opportunity to get out on a bike without risking becoming a flash-frozen Turtle. So I took my ATB over to the park in Niskayuna, figuring much of the bike path would be at least partially clear.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case... I headed east for about half a mile, with the snow and ice getting steadily worse, and finally turned back to the Gerbil Wheel - the 2 mile plowed section of path from the Lions Park to Lock 7 Road that I ran back and forth on seemingly endlessly last winter while trying to prepare for the Eastern States 20 Miler.

I ended up doing three laps, with the extra bit of riding up the road to the Lock 7 parking lot. I was a little bit surprised to encounter two other runners (one who was clearly doing laps like I was) and three walkers in the time I was out there... I guess I wasn't the only one who couldn't resist the warm weather.

The new 5 LED light I bought from Nashbar worked great... so much so that I think I'll pick up another one, even though I'm not thrilled with how difficult it is to open and close it for replacing the batteries.

Unfortunately, the rear suspension on my ATB displayed a lot of flex tonight - since it's a department store bike I suspect the suspension is wearing out, which means I need to be thinking about picking up a new ATB (since that flex translates into a lot of wasted energy on an already heavy ride.) Since I'll probably end up getting another inexpensive bike, this time I'll probably go with a hardtail with fron suspension. But that's probably not for several more months, and maybe even not this year...

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to start cooling off a bit, though they're saying it will be warmer than normal all week. So I'm guessing the snowshoe race this Saturday at Savoy will end up being cancelled... but if the weather stays decent, maybe I can get in another ride this weekend, during daylight this time!

JMH