Sunday, November 16, 2008

19.1 Mile Ride Along the Mohawk Hudson Bike Path & Through Colonie Mohawk River Park
Sunday, November 16, 2008

My plan had been to drive up to Greenwich today and run the Taconic Hills 15k trail run... but when the alarm went off and I got up to get my gear ready, I realized I was pretty tired and not particularly enthused about the 2 hour round trip and decided to crawl back into bed instead.

Since that left me with a rare free afternoon and daylight is tough to come by this time of year, I took the bike over to the bike path in Niskayuna again, armed with a lot more cold weather gear than I needed yesterday, since it was about 20 degrees colder today. That turned out to be a better move than I realized - once I got to the parking lot and felt the wind whipping along, I wondered if I had enough clothing to handle the cold! Ended up leaving my sweatpants on over my tights, and my legs and feet still ended up a good deal chillier than I would have preferred. I think the fact that there was sleet mixed in with the brief spatters of rain during the middle of my ride gives some indication of what the temperatures were like... brrr.

Needless to say, there were very few people out on this grey, cold day, which is always OK with me. Saw a few more ducks and geese than yesterday, though no mergansers like on Tuesday. (I also heard hunters blasting away, presumably at the ducks and geese.) Spotted a heron perched on a tree limb in one spot, and watched a kingfisher swoop around chattering away in another spot... that was a pleasant surprise, since I've never seen a kingfisher along this stretch of the path before.

Either tomorrow or Tuesday - I run!

JMH
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