the Way of the Turtle

RIDING IN THE DARK
18.6 Mile Ride Along the Mohawk Hudson Bike Path
Wednesday, September 30, 3009

OK, at what point did we skip October and jump right into November? Last week I was scrambling to find some decent short-sleeved shirts for work and sweating my backside off... but tonight I ended up pulling out a pair of tights and digging through my gear bag hoping I'd left a pair of 180s in there (and settling for a sweatband that I pulled down over my ears to provide a little bit of warmth.)

It was 6 by the time I got to the bike path... not terribly late, but enough so that I needed a light for most of my ride. The new Nashbar 7-LED light I picked up a while back worked great. I wouldn't want to rely on it if I was a high-speed rider, but for my 10-14 mph pace it was just fine.

I started out chilly but by the time I was nearing the end of the ride I was pretty comfortable... I might have stayed out for another 30 minutes or so if I hadn't had stack of work waiting for me at home. It was mostly cloudy when I pulled out of the parking lot, but during the last stretch I rode the clouds parted enough to give me some great views of the moon and Jupiter. All in all, a pretty good night to be out, and it was probably good to stretch my legs a bit on the Dawes, seeing as I'll be doing 20 miles on it on Sunday during the Rochester Autumn Classic duathlon.

JMH