the Way of the Turtle

25.9 Mile Ride on the Mohawk Hudson Bike Path
Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Many days I head out and pause a lot to take pictures... but every once in a while it feels better to just put my head down and grind out some miles with minimal stops. Today was one of the latter days, though I did get a few shots of egrets, herons, and one of the Mohawk River eagles...

I started out heading west to the base of the old landfill, then back east all the way to the end of the bike path in Cohoes (where several miles of roads connect it to the trail through the Corning Preserve.) It's been quite a while since I rode east of Manor Ave in Cohoes, partly because the path really isn't all that interesting there (it mainly runs along backyards and through some sections of Cohoes that are a bit run down) and partly because while the ride out is a sweet downhill, it's a climb all the way back to the tunnel under rte 9, just east of the Colonie Mohawk River Park. Well, apparently this is my week for riding out-and-backs that involve long climbs on the way back...

My legs were definitely feeling the last few days of running and riding, though I did keep up a decent pace and rode one of my longer distances this summer (sad, very sad.) I briefly considered riding out to Lock 7 Rd one more time to end up with close to 30 miles for today... very briefly, since I was hungry and tired.

Now all I've got to do in a week and a half is ride something like this distance... after running a 5k... and then run a 10k... at this point I'm confident I'll finish Hueston Woods, but I have a feeling the end isn't going to be pretty... not that it ever is.

JMH