1.6 Mile Walk at Five Rivers
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Monday, February 26, 2018
12.3 Mile Ride on the Albany County Rail Trail
Monday, February 26, 2018
Nothing like riding a 50 lb fat bike on a trail totally devoid of snow and ice to really make you appreciate a light weight road bike, or even my mountain bike (which I'm pretty sure weighs less than half what my fat bike does.)
Definitely a workout...!
And hard to believe that 3 days ago the path was covered in snow and slush.
JMH
Monday, February 26, 2018
Nothing like riding a 50 lb fat bike on a trail totally devoid of snow and ice to really make you appreciate a light weight road bike, or even my mountain bike (which I'm pretty sure weighs less than half what my fat bike does.)
Definitely a workout...!
And hard to believe that 3 days ago the path was covered in snow and slush.
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Friday, February 23, 2018
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Monday, February 19, 2018
CONSTRUCTION & MORE #*&*#!!ING ICE
4.4 Mile Run at Green Lakes State Park
Monday, February 19, 2018
The first sign I had that things were not going to go smoothly was signs warning about construction when I pulled into the park (one of my favorites in central NY.) Then I drove down the hill and discovered that the parking lot I usually use is totally torn up, and it even looks like they shifted the location of the park road. The eventual goal is a new environmental education center, which looks really sweet - but right now it's a mess and makes accessing the trail around the lakes very difficult from the west side of the lake - I tried cutting through the construction zone, got hollered at and redirected up the hill, where I finally found a trail through the woods that led me to the shoreline trail.
Fortunately I chose to wear my screw shoes (microspikes would have been better) because most of the trails were covered with ice. Toward the end of the run I even took a trail up the hill the top of the ridge to get away from the ice. I am just really tired of ice at this point.
I had hoped to do two loops for 6-7 miles but between the construction, the rain that blew in about an hour after I started, and especially the ice I decided I'd had enough after one time around the lakes. I wait until nicer weather to do a longer run there...
JMH
4.4 Mile Run at Green Lakes State Park
Monday, February 19, 2018
The first sign I had that things were not going to go smoothly was signs warning about construction when I pulled into the park (one of my favorites in central NY.) Then I drove down the hill and discovered that the parking lot I usually use is totally torn up, and it even looks like they shifted the location of the park road. The eventual goal is a new environmental education center, which looks really sweet - but right now it's a mess and makes accessing the trail around the lakes very difficult from the west side of the lake - I tried cutting through the construction zone, got hollered at and redirected up the hill, where I finally found a trail through the woods that led me to the shoreline trail.
Fortunately I chose to wear my screw shoes (microspikes would have been better) because most of the trails were covered with ice. Toward the end of the run I even took a trail up the hill the top of the ridge to get away from the ice. I am just really tired of ice at this point.
I had hoped to do two loops for 6-7 miles but between the construction, the rain that blew in about an hour after I started, and especially the ice I decided I'd had enough after one time around the lakes. I wait until nicer weather to do a longer run there...
JMH
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Friday, February 16, 2018
10.6 Mile Ride Through the Corning Preserve
Friday, February 16, 2018
Took my mountain bike down to the Corning Preserve for a short ride - as it turned out, the path was mostly clear enough that I could have ridden my road bike - there was only one stretch that was iced over enough that I needed to walk the bike.
I wish I remembered my camera - I could have gotten some nice shots of the foggy preserve, three mergansers on the river, as well as some ducks just past the boat launch.
JMH
Friday, February 16, 2018
Took my mountain bike down to the Corning Preserve for a short ride - as it turned out, the path was mostly clear enough that I could have ridden my road bike - there was only one stretch that was iced over enough that I needed to walk the bike.
I wish I remembered my camera - I could have gotten some nice shots of the foggy preserve, three mergansers on the river, as well as some ducks just past the boat launch.
JMH
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Erie Canalway Trail Paving, Montgomery County
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Last spring I ran a fun evening race from the St Johnsville marina to Minden and back along the mostly unpaved Erie Canalway trail. This morning I received an email with this year's race application, and when I checked it out I noticed that it proclaimed that the route is fully paved.
A little research this evening showed that the plan is to pave the unpaved stretches of the trail in Montogomery County. On the one hand, this is great news - it will be much easier to ride that section of the trail once the paving is done. But I have to admit I'll miss the stone dust trail, both for the more rural, natural feel it conveys and because no doubt traffic on the trail will increase just as it did on the Albany County Rail Trail once it was paved.
JMH
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Last spring I ran a fun evening race from the St Johnsville marina to Minden and back along the mostly unpaved Erie Canalway trail. This morning I received an email with this year's race application, and when I checked it out I noticed that it proclaimed that the route is fully paved.
A little research this evening showed that the plan is to pave the unpaved stretches of the trail in Montogomery County. On the one hand, this is great news - it will be much easier to ride that section of the trail once the paving is done. But I have to admit I'll miss the stone dust trail, both for the more rural, natural feel it conveys and because no doubt traffic on the trail will increase just as it did on the Albany County Rail Trail once it was paved.
JMH
Monday, February 12, 2018
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Wednesday, February 07, 2018
SNOWY SHUFFLE
6.1 Mile Run Around Albany
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Admittedly, it's my own fault... I could have gotten my butt out the door to run when the snow first started instead of a couple hours later when 2-3 inches had fallen. But I didn't so I had six miles of mostly shuffling through the snow, except for some moments when I ran in the road (because there was no sidewalk) or on sidewalks that had been cleared. Of course the latter had their own inherent risk - not everyone cleared the ice from Sunday's storm off their sidewalks, some some folks were clearing away the snow just to uncover the ice.
Running today reminded my of years ago when I lived in Hillsdale... a few times each winter I would go to the Harlem Valley Rail Trail when it had six inches of snow or so and do what I called "snowman runs" (I didn't know about running snowshoes back then... actually, there were probably very few running snowshoes back then, snowshoe running seems to have started to take off at right around that time.) I always figured that if nothing else it was a good resistance workout, and based on how my legs feel after today I think it's fair to say it still is...
JMH
6.1 Mile Run Around Albany
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Admittedly, it's my own fault... I could have gotten my butt out the door to run when the snow first started instead of a couple hours later when 2-3 inches had fallen. But I didn't so I had six miles of mostly shuffling through the snow, except for some moments when I ran in the road (because there was no sidewalk) or on sidewalks that had been cleared. Of course the latter had their own inherent risk - not everyone cleared the ice from Sunday's storm off their sidewalks, some some folks were clearing away the snow just to uncover the ice.
Running today reminded my of years ago when I lived in Hillsdale... a few times each winter I would go to the Harlem Valley Rail Trail when it had six inches of snow or so and do what I called "snowman runs" (I didn't know about running snowshoes back then... actually, there were probably very few running snowshoes back then, snowshoe running seems to have started to take off at right around that time.) I always figured that if nothing else it was a good resistance workout, and based on how my legs feel after today I think it's fair to say it still is...
JMH
Sunday, February 04, 2018
Saturday, February 03, 2018
4.5 Mile Run on the Mohawk Hudson Bike Path
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Not as far as I was hoping to run, but so it goes... the trip out to Scrafford Lane was very pleasant, with parts of the path covered in a thin layer of snow that added a little extra cushioning and made a soothing crunching sound underfoot. Then, on the way back my guts got cantankerous, so when I finally got back to the car I decided to play it safe and headed home instead of running a couple of miles in the opposite direction.
JMH
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Not as far as I was hoping to run, but so it goes... the trip out to Scrafford Lane was very pleasant, with parts of the path covered in a thin layer of snow that added a little extra cushioning and made a soothing crunching sound underfoot. Then, on the way back my guts got cantankerous, so when I finally got back to the car I decided to play it safe and headed home instead of running a couple of miles in the opposite direction.
JMH
Friday, February 02, 2018
Ending the Week on a Positive Note
Friday, February 2, 2018
I spent most of last night on the road, driving to Syracuse for visiting hours at a funeral home and then a bite to eat before driving back to Albany. Right after I left the restaurant my car's computer decided that it was time to switch from "oil change needed soon" to "oil change needed right now", at which point it starts recording how many miles I've driven since it told me that. So after driving back through rain and sleet (fortunately, the temperature never really dropped below freezing until I got home) I had to schedule an appointment at Saratoga Honda, and managed to get one for 4 PM tonight.
So right after work I drove up to Saratoga and dropped off the car, figuring at that time of day I'd have about a two hour wait. No big deal, I had plenty to do while I was waiting. But I got a really nice surprise - they took the car in immediately and 45 minutes later I was driving out of the lot.
I would have liked to go walk around Saratoga Spa State Park a bit and check out conditions for Sunday (currently, a trail race with spikes because of the ice) but the temperatures were in the low teens with a strong wind (so probably around zero after the windchill.) So I settled for driving home instead.
I was pretty sure I would freeze during my short walk later in the evening but that was the 2nd pleasant surprise, while it was cold the wind had died down and it was a fairly nice night, with an almost full moon in the sky. It's too bad I wasn't so tired, it would have been a nice night for a run.
I'm definitely not going out to Hammond Hill State Forest for the Loomis snowshoe race - really don't feel like driving 6+ hours, especially for a race that the RD has said has barely enough snow. I had considered going to the Beer & Chili 10k in Newport, NY (put on by the Kuyahora Kickers, the same group that did the Towpath Trail Run I enjoyed running last May) but that's a 3 hour round trip and I don't even feel much like that, especially since it would mean leaving at 7:30 AM. So it looks like I'll just go out for a run somewhere around here tomorrow - probably for the best, given how little I've run recently.
JMH
Friday, February 2, 2018
I spent most of last night on the road, driving to Syracuse for visiting hours at a funeral home and then a bite to eat before driving back to Albany. Right after I left the restaurant my car's computer decided that it was time to switch from "oil change needed soon" to "oil change needed right now", at which point it starts recording how many miles I've driven since it told me that. So after driving back through rain and sleet (fortunately, the temperature never really dropped below freezing until I got home) I had to schedule an appointment at Saratoga Honda, and managed to get one for 4 PM tonight.
So right after work I drove up to Saratoga and dropped off the car, figuring at that time of day I'd have about a two hour wait. No big deal, I had plenty to do while I was waiting. But I got a really nice surprise - they took the car in immediately and 45 minutes later I was driving out of the lot.
I would have liked to go walk around Saratoga Spa State Park a bit and check out conditions for Sunday (currently, a trail race with spikes because of the ice) but the temperatures were in the low teens with a strong wind (so probably around zero after the windchill.) So I settled for driving home instead.
I was pretty sure I would freeze during my short walk later in the evening but that was the 2nd pleasant surprise, while it was cold the wind had died down and it was a fairly nice night, with an almost full moon in the sky. It's too bad I wasn't so tired, it would have been a nice night for a run.
I'm definitely not going out to Hammond Hill State Forest for the Loomis snowshoe race - really don't feel like driving 6+ hours, especially for a race that the RD has said has barely enough snow. I had considered going to the Beer & Chili 10k in Newport, NY (put on by the Kuyahora Kickers, the same group that did the Towpath Trail Run I enjoyed running last May) but that's a 3 hour round trip and I don't even feel much like that, especially since it would mean leaving at 7:30 AM. So it looks like I'll just go out for a run somewhere around here tomorrow - probably for the best, given how little I've run recently.
JMH
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