18.1 Mile Ride on the Albany County Rail Trail
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
The Albany County Rail Trail seemed like the easiest option for tonight's ride, except that I expected it to be packed with people, though getting there around dinner time might have helped. I didn't even try to get parking in Slingerlands, instead I drove out to the relocated barn on Hilton Rd and parked there - despite it not being an official trail parking area, there were still half a dozen cars there.
My original plan was to try for as close to 15 miles as I could get, but that meant going quite a ways down the hill heading down to the river, and once I reached the turnaround spot I thought, what's another mile and a half (well, actually, three by the time I'd be done, with an additional mile and a half of climbing on the way back.)
The climb back from South Pearl St went better than I expected - I did it in higher gears than I used to, so maybe all the running, riding, and walking I've been doing is paying off (I'm sure dropping close to 20 lbs so far hasn't hurt, either. I actually rode back in almost the same amount of time as I rode out, with most of the trip back being various degrees of climbing. I have to say, it felt pretty good, especially given that I'd done a 5 mile run just a short time earlier.
JMH
