Yesterday’s ride
Two hours and 20 minutes riding yesterday along three trails and the city streets to get there and back, and I’m feeling pretty good about it.
Being Easter Sunday, the streets were deserted as I rode downtown to pick up the Genesee River Downtown Trail at the Court Street Bridge. It was a little cool, so I was glad I wore a sweatshirt and fleece jacket.
Riding south, I decided to take it easy for the first half of the trip, and focused on form and cadence instead. I’ve found I stab at the pedals if I’m not paying attention, rather than using smooth circular strokes.
I kept a steady, if leasurely, cadence south through the ‘hood and into Genesee Valley Park. Coming up on the bridge over the Erie Canal, a blur in an alarming combination of flourescent colors streaked by in the opposite direction. As I stopped at the top of the bridge, a slightly overweight, middle-aged mom huffed and puffed up the other side, pushing a far too small mountain bike.
“Have you seen my son,” she asked. “I’m sure he’s miles ahead of me by now.”
“No he’s not,” I assured her, “If you mean a blur of flourescent yellow and green, he blew by me just as I came up to the bridge.”
We talked for a couple of minutes. Well, mostly she talked about the challenges of raising a 12-year-old. We pushed off down our respective sides of the bridge, and on a whim, I decided to continue south and picked up the Genesee Valley Greenway Trail, which runs 89 miles south from the canal, nearly to Pennsylvania.
It forks just past the junction, and I took the upper fork. It’s rises a bit out of the floodplain and continues straight and level for two miles. The trees are cut way back from the trail which would make this a pretty hot ride in the summer. The pavement is the best I’ve ridden on but I resisted the urge to try for high speed and stayed with my cadence and smoothness exercises.
The trail runs right along the Fire and Police Training Academy. I nearly rode off into the weeds as I gawked at two charred and rusting airliner mockups. One had a broken “wing” resting on its “engine”. There were cars, trucks, buses even a railroad chemical tanker that they use in training. Of course, being a holiday, the place was deserted, which gave it an eerie feel.
There’s a break in the trail a mile further on, where you detour along a busy state highway south of the airport, before rejoining the trail near RIT. I ride in traffic all week long and my Sunday is supposed to be about training and recreation, rather than playing dodge ‘em in the street. I turned around and took the lower fork along the river bank on the return. This fork weaves between the trees in the shade and was a much more pleasant recreational ride.
Arriving back at the park, I couldn’t help but to gawk at the twin bridges that carry I-390 over it. I can’t say how many times I’ve travelled over them, but the from the underside, they’re amazing. I don’t care to estimate how high up they are. This was a concession, not to terrain, but to reduce noise at the ground. I remember years ago the controversy surrounding the DOT’s decision to bisect the park and its golf course with an Interstate highway.
The area has been a crossroads for centuries. The Erie Canal followed Native American trails to this spot, where it intersects the river. Add in an Interstate highway, the airport, natural gas and petroleum pipelines and now three bikeways, and it’s amazing how much transportation infrastructure is packed into this one little centuries-old crossroads.
I’d planned on riding an hour out and an hour back and I was still short of the first hour, so I turned west along the Erie Canal Towpath Trail so see how much further I could get this week. I went past the miniature railroad crossing at Chili Ave, past Buffalo Road, under I-490 and finally to Lyell Ave, where I stopped at an hour and ten minutes.
Lyell Ave is where I thought I could pick up the trail when going to my parents’. It’s the most direct route, but given all the traffic and that it goes through the ‘hood, I’m glad I found the bikeways instead. It’s certainly the long way around, but a much nicer ride.
Calucating in the excursion along the Greenway trail, I figured my time would have taken me well into deepest, darkest suburbia, perhaps two-thirds of the way to my parents’ house. And I was only halfway through my ride. I stopped and rested for 15 minutes, sitting on a fencepost gulping down water, thinking, this would be a good place to pick up the bus on the way back frommy parents’ if I felt too tired. I wouldn’t have to transfer either, since the #3-Lyell becomes the #3-Goodman on my side of the city, and I live on Goodman. Just then, the bus went by.
Coming back, knowing it was shorter and generally downhill, if imperceptably so, I worked on speed. On the way out, I’d stuck primarily to 38-16 to 38-12 (front-rear gears) and a nice, easy cadence. On a level section, I shifted to the highest gear combo (48-11) to put some distance behind me quickly. Yeah, I was stabbing a bit at the pedals, but it was fun nonetheless. It was also the first time I passed riders, rather than riders passing me.
I crossed the river at the park, pausing on the bridge, before turning north along the east side of the river. I kept to the large chainring and found that 48-16 is roughly equivalent to 38-12.
The rest of the ride home is mostly a blur because I badly needed to pee. I’d consumed over a liter of water at my rest stop, and it wanted out. I stopped at all the stoplights, but ran one (Left on red at a one-way is okay, isn’t it?) and hustled up East Ave, arriving home with just enough time to lock the bike before a mad dash through the apartment to the bathroom.
I was stiff and sore on the couch all night. I nixed the idea of making a nice Easter ham dinner with the ham I’d bought on the way home from the meeting Saturday night, and ate several portions of macaroni salad instead. And at bedtime, it was the first time I’ve used a combo of ibuprofen and naproxen so at least the muscle aches wouldn’t keep me awake.
I slept soundly through the night—the first time in ages, and feel raring to go today. No morning fog and only a little residual pain on the stairs. I should be just fine in time for the ride to the library this evening.
