Tour de Trails II
Now with extra crit loops!
Today was the first decent weather since I did that 73 miler with bikerjohn three weeks ago today. Fifty-five to 60°F, gorgeous sunshine.
I have all sorts of stuff I should have done instead—client stuff, billing, clean the apartment, laundry, phone calls, letters to write… But I played hookey instead. It was far to nice a day spend inside.
Shortly after noon, I set out. It was still a bit windy from the windstorm Saturday and Sunday, so I figured I just do an out-and-back as far as I could into the wind, then turn around—maybe 15 or 20 miles total. I arrived home four hours later with three hours of ride time on the clock having racked up 41.5 miles.
It’s been three weeks since I’ve done any riding on the trails—well, at least during the daytime. I wanted to see what was left of the fall foliage after the wind storm. There isn’t much left on the trees, except for the maples and few oaks. Almost all the maples still have most of their leaves. Some even still have some green. Most of the oaks around here keep their leaves through the winter, even though they’ve turned brown, so that was no surprise.
Riding south on the Riverway (west bank) through the tree tunnel was very weird. Sunlight! Bare branches cast shadows on the path, and with most of the canopy gone, it’s a very different ride. The undergrowth is bare too. I could see the river on my left, and the backs of houses on the right. That section is much narrower that I though it was. It’s amazing what dense foliage will do.
I crossed the river on the pedestrian bridge to the U of R. That one section of the trail is still closed. They even have detour signs directing everyone to cross there. Over on the east bank, it’s mostly willows and cottonwoods. Twigs and small branches littered the path. And apparently some some students had had a pumpkin smashing party down the hill from campus on the trial between the bridge and the Interfaith Chapel. It was a feast for squirrels.
I crossed back on the bike bridge in the park, and headed west, into the wind, on the Canalway. It wasn’t until I was on the Canalway that I encountered other cyclists. I’d come across a lot of joggers and walkers, but no other cyclists. These were mostly old guys like me, mostly on hybrids like mine, out to enjoy a bit of Indian Summer. Everyone was cheerful and all acknowledged my greetings as we passed.
I rode the trail west to Long Pond Road, my usual western turnaround point, where I stopped for a drink and a smoke. I’ve been meaning to experiment some more with lowering my bars, so while I was there, I took out my toolkit and lowered them all the way down. Then I rotated the bar-ends forward and down too, to get even further down out of the wind. The bars are now as low as they’ll go without adjusting the stem angle. I think I’ll be doing that anyway because the reach still feels too short.
Anyway, I turned around to enjoy a bit of tailwind, only to find, the wind was gone! How about that, I thought. So I started adding bits to the route. Arriving back at the park, I turned south on the Greenway trail and rode out to my turnaround point there. I stopped and ate a couple of granola bars, mentally kicking myself for not having eaten at all so far today.
Back at the park, I crossed the river again then decided to see what our TNUA crit loop looks like during the day. Up the path to the park road, a huge old oak had fallen across the path and the drive down to the parking lot by the Roundhouse, where I almost spilled last Tuesday. It was a victim of the wind and soggy ground. I geared-down and rode the lawn around the area the park workers had fenced-off.
At our crit loop, I decided to measure the loop and see how I could hammer it. It’s within a few feet of a half-mile and given that I could see, I hammered it pretty well. I did only three laps though, and panting heavily, returned across I-390 and the canal to the trail.
Heading east on the Canalway, this part is on the north side of the canal, and thus, more exposed to the wind. There were several larger branches down, but they’d all been pulled aside by other trail users. Traffic became fairly dense too. I was dodging skateboarders and rollerbladers in addition to joggers, dog-walkers and lots of other cyclists. It wasn’t a problem though, because I was taking it easy. A nice relaxing ride, taking in the scenery on warm autumn afternoon.
Further along, I started getting passed by commuters and roadies, apparently home early from work. I was glad to see I’m not the only guy who commutes in regular pants. Next thing I knew, I was Pittsford, my eastern turnaround point. I sat in the sun on a bench watching the ducks while I downed the rest of my water.
I didn’t really want to leave. I could have sat there for the rest of the afternoon. But I wanted to beat rush-hour traffic home, so it was back on the bike, westbound on the Canalway.
I was glad the wind had died-down because I was getting tired. It’s amazing how quickly I lose my endurance when I don’t ride any meaningful distances for a couple of weeks. Partway back to the park, I really had to work to keep my cadence above even 80 (I shoot for 90-95) and my speed in the double-digits. I gave up on that and just treated it as a recovery ride. I was rested again by the time I hit the park.
Riding north on the Riverway to the city, the stream of commuters heading out of the city was fairly continuous. All of them looked like the were really enjoying the opportunity of a nice, warm, wind-free, rain-free ride home.
Arriving downtown, I beat the bulk of the rush-hour traffic. There were few cars on the road on the way home. I never had to slow down once to let cars pass so I could change lanes to make a left.
It wasn’t until I got home and came inside that I realized how sore my legs were. Oh for a masseur!
Tomorrow’s supposed to be even nicer, but I can’t play hookey two days in a row.
Or can I?
