Fun & Fitness over 50

Yes, I went out on a ride today even though the fringes of Hurricane Hanna were predicted here in upstate NY. Well, it wasn't raining when I started. Maybe 2 drops at the very beginning but nothing for 20 miles although the sky was very threatening at times.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I had a 56 mile route planned out that I abandoned last time because of a flat and concerns about the condition of the flatted tire. I headed out with that route in mind.

I had a great spur of the moment brainstorm in that instead of the original route which started out on a road that I don't like because of bad or no shoulders and people seem to drive stupid on it, I realized there was an alternate way that cut out almost all of that route and still got me where I needed to go.

This was a great ride because it was almost entirely on zero to low traffic country roads and avoided the bigger, high and fast traffic roads; my favorite type of ride.

It also had 2 big climbs, Blossom Hill (where I had my flat) and Copeland Hill. I think maybe this plus the rain is why I was so tired at the end of this one. Plus all the country roads around here are either hilly or rollers and I suppose that can tire you out too even if there are no major climbs.

At about the 20 mile mark it started raining and while it wasn't a downpour it was a good soaker, consistent and steadily increasing in intensity. So I opted to turn back from the 56 mile route. I wasn't sure about any more climbs either and I was feeling pretty tired and soaked.

On the way back I had one train crossing and as luck would have it, the barriers went down just as I approached it. I rode up, checked out the oncoming train and went for it. Judging from the amount of horn blowing after I did this, the engineer was not too pleased. It wasn't really a very smart thing to do. The train was going faster than it looked. It went by me after I crossed a lot sooner than I expected it to. Sorry!

Total ride was 41 miles.

Here's the route!