Fun & Fitness over 50

The bad news is ... I got a flat!

The good news is ... I'm getting much better at repairing them! :-)

I really wish I could
1. record my thoughts while I'm riding
2. record some video while I'm riding

I have so many thoughts while riding that I'd like to share here but can't remember them all hours after the ride. I had an idea to use the voice recorder on the blackberry but I can't find any software that does voice activated recording. I don't want to listen to hours of wind noise to capture a few "utterances"! Also, the GPS app "EveryTrail" is running and I don't think it would keep running under the voice recording.

I tried to take a few pictures on today's ride but it spoils the enjoyment of the ride to have to stop, fish the camera out of a back pocket and snap the picture. At least to do it as often as I would like. The ideal would be to get a helmet cam and run the video during segments of the ride. Then I could either share the video or clip a few frames out as "photos". But the Vholdr helmet cam that I would like is about $350, I think. Not yet.

Today I decided to ride 1-1/2 hours out to and along the Mohawk-Hudson Bike Path. I don't think I've done this ride for a couple of years, the main reason being sections of the ride are through unpleasant city streets. This ride was no different, of course, but I pleased to find that some of those streets had been resurfaced since I rode them last making them safer and more fun to ride.

There are some "off-pavement" shortcuts that I took. This is one of them. The last time I took this (years ago on a mountain bike) there were no concrete barriers and no fallen tree. At first the tree looked like it was deliberately felled to block the path at closer examination, it looks like it fell naturally from rot. I had to slide my bike under the tree and then crawl under myself.

This is a bridge in Normanside, a little village off the main road. I like to call it "the land that time forgot!"

The road down to and up out of Normanside we used to call "the yellow brick road" for obvious reasons. Some years ago, someone decided to pave over it. Now because of wear and tear and neglect, some of the bricks are starting to show through again.

This is the start of the Albany section of the bike trail. Here, it is called the Corning Bike Path after former Albany mayor Erastus Corning.

This is the other end of the section, in Menands. After this, it's more city streets. Menands, Green Island (pleasant) and Cohoes.

After about 3 miles of busy and mostly unpleasant city streets, except for Green Island, here is the start of the bike trail proper in Cohoes:

Just before my projected turnaround point at 1 hour and 22 minutes, I got my flat! Physically, I was a bit fried but I did ok changing the flat. I had a nice fresh new tube with me. The only thing I'm leery of is my pump. I can never trust that it's putting air in the tire. After I got home and checked the pressure it was only 40 lbs. I usually put 90-100 in it.

Here is a picture, almost home, at the end of the Albany city section.
Right at the street sign, I turn the corner and ....

Back to heaven! Down into Normanside. You'd never know you were right on the edge of Albany.
Here's a shot of the Normanskill River from the bridge.

All told, I don't know if it's worth all the city riding to go just an hour and a half each way on this ride. Sometimes I drive to the trailhead in Cohoes and start there.

Here are today's numbers:
And here is a link to the route:


mo-hud 18 miles and back at EveryTrail

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