I'm still not riding regularly, but today I rode the Hojack trail on my fat tire uni. Not having ridden, my saddle was uncomfortable and I was feeling saddle sore quickly.
The trail was mostly dry but had some muddy ruts here and there.
I started at the North Ponds Park parking lot along the Hojack trail. I rode the Hojack then cut through Vosburg to the Big Field, did a lap, and came back. MapMyRide
I noticed some minor trail improvements. The steep hill trail leading up the Big Field from Vosburg has been changed to a switch back. It's real nice, but still has some steep parts and I wasn't in shape enough to climb it all. Maybe next time. I did ride the Overlook trail connected to the Big Field, so at least I hit a bit of real single-track.
I saw four teenager boys in Vosburg and one said "Mr. Weetman"!? They were some of Kyle's friends. We said hi for a minute. Other than that, I saw a fox and a number of walkers and cyclists.
A few pics during my ride:
Today was a warm day with a high around 70°F so I left work a few hours early to ride. I know the trails are still covered in snow and ice so I figured I'd ride the Hojack and keep it simple. Knowing the Hojack has been a mess in the spring of previous years, I've been wanting to try my fat tire on it.
Riding the road to get there was pretty darn boring with the 26" tire. I longed for my geared 29er. When I got to the Hojack I still wanted it because it was clear and easy. Though really I knew this first section melts sooner and at least some snow and mud were yet to come. Boy was I right. It was a mental challenge to keep pushing to the end of the Hojack because the going was tough and I was only averaging about 5 mph. More like "Slowjack"!
I took a bunch of pictures to show the variety of trail conditions I encountered:
Notice how it starts out nice...
but gets quite snow covered.
One section had inches of water for as far as I could see.
More snow.
Approaching the end...
I took this picture in an attempt to show my level of excitement for making the return trip.
Riding on the far left in the leaves was easier
On my way back I felt like I was getting better at riding through the snow and I found riding way off the trail was much firmer. Sometimes I could see my previous tire mark and avoid areas that I had previous sunk into.
I was getting quite fatigued by the end. It was 13 miles much felt more like 20 miles of effort. I expect to be sore.
There was a fat tire bike race today, the Sweden Fat Criterium, held at Sweden Town Park in Brockport. Actually it was two races, a two hour "fat tire race" followed by a one hour "open race". I had considered trying to join in on the fat tire race with my new fat tire muni and so I contacted Andy, the race director, over a week ago. He replied and said I could join in the "open race", which allowed any kind of bike. I ended up not going for several reasons: my doubts about riding in all snow conditions, the 40 minute drive to do a one hour race, the $30 fee to ride for an hour, and the one hour race not feeling epic enough to me, but maybe it would have been.
This morning I saw some of the race pics, video clips, and comments. It got me excited and I kind of wished I was there, though I still don't know if I could actually ride the course. So I decided to do a big ride today. It snowed yesterday and more this morning, giving us something like 6 new inches. I made a plan to do my Tour de Webster route, heading toward the Hojack trail first, with a backup plan to maybe only do the Hojack and Big Field if the going was too tough.
So I suited up for the ~15°F temperature and headed out. The first leg on Phillips Rd was easy going. The plow had just gone by, making the normally off-camber shoulder of the road more level. Then when I hit the Hojack, everything changed. I expected pristine powder and hoped riding would be smooth because it can be that way sometime. Unfortunately a snowmobile had been through, probably in the night, and whether that had an impact or not, riding was borderline impossible. I'd get up and ride for about 10 feet before my wheel started twisting around like crazy leading to a UPD. After about six tries I decided it wasn't happening. So I decided to head back toward home and just ride the snowy hard-packed neighborhood roads.
Unfortunately it seemed like every turn I took led to less snow and more slush and puddles. At first it was just the intersections where the plow drops salt but then it was the entire road. Was the plow dropping salt everywhere? I didn't see or feel the salt except in a few intersections, so maybe it was just melting from the sun? At 15°F I thought it strange. In any case, the wet conditions took any fun out of it and I decided to cut my ride short and headed home.
Altogether I rode over 6.5 miles on the road. At least I'm keeping the unicycle muscles working.
Awesome weather this weekend. 50's and sunny. Today I decided to ride but choosing where was a chore. I thought of West Bay but my 24 uni still in pieces in my garage since the last time I swapped parts to my 29, and I'd prefer it on those trails. The problem is I only have one brake and moving it from one uni to another is tedious. I should probably buy another brake soon.
For today, I didn't want to spend time moving parts so I chose to ride where my 29er would be fun. Also, Amy wanted Kyle to get some exercise before he played video games, so I decided the Hojack would be best. Kyle rode his mountain bike.
The ride was good and about as exciting as can be expected for the Hojack. The areas that are muddy continue to be muddy. Kyle didn't complain that I was going too slow or too fast, but I suspect he could have ridden faster on his bike.
At one of the crossroads, a man who looked like a runner made some comments, and mentioned a unicyclist named Eric Scheer who rode some big rides and something about Mt. Washington. I had never heard of him, but he shows up on Google. Anyway, just leaving myself a note here in case it comes up some day.
I haven't been feeling super excited about muni lately. I like to have some kind of goal to be riding for. Sometimes my goal has been riding specific trails successfully. Maybe that's wearing out. Upcoming races are good motivation, but there aren't a whole lot in the month of May.
Though there are a few events this month in Pennsylvania, including The Six Hours of Brady's Run. I was very close to doing this race on Saturday and even had hotel reservations, which I canceled. Registration was open until Thursday and I hesitated because rain was looming, and because it was in Beaver Falls, PA. It's a 5 hour drive which means staying the night before and likely the night of the race. Time and money add up quick and by Wednesday I was feeling like it wasn't worth it. This race is most similar to the local Suicide Six race I've done in August. I've only ever been able to do two laps in that and I've left the race well before it officially ended. Again, maybe not worth the costs of a weekend trip to PA. Sure I'd see some muni friends, but not much during the actual race. I really wish it were local. But the Brady's Run race was able to get 8 muni riders and I don't see that happening locally.
Anyway, I didn't feel much motivation for riding this weekend. Yesterday was crazy windy. So today was the day to ride, despite a headache. Looking for motivation and a good place to ride, I remembered the Tour de Webster ride I did in 2012. So that was the plan: road from home - Webster Park - Whiting - Gosnell Big Woods - Big Field - Vosburg - Hojack - road to home.
This time I rode my geared 29 which made the roads and Hojack more exciting, as I rode between 10-13 mph. The trails were good, but I often wished I was on a smaller wheel in the more difficult sections. Parts of Webster Park where I entered were swampy as expected, but I'm not sure of a better entrance on the east side. Unlike last time, I didn't respect the "Pedestrian Only" rules and rode through the Big Woods. It has some nice features and I don't see why bikes aren't allowed. In any case, my 24 would have been better on some of the rooty climbs and descents.
ended my ride at the photography studio
At Vosburg I stopped and called home to see if my family wanted to meet me at North Ponds Park, which I'd soon be passing on the Hojack. It's Mother's Day after all! Amy already had a plan to go to the Webster Arboretum for some photo shooting of the kids. As I cruised down the Hojack at breakneck speed I thought I'd possibly extend my ride and head to the arboretum instead of home. That's what I did, and after meeting up with my family, I ended my ride with a loop around the arboretum "trails", and hitched a car ride home.
It was a good ride and I feel more into the sport than I had during the week. My lower back muscles got rather fatigued, but that's often a problem. It looks like I rode close to 17 miles.
My knees have been achy since my last ride three days ago. Today they felt better and the weather was warm, in the 60's. Expecting the trails to still be messy, I rode again at the Big Field but this time ventured out to the Hojack. This will be my last ride before my race on Sunday.
the offending thorn
Yesterday I fixed the slow leak in my tire I got on Monday. The hole was very hard to find and I resorted to holding the tube under water. Then I checked the inside of my tire for any offending objects and just when I was about to assume nothing was there I found a thorn. I had bought a new tube, but the bad tube generally looked perfect and the hole was so tiny I just patched it and rode with it today without any problem.
The sections of the Hojack that don't handle water well were muddy as expected. Some parts were thick crazy mud. It's a workout, but I like the challenge of making it through without a dismount. Some parts still have a good amount of hard-packed ice-snow. It was actually a relief to get out of the mud and ride these because they're smooth and take less effort. Today there was a strong wind blowing from the south, but it was only annoying on a few sections of the Hojack where there were few trees and on the west side of the Big Field.
Coming back to the Big Field from the Hojack, there's a good hill climb which I was happy to have made. It's the only significant climb I've ridden since last year, and there will be plenty of these at the race this Sunday.
I wore a new pair of padded shorts which consist of a baggy outside short and a padded liner short. Under that I wore the "padded" chamois cycling shorts I already have. It seemed to help for a while, but I still started to get sore. I worked on positioning my weight back when I could. Dismounting for a minute helps a lot, along with steep hill climbing that gets me out of the saddle. Maybe any extra dismounting I anticipate from the passing mountain bikers will be a blessing.
I finished my ride by doing laps around the Big Field. My left knee started to bother me a bit in the last mile which is why I stopped. I don't want it to get too sore before the race. During and after the race may be inevitable.
The weather looks good for race day. Low of 55 and high of 69. So I'd guess it will be about 60 at the start time.
At this point I'm feeling ok about the race. I'm not a muni powerhouse like I hope to be later in the season, but at this point I don't think I can do much more other than eat, sleep, and light exercise and stretching. I guess I'll do my best and forget the rest.
I missed out on the 60°F+ weather yesterday and didn't get out to ride. Tonight I settled for the low 40's. I also wanted to experience another night ride. My last one was in February.
I rode the Hojack, starting from my house. It started out cold and the wind was chilly. I had a head wind as I rode west, but I still warmed up as I rode. I had a few dismounts due to some small mud pits, and when I stopped at roads for cars.
I saw a few bunnies and a fox, and only one person walking on the road.
My lower back felt sore, probably because I've been working out more, but also because I was a bit more tense when I rode. It was harder to relax because much of the trail was leaf covered and parts were soft, and of course it was dark.
It rained lightly during parts of my ride, and hailed for about a minute.
With some rain yesterday and overnight I didn't want to ride my usual trails. It occurred to me that riding the Hojack on my 29er might be fun. There was an 85% chance of thunderstorms at 11am, but nearly no chance of rain on either side of it. As 11 approached it was raining on and off. It looked like it was done and I headed out from home.
The wet road and trail were fine. There were some puddles on the trail but most of them could be avoided. I cruised along at about 11 mph. On my way back it started thundering and down-pouring. It was actually pretty fun to ride in that. On a trail with hills, the surface would be too slick, but this was flat. The only downside was that riding with soaked clothes feels heavy, but it wasn't bad for a short trip.
Looking at my GPS, something went wacky on the first third of my way back. It looks like I strayed from the trail a bit, though I didn't, and my altitude climbed from 400ft to 1200ft and came back. I'd suspect there was some kind of weird interference going on in that area, especially because I've seen something like this before, but that was about when the lightning started, so it was probably related to that. And maybe when my GPS receiver gets confused it has a hard time coming back to reality.
The ride was fun and I'm happy I can check off "riding a unicycle in a thunderstorm" off my bucket list.
Today I rode the Hojack trail and my son Kyle came along with me on a mountain bike. It was a bit chilly out and the winds were strong, especially as we rode west.
It was a fairly uneventful ride. Though on the way back there was a woman jogging in the same direction we were riding. She was in the middle of the trail so as we approached her from behind I gave her a "hello" warning, expecting she'd give us some room to pass. She was listening to music and didn't hear us, so I repeated my "hello" getting progressively louder and closer until I was basically yelling at the top of my lungs right behind her. No response. What the heck! I dismounted and ran up along side her pushing my uni until she finally saw me and took her ear-buds out. I told her I had been yelling to alert her and she must have her music way too loud. I'm sure she could tell I was pretty irritated though I was smiling and laughing about it. She apologized, also smiling, so hopefully she didn't feel too bad. We passed her and moved on. Seriously though, if you're gonna listen to music in public you should be able to hear what's going on around you. Personally, I like to hear the sounds of nature and even suburban noises as I ride. In more twisting trails, hearing is important to avoid turning a sharp corner and running into someone.
My daughter Syd has been wanting to go for a bike ride on the Hojack trail. Today was a great day for it. My wife and little one joined in too.
I rode my geared 29er, figuring I'd need some speed to keep up with the bikes. It turned out not to be necessary, what with my Syd not really into endurance and my wife toting my 3 year old on her bike.
About halfway through the Hojack, Syd was ready to turn back. I continued on, the family turned back and we met back up later. They stopped at North Ponds Park. On my own, I felt like I was really moving. It was a nice ride.
A coworker of mine, Dustin, recently started learning to unicycle. He borrowed my learner uni and then my 20" trials uni to get better. His progress has been impressive.
A few days ago I helped broker his purchase of a KH 26 from Mj. Today we met up at Vosburg Hollow in Webster and rode on the Hojack, through Vosburg, and the Big Field. He had some impressive UPD-free runs and can successfully free mount most of the time. He also made some good progress. Obviously just riding offroad was a great start, but he also got better as our ride went on. The Big Field trail was good for getting started on climbs and descents.
Here's a little video of him riding on the Hojack:
It was a more casual ride for me with a lot more resting. Though there were a few hill climbs to power up in Vosburg and up to the Big Field. Hopefully my knees will be ok.
Continuing my training for my upcoming race, I got out to ride again. With all the rain we got last week, the trail conditions have gotten worse. So I settled for the Hojack trail again.
My goal was to ride it twice again, but unfortunately my right knee was bothering me. I sat and stretched at the far end of the Hojack, and that helped for a while.
The end of the Hojack has a small path that goes down to Lake Rd. When I started heading back after my stretch I noticed a biker heading up from the road. I kept going, knowing he'd pass me in a minute. He did pass me and I found myself instinctively trying to keep up with him. I did well, though I'm sure if he was pushing as hard as me he would have been long gone. He left the Hojack at Klem.
Towards the end of my way back I realized my knee was getting more irritated and it would be best to head home. Hopefully I work it out before my race in two weeks.
It was a nice sunny 47°F day. It's still rather wet out there so I decided to ride the Hojack Trail again. It's got wet muddy parts but I don't feel too bad messing up that trail. It gets destroyed in spots without my help anyway, and it tends to heal up ok.
So I rode from home to the Hojack, to the end and back to the trail start. I've been trying to push myself in preparation for the SingleSpeed-A-Palooza, so I thought about repeating the Hojack to the end and back again. At the time I felt ok and was just starting to feel a touch of fatigue, but not enough to stop me so I rode it again.
My last 30 minutes of riding were very uncomfortable. I was saddle sore and my legs were screaming. Home seemed like forever away. Once I got there I was ready to collapse.
I rode about 23 miles, which is just a few miles short of the race, but I'm still a little worried. This was a road and generally light trail ride. Sure there was some spots of thick mud to power through, but the SingleSpeed-A-Palooza race will be significantly harder. Though I rode the majority of my ride in my high gear, which is more taxing, and I won't have that in the single speed race. So that pushes my ride at least a bit closer to race difficulty. I hope the saddle sore issue will just work itself out with more riding over the next month.
My legs continue to be very tired and I'm about ready to fall asleep.
23 miles, 2 hours 45 minutes.
For the past few weeks I've been working on a project in my basement workout/workshop room to install a flat screen monitor from the ceiling. I thought it'd be cool to use my Roku and watch P90X videos, muni videos, and movies while I'm working out or working on projects. I went a little extreme and made a custom ceiling mount that allows me to rotate the monitor 360° and slide it from the workout area to the workshop area.
Here's a picture showing the workout area half of the room.
The monitor is turned towards the elliptical and a headphone cable is hanging from it. The A/V and power cables are all kind of slapped up behind the monitor for now, but I'd like to improve that. The rails are attached to the ceiling joists with spacers to leave about an inch gap. The monitor is mounted on a trolley that slides on top of the rails. The mount hangs down between the rails so when I rotate the monitor the trolley can't rotate. It works very well for my purposes. I can move it to the workout area or the workshop area, and rotate it to see from anywhere.
So yesterday I was psyched up to watch a movie while using my elliptical machine. Since I'm preparing for the Singlespeed-A-Palooza, I set my elliptical program to the maximum of 99 minutes and chose Strength Intervals at level 8, whatever that means. Towards the end it did start to feel comparable to a hard muni ride. Everything was telling me to stop about 20 minutes towards the end. My legs are feeling it today.
Despite the sore legs, I wanted to get out and ride on this sunny, though 27°F (-3°C), afternoon. Nothing beats training for a sport like doing the actual sport! I rode the road, Hojack, and route 104 path again. The Hojack has much less snow, but much more mud. Actually the spots with snow where very compact and hard which was preferable to the mud. Some spots were actually quite dry and nice.
I had my first major spill on the road. I was in high gear heading south on the shoulder of Dewitt Rd. The gutters of a side road kind of merged into the shoulder. I was moving at about 10 mph, hit this bump and bad things happened. I don't remember exactly, but I probably dismounted in front, planted a foot on the ground and rolled from there. All I remember was the sound of my Camelbak scraping on the road. I immediately stood up, felt pain in my knee and elbow, grabbed my uni and stepped off the the roadside. My thin cargo pants were ripped where my knee hurt but my long underwear was fine. I suspected I was bleeding a bit, but everything seemed functional so I took inventory and moved on.
I found my ride along the 104 path annoying because of the intersections. My timing was bad and I had to wait for every light.
I headed through North Ponds park and decided to cross the Hojack and check on the Bird Sanctuary Trail. It was soft, muddy, and clearly needs a lot of work to be a sustainable trail.
Then I crossed into the Chiyoda trail expecting the worse. And that's exactly what I found. I had no choice but to walk 95% of it.
When I got home I inspected my war wounds. Nothing too crazy but still painful. I found an abrasion similar to my elbow's on my hip.
Over month ago I registered to ride muni at a bike race called the Singlespeed-A-Palooza. This race is for singlespeed cycles only. One of my Albany muni buddies, Steveyo, has done this race several times on a non-geared muni. He has a great writeup here for his 2011 race. The race is April 28th and is about 4.5 hours away, near Poughkeepsie in Stewart State Forest. In the past it was two 12 mile loops, but this year it's a single 25 miles loop. I've never ridden that far, but I thought it would be good motivation to ride more and stay fit.
I remembered hearing that registration filled up within a few days last year, so I encouraged a handful of muni buddies to consider it and register as soon as it opened. At the beginning of February, registration opened with 250 spots and they all filled up in just a few hours. Three of us got in! Myself, Robi from Albany, and Claude from Maryland! A few weeks later the race organizer opened up 50 more spots. So it will be 297 bikers and 3 muni riders.
To get trained, I had started doing P90X again over back in January and, without being strict about it, I made it through about three or four weeks. But then work got very busy and I was working extra hours. Finally things are getting back to normal and I need to get back to training.
Today I rode on the road, the Hojack trail, and the Rt 104 bike path. The Hojack had way more snow than I expected, and again, it's the footprints that really make it hard. It got bad near North Ponds park, so I cut through and tried the Rt 104 bike path. That was generally better, but on the section that crosses to the south side, it was all snow. It must take something like 10 times more energy to power through. I'm pretty sure the shade on the south side has prevented the snow from melting, just like with the Hojack. At Bay Rd, I headed north mostly on Dewitt and Adams back up to the Hojack where it intersects Vosburg. Thankfully the shoulders of these roads were generally flat. Unfortunately this end of the Hojack was no better. But it seemed like my best choice for heading back, so I did my best to power through. The snow was wet and crunchy, but some of it was more solid and wasn't too bad. I got a few bumps and bruises from sliding head first on the ground three or four times, but nothing too bad. By the time I hit Klem, I'd had enough and followed the streets home. I avoided 250 because of its insanely slanted shoulders.
On my drive home from work this evening I passed the Hojack Trail and noticed it looked nearly clear of snow. I wasn't expecting the 20 feet section I saw to be representative of the whole trail, but it gave motivation to head out for my first night muni ride.
Outfitted with my new light set, I headed from home on street and rode the length of the Hojack and back. Actually, I had to fill my tire again before leaving. I still need to fix that.
It was 20°F out, but with the right clothes it might as well have been 60°F. Though on the return trip my toes got pretty cold. Also, my CamelBak tube kept freezing up. I had to make sure to suck some water through every few minutes even if I wasn't thirsty. A few times it was close to frozen solid.
Riding with the helmet light worked well. I could see everything just fine. Most of the Hojack had snow on it but, unlike my recent attempt to ride the Hojack, it was more packed and much more rideable. My back and shoulders still felt it over time.
It was only a little creepy from time to time, what with having a smaller field of vision, and wondering if I was hearing noises somewhere off the side of the trail. The noise of crunching snow and nylon swishing made it hard to hear much. The only life I saw was a cat and a rabbit.
It took about an hour and a half. I rode just under 13 miles. Overall it was a fun time.
Today I wanted to go riding but my lower back was feeling stiff and sore. I decided to do a lot of stretching and do a lighter ride.
I've been wanting to do ride a loop from my house through several connecting trails throughout Webster. Since a good portion would be road and path, it would be an easier ride. I also raised my seat a bit hoping it would help my back.
I rode on the street from my house to Webster Park. I knew there was an unmarked trail-head on the eastern most side of the park. From there I rode the trails, only slightly knowing where I was going. I don't normally go through Webster Park this way. It wasn't long before I was on part of my typical route and I headed out to Whiting.
My trip through Whiting was very direct. I know these trails well and my goal was to pass through: blue to orange to red to white, exiting at Pellet Rd.
Across Pellet Rd I entered into the Gosnell Big Woods. This is a pedestrian only trail, so I hiked through, pushing my uni. As a board member of the Friends of Webster Trails, I especially feel obligated to honor the no-riding rules of this trail, and I did. But I have to say I don't see the issue. While the woods may contain very old trees, I can't see how riding on the trails would be a problem. The trail surface appears to be like any trails in Webster and the trees would not be damaged from riding. Perhaps this will be changed in the future. I think it should.
As I pushed my uni along, I encountered a group doing trail work. It was Alisa, a board member of FWT who has been coordinating many scout projects in our parks. Today the project was to build some benches and extend a bridge with boardwalks. I stopped briefly to say hi and continued on my way. Nice work!
Once out of the Big Woods I rode around the Big Field, crossed Vosburg Rd and entered Vosburg Hollow. It only took a few minutes to ride through Vosburg and I was onto the Hojack Trail.
Aside from the street crossings, I rode in high gear on the Hojack and made good time. The Hojack was recently extended so I stayed on it the whole way to check it out on my muni. Another option would have been to take the Bird Sanctuary Trail to the Chiyoda Trail, which I would probably choose next time. The new length of the Hojack was made by compacting road millings. It works, but it's pretty boring. We need some log piles or skinnies along the way to make it interesting. Haha.
Finally I hit the end of the Hojack and headed up Philips Rd towards home. This road has a relatively new bike lane but it's so flat and straight that once you've seen 10 feet of it you've seen it all. I was able to stay awake for most of it.
Along the way I pushed pretty hard to make good time and there were a few good hills to climb on the trails. My back didn't bother me too much. Overall it was a fun outing.
I forgot to turn my GPS logger on until I got to Webster Park, but I added the missing road section using Google maps.
The trip was about 13 miles.
I took vacation from work this morning to ride at Bay Park West. When I started it was under 60°F. Nice and cool. I was able to recreate the hill climbs I accomplished last time I was there without much problem, including the climb from the parking lot near the Fish and Game Club, and the climb out to Homewood Lane. Actually, come to think of it, there wasn't any climb I didn't succeed at. Oh wait, there's a little 5 foot section coming out of an old creek crossing that gets me every time. I don't think I even try very seriously because it's just not happening, but I should work on it.
The logs are the biggest challenge for me. Some day I'll learn to hop them.
Because of the roller-coaster of hills at BPW, I accumulate mileage very slowly. And because of the route I like to take, at about the 4 mile point I find myself deciding whether to commit to nearly doubling that of just heading out. Not wanting to push things, I decided to head out.
Instead, I decided to ride the Hojack Trail in Webster before calling it a day. As an old railroad bed, this trail is flat and tame. I was able to ride my high gear the whole way with no problem. I did shift to low gear at several road crossings. Last time I rode there was after the winter thaw, and the trail surface was a mess. At this point it's back to normal.
Looking at the stats of both rides really shows how different these trails are:
Bay Park West
Hojack Trail
5 miles in about 1.5 hours
Average speed: 3.4mph
6.8 miles in about 45 minutes
Average speed: 9mph
Halfway through the Hojack, my left knee was starting to bother me as usual. Before turning around for the return trip, I sat down and stretched it out. After that it felt 100%! It got sore again before I was done, but I was amazed at how much the stretch helped. I'm still hopeful that I'll completely rid myself of any pain during a reasonable ride, say 20 miles or less. But until then, I hope I can use stretching to push on.
