Canal Ride

I learned from a friend of mine that the towns of Pittsford and Fairport clear most of the snow on the section of canal path that runs through them. With the recent above freezing temperatures and rain I figured this might be a good place to ride today.

I started at Perinton Park and headed west, riding my geared 29er in high gear. Two-thirds of length of trail was packed gravel and dirt. It was very wet and had many patched of standing water along the way. Thankfully the surface below the standing water was still solid so I could ride through it without sinking into mud. Walkers had to be more creative and find alternative routes of the path. In Pittsford at Schoen Place the path becomes paved and had no standing water. Sure enough once I hit the west border of Pittsford the trail hadn't been cleared and was a frozen cratered mess. At that point I turned back.

There were a lot of people out walking, and many with dogs. It's kind of annoying to have to deal with them because they tend to take up both sides of the path, and seem oblivious. The unpredictability of dogs always makes me nervous too. I just don't want them to get in my way or pull their 50' cord leash in front of me. I had to dismount of few times for people and their dogs.

The wet trail provided enough friction to keep me working, and heading west I had a significant head wind. Of course the way back was easier. So I got something of a workout, and it was good to get out, but it wasn't particularly exciting.

I rode 17.5 miles.

Longest Ride

I did another road ride this afternoon.  It started at about 14°F and rose to 19°F.  The roads were a mix of packed snow and clear.

Again, because I'm trying to train, I pushed for more distance.  I ended up riding 25.6 miles!  That's most I've ever ridden.  But, that's on road, and much of it was clear.  Trails are harder.  I did ride my high gear the whole time, so that offered more resistance.  On the other hand, the higher speed means less saddle time, though it sure felt long.  I suspect the Singlespeed-A-Palooza race will take me over 4 hours to finish, and this ride was about 3 hours.  I may need to get shorts with more padding, a new saddle, or just keep riding.

Registered for Singlespeed-a-Palooza

Where 2014 SSAP riders are coming from

Today I registered to the Singlespeed-a-Palooza race.  This year 11 unicyclists registered!  The other 289 racers fall into a variety of categories, but from my point of view they're all just two wheelers.  Having 11 muni riders is a big deal!  Thanks to Dark Horse Cycles for putting this event together and giving us our own class with trophies and prizes!  It's gonna be fun.

I used the registration info from BikeReg to create this map to see where people are coming from.  Just curious.  Unicyclists are definitely willing to travel farther for this!

I expected Dustin to register but he didn't.  He's still gonna train for spring riding so that's cool.  By next spring he'll be a muni machine!

I too continue to train, but really I'm just trying to stay in shape.  Training should involve more riding, but poor trail conditions make them off limits and roads aren't much better.  Hopefully I get at least a month of good riding conditions.   I'm still doing Insanity workouts and finished my "recovery week" which still had some decent cardio in it.  But then with no day of rest it goes into Fit Test AND Max Interval Circuit on the same day.  My heart was pounding harder than ever after the fit test, probably because I want to beat my previous numbers and I decide not to do another whole workout.  I skipped it and ended up resting yesterday because I wasn't feeling good.  Today I made up the Max Interval Circuit workout.  I'm not happy that the "Max" workouts for the next 4 weeks are each an hour long and in this one there were a lot of arm movements that I'm not a fan of.  Punching the air just doesn't seem effective and it's leg exercises that really get the heart and breathing going.  I'll give this week a try, suspecting the next workouts are better, but I might have to mix things up if I'm not getting the workout I want.