Tuesday, June 8, 2010

A good day for Puddle Dodging and Bug Picking.

Went for a little cx ride monday evening.
Seeing as the trails were water logged, I figured I'd get out and string together some double track and utility roads.

Turned out to be 2:16:00 ride time with an average HR of 125 bpm. So it was just some more milage for the base.
Rolled outta here @ 6:30 on the Tricross SingleCross geared at 39X16, so my feet weren't spinning too much, but I was more out to burn some fat and enjoy the weather. The temps were comfortable and the sun was shining. A great day to be on 2 wheels.
I really had no plan as to where I was gonna go, just wing it and see what I could cover.
I ended up close to Hydro Hill, and figured a trip up it would hurt too much , so I headed over to the foot trail up to Alphie's Trough and Brock. It was a good opportunity to practice my CX shouldering up the hill. All the while hiking up the hill. I took pleasure in checking out the terrain of the escarptment and imagining potential lines linking up the trails.
Also since I wasn't going too fast I could take a look at the ground cover foliage and see if I could spot some Poison Ivy. Since I really am not too sure what it looks like I thought I should start being more vigilant, because I got some on my legs last week.
I don't actually know where I got P.I. from. It could have been the trail building we did in the Bradley street trails or when I "mistakenly" rode the hikers only trails in the Short Hills. Probably the latter, since karma has a funny way of getting you back. Anyways, it's not to bad now. The meds the Doc gave me are working good.

Went out to Allenburg bridge and back on the Atv trails mixed in with some canal path. Saw a few dear and scared the turds out of a bunch of bunnys.
Ended up spinning down the Parkway to Glendale bridge and crossed to the east side utility road. Seaway Haulage road it's called. I stopped on a bridge by lock 3 for a quick pic. Since it's somewhere not too many people have been.

Then I went under the skyway down to Lakeshore rd. The double track part of the ride is cool because you have to dodge the puddles to stay mostly dry. Swerve left, then right, bunny hop the small ones and wheelie the wide ones. As good as flat double track gets, I guess.
When I made a quick stop for water and traffic at lock 2, thought I'd take a look at my legs to see if I had picked up any hitch hikers in the form of deer ticks. Well sure enough I had. The little bugger was crawling on my calf lookin' for a place to feast. Flicked the bastard off and continued down to Port Weller.
The only reason I thought to look for ticks is because last saturday I went to show my Moms my P.I. on my legs and found a tick burrowing in to my skin. I am pretty sure it got on me from the walk I just took my dog on. I had recently read how to remove a tick, so I flipped it onto it's back and pulled the little sucker out.

Time and daylight was running out so I roaded it back home from lock 1.

All in all a god day for a ride.

A few more rides like that but twice as long, then I'll start to do some interval work to build up my LT in time for the Canal days mtb race August 1st. I hope to hit the podium again this year.
Well off to bed now for me.
Until the next post, keep yer wheels rollin' and watch out fer those damn ticks.