Bicycling Report: Thank God for Cell Phones

i-cb8e92e3e01bb7d8ccc1dce7dc34b34e-glass.jpgSaturday, I went for a good long bike ride before it got hot, making it all the way to the end of the Erie Canal portion of the bike path. There’s a “detour” that takes you to further path via some dirt roads, but I opted instead for the quiet stretch of path along the canal, that dead-ends at some railroad tracks.

It was a good choice, because I got to see a blue heron in flight along the path. They’re really remarkably graceful birds, and, for the record, can happily cruise through the air at 14 mph.

Sunday’s ride got off to a good start, and I was farther down the path than I’ve gone before, all the way into Cohoes. And then, the little bit of glass pictured above wrecked the whole day. At least, I found this sliver of glass buried in my front tire after it went flat, so I’m going to blame it.

Happily, I had my cell phone with me, so I called Kate to come retrieve me, and walked the bike back to the town park in Colonie. I’ll get the tire fixed sometime this week– it’s probably for the best, because there are a few other things that probably need doing with the bike, so I’ll just drop it off at the local bike shop and let them tweak it up for me.

Ride stats below the fold:

Saturday:

Total distance: 25.98 miles
Average Speed: 13.76 mph
Maximum Speed: 22.16 mph

Sunday, on bike:

Total Distance: 14.49 miles
Average Speed: 16.10 mph
Maximum Speed: 32.01 mph

Sunday, on foot:

Total Distance: 3 miles
Average Speed: 4 mph
Maximum Speed: 5 mph

Year to date, on bike:

Total Distance: 127 miles
Maximum Speed: 32.01 mph