good morning towpath.
June 26th, 2008
no better way to start the day. period. because my mornings are my only time to get caught up on some computer work and errands before opening the store at 11am, i can’t always find 2 hours to dedicate to doing something JUST FOR ME! But when i can i DO! and my new favorite routine is leaving my house in Ohio City and biking to the towpath entrance (sort of behind Steel Yard Commons) and riding it to Valley View and back home. Its about 21 miles or so round trip. The entire path (save for 2 bridges near valley view) is pretty flat and runs along the erie canal which was once used by mules to haul barges full of goods and new settlers and now is, as the canal way website puts it, the towpath ” serves runners, hikers, families and lovers” ( um, hello, cyclists too!) “find places of tranquility, hidden views of wildlife”…of which i found PLENTY this morning! from doggies being walked to deer eating grass along the canal, to cranes and robins and geese and bunny rabbits oh my!!!
so, basically, as i was saying….it is flat most of the way….HOWEVER, that hill where the bike path begins at the point where W.14th takes you down to Steel Yard Commons, is always my biggest challenge…when Russ and I go together he rides next to me as my coach and tells me to control my breathing…”breath in through your nose and out thru your mouth” he says (by the way not showing even the faintest break in his typical breathing pattern whatsoever). So when i go alone, i try to remember that advice, and as long as i don’t keep looking up and just focus on the breathing, its really not so bad, and lord knows i feel like a BILLION dollars when i make it up to the top…now, if your reading this and wonder…why doesn’t she just change gears? believe me, if i had gears to change i WOULD! Well, if there is nothing else to take away from this blog, it is just that, we are SO LUCKY to have that towpath so close by! i mean, i live in and work in very URBAN areas and to escape it for even just for nearly 2 hours, is heaven…and you know what? when your done with that 26 mile round trip, you will say to yourself, really? that wasn’t hard at all, maybe i COULD ride my bike to work afterall?!?! it’s a LOT easier than you think… now if i could just not have so many car- necessary errands, like taking all my store’s recycling to the recycler then i could ride to work EVERYDAY instead of just half the time…i’ll get there…
PS….can we talk about the dreamy quality of the photos i took with my iPhone once my digital camera ran out of batteries this morning!
