Back on the Trail

(York County. We put the "rail" in Rail Trail.)

We hit the York County Heritage Rail Trail again on Monday morning. This time, we started at Brillhart Station, south of York and headed southward to Hanover Junction, which is south of Seven Valleys and back. (I know these names mean nothing to anyone outside York County -- and I admit I'd never heard of Hanover Junction and I've lived in York most of my life!)

(Oh, THAT Hanover Junction.)

Our ride totaled just over 14 miles in an hour and a half, so we improved on Saturday's ride in both pace and distance. It was a very warm, humid day -- it didn't feel bad on the bike but it would have been murder to run in. Thus, I felt kind of like I was cheating. Did the few runners few runners on the trail look at us and think "What a bunch of wimps?" Probably. Were other bikers laughing at our 20-year old Huffys? Probably.

Who cares?

(You won't find any carbon fiber on this bike!)

(This IS my "powering through the mountain stages" face.)

It was a nice way to spend the morning. I'm looking forward to more rides on the trail this summer and also doing some running there in the fall when cooler temperatures arrive. The trail offers more shade than the neighborhoods where I run in the mornings now, but since the closest access point is 20 minutes from my house, it's not a good option for trying to get out early and beat the heat on weekday mornings.

(No one knows how the ancient peoples of Seven Valleys erected these bicycle statues
2000 years before the time of Christ.)


(A good time was had by all.)

I'm taking Tuesday off, and then resuming running on Wednesday, so this will be a lighter week than last week, but like I said last post, I don't think that really matters. Right now my legs aren't sore, but they are tired. I'm hoping that mixing in some biking this summer will eventually make me feel stronger when I get into my deadly-serious, intense, Novice marathon training. Maybe cross-training can be right up there with packet pickup and carb-loading in the parts of the marathon that I'm good at.