Biking - SWC Thursday Night Ride

After an extremely heavy thunderstorm, with 1" hail, high winds, frequent lightning, and one hell of a downpour, the skies cleared in time for tonight's SWC ride. Fearing flooded roads, I took the most heavily travelled, and highest, route to Colonie Town Park in Latham. As I headed east on NY7, there was a double rainbow ahead of me, with occasional lightning below it in the distance. Pretty cool.

Given the amount of rain we got and many reports of flooded roads, we decided to stick to the bike path going west toward Niskayuna, and turn around at some undetermined point to go back. I rode with Holly for the first 5 miles, and then she turned around. Meanwhile, the rest of the group had surged ahead. It took me 4+ miles at 17-18mph to catch them, at the top of the Blatnick Park hill, where we all turned around.

On the way back, at one point I put the hammer down and got a brief jump at 23-24mph. I rode alone for a while, until a much younger rider caught and passed me, and I hung on her wheel for a ways at 18-19mph. It was a pretty intense ride. Then, I hit the gas again a few miles from the end, and finished alone. I just wanted to see if I could pull away, and it was kinda fun, riding hard on my heavy-duty touring bike. All told, I got 18+ miles in, and that puts me at 1,200 for the season. Not bad for an old guy on his 58th birthday, and I'm actually a few miles ahead of last year's pace.