The Other Way to New Egypt

Last week it was warm enough for a road ride and I chose to do a run to New Egypt. This week was just on the edge of being too cold to ride on the road especially taking into account the stiff wind. However because of the Union Transportation Trail there is now another way to get to New Egypt.

The Union Transportation Trail was built on the former roadbed of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Pemberton & Hightstown line,which was a railroad that provided dairies and farms access to larger railroads at rail junctions in Pemberton and Hightstown, New Jersey. Traffic gradually dried up and the line was abandoned starting in the 1950s. Currently the trail runs from Herbert Rd just south of the Assumpink down to Millstream Rd in New Egypt. Eventually the trail will go all the way into Hightstown. They are already working on completing it. The trail already has been extended north to Old York Rd and if you want to go around or over a few fences you can ride even further north.

This was an official PFW ride that Laura posted. When I showed up at the Herbert Rd I was surprised to find 5 people already there. Laura and a few other people pulled in moments later and when we started the ride we had 10 total which is bigger than some of the normal Hill Slugs ride in the summer.

We headed north for a few miles around one fence before finding another we didn't want to jump over so we turned around and headed south to New Egypt. The first couple of miles down the trail the gravel is a little loose and bumpy. This is because the land itself is a bit wet and mushy and it seems that a lot of horses used this part of the trail so they leave a lot of hoof prints in the trail.

The looses part is just before crossing Rt 524 after that the trail gets a little harder and easier to ride. The trail is almost dead straight and as level as you would expect an old railroad bed to be. The first real turn was just before Cream Ridge where there was a problem securing the right of way through one of the farmlands so the trail has to hug the road past the golf course until it reaches Davis Station Rd.

The part from Davis Station to New Egypt is the oldest part of the trail and is very packed down and solid. We made quick work of the last few miles. At the end we talked about actually heading into the town of New Egypt but decided not to. As we stood around I was getting a little cold so I started heading back about a minute before the others started. As I was heading north I saw Tru going south. I guess we didn't notice he had dropped off the back.

I kept going and saw the others behind me stop but I kept going as I wanted to keep warm and knew they would eventually catch up. Its not like you can get lost on this type of ride. This trail isn't very scenic so I didn't stop to take any pictures. By the time I got back the others were a couple of minutes behind me.

It was still overcast with some intermittent flurries when we got back so I'm glad we decided to do a trail instead of a road ride. It also gave me a chance to test out the new fender I got that should keep some of the mud off me. I was also happy my shifter worked for the entire ride as I found a cracked ferrule and frayed cable when I cleaned up the bike last night. I put a little tape and zip tie on it as a temporary fix until I get the parts to fix it in a couple of days.

The UTT is an OK trail. Its not very interesting but it is close and a good way to get 20 miles in on a cold winter day. 

Dark and Damp Ride

It was dark and dreary January day. Some may say it wasn't just the weather that made it a dark day. Despite the overcast skies and damp roads it was still a good enough weather to ride in for a January day because it was in the mid 40s. I didn't have anything listed in the book but posted a message on the blog and sent out an email blast.

When I got to the picnic area of MCP Joe, Chris and Bob were waiting and Laura and Peter road in soon after. When we left the park the roads were damp from the previous days rain but at least there were no big puddles on the roads. We road to New Egypt which is one of my standard winter rides. It felt good to be on the road bike again after being on the mountain bike the past few weeks.

We wound our way around the backside of Allentown and into Crosswicks where Peter almost got clipped by a car making a high speed right turn about 3 feet in front of him. It added some much unneeded excitement to the ride.

We kept a slow B pace as most of us hadn't been riding much in the past few weeks. I did decide go up Hill Rd just to get some climbing in. We decide to stop a Scott's Deli which was good because the Wawa is closed and looks like it is being refurbished.

The clouds never got any thinner and we never saw the sun so the roads never dried out. Still it felt good to get out on the road with group again. I ended up with almost 50 miles. January and February are hard months to get out and ride so I was happy we could get a ride like this in.  

Hike and Bike

Its always hard to get outside in the winter for some exercise so when Jack asked if I wanted to join on a hike I said why not. We ended up doing a hike around the lake at Mercer County Park. I had been on most of the mountain bike trails over the years so it was a familiar area to walk around. Jack Laura and I started from the boat house and did a clockwise loop around the lake. I haven't done any real hiking in about 5 years and really don't have good hiking shoes or jacket but made do with some work boots and a ski jacket.

I was a long hike of 7.7 miles that took about 3 hours. We had to stop about halfway though to fix Laura's boots because the soles were falling off. Although it was just above freezing I was warm once we started the hike. The hike gave me a chance to see a couple areas of the park that I haven't been before. It was the longest that I hiked in years and I was a little sore by the end but would do more hikes this season if I wasn't able to get out on the bike.

Sunday Laura had a ride on the canal path from Blackwell Mills to the end of the canal by Rutgers. We had been up to the to where the Raritan meets the Millstone a couple of weeks ago so Laura wanted to go all the way to the end. There was some snow left over from a flurry on Saturday so the path had patches of snow on it

It was just Laura, Peter and myself as we worked our way north. The first 6 miles was familiar since I had done it a couple of weeks ago. Because of the cold and snow it wasn't as muddy as last time. The path was in good shape most of the way. There were  a few rough spots around Bound Brook. Once we got to Landing Lane and cross the road the last quarter mile to the actual end of the canal was more a single track than a path. We spent a few minutes taking pictures of the end of the canal before starting back.

It was just over 13 miles from the Blackwell Mills to the end so it took us a while to make our way back. It was a little warmer and the path was a little softer in spots but not much worst than the way out. We stopped for a quick break where the Raritan meets the Millstone. Then road the last 5 miles back.

I still haven't done the part of the canal path from Washington Crossing to Trenton but now have been on almost every part of the canal path.

Year End Stats

Happy New Year!

 Dog I meet on the Union Transportation Trail

I hope you are all enjoying the new year. I am glad we are done with 2016 as it was an overly busy year for me both personally and professionally and I'm looking forward to having a less intense and more relaxing year in 2017.

At the beginning of each year I take a look back at the previous year and review a few things like my investments to see if I should make any changes in my plans for the new year. This year I kept better track of my riding than in previous years. I was inspired by a presentation I saw by the women's US pursuit team on how they used data used from HR sensors, power meters, etc to help them improve their performance. I also got a free HR monitor from work. I wanted something simple to maintain that might be useful in measuring my performance and give me some insight to improve it. I settled on a simple spreadsheet where I record the following information for each ride.

• Distance Ridden
• Avg Speed
• Elevation Gain
• Avg HR
• Max HR
• Temperature 
• Wind Speed
• Weather (Sunny, Partly Cloudy, Cloudy)
• Feeling After Ride (Good, OK, Tired)
• Ride Type (Group, Solo)
• Bike Used

I could record this information in 5 mins after a ride by looking at my cycle computer and HR monitor. I either estimated the elevation gain from plotting out the route or by downloading the data from my GPS when I used it on a ride. I used the RideWithGPS site for my measuring the elevation gain. This site is probably 10-15% lower than actual but is a good standard for comparisons.

I spent about an hour looking over the data, writing a few macros and creating charts like the one above to see if I could find any trends in the data. I learned a few things. The chart above shows that my avg speed drops as the elevation per mile increase which is common sense although it really isn't linear. Some 3000 ft rides are easier than others. Some other factors like temperature, wind speed, weather and total miles didn't seem to affect avg speed much. No matter what type of ride I did hilly or flat my avg heart was steady at about 130 bpm. I give blood a few times a year and usually wait 24 hours before I riding. I have never felt bad riding after giving blood but my heart rate even 2-3 days after giving blood was 7-10 beats higher which shows the affects of giving blood last longer than I thought.

The days where I cramped up were usually hilly rides that were hot and humid which is not surprising but means I need to prepare better for hotter rides. For the century I did this year I made a conscious effort to keep my HR 5-10 beats lower by using lower gears and not pushing the pace. That definitely helped but the humid weather slowed me down at the end.

In general as a bike and computer geek I find the data useful and think it will help me improve my ride preparation and help me finish rides a little stronger. It also is a good baseline to help me measure how things change as I age.

I plan to try and automate the collection of data to make it easier to maintain the spreadsheet and analyze the data.  I already started collecting data for 2017 as I did a quick 25 mile ride today and recorded my stats. I will see if insights I gained from the data I collected last year will help me in the new year.