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.

Post Christmas Ride

After being rained out last weekend and this past Saturday it felt good to finally get a ride in. I sent out an email to a few of the regulars to meet at Etra and ride with team social security. It was a cold and cloudy day so I wasn't sure who was going to show up. Laura and Peter met me at my house for the ride over where we met Chris, Joe M, and a few others of team SS.

Joe ended up leading us on a long loop around Allentown. It was a standard ride on local roads that we have done many times before but it just felt good to catch up with people be on the bike again.

Although it can be fun to get together with family and celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus, Make Up Your Mind Day or whatever holiday you celebrate it can also be very stressful. The wife and I do a lot of driving to visit both sets of relatives for Christmas so we are usually exhausted by the time we get home on Christmas day.

Monday's ride was a good way to destress and work off some of the Christmas cookies. I wanted to try and get 50 miles in so at the end of the ride I split off with Peter, Laura and Chris to added an extra 5 miles. I ended up with 48 miles and got home before the unexpected brief rain storm which was enough. I have the rest of the week off so hope to get a little more riding in if the weather is good enough.        

Code Blue

The city of Philadelphia declared a code blue on Saturday. That is when the wind chill is below 20 degrees and they open additional shelters to give homeless people the chance to get out of the cold.  This also meant that it was too cold to ride on the road so I went on Laura's ride along the Lawrence Hopewell Trail. 

Cold is a relative thing. At the start of the ride we had a surprise visit from Cheryl and who drove up with Dave C. Cheryl came up from Florida to surprise people at the PFW party on Saturday. To people who live below the mason-dixon line anything below 50 is cold. Here in NJ we don't start complaining about the cold until is gets below freezing. I have been following a person I met in Alaska who lives above the arctic circle and took the picture above. He doesn't consider it cold until it is below zero degrees fahrenheit. The picture is of methane bubbles frozen in a lake. The lake freezes from top to bottom and since the top freezes first the methane bubble from decomposition get stuck in the ice. As each layer freezes another set of methane bubbles is trapped. Its a beautiful scene but unless you don't mind a couple of months without the sun and can tolerate 20 to 30 degrees below zero it not a place you want to live. I will enjoy pictures like this from the warmth of my home.

Today's ride was the beginning of the winter riding season. We will try to be on the road when we can but when it gets close to freezing we still find ways to get out for a ride. The Lawrence Hopewell trail is a good choice for cold weather riding. The path is well maintained and a good part of it is in the woods so you get some breaks from the wind. 60% of the trail is paved and the rest is packed gravel so it is an easy surface to ride on with any bike with wide tires.The main problem with the trail is that it isn't really marked very well. If you don't know where you are going it is easy miss a turn and get off the trail. I have done the trail 6 times and got lost 4 of the 6 times.

We started from the parking lot by the corner of Princeton Pike and Provinceline Rd. Laura had a good turnout for a cold day. The first mile is on dirt through the woods before we hit a paved path thorough Lawrenceville and across 206 on our way to Mercer Meadows. This part was open and where we felt the wind as we made it to the high point of the ride that delineates the Delaware and Raritan watersheds.

From there we went around Rosedale Lake on our way towards Pennington. The Lawrence Hopewell Trail isn't completely finished and stops on Wargo Rd. I usually take Bayberry to ETS to pick the trail up again but Peter said they just completed another section of the trail so we headed up Pennington Rd to the new section which goes from Pennington Rd over towards Carter Rd. When the trail ended again we were on Carter Rd which some one suggested we take to Cleveland which we did. From there Laura wanted to go down Provinceline over the a new bridge. This part of Provinceline is closed to cars.

The bridge was pretty and gave us a good view of the river. This however required us to climb a short but steep hill then take a grass trail to get to ETS and back on the trail to our starting point. This was a good detour and it is good to see that they continue to add sections to the trail to complete it. This is an enjoyable ride on a cold day so we will probably do it again sometime this winter.

The Check List

I ended up doing Laura's ride to Upper Black Eddy this week and you can read the details about the ride Here and Here. At the beginning of the ride I lent Jim a water bottle because he had forgot his. This got us into a discussion about a check list. For the last 5 years I have used a paper check list to make sure I did not forget all the things I need for a ride. Since I have been using it I have never drove to a ride and not have everything I need. Now as important as having a check list is learning to use it the correct way. What I do is before I leave my house I take out the paper check list and for each item on the list visually check that it is in my car. This insures that everything I need is actually in my car because if you just mentally go through a check list with out actually checking the item is in the car you are going to THINK you have something when you actually don't.

This is a similar methodology to check lists used by pilots Of course forgetting your water bottle for a ride is not as tragic as a plane crashing because the pilot for got to deploy the flaps but there is no reason to not use a simple check list to make sure you always have all your stuff. 

Here is my list. I don't always need everything on this list (e.g. Jacket) but this way I don't need different lists for different times of the year.

• Shoes
• Camelback
• Helmet
• Sun glasses
• Gloves
• Snacks
• Bagel
• Water Bottle
• Paper Towel
• GPS
• Maps
• Jacket
• Arm Warmers 
• Shoe Covers
• Ride sheet
• Pump up Tire
• Sunscreen
• Tail Light