I’ve gotten a slow start to training for this ride, though fittingly, most of my riding so far has been on trails.

It started with the 150-mile Great Allegheny Passage plus a bit of the C&O Canal in May. (My friend Janet blogged it here).

Then the Brit and I spent one day biking 60 miles on the Pine Creek rail-trail in northern Pennsylvania, essentially due south of Corning, NY. It’s has some wonderful river views and really could be better promoted to capitalize on a length that is long enough to attract overnight visitors. But that tag of the “Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania”? Hyperbole, in my opinion. A nice gorge is what it is.

Regardless, it’s a pleasant place to bike. Just wish there were working water pumps that didn’t come with warnings about water quality. A side effect of fracking?

I also took an early and long lunch to bike 10 miles of the D&R Canal/East Coast Greenway as part of the Cabot Community Tour from Jacksonville, Fla. to New York City.

Time to get serious. Spin classes and bike rides to the train station and work aren’t enough.