Outstanding Weekend Followed by Touch of Winter

Coming off of two absolutely gorgeous days over the weekend, we’re now getting a touch of “old man winter” to start the work week. I’m getting reports of snow beginning to accumulate in the higher elevations of the Smokies with more expected overnight and into tomorrow morning. Still, it should be short lived with a return to spring temps by Wednesday.

While Saturday was taken up with yard work and no riding time, Sunday turned out to be an excellent day to get out and about. Folks were clearly of that mind as the walkers, runners, and cyclists were all taking advantage of the mid-70’s temperatures under beautiful blue skies. I had the good fortune to get out for a ride on NC 209 and around Lake Junaluska.

I must admit that I was struggling with my ride on Sunday as I just didn’t feel like I had any legs whatsoever. This formula kept popping into my head as I was riding:

(Early season yardwork * too many hours) + (poor eating habits/2) = weak legs

I can certainly tell that I’m not getting in enough ride time or enough climbing work as I seem to have reached some kind of plateau in my conditioning. Still, it is early in the season and I realize that I need to keep the chin up and keep working toward those personal goals I’ve set.

I polished off Sunday’s ride by circling the Lake Junaluska Assembly grounds. The grounds were packed with folks out enjoying the day. The Assembly has in recent years opened their facilities to the public as part of the Haywood County Recreational plan and it was abundantly clear yesterday that the public was taking advantage of the options.

This image is shot looking north from the south shore of Lake Junaluska.

A very nice walking path circles the lake and affords about a 2.3 mile walk that includes crossing the dam on the northeastern end of the lake. You can see George Stuart Auditorium in the background of the image above. Cyclists can circumnavigate a larger area by circling both the upper and lower sections of the lake. The following view is from the Cross that overlooks the lake with views back to the south and west.

 

For those of you perhaps somewhat interested in the technology of writing this blog, I am using Window’s new Live Writer for the first time. It is certainly easier to work with text and images than my previous efforts through Blogger. I especially like the WYSIWYG feature.

With the impending bad weather for the next couple of days, it is a good time to take the Fuji in for a quick check up at my LBS, Rolls Rite Bicycles. I’ve developed a rotational “thump” in my rear wheel since I had a flat last week as I ended the Folly Retreat. The “thump” became quite irritating yesterday as it jarred my spine each time a revolution was made. So, I’m off to the shop…

Until later,

-- Zeke