Good Rides

Saturday I headed up the Parkway to the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center. The road was open and I hadn't been up there in a while so I set off. I supposed to simulate race conditions so I pushed a good pace to the top. I was feeling good. It was a great day, clear sky and lots of sun. It got a little bit cooler as I neared the VC, but not a lot. I noticed that I was not really sweating, but attributed that to the cool temps. Once I got to the VC I felt a twinge of nauseousness. Hmmm, interesting. Not sure what was going on, and thankful that the ride back was a lot of downhill, I headed back after filling up my bottles at the water fountain.
Later, I looked at my intake, sodium/calories etc. It turns out that my math was off and I did not have enough electrolyte intake. The other thought was that I simply pushed too hard, for too long.

View of the mtns.

The temporary stoplight way up in the middle of nowhere. Me, way up in the middle of nowhere.

Sunday I set out again on a road ride. I decided to ride down river road, up Monticello, through Weaverville, up Ox Creek Rd, and down the parkway. It was hotter today than yesterday and I took a lower pace than I had taken yesterday. As I was nearing the parkway on Ox Creek Rd, I saw a chicken pecking at the side of the road. Interesting since there weren't any houses nearby. I almost stopped to take a picture, but decided not too. Literally not more than 10 pedal strokes later, a black bear cub popped out of the woods, then another, then a 350 lbs mama, then another cub, whoa!!! I tried to grab the camera, but if I had kept pedaling I would have run into them. I stopped and unclicked my left foot, and the sound sent them running down the hillside. I had only been about 30 feet away from them....

I continued my ride, noting that I sweat the entire time. Hmmm, I'm now wondering how heart-rate is correlated with sweat rate?

View of Ox Creek Valley before the climb. The road goes up to the gap at the right of the peak in the center of the picture, then over the other side to the Parkway!!!

So, there goes another great weekend!!!

Have a great day.