Enjoying Fall Foliage

This October marks the third fall my husband and I have traveled to New England to enjoy the fall foliage. We love riding on Vermont’s gravel and the focus of this year’s trip was a bike event in Peru, Vermont. Cycling along the rural gravel roads as the leaves reach peak color on a cool crisp day is incredibly fun (and can be challenging), and brings us back each fall.

 

Overview of the Week

Before getting into each day’s workouts, here’s an overview of my workouts from this past week. Scroll beyond the infographic for daily details…

 

Sunday

Walking: 2.26 miles
• Average pace: 14:33 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 4:46 PM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 68° in basement, 68° and drizzly outside
• What I wore: shorts and tank

After a lazy start to the day, I finally made my way to the treadmill for a workout. My legs felt pretty good after the previous day’s Tour de Conservation Easement.

 

Monday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

Walking: 2.01 miles
• Average pace: 14:32 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 3:22 PM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 68° in basement, 65° and raining outside
• What I wore: shorts and sports bra

It was overcast and dreary, but dry all day so I’d planned to get outside for a walk after wrapping up my last client session. Of course, it started raining steadily within 10 minutes of her leaving so I was stuck on the treadmill once again.

 

Tuesday

Cycling: 35 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 16.1 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:29 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 64° in basement, 61° and raining outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra

I knew rain would keep me from getting out for a morning ride so I multitasked with a ride on my spin bike while training a virtual client, then stayed on for longer than recent indoor rides.

 

Wednesday

Strength training: 1 hour of total body

Walking: 3.19 miles
• Average pace: 15:01 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 163 feet
• Start time: 8:11 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 62°, cloudy, and misty
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor

It was dark, dreary, and misty, but I just had to get outside for my walk.

 

Thursday

Road trip day 1: Drive from home to Hyde Park, New York

Walking: 2.12 miles
• Average pace: 16:59 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 116 feet
• Start time: 4:23 PM
• Location: Inn at Bellefield parking lot and connecting trail
• Weather: 74° and partly cloudy
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, and visor

After sitting in the car for much of the day, my legs were twitching for some movement. We checked into our hotel in the early afternoon, and after getting settled, I walked loops around the property (1 loop was about 1/3-mile). I even explored a little on a gravel trail that wound through the woods.

 

Friday

Road trip day 2: Drive from Hyde Park, New York to Weston, Vermont

Cycling: 26.17 miles
• Bike: Salsa Warbird
• Average speed: 11.9 MPH
• Surface: paved with a short section of dirt single track
• Elevation gain: 725 feet
• Start time: 8:00 AM
• Location: Hudson Valley and Empire State Trails, including Walkway Over the Hudson
• Weather: 53° and foggy, climbing to 65° and partly cloudy
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, light jacket, and fingerless gloves over nitrile gloves

Before getting on the road to drive from New York to Vermont, we wanted to shake out our legs a bit. Two years ago we’d walked across the Walkway Over the Hudson and wanted to ride our bikes across so my husband created a route along the Hudson Valley and Empire State Trails. At one point we exited the paved trail to take a single track dirt trail for a bit and were treated with carrying our bikes up rock stairs to get back on the trail.

 

Saturday

Road trip day 3: Weston, Vermont

Cycling: 47.31 miles
• Bike: Salsa Warbird
• Average speed: 9.8 MPH
• Surface: gravel and class 4 single track
• Elevation gain: 4,892 feet
• Start time: 9:28 AM
• Location: Peru, Vermont
• Weather: 50° and sunny, climbing to 63° and partly cloudy
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, arm sleeves, light jacket, bandless ear covers, and fingerless gloves over nitrile gloves (took jacket, nitrile gloves, and ear warmers off about 5 miles in)

The VeloPigs had an fantastic showing at Vermont Rare with a total of 15 piggies hitting the gravel and class 4 roads for a good cause – childhood rare diseases. I may have been a little out of my comfort zone on those class 4 rock and root covered single tracks, but I stayed upright with the exception of one fall. Luckily, I was not clipped in and flew off my bike rather than my legs hitting the rocks that tripped me up. Unfortunately, my husband was not running his Insta360 when I crashed. LOL

Stay tuned for the recap; although, it might be a few weeks.

 

Last Week’s Blog Posts

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

 

Questions:
  • • Have leaves started turning in your neck of the woods? ~ The leaves are barely turning at home, but they’re beautiful here in Vermont.
  • • Have you been to Vermont? ~ Our first trip to Vermont was to ski in Killington when our sons were in elementary school and we’ve returned the past three Octobers to enjoy the fall leaves.
  • • Did you run in a race this weekend? ~ no

And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!

 

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I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but those of the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!

 

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