Timing Leaf Peeping with the Color Change
My husband Bill and I usually spend a week or two in New England each October, hoping to time it to perfectly match peak leaf peeping season. This year, though, we opted to stay closer to home. Leaves would be changing a little later farther south in West Virginia and Tennessee and we planned our trip accordingly. It appears we might be about a week early in West Virginia – we’ll see how Tennessee pans out…
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
Cycling: 36.4 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.6 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 8:17 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 67° in the basement, 60° and dreary outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
With a nor’easter forecast to hit the east coast on Sunday into Monday and not wanting to drive in the rain, we left the farm a day earlier than planned, late in the afternoon on Saturday after my mom’s funeral. Waking up at home, I had plenty of time to fit in a nice workout on my spin bike and get organized for the upcoming work week.
Monday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
I’d planned to go out for a walk, but let the day get away from me while doing all kinds of other stuff – repotting a houseplant, unpacking a few things I’d brought home from Mom’s house, etc. By the time I was ready to get out for my walk, it was drizzling outside.
Tuesday
Cycling: 21.3 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 16.2 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:58 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66° in the basement, 55° and mostly cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Cycling: 38.14 miles
• Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp
• Average speed: 14.4 MPH
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 1,106 feet
• Start time: 9:43 AM
• Location: W&OD Trail Ashburn/Reston loop
• Weather: 58° (feels like 51°) and cloudy, climbing to 66° (feels like 60°)
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey, arm sleeves, and fingerless gloves
Walking: 2.09 miles
• Average pace: 16:41 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 110 feet
• Start time: 2:59 PM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 67° (feels like 61°) and cloudy
• What I wore: capris, l/s shirt, nylon shell, and visor
After multitasking while spinning and training a client, we waited until it warmed up a little bit before going out on a ride. My husband and I met our friend Chuck and as we were making our way back into an intense headwind, we were stopped by trail patrol where we’d just ridden through less than an hour earlier. A transformer had blown and Dominion Energy was coming onto the scene to make the repairs. Chuck used that as a sign to turn and ride back home while we found an alternative way to navigate around the closed area on some side streets as we made our way home (we live about 10 miles away from Chuck).
Later I walked to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, happy for a pretty day and the opportunity to be able to multitask yet again.
Wednesday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Thursday
Cycling: 42 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.9 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 5:58 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 65° in the basement, 44° and clear outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Walking: 2.08 miles
• Average pace: 15:27 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 101 feet
• Start time: 11:05 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 55° and sunny, climbing to 57°
• What I wore: capris, s/s shirt, nylon shell, and visor
After taking last week off while at the farm, it was nice to get back into my weekly virtual workout with Kim. When I took the garbage out before our ride, I was tempted to walk in the delightfully crisp dark morning, but decided I’d rather have Kim help keep me entertained while on my spin bike and save my walk for later.
Later in the morning, my husband and I hit up REI to stock up on a few things for our upcoming road trip.
Friday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Cycling: 18 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 16.0 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 5:46 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 63° in the basement, 39° and clear outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Walking: 2.07 miles
• Average pace: 14:48 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 92 feet
• Start time: 8:19 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 42° and sunny, climbing to 47°
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, fleece jacket, double gloves, and visor
Balance and Stretching: 45 minutes
Up at 4:30 AM for a full day of work, workouts, laundry, packing, and evening family time, I stayed focused on my todo list. My spin earned me the October Tour 400K badge.
Saturday
Road trip: Day 1: Drive from home to Charleston, West Virginia
Hiking: 1.79 miles
• Average pace: 19:19 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 236 feet
• Start time: 3:38 PM
• Location: New River Gorge National Park
• Weather: 72° and mostly
• What I wore: capris, s/s shirt, and visor
After a relaxing drive to West Virginia, we were confused as we approached the New River Gorge Bridge when it appeared that the road to the bridge was closed. Sure enough, police were turning traffic as we approached. Ends up, we’d picked the busiest day of the year to visit – Bridge Day – a huge annual festival held at the New River Gorge Bridge, the only day of the year that BASE jumping and rappelling are allowed off the 876-foot-high bridge.
Luckily, we were able to park alongside the road with hundreds of other cars and hike to the visitor center and the bridge overlook. Our destination wasn’t particularly crowded as most people were being shuttled to and from the bridge to watch the jumpers and rappellers.
Last Week’s Blog Posts
In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past weeks, here’s what you missed…
Questions:
- • Have you visited West Virginia? ~ Many times
- • Are leaves starting to turn where you live? ~ Some are just starting to turn where we live and they’re just a little bit more colorful in WV.
- • Which workout did you enjoy most this past week? ~ Tuesday’s ride with my husband and Chuck was a lot of fun even though we encounter a detour on our way home.
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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So far, so good with the views from your trip to WV. I’m looking forward to more! It’s amazing how many people showed up to jump off the bridge, lol
The leaves got a lot more spectacular the following day – it’s as if they popped overnight! Apparently, Bridge Day is just as popular with the spectators as it is with the BASE jumpers.
I noticed some lovely orange trees on my run this morning — I hope you find some great colors on your trip.
I saw a notice about that transformer — luckily you weren’t there when it happenned!
Thanks, Coco, the colors seemed to be all over the place in West Virginia and now the same in Tennessee.
The trail patrol guy that was helping out with redirecting trail traffic told us he saw the flash as he rode by on his bike. Yikes!
Wow, Bridge Day sounds wild – BASE jumpers off an 876-foot bridge, that’s some serious entertainment for leaf-peeping season!
Hopefully Tennessee will hit peak colours just as you arrive. You two always plan the most adventure-packed weeks.
Did you manage to catch any jumpers in action?
Unfortunately, we missed seeing any BASE jumpers. We got there just as the event was coming to a close, and by the time we parked and hiked to the bridge overlook they were opening the bridge back up to traffic. As we traveled yesterday from West Virginia toward our farm, the leaves were gorgeous and pretty much peaking. Here in Tennessee peak seems to be a week or two out, but hopefully in the higher elevation of the Smokey Mountains we’ll see a lot of color.
Have not been to WV in a long time! I saw you mention getting a Peloton a few weeks ago-I know you would love it. If you have any questions let me know!
Thanks, Deborah, I will let you know if I have any Peloton questions if we purchase one.
Not much for fall foliage yet, but I can tell it won’t be long before we have full color. I did see some stray leaves on the trail (part of the race rote) this morning, though…
The problem with beautiful fall leaves is that the cold weather usually isn’t far behind, right?
Our leaves have turned and not a great year for colors. Too dry a summer.
Never been to WV… looks beautiful.
My favorite workout was an early morning 5 mile run/walk. Weather was perfect. Today it was rainy but of course, the sun is now out.
It’s been really dry here this summer. We’d hoped to hike to some waterfalls both in West Virginia and Tennessee, but a waterfalls was almost completely dried up on one of our hikes on Saturday. Now we’re rethinking our planned waterfalls hikes in Tennessee.
I would love to visit West Virginia, but it just isn’t in the cards at the moment. One day, for sure.
We had a pretty unsettling thing here… someone hit a fire hydrant and opened a water main, which then led to a giant sinkhole opening up in a road just across the street from our neighborhood. It was terrifying. Fortunately, they got it under control, but it should never have happened!
That sinkhole sounds terrifying!