Well maybe not entirely. I used to love the winter, but that was when I lived in a house that actually stayed warm. Our apartment when the wind kicks up can be very hard to keep warm. Thus I’m kind of missing those days of basking in the sun and feeling warm all the way through. I took this photo over last summer on our only visit to White Memorial that year. I’m determined to get out and enjoy the outdoors in 2010. It seems like so long ago but in 2006, I was biking at least once a week and doing all sorts of other things outdoors.

In the spirit of getting in better health

This past week I ate vegetarian from Sunday through Thursday. Friday we started running out groceries, time and I caved and picked up Starbucks for breakfast, Subway for lunch and pizza for dinner. Lesson learned though, as my stomach was none too happy with my meal choices and I spent the evening in a lot of pain. Which leads me to thinking, maybe I do have some level of lactose intolerance. The weekend was filled with lots of out and about activities, and I made decisions that were fairly good.

I’m looking forward to going back to eating simpler, not so rich foods this week. My goal for this week is to continue with primarily vegetarian meals and get in at least two days of exercise. I have to work on my core to help my back, which has been bothering me again. I am also planning to map out different places to mountain bike between home and work. Along with that, I’m putting together a shopping list of winter bike gear; booties, pants and a bright orange fleece jacket (I like my life).

While on vacation we had planned to get some biking in. I’ve been pretty out of it this past year. Also it’s not advised for Craig while he has his neck issue.

We finally got a break in weather on Wednesday and we headed into the National Forest to the Lincoln Woods trail. We talked to these wonderful park rangers who gave us our options. They said the trail that leads up to the falls has “some” railroad ties left in place. Ok… not a problem, because it’s a rail trail, so guaranteed nothing more than a 3% grade and a few railroad ties is not a big deal.

Turns out it was lots of railroad ties. The trail turned out to be a lot of fun. The way out to the falls and trail terminus (for bicyclists) was 2.8 miles, it was also the 3% up. Imagine having to bike over roots and rocks, but throw in speed bumps every 3-4 feet, you’ve got the Lincoln Woods trail. About 3/4 way out I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to keep going. It was really kicking my butt and I was burning out. Craig stopped with me while I caught my breath and we decided to give it a little more.

One positive of the trail is on either side of the ties there is a small path to ride that is just dirt and roots. I was wondering how I was going to do on the way back but was glad to be able to rest when we got to the bridge.

The ride back turned out to be a lot of fun. It was 3% grade down. It pushed me to use my biking skills to pick a good line, avoid the nails that were still in some of the ties, ride out of the saddle to avoid destroying my butt and back. I also realized after a good mile that I would need to float my hands on my handlebars because my wrists were getting very sore. As usual my extra weight gave me quite a bit of momentum going down hill, I even hopped my bike up on to a bridge and kept going. I felt great after the ride, I loved the technicalities of the trail and was ready to go do it again the next day.

If your in that area, have a mountain bike, go do this trail. For those experienced and in shape riders this probably won’t be much of a challenge, but for the novice group it’s a good and safe technical challenge.