Friday evening Annie mentioned that she had to do a new staff hire up at the Lake Norman Y. I decided to forgo my slumber to offer to drive Annie up there... and to ride Lake Norman. Annie wasn't sure how long she would take, which was fine with me as Lake Norman offers up around 30 miles of trail, so I could keep myself busy.
It wasn't until I hit the trail that it dawned on me. This was the first time I'd been out to Lake Norman in 2014... absolutely crazy. Every year Lake Norman changes direction, so Saturday's ride was like a whole new experience. I started out on the Laurel side of things (as I normally do) and right from the start the ride experience was different. In the odd years you seem to get a longer warm up period into the trail, on the evens it's a quicker introduction to climbing. No matter. Even though I prefer the odd year direction, I still had a good time out there.
The trails were in amazing shape. I did stop a couple time to clear a small tree that was hanging over the trail and some branch debris. Going in the even direction I was able to clear everything, so I guess that's a plus for this direction (there is one steep washout after a creek crossing that I haven't yet cleared in the odd direction). The temperature was perfect, and life was coming back to the forest as bright green exploded everywhere! It was great to be outside.
My ride was good overall. Two things kept it from being an amazing ride. My damn seatpost kept slipping. Whenever I'd get it back up to proper height it seemed as if I got a boost of energy as spinning was a more perfect/easy motion. As it progressively slid down I'd start to feel like I was riding a BMX bike and my knees would eventually let me know about it. I've really got to get on fixing that... Step 1 - carbon paste. If that doesn't work Step 2 is to get a new damn seatpost - maybe white. The other issue was an issue of neglect - lack of fuel. I had a pop tart on the drive up. That was all for the day. I did have a clif bar and gummy worms with me, but of course I didn't eat anything while out on the trail...
As I was getting close to finishing up the first side of Lake Norman I got a text from Annie. I pushed on to the parking lot before checking, she was done early. By that point I was starving and totally on board going to get something to eat so I cut out before hitting the other side of Lake Norman.
Sunday I was consumed with random chores. It was nice out, but it had me sweating my balls off all day. By the time I could have skipped out for a quick road ride I was too hot to even think about it. Instead I got to ride the trainer and sweat a couple more pounds off - yay.
Rain is coming today and tomorrow it seems... the rain has got to stop, but I guess I'll let it slide if the weekends continue to kick ass like it did this weekend.
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