a really good ride

I had a meeting in Salem at 1PM, and as it ended up had a "pre-meeting" at noon so an early start was in order today. I left Forest Grove at 4:30AM and headed to Salem. It was clear with a noticable north breeze as I began my trip.

By the time I got to Newberg there was a rain shower working across the hills to the east. When I got just south of the Champoeg area there was total cloud cover with a brisk north wind blowing.

My bike buddy Erinn had an early morning errand to attend to and prefers to start today's ride in Jefferson. I had to finish in Salem due to time constraints so a Salem start made better sense for me. I planned to ride the first 25 miles solo until meeting up with Erinn in Jefferson. I had pedals spinning by 6:10AM, about 20 minutes later than I had hoped for. It was warm, I shed my windbreaker in the first 2 miles. I had a quartering to tailwind on the way south to Jefferson. Good thing to, because of my late start I knew I had to have better than a 20mph average to get to Jefferson by our agreed meeting time. As it ended up, my little "pre-ride commute" was a good thing, it forced my to ride harder than I normally would have.....the bike pansy was zipped tightly in the rear bag, in fact it may have fallen completely off the bike today! I pulled into Jefferson 5 minutes early..... with just over a 21 mph average for the 25 mile run. I was pleased.

Erinn and I rolled out of Jefferson and continued on the Peach of a Century route(metric version) that I had been following since Salem. With Jefferson being just about the most southerly point on the route, we were now heading into that wind.
It was a good ride. I felt strong.

I was on my aerobars most of the day and when we'd turn directly into the wind I'd just power through it. I still notice some residual effects of the resperatory problems of the last couple weeks, but for the most part it thankfully seems behind me now. The weather looked a little "iffy", we really expected some rain drops but they never materialized. The heavy low clouds stuck with us until around 9:30AM or so, then started clearing out.

My comfort level with traffic is a little higher than Erinn's, as she avoids riding the part of the route near Salem, even though it just skirts the edge of town. When we got about 5 miles from Salem, 58 miles for me, 28 for Erinn, it was time to part ways. We had agreed beforehand that I'd ride the complete route so I ended up in Salem at the end of the day, and she'd ride the eastern portion as an out and back. We visited a bit then went our separate ways. By the time we split up the sky had cleared and the sun was beginning to warm things up.

I continued on to Salem via the Peach route then rode a ~10 mile out and back mostly on Cordon Rd to bring me up to my planned 80 miles. Erinn was going to do the same on her end of the route. Since I started about an hour earlier I hoped that it wasn't too warm by the time Erinn got her 80 miles in.
It was 77 at my pickup when I got back. By late afternoon it was 86 in Salem as I headed back towards home after my meeting, and hit 90 as I got back to Forest Grove.
I'm glad we rode early.

With all of the miles of headwind I was surprised to see my average was 18.3 mph. I had rode 60+ miles on Tuesday and held just over 16 mph. I guess having a tight time schedule........and a riding partner to push you helps bring out the best.


My next planned ride is Saturday morning. I'm going to tag along with some friends who are riding Reach the Beach. My schedule won't allow the full ride to the beach, but I hope to ride about 40-50 miles out then return. My pace will be somewhat limited by the expected bike congestion and the pace of my partners but it will still be a good chance to spin some pedals.


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...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............83...............0
Jan total.......98.....+........402....=..........500
Feb total.....385.....+.......220....=...........605
Mar total.....659.....+........41.....=...........700
April total...629.....+........57.....=...........676
YTD...........2109....+.......720....=.........2817

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