Bikes, Borgs, and Brew

I'm sitting here THINKING about riding bike when I really should be out there RIDING bike. I'm justifying it because I rode the last two days and my backside is still getting used to the new saddle. I figured a day off might be a good thing. In the meantime I was looking at the route for a 200k ride I'm likely to do in a few weeks with some of the Oregon Randonneurs. I followed some of the links and ended up on John Kramer's blog. He's proposing a challenging ~850 mile ride over a week in the rather hilly part of NE Oregon. The route covers some of the same country we rode on last Summer's Race Across Oregon, and ends up with about the same 40,000 ft we tallied on that event. If I don't get accepted for the Furnace Creek 508 I may have time available to do this instead. Really, if I am riding the Furnace Creek 508 in October I SHOULD do this as part of my training but probably need to conserve available time and dollars to put towards an all out effort on the 508.

Oh, and this:

I sent my membership application to Oregon Randonneurs this morning. They shamed me into joining them with their constant smiles, quest for more miles, and invitations to join them on rides even though I'm "not one of them". Just like the Borg, they've assimilated me! :-O

EVENING UPDATE:

Finished up the day at the Gemini in Lake Oswego with some active members of one of my more social bike groups. It was a ride leader meeting for those who'd like to plan and lead group rides. We had a great turn out, 11 of 12 who said they'd be there. We should be able to come up with a good variety of rides geared to just about everyone's skills and abilities. Now we just have to get out and ride!