I saw fellow Oregon Randonneur Lynne, and met her other half, the often alluded to but rumored to not actually exist, Fitz. Usually when one see's Lynne, Cecil Anne is not far away, but I didn't see her. Seems from her Facebook post that she was busy making "the best zucchini bread ever"...........and not sharing it with us! ;-)
At any rate, it was a rainy day, our first in quite some time. Quite a change from yesterday. There was a surprisingly large turnout. There were two ride options, a shorter ride and a longer version. I decided to ride the longer option..........no surprise there!
I brought my Marin, because it has a rear luggage deck that shields me from wheel rooster tail and because I did not want to take the Zipp 404's on the carbon bike on the wet and gritty roads. I'm concerned about grit getting down in the valve extenders and mucking up the sealing surface on the open valves deep down in the wheel.
Before our ride there were several speakers talking about the importance of saving the farm ground and rural character of the area. Like I said, sitting in this brand new building situated on land that I had sprayed for a farmer not too many years ago and hearing folks talk about the importance of saving farm ground and rural character seemed to ring a bit hollow.
I've spent my life in this area, I know the farmers in the area. I knew both farmers who spoke. One especially talked about sharing roads with cyclists. He related how last summer he was driving a loaded truck (40,000 lbs net, ~60,000 gross) on West Union Rd and attempting to pass a group of cyclists. He said as he went around the cyclists he met another group of cyclists coming the other way AND an oncoming car. He said there were mere inches between his truck and the cyclists and that it scared him. A thought for my farmer friend (and yes, I will call him this evening) if it scared HIM as he sat high above the roadway surrounded by heavy steel, imagine what the lycra protected cyclist felt like as an impatient truck attempted to pass with inadequate clearance giving only a few inches of space between them and the tires.
Okay, back to the ride. I joined the group seeking a longer ride and we had a ride leader who was showing us the route. We pedaled off and very soon entered a separate bike path.
Of the first 6 miles 4+ miles were on paths. There was quite a bit of "accordion action" as folks would slow for hills, debris, or bollards with no way to maneuver around them. When the ride leader turned on to a gravel road I bailed out. I presume that the gravel surface wouldn't last too long in the suburban locale, but just had enough of this style of riding. I have a road bike, so turned into the West Hills and rode two loops of my social bike group's "Luis' after work ride". The route is a nice little route that offers some good elevation gain to Skyline.
So for another day I'm in my low mile zone. In reality, if I continue to ride 50-60 miles a day by month's end it will still be acceptable, but for training purposes I really need to be logging longer efforts.
Forecast is for showers, rain, and possible T-storms the next few days. We shall see how many long rides I get in! I am supposed to join a group on a 60-70 mile ride to Hagg Lake tomorrow.
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...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............61...............0.................61
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....860.....+.........0........=.......860
April total.....790.....+.........0........=.......790
May total.......901.....+.........0........=.......901
June total......543.....+.........0........=.......543
July total.....1322.....+.........0........=......1322
August total...1603.....+.........0........=......1603
Sept total......279.....+.........0........=.......279
Year to date...7462.....+.........30.......=......7492
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