so close but.................

Once again I find myself near the end of the month with 1000 miles for the month so close.........but with virtually no chance of reaching the milestone. My monthly mileage sat just over 900 miles as of last Sunday evening but my many other hats have gotten in the way and I'm probably not going to get time to get on the bike to ride those last few miles.

Last Saturday I dropped my carbon bike off at the bike shop to have them look into a creaking sound that seemed to be coming from the bottom bracket. It became noticeable a few weeks ago as I'd put more power on the pedals and had been getting progressively worse. Today in the late afternoon I picked it back up. They had taken the bottom bracket apart, cleaned, relubed, applied locktite, and retorqued. I couldn't help but take it out for a short test spin.

I rode a short and mostly flat 22 mile out in a westerly direction and back.
All seems well. We'll see if if it holds. I had the same issue about 7 months ago. The bike shop was on the verge of providing a new frame when they tried the locktite trick. It held for a few months. Hopefully this either holds or fails quickly. I'd really rather not have to use my steel bike as the primary ride on Race Across Oregon and the Furnace Creek 508.

....and so the month will likely end the same way last month did.........with my total sitting over 900 miles......but not to 1000



............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......22................0.............0..........22
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......934...............0..............0.........934
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....3198...............0..............5.........3203

Monster Cookies and other delights

Lauren, Dave, Max, and I started at 6:20 from Wilsonville this morning and commuted to Salem for the Salem Bicycle Club's Monster Cookie Metric Century.

The weather was a bit brisk at 40 degrees but we persevered. There was a hint of tailwind the helped us along. We arrived at the State Capital at 8:05 with an 18.5 mph average. The sun was shining and literally thousands of people were there with bikes. It was like old home week, almost everybody who's anybody on a bike was there today.

We pedaled with the masses back northward into the increasing wind. By the time we arrived at the northern most point on the route (Champoeg Park) our average had dropped to 17.4 mph. We spent a long time at both rest stop locations talking to the many friends we ran into. The Monster Cookie ride is nothing if not a great social event! From Champoeg Park back to Salem we had a now brisk tail wind. We were flying! Dave and Max were happy to extend today's ride from 100k to 100 miles and after the cookie stop on Comcomly Road they headed back through Gervais to Wilsonville. Lauren and I continued to the end of the Monster Cookie Metric Century then pedaled back into the wind and back to Wilsonville.

We ended up with 130 miles for the day.

It was a pretty darn nice day to be on a bike!

............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today......130................0.............0.........130
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......912...............0..............0.........912
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....3176...............0..............5.........3181

flying aquarians were flying today

Lauren, Gary, Fred, John, Donald, and I began the morning at Newberg with plans to ride an 80 mile loop that included a crossing of the Wheatland Ferry. For reasons known only to some strange connection between cyclist and bike today was a fast pace.
This route could easily be ridden as a mostly flat and fast course but we chose to add some climbing in the West Salem area by taking Doak's Ferry Rd bringing our total to 2880 ft. We still managed to keep a pretty fast pace. We finished the day with a 17.5 avg.

We rode into a headwind on the way to Dallas. It wasn't bad by some standards but was a bit pesky. I rode along at about 17-19 mph with a line of bikes behind me. No problem, I'm the Desert Coyote!

At Dallas our course turned and we were done with headwinds. We also stopped to rehydrate and ate some snacks. Gary showed off his new "Banana Bunker". You too can get one if you don't want to have the experience of a smashed banana in your jersey pocket. ;-O



We had a cross wind to Salem then turned northward and put the wind to our backs.
At one point I looked down to my GPS and noted I was pedaling a 75 cadence at 26 mph....at a 115 bpm heart rate!
As the miles stretched out some of our group began to tire a bit even with the tail wind. My RAO Partner Lauren showed just why she has earned her position on the team. Even after 70+ miles she just powered along.

This was a good warm up for tomorrow's Monster Cookie Metric Century. Lauren and I plan on commuting to that ride from Wilsonville bringing the total to around 130 miles give or take a mile or two.


............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......81................0.............0..........81
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......782...............0..............0.........782
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....3046...............0..............5.........3051

short test ride

I was signed up to ride in the Helvetia area with my social bike group this evening but ended up having to work late so missed the ride. :-(

I had hoped to jump on the bike and at least get my 25 mile hilly local ride in but forgot that I had changed some things so my RAO partner could ride my bike yesterday while her's was in the shop. I spent some time cleaning the chain and sprockets, readjusting the seat height, putting the seat post reflector back on, and sliding the rear light back down the seat post. Tim has a Garmin 305 also and I noted that his rear sensor was on differently than mine. His cadence reads properly, mine doesn't. I turned my sensor around (ahem, ME put something on backwards? !!!) I needed to take it out for a test ride to see if I had everything adjusted properly.

I went out for a short test ride with blue jeans and tennis shoes. :-O

I rode 3 miles, 16.3 mph average........and a 91 avg cadence. Looks like the fix worked.

Tomorrow may be a late work day also. It would also be the night before an 80 mile day, to be followed by a 133 mile day on Sunday. I really should have done more tonight........ but alas.

............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today........3................0.............0...........3
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......701...............0..............0.........701
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2965...............0..............5.........2970

Flying Aqurarians are out in force!

The Flying Aquarians were on the road tonight. The entire team (cyclists and crew) went for a ride in Portland's West Hills tonight. It seems that perhaps we've got our team roles in the wrong order. Crew member Tim and crew chief Dave were strong on the climb up through Washington Park tonight. Lauren was on an ill fitting loaner bike since her Fuji has a broken shifter. I had no excuse other than I'm getting old! In all honesty, I am a little concerned. When I'm pushing hard my limiting factor seems to be my ability to breathe enough air. I've never had that problem before. Are my legs stronger this year? Is my lung capacity decreasing? I didn't have my heart rate monitor on tonight but on other rides when I'm breathing that hard my heart rate is above 170. Like I said, maybe I'm just getting old!

Here's the course we rode:


I missed a turn onto Cornell and got a little bonus climbing and an additional 2 miles before rejoining the others. I was the only rider without GPS tonight so I can only report that my teammates climbed 2295 feet.

It was a good ride. I wish I could get them to join me on the Pete's Mountain ride that I did several times last week but three of them work very near where we started this evening and I get off work earlier in the day than they do so I have time to travel to the start.

............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......27................0.............0..........27
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......698...............0..............0.........698
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2962...............0..............5.........2967

2 for 2

Two weekend centuries two weeks in a row.

Today my Race Across Oregon partner and Doak joined me and about 350 other riders on the Cherry Ride beginning from The Dalles. One of those other 350 riders included Sandy Earl who will be the first female to finish RAAM on a recumbent.

Lauren had ridden just over 50 miles yesterday, Doak had hammered the Tour De van Oeste Portlandia yesterday, and after having participated in the first 3 van Oeste's I had to miss this one because of a morning meeting in Salem. I still managed to pedal 100 miles however. Obviously we all needed to ride more miles today! The weather was beautiful with a temperature of 77 when we finished up.


We pedaled along the Columbia River



We pedaled up hills




and when we were finished riding the Cherry Ride we ate cherry cobbler!


My riding partners pretty much kicked my behind today. I did well for the first 48 miles. We logged 2600 ft of climbing and had a 17.4 average. I kept up a good pace another 20 miles to Hood River then it all fell apart. My legs just didn't respond when I needed them too. The gentle slope back through the twin tunnels wasn't too much trouble but the climb of 7 Mile Hill was a killer. I didn't fall too far behind but it was hard work. I flew down the back side. (have I mentioned that I LOVE downhills and tailwinds!) We then turned up Brown Creek and I just plain fell off the back. My partners waited at the top of Cherry Heights for me to slog up the hill. The slope from there down to The Dalles was great fun ....I have mentioned I LOVE downhills and tailwinds, right? ;-)

When I checked the bike computer at the end of the ride I noted that my 17.4 avg to the halfway point fell to a 14.9 average for the full 100 mile ride with 7200 ft of climbing. That's a testament to just how slow I rode the last 30 miles.



............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today......101................0.............0.........101
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......671...............0..............0.........671
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2935...............0..............5.........2940

one down

Since my weekday riding is now limited and I still have these crazy riding goals I've been trying to ride two centuries each weekend. It won't always be possible but I did manage to do it last weekend, and have the first one checked off the list this weekend with plans to ride another tomorrow.

Today I had a mid morning meeting in Salem so took the opportunity to commute to Salem by bike. It was a nice ride. I picked up just a bit of headwind for the last 25 miles but still managed to hold just over a 19 mph average all the way there.

After the meeting was over I took a longer route back. I didn't have anything particularly planned other than reaching 100 miles for the day. I pedaled a few new roads to me as well as crossed the Gallon House covered bridge.



After leaving Salem I managed to pedal through Silverton, Mt Angel, Monitor, Needy, Mollala, Liberal, and Canby. I was still a bit short of the 100 mile mark so I took a few "wrong turns" to add a few zigs and zags as I neared the end. I ended up with 100.3 miles. Good enough for today!

............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today......100................0.............0.........100
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......570...............0..............0.........570
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2834...............0..............5.........2839

bonus miles, bonus hills, bonus smiles!

I am a morning person, by the time early evening comes around my energy level begins to wane and my desire to do anything "real" disappears rather quickly. I really didn't feel like riding this evening but finally got on the bike at 6PM. I would have preferred to sit down with friends with a cold brew ......... but alas, I'm the DESERT COYOTE and I need to ride.

Once on the bike with a couple of miles behind me it began to feel right. I headed out on the same route I've ridden the last few evenings but with the sun shining and the temperatures quite comfortable I modified the course and took in a few additional miles and a bit more climbing.

(both loops clockwise)

Tonight I extended the ride into West Linn then tackled a climb of Pete's Mountain from "the hard side". I needed to do that because Dave rode 101 miles today and I was unable to join him. My Race Across Oregon partner is riding 100 miles on Sunday.
My social bike club has THREE rides scheduled tomorrow. Seems that everyone is logging more miles than me! :-(

I will be leading a 70 mile ride on the Oregon Coast on Sunday and will commute by bike to a meeting that I have in Salem tomorrow but all in all I'm not getting as many miles logged as I'd like to be getting.

I ended up with 22 miles and 2346 ft of climbing tonight according to my Garmin 305.




............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......22................0.............0..........22
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......470...............0..............0.........470
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2734...............0..............5.........2739

deja vu

I had such a good time yesterday that I couldn't resist repeating the ride this evening. It was a warm sunny evening as I pedaled off. I think it was my first ride this season in shorts. I did manage to finish in a bit less time than yesterday, probably because I didn't have to stop to put on a jacket!

............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......17................0.............0..........17
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......465...............0..............0.........465
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2729...............0..............5.........2734

and he who was first shall be last

After yesterday's strong showing, today I was dead last. Oh, I was also first. Uh huh, I was the only rider today! ;-)

I attached the cadence and speed sensors for the Garmin 305 on my bike and took off for a little shakedown ride this evening.

Everything seems to work except that the cadence seems to be reading 2x. Haven't quite figured out why yet.

It was a good route. I was biking at what should have been the height of evening commute for most folks and still didn't have much traffic.

After a beautiful sunny day the dark clouds rolled in tonight and I started getting very light rain as I neared the summit of Pete's Mountain. I did manage to finish this little 17 mile route with ~1800 ft of climbing before things got too wet.





............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......17................0.............0..........17
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......448...............0..............0.........448
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2712...............0..............5.........2717

A good ride

I joined a few members of my social bike group for a ride this evening. We started off about 5:45 PM and rode a spirited 31 miles with 1847 ft of climbing (according to my Garmin)


I had an average heart rate of 133! It amazes me that it is that fast considering my resting heart rate is in the low forties. I did record a max heart rate of 174 which is over my supposed maximum. Data aside, I had a great ride tonight. I was able to keep my buddies at bay without an extreme amount of effort. A few of those joining in the fun this evening are strong riders that normally give me a good run for my money on these shorter rides. It was nice to be able to see some progress. The 1 hr 58 minutes on the bike relates favorably to the time considered for my stages on RAO. The
~6000ft/100 miles rate of this ride is about 30% less than the average climbing in RAO, but is was good to know that I could put out reasonable effort for 2 hours in a hilly course. It's April, there is still time to build on this base and improve.


............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......31................0.............0..........31
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......431...............0..............0.........431
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2695...............0..............5.........2700

getting too old for this stuff?

I rode the Wilsonville Century today. It's a nice route for a self supported ride with opportunities for resupply about every 20-25 miles. There's about 4500 ft of climbing, virtually all in the first 45 miles.

I rode 104 miles yesterday at a fairly spirited pace and could feel it a bit today. With the hills all early in today's ride and against the wind for the latter portions my legs were a bit slow to respond to the request for more power.

I'll sleep good tonight!

Before that happens though the "Flying Aquarians" Race Across Oregon team will meet this evening to go over plans.

Plans? Like we need a meeting to know we have to just ride the %^%# bikes? (with a nod to Sandy Earl
;-)
EVENING UPDATE:

We did in fact meet this evening to go over details of our RAO adventure. One of our support crew couldn't attend but the rest of us had a good chance to talk about the plan!



............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today......101................0.............0.........101
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......400...............0..............0.........400
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2664...............0..............5.........2669

Training Series Ride #10A

Today I led another of my weekly Training Series rides for the social bike group. On tap today was a 78 mile ride from Scholls Heights to Hagg Lake and back. Well, okay, we threw in a few hills for good measure too. ;-) In the 78 miles we accumulated well over 4000 feet of elevation gain with the help of Iowa Hill and Bull Mountain. We started out in late January with a ride of 15 miles with a goal of a 15mph pace. Most made the 15 miles, few made the 15 mph pace. Fast forward to today when this group rode out to Hagg Lake and made a lap of the lake with a 17.8 mph average. By the end of the ride (and the majority of the climbing) we still had a 16.4 average. Not bad at all for 2.5 months of training. These folks have a goal of riding Reach the Beach and/or STP. Looks like they will make it!

The weather was nice. The view of the lake was well worth the pedal out today.




The hills didn't seem as steep today. I guess that's a good sign. Here is Gary at the top of Iowa Hill ready for the fun descent.


My Race Across Oregon partner joined us today. Since we have bigger plans for the summer than RtB or STP our training was not finished when we got back to Metro Perc, NW Butts on Bikes sponsor and our start/finish point today. We grabbed a quick snack and hopped back on the bikes in search of our first century of the weekend. We pedaled out to Hillsboro and back, bringing our day total to 104 miles. We still had a 16.4 mph average when we finished up so all was good!

Tomorrow we both are riding centuries. Me in the Wilsonville, Molalla, Scotts Mills, Keizer, St Paul area, my partner in the Skyline area. We have an RAO team meeting with our crew late tomorrow afternoon so we can't tarry.



............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today......104................0.............0.........104
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......299...............0..............0.........299
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2563...............0..............5.........2568

short and ....steep

I had a short time to get a ride in tonight before it got too dark. I decided that I should get the best workout possible in the limited time so I headed for the hills. I began in Willamette and started up Solamo Rd, a good 9% average that peaked at 11%. I turned around after 2.5 miles and went back down only to turn around again and head back up. This time I turned on a side street and headed towards Rosemont. By the time I was down pedaling around the hilly neiborhoods I managed to get 31 miles...with 4273 ft of climbing. Also saw some pretty nice homes!

............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......31................0.............0..........31
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......195...............0..............0.........195
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2459...............0..............5.........2464

short on time

After getting my lock off the bike, (and exchanged for a new lock...thanks REI!) I got on the bike this evening for a short ride. I rode a route that the social bike group has cycled frequently. With a climb up Logie Trail it gives some good climbing in it's short distance. About the best I could hope for given the time constraints today.

............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......27................0.............0..........27
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......164...............0..............0.........163
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2428...............0..............5.........2433

How good is an OnGuard "Bulldog" U lock?

Pretty good I guess, unless you are trying to get it off your bike when it decides not to unlock. I rushed out tonight trying to beat darkness and got a quick 38 miles with 3897 ft of climbing. When I locked my bike in the back of my pickup the lock acted a bit "funny". Not so funny really, now it won't unlock. I've oiled, hammered, jacked, drilled, sawed, and tried a bolt cutter, and haven't hardly made a scratch on it. I'm not yet ready to try an acetylene cutting torch that close to a carbon bike. I do have a few other tricks to try but won't get to that until tomorrow evening. :-(

Tonight I ended up unlocking the bike rack and taking the bike and rack out as a unit just so it doesn't sit out all day tomorrow unattended. While I may have trouble defeating the lock I'm sure "the bad guys" wouldn't have too much trouble. Seems they probably have more practice.

So how good is a OnGuard U lock? Pretty darn good.

............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......38................0.............0..........38
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April......137...............0..............0.........137
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2401...............0..............5.........2406

Aye Cap'n but if I push it any harder the dilithium crystals will overheat and blow!

6 of us were planning to ride a ~70 mile loop taking in the Wheatland Ferry and Canby Ferry. The recent rains had made the Willamette River high and muddy. The lead in roads for the Wheatland Ferry are quite low and were under water so the Wheatland Ferry was closed. I verified this just 90 minutes before planned shove off so I scurried to map a new route.

As we met to pedal Mark had a problem. Seems a front wheel had been damaged to the point of being unridable. Luckily I was close enough to my spare wheel that I was able to drive back and snag it for him. Between my later than normal arrival and getting a spare wheel, we got off to a bit of a late start. We rode from Wilsonville out towards Newberg. Along the way another of our social club members called and wondered where we were. Seems she was at a location about 15 miles from where we started and was there about an hour later than we had planned to ride. We made arrangements to meet her near Newberg.

As we got to Newberg one of our group had a flat and damaged the tire pretty badly. I normally carry a spare tire but didn't have it with me today. The group pooled resources and got the bike back in shape to ride. Here we were just getting ready to get moving again.

We moved along at a pretty good rate, seeing 20+ more often than not. A slightly trailing wind helped in that department.

When we got to St Paul another of our group had a flat. We got that fixed and joked that we weren't making very good time today will all the "delay of game penalties".

By the time we got to Canby the sky was getting more gray. A couple of our riders were getting tight on time. A consensus was to shorten the ride up a bit.
Instead of riding all the way to Beavercreek we cut across at Central Point Rd and headed toward Central Point the New Era. The ride northward on Central Point Rd was a thrill. The wind had swung around from the south and was now a brisk tail wind. Doak and I were out in front and holding a 23-26 mph pace all along this stretch.

When we got back to the Canby Ferry we were amazed at just how high the Willamette River was.


Just after crossing the ferry the rain began to fall. It was raining reasonably hard and we were glad that we had decided to cut a few miles off the route today. Riding the last 5 miles in cold rain was bad enough, the last 15 miles would have been worse!

As the day progressed our little group spread out a bit. We'd regroup at corners but it was getting harder for some to keep up as we got into a bit more hilly country. No problem, this was billed as a training ride so we wanted to make sure all got a workout! ;-)

I've been complaining a bit this year about not being able to get enough oxygen into my system as I rode. I never run out of "leg" I run out of "air". Today I wore a heart rate monitor for the first time. My resting heart rate is in the low 40's. I would have guessed my "brisk riding" heart rate to be ~120-130bpm. I was amazed to look at the display today and see my heart rate in the high 140's quite often. At the end of the ride today I had an average heart rate of 126 and a maximum of 178. My maximum is supposed to top out at 165. I'm still here typing so I guess I didn't burn out. ;-)

Here's the route we ended up riding today:




............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......68................0.............0..........68
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April.......99...............0..............0..........99
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2363...............0..............5.........2368

All hail King Doak!

We had a little fun on bikes late this afternoon. The idea was to challenge one of Portland's more notorious climbs, Brynwood Street, on classic bikes as defined by the Furnace Creek 508's Classic Division rules. What that meant was that we would be attempting this on bikes that had steel frames, friction shifters, 32 spokes per wheel minimum, flat pedals and no more than 6 sprockets on the back or more than two chainrings in the front.

What those rules don't specify are how many teeth those chainrings need to have. Sad really, for the bike used today had a SMALL ring with FIFTY teeth!

I had expected perhaps 10 or so to partake in this event today. I had three sign up.


We did have 100% of the fun expected today however!



The bike wasn't the best for attempting this, but that's what made it fun! The lowest gear was 50x28 and the grade went to 31%. You don't need to be much of a mathematician or gear head to know that this was a tough effort. The geometry of the bike is such that when you turn sharply the front wheel clips the pedals. I managed to find that out while attempting to execute a "paperboy weave" turn and ended off the road.



I've been riding clipless pedals for 4 years. It was somewhat surprising to me how much I rely on them. My feet kept sliding around and sliding back as I'd pedal. Even a split second of soft pedaling to allow a foot to slide back on center was enough for the bike to stop on this steep grade, and of course once stopped tipping over soon ensued.

Doak (given name John) managed to conquer the hill today. He won bragging rights, as well as a "King of Brywood" T-shirt to be delivered in the next week or so.



After the hill climbing fun we retired to a local pub and caught the final 5 minutes of the Butler game and toasted the King of Brynwood!



I rode bike today, even worked a bit at it, but less than .5 mile so officially no addition to miles for the day/month/year.

Tomorrow I lead a bike trip that will cross both the Wheatland Ferry and Canby Ferry. 75-80 miles. The weather might even be decent. After a rainy and stormy week the day is predicted to be mostly dry until later afternoon. We start at 9AM so should be finished up by then.

An April Fool?

Well, here it is April. Obviously I didn't make the 1000 mile mark for March. It was within easy reach but my head just wasn't there. Yesterday was even nice enough weather, just couldn't seem to get on the bike. Oh well, no prizes for riding 1000 miles.

We start a new month today. I joined Luis today for a ride from Hillsboro up to Skyline and around the countryside a bit.

Luis is a good guy and has been helping get bike newbies out on the road. Consequently his biking fitness has suffered. It's real hard to get in decent training when you are riding 10 mph. Today I was in play mode and just climbing these hills pretty much without notice while riding with Luis. He was working pretty hard.

He'll get back in shape, but for today he was suffering.

31 miles, 2773 ft of climbing.

............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.......31................0.............0..........31
Jan........618...............0..............0.........618
Feb........692...............0..............0.........692
March......940...............0..............5.........940
April.......31...............0..............0..........31
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....2295...............0..............5.........2300