cycling as therapy

I joined Mark and Meredith today on a ride in hopes of putting some smiles on faces that needed smiles. Mission accomplished!

We were starting from Meredith's home which is just about 2 miles off the 40 Mile Loop in the Gateway area. I started from the Steel Bridge and rode the 40 Mile Loop to Gateway then rode west to her home. A fourth person decided it was too cold, or too far, or too fast, or too something, so it was just the three of us. We pedaled back out to the 40 Mile Loop and began our adventure. It was a decent day for a ride. Any time you can ride all day in Oregon in December without getting wet it's a good day!

We finished the route without much to note. Despite a frosty start to the day we only saw one patch of ice on the route and that was on the Eastbank Esplanade right on the Willamette River.
That lack of ice was not a result of warm weather, it was right at the freezing point most of the day, it was a testament to the long stretch of dry weather we've been experiencing. Both the Willamette River and Columbia River were looking very low today so they too reflect the dry weather.

After riding the loop with my friends I rode back to my starting point via the 40 Mile Loop again. It was a circuitous way to reach the Steel Bridge but good rides rarely involve the shortest distance between two points.

After my two laps, and two trips in to Meredith's I had 12 miles left to go to reach 100 miles. Since I'm still working on my 10,000 mile year, and the weather is dry... I of course kept riding until I snagged the 100.

158 miles to go. I've planned on reaching that goal while riding with friends then sitting around a table talking bike!
so really I'm looking at riding about 135 miles in the next 8 days. That shouldn't be a problem. In fact, the problem might be having to be careful not to reach 10k before next Sunday. ;-)

.........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today.......100..............0.............0..........0.........100
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March.......502..............0.............0..........0.........502
April.......524..............0.............0..........0.........524
May........1003..............0.............0..........0........1003
June.......1016..............0............10..........0........1026
July.......1148..............0.............0..........0........1148
August.....1049..............0.............0..........0........1049
Sept.......1153..............0............50..........0........1213
Oct.........881..............0.............0.........20.........901
Nov........1012..............0.............0.........20........1032
Dec.........505..............0.............0..........0.........505
YTD........9708..............0............87.........47........9842