Race Across Oregon (2 course records), Furnace Creek 508, UMCA North American 500 Mile Time Trial Champion, 4 consecutive 10k mile years. I no longer bike after being hit 3 times by drivers who violated the law, but were never held responsible. I no longer want to risk my life for the fun of riding bike.
I rode the Mt Adams Country Bicycle Tour today with a friend.
We rode the 105 mile "Infinity Ride", but found out post ride that they had intended for us to go completely back to the start after our lunch stop to start the second leg rather than take the turn when we got to it. It cut 2 miles off our route. Luckily I had two miles "in the bank" so I still got my 1500 for the month.
It was warm, in the upper 60's when we started and into the mid 70's by afternoon.
We did the Forest Loop first and it was a very beautiful route. There were some clouds in the sky that obscured most of Mt Adams in the morning but the roads were awesome. VERY low traffic volume.
The weather was perfect. We rode most of the day in short sleeves and bare legs. We'd put on jackets for the bigger descents. We were very close to Mt Adams, and as we'd pedal down through the little side canyons we'd feel a torrent of cold air making it's way down the hill.
The route was supported with well placed water and snacks spots.
Following our "Forest Loop" we had a full lunch stop, then moved onto the "Valley Loop".
By afternoon the clouds had lifted enough to give us an unimpeded view of Mt Adams, we were farther away by that time however.
As the afternoon progressed we noticed a cloud building that looked to be promising a thunderstorm for someone later today. I don't know about a thunderstorm, but I do know we ended up getting a bit of rain. It lasted from about mile 95 until mile 100, and was very light. The roads really never got wet, and neither did we. By the time we got to the finish the roads were completely dry.
6570 total elevation gain (per Garmin)
118bpm average heart rate
6204 calories burned
103.37 miles
The organizers served us an excellent dinner following the ride,
It was a good day to go for a ride, and nice to get 1500 for the month.
This month it looks like I will get 1500 miles on the bike. In order for tomorrow's 105 mile Mt Adams ride to do that I needed to get 10 miles tonight. It was dry and warm, though not sunny. Perfect, or perfect enough, to go do just that. I rode the bike to the bank to take care of some business, then stopped by a terriyaki place for a bite to eat, then continued to pedal around leisurely. I rode out on some semi rural roads toward Sherwood. I turned around when I had 7 miles, and ended up with a safe 12 miles in the bucket. Tomorrow should do it.
......so it was back to Rocky Butte for hill repeats. I was running late so texted my assistant event leaders and had them start the group off properly. I parked near Oaks Park and rode in the last 10 miles.
I arrived just after 6:30, 1/2 hour late. I did manage to get 4 repeats in an hour, not too bad since I was busy visiting. I tweeked a nerve in my lower back a couple of days ago and thought it best to not ride too hard.
There was a decent turnout tonight, including several who had never attended before. Of course, with new people attending, we had to go through the whole process, including the post ride "de-briefing".
Following the snacks and brew, I rode back to my pickup via bike boulevards. I had my Light and Motion Stella 300 along, as well as a 2 Watt Planet Bike white blinkie in front, and two red Planet Bike superflashes on back, and tons of reflectivity. I was prepared to ride back in the dark so it was all good. .....and dry!
If I can get out for 10 miles tomorrow, then the planned 105 mile ride near Mt Adams on Saturday will take me to 1500 miles for the month. That will be a nice milestone to reach........ but it's predicted to be wet.
I'll keep my fingers crossed.
I joined a few members of my social bike club for a post work ride tonight. We started out at 6:30 PM and rode a spirited 38 miles. I showed a 17.2 mph rolling average, but often just rode around in circles as we regrouped thus slowing the on bike average. Most of the time we were in the 19-20 mph range, and often testosterone poisoning would kick in and we'd pedal into the upper 20's and even at one point Max and I were in the low 30's. Even Diana was not immune to this condition, usually reserved for the male of our species. She said we were all riding like girls. In today's case I took that as a compliment!
Following the ride most of us settled in at Pizzacato for pizza and beverages. We, of course, talked bike. A couple of them were not real familiar with RAAM, and just didn't think it was possible to pedal across America in less than 12 days. I assured them that not only was it possible, but had just happened. They are still not sure they believe it. That's the case with a lot of us.
It was a good night to ride, warm, dry, sunny. A good change from recent days. It was nice company too, a faster pace than I would have ridden if I were solo, and that's a good thing.
I ended up with an average heart rate of 128, that's more like training than what I've been doing lately. Thanks to my friends for pushing me a bit.
It is Tuesday, and time for another rendition of Rocky Butte hill repeats. A mostly dry afternoon turned into a mostly dry hill repeat ride, except for that downpour that happened just before the official ride (but during my preride!) There was a pretty good turnout tonight, somewhat reduced by the rain showers happening, but still above average.
Many of us do not carry tubes, pumps, etc on the hill repeats. It is extra weight, and worse case scenario is a 1.4 mile walk back down the hill to fix a flat. Tonight after just 1 climb a rider had a flat. I offered to bring my pump and tube back up on my next trip. As I was on the bottom of the hill retrieving my pump Jon showed up with his new bike. A Cervelo S5 with Zipp 808 wheels sure looked sweet on the hill tonight.
Jon remembered to bring the new bike for "show and tell" but forgot his helmet. Luckily Ken had a spare helmet along and rode back down the hill to retrieve it. So between my riding for a pump, Ken riding for a helmet, and Jon busy showing us all his new ride, we didn't ride the hill hard tonight.
Assistant Organizer Paul led a ride today that looked just about perfect for me. I had planned to ride to the ride, adding about 30 miles to the day's total, but at 1AM when I noted that the ride started at 7AM I decided that just over 100 miles might be just right. ;-)
5 of us pedaled out under a constant rain this morning. I of course brought the rain (fendered) bike and wore raingear. I did not have my usual big breakfast before the ride, but with a quick glance at the route map figured it wouldn't be a major problem as we would be hitting several well spaced towns along the way.
As we took off two of the guys were pushing a pretty good pace. I was in raingear and could easily overheat in today's mild temperatures so I did not persue....... too hard. ;-)
By the time we had biked 25 miles my stomach was growling. We skirted Forest Grove, if I had been leading the ride I probably would have scheduled a stop there, as we were just over 35 miles into the ride. But I was just a follower today, and I figured that maybe riding with low energy reserves might be good training, so I kept quiet and kept spinning pedals.
We pushed on to Newberg, about 65 miles into the ride. I had a jump on the group getting through Newberg, made a bit more dicey today by a big power outage affecting most of the traffic signals.
I pulled into a convenience store and loaded up on calories. 65 miles is a good distance for me to ride without nutrition, but doable with a good breakfast. Today it was pushing the limit. After chowing down about 1200 calories I felt better. :-)
The weather was improving. The rain stopped and we had quite a bit of blue sky. I took off the rain jacket and pants. With the combination of being cooler, and now well fed, I pedaled much more strongly. I could have easily dropped the gang, but that's not what this ride was supposed to be about.
The two speed demons were feeling the distance and faded notably on hills. I was just getting my legs!
As we neared the end of our ride I began pushing the pace. I had post ride plans, and no longer had to worry about navigating for the group. (I had the course on my garmin) I took advantage of a favorable wind and moved out at 22-24 mph. I pulled into the finish feeling recharged and ready to ride another lap, but alas, loaded the bike, shared a post ride visit/beverage with my riding partners, then scurried away for my other commitment.
It was an excellent day on the bike, and it topped off 9 consecutive days on the bike where I logged a total of 876 miles. Not bad at all .........until you know that my friends who are competing in the Race Across America this past week pedaled 3000 miles in that same time!
Matt Biers-Ariel, a teacher/author/all around nice guy, is on a book tour for his book "The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast". The social bike club thought it would be nice if a few of us rode with Matt as he made his way from Longview to Portland. The forecast was for rain. It was beginning to look like it was just me who would be up for this 120 round trip to ride with a stranger. At the last hour, Art decided he would join the fun.
Fun, of course, is relative. I began high on Capital Rd and biked DOWN the wet roads in a constant rain to the Broadway Bridge where I met up with Art. We pedaled in non-stop rain to just short of the Longview Bridge, where Art got a flat tire!
At least it was not cold.
Art had early evening plans back in Portland, and had some back pain issues, so he decided not to make the climb up and over the Longview Bridge. We said our goodbyes and parted ways. We had a 15.9 mph on bike average to this point.
I made my way across the bridge and into central Longview where I rode up to the library at the same moment that Matt rode in from Olympia.
I rolled my bike into the library's foyer and took a seat in the meeting room where Matt would be giving his presentation. There was a good turnout of folks.
Following the presentation and book signing Matt and I pointed our bikes back toward Portland. I was on my rain bike, Matt was on a fenderless road bike pulling a trailer with books and presentation supplies.
We rode a pretty good pace. I didn't want to push him too hard, but at the same time, with a 4:30PM start on a ~60 mile ride, I didn't want to get in the dark either. Before we got too far, the rain stopped, and we even began to see a bit of blue sky. We began to pick up a bit of tailwind. :-)
We made two stops for snacks along the way. Soon we saw the graceful arches of the St John's Bridge.
Matt hasn't been riding long distance's lately and was beginning to tire. About this time I found out that he was not going back to the community center where I had started my ride from. We stopped and looked up via smart phone where his destination was. Luckily for him, his destination was near 26th and Hawthorne, on the south east side. No climb of the West Hills required! I guided him over the Steel Bridge, down the East Bank Esplanade, and out Hawthorne.
I declined a dinner invitation because of impending darkness and pedaled my way back across the river. I reached the Hawthorne Bridge just in time to catch a pretty spectacular sunset.
The light of day was fading fast as I made my way up the West Hills. The climb however was not as bad as I feared. Before long I was back at the community center, done with 120 miles. The return trip had a 14.0 mph average. Not bad considering Matt was pulling a trailer.
I loaded the bike and headed directly to food and a warm shower.
I had two invitations to join friends on bike rides today. What to do? Well, ride both rides of course! Carol and I started at Oaks Park and rode out the Springwater Corridor to the end of the pavement then climbed up Powell Valley Rd before dropping down into the Sandy River Canyon and riding up to Chanticleer Point, the site of Women's Forum State Park.
I was running late for my second ride so I pushed a bit harder on the ride back down the Sandy River to Troutdale, then westward along Halsey Street. I would text my location every 50 blocks as I rode toward Catherine's home......running about an hour late. :-(
Catherine has a birthday coming up soon and as is tradition in our bike club, will be hosting a birthday ride to celebrate it. She wanted to ride the route to scout it for any surprises, but because of my late arrival we opted to ride only the portion that she was unfamiliar with.
I started off today with the rain bike, since the forecast called for rain. I had leg warmers and arm warmers on, as well as goretex raingear packed. Catherine started her ride in a short sleeved jersey and shorts. Period.
As we neared the Columbia River it began to rain. I knew that with arm and leg warmers on I was better equipped to pedal in rain than she was so I offered her my rain jacket. She accepted. I knew that as long as I kept pedaling I could stay warm, it is after all, now SUMMER. :-O
I tried to get a photo as we crossed the river channel but was taking photos with my phone. It is not nearly as convenient to take "on the go" photos as my digital camera. Not as pretty as the river background, but I thought I was lucky to get the above photo without dropping the phone!
Catherine had a dinner engagement this evening, and as was par for the course today, we were later than we should have been in getting her back home. I pedaled in front of her house with 4 minutes to spare before she was to leave. She was of course still on the bike, wet, dirt splattered, and in need of a warm shower! Oh well, she should know that any dinner date would be second rate to a good bike ride with the Desert Coyote! ;-)
After leaving Catherine at her door, (and getting my rain jacket back!) I pedaled another wet 40 minutes to get back to Oaks Park and the warm and dry interior of my pickup! I was ready for this ride to end today.
It was Thursday, time for the Rocky Butte hill repeats ride and I had some extra time in the afternoon so I did a little preriding. I started from Rocky Butte and rode west on Tillamook to 39th (Ceasar Chavez) then north to the Columbia River where I watched planes land and takeoff from PDX for awhile. I then rode east to the I-205 path, took that south to Springwater, rode west to the Willamette River then back east to 181st, then north to Halsey and west back to Rocky Butte. I had 52 miles of relatively flat riding. I'd take care of that flat part shortly.
It was a nice warm sunny evening, and as predicted a good turnout for the hill repeats. I got a respectable 6 repeats, with three minutes left over. Unlike last year where I always was the top dog, this year I'm just an also ran, Tonight I think I was fifth in the number of repeats. My average heart rate for the preride and repeats was 98, I obviously need to bump up the effort
A few folks had other commitments and had to forgo our post ride gathering, but most of our group ended up back at Stanich's for a little post ride carbohydrate replenishment. Tonight the ladies were out in force. We three guys were very outnumbered.
At one point we guys all just looked at each other and started smiling. It seemed that ALL the women were talking at once, none of them were listening. We brought that to their attention, and were told that they were multitasking. :-)
It was a good night on the hill. It was nice to have so many show up, and nice to have such a high number of the fairer sex attend.
I was thinking I had my 1000 miles for the month logged tonight, but as I tallied it up tonight I see that I'm still 10 miles short. I'll have to go take care of that tomorrow!
But a fun day! Today was the longest day of the year.......but I still ended up riding in the dark!
There were too many other issues in the way today to ride earlier and I had plans to ride with a friend at 4:30 PM so I frittered away some time and arrived about 30 minutes early. My riding buddy had issues and we didn't shove off until nearly 5:45 PM.
It was a warm day, but I thought I'd regret not taking arm/leg warmers along as we set off on a planned 40 mile ride at that late hour. We pedaled south on the I-205 bike path but soon ditched our ride plan and just pedaled. It was a nice evening to "just pedal" with no set plan.
We stopped spinning pedals long enough to raise our glasses to a setting sun on the longest day of the year as we sat along the Clackamas River at High Rocks.
We took advantage of the last bit of daylight to ride to an overlook of Willamette Falls.
The sun had set at 9:03 PM and it was just after 9:30 PM when we decided we should start riding our way back.
We rode back to Clackamette Park, the point where the Clackamas River empties into the Willamette River and looked at our options for our return trip. We put all our lights on at this point also.
Neither of us where terribly fond of retracing our route back, not that it was unsafe, just that both of us don't like to be bored. We took designated bike routes for the most part as we made our way northward in the darkness.
We were still riding at 11PM and commenting on how warm it was yet, neither of us had anything along to help keep us warm if it had been cool, so were lucky. Portland is still a small town at heart, and it was difficult to find food options open late on a weeknight. We ended up stopping at a grocery store and getting some food to satisfy that empty feeling.
By the time we took care of that and pedaled the last few miles it was nearly midnight as we said our goodbye's. Only the last couple of miles did we start feeling cooler air rushing past our skin.
It was a short, but good ride, and a great way to spend the first evening of Summer!
Tonight was my Rocky Butte hill repeats ride. I had hoped to get a 40 mile preride in, but it was raining.... and I just couldn't get my head around riding my fenderless carbon bike in the rain. I sat in my vehicle at the base of Rocky Butte for two hours reading Race Across America and Tour Divide updates on my sometimes smart phone. The rain stopped, the road dried off, and I knew where my friends where as the pedaled across the country, either west to east, or north to south, depending on the event the were competing in. My goal tonight was less lofty, just ride up and down Rocky Butte a few times!
There were eight of us tonight, not a bad showing at all.
At 6 PM we started up the hill. On my 3rd repeat I found Catherine searching along the side of the road. Before it was all over, there were 4 of us walking around searching for little teeny parts to her bike computer, that had bounced off as she descended over a speed bump, and separated into many small pieces. We found most of the pieces, but not all. We are hoping the manufacturer will help her out.
I went for one more repeat before time expired.
4 of us followed the ride with carbo-reloading at our usual post ride establishment.
I posted a short notice ride to my social bike clubs calendar today. I planned on riding Portland's 40 mile loop and a relaxed pace and thought company would be nice. As per usual when posting non challenging rides, I got a litany of "next time", "really want to do this but..........", "need more training".
I smiled, and pedaled it solo.
There were a few light showers tonight, but nothing a STP Tyvek jacket couldn't deflect.
I rode it as an easy spin, rarely over 18 mph, and averaging only 14.3
Just perfect following the weekend of riding.
Tomorrow Rocky Butte hill repeats again, and a few miles of preride if I can get the time to do so.
Day two of the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway was our return pedal to Wilsonville. Ken, Russell, and I decided on a 6:30 AM start. I noted that the room had a microwave and planned on finding some instant oatmeal and juice to serve as a breakfast pre-ride, but did not see a market in the part of Eugene we were in. I'm sure there was one, just didn't see it, and didn't feel like pedaling all over looking for it last night when sleep was a priority. Ken went to a nearby Starbucks for breakfast, but found it was closed yet at 6AM. So, we started off without breakfast, but with a plan to stop early and often for "ride kibble".
We had a bit of a tailwind as we started off. The roads were a bit damp from an overnight rain shower. The sky was mostly cloudy, a welcome turn of events for those of us with pink skin from a day in the sun the day before.
About 20 miles into our ride, between Coburg and Brownville, we had the biggest hill of the route. Yesterday we climbed this in 90 degree heat with over 100 miles on our legs, we remembered it distinctly.
Today it was much easier than we expected. Nothing like cooler weather and relatively fresh legs to make easy work out of a hill.
As we rolled into Brownsville we stopped for chocolate milk and a "berry pie", as in Hostess high fructose corn syrup, artificially berry flavored, wrapped in sugar coated pastry". But it was 450 badly needed calories. The chocolate milk was slightly more nutritious.
Just out of Brownsville we came back upon the bridge construction on Fayetteville Rd. Russell decided he wasn't fond of our "cyclocross"ish remedy to the closed road, so he opted to take a self styled detour. Ken and I figured we'd never see him again. It only added a couple of minutes for us to get us and our bikes over the construction.
As we rode today, the wind increased in intensity, and was changing direction. Rather than the southwind (tailwind) of the early morning we were now experiencing a mostly west wind.
Just outside Albany we were surprised to see Russel standing beside the road waiting for us. It seemed that his detour was shorter than our route!
The Three Musketeers were reunited and we pedaled into Albany together.
Russell was tiring, most notably on the inclines. When we neared Independence the call of his vehicle across the bridge became too strong. He decided to call it a day, ride across the bridge, and wait for his wife, Miriam, and catch a ride back with her and Carol.
Ken and I soldiered on, because that's what we do.
The wind was really becoming an issue. More often than not it was a headwind. The few short stretches where we turned to have it as a tailwind we are able to determine it's speed at 20 mph.
When I planned this trip I figured I would be well into my training for Race Across Oregon, a mere month away. But alas, as we neared this trip, I knew it would be a test for me. As the miles clicked on, I could tell I just didn't have the power in my legs. I could pedal flat ground well, pulling in the mid 20's, until my riding partners would howl at me, but throw in a hill and I'd slow down quickly. No more so really than the others, but the others are not doing Race Across Oregon in a month!
Even with tired legs and a pesky headwind both Ken and I noted the pretty scenery we were biking through.
We made our last food stop in Salem. With only 35 miles to go, and having ridden this section many times, I knew this was a 2 hour run. Well, normally a two hour run. Today with tired legs and headwind make it nearly 3 hours!
We did arrive back in Wilsonville, tired, hungry, and pleased with our accomplishment. It was my first 300 mile weekend since last July. It was Ken's first ever back to back centuries.
An interesting note, we spent 9 hours and 1 minute on the bike today to cover this distance, compared to 8 hours and 57 minutes yesterday to ride the same route. Pretty comparable and surprising, considering the headwinds at times today, and the effect of two long days back to back.
My average heartrate yesterday was 122 bpm, today it was 109. I hypothesize that lower power output (due to tired legs) requires less oxygen. Not that I wouldn't have liked to have offered a bit more oxygen in return for higher power output!
The plan for today was to ride the Willamette Valley Scenic Bike Route to Eugene. Ken, Dave, Russell, and I began in Wilsonville at 6:45AM, Carol, Miriam, and Jennifer began in Independence for ~95 miles about 9 AM, and Bill also began in Independence, but started off at 7:30 AM.
Before we even got underway Ken became aware of an issue. He had forgotten his bike shoes. He made a mad dash back home to get them
while we planned to start off slowly.
We had problems keeping the speed down. We had a 16.6 mph average to Salem but we made up for it with numerous and leisurely stops. We knew that Ken would be pushing hard to catch back up with us. When we got just a few miles south of Independence Dave peeled off and headed toward Liberty Rd and Salem. His plan was to get about 110 miles, and be home for Father's Day. Russell and I continued on southward.
Russell and I stopped in Jefferson (about 75 miles into our ride today) and Ken rode up before we left. He had ridden a 17.4 average to catch us, but more importantly, no stops!
Click HERE for an audio report from Jefferson. (in a new window)
Now back up to three, we continued making our way southward.
On Fayetteville Rd we ran into some bridge construction. We managed to find a way to use our cyclocross skills and get across the bridge.
After getting across the construction we continued toward Eugene.
We caught up with Miriam and Carol at Brownsville, about 116 miles into our ride. Jennifer had ridden ahead and we would not catch her today.
It was a warm day, the biggest hill of the day on this remarkably flat route was just north of Coburg. We noted the heat, and the tired legs as we pedaled up the hill. When we got to Coburg the time and temperature display gave us an indication on just how hot it was.
Just as in the Oregon Trail days pioneers talking of "seeing the elephant", Ken saw an elephant today, and it was PINK!
We arrived at the official end of the bikeway at Armitage Park, but continued on a few miles to Eugene where we planned to spend the night and gather for an evening meal. I arrived in Eugene just before 6PM, 8 hours and 58 minutes on the bike, with a 16.5 mph average. The Garmin 305 said I burned 8261 calories, I guess I earned my dinner.
I rode to the start in Wilsonville, and our group rode from there about 8 miles to the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikway route. In Eugene I commuted by bike between the hotel and dinner. By the time the day was finished I had 161 miles.
A friend invited me for a bike ride today. I hardly ever turn down the opportunity for a ride so off I went.
We rode out Halsey St heading toward Troutdale thinking we might ride to Multnomah Falls, but the beautiful sunny day hijacked us. We took a dirt path along the Sandy River.
We found a sun soaked beach and proceeded to skip rocks across the water. My friend had a late afternoon appointment so we decided we should make our way back to Portland rather than continue on to Multnomah Falls. As we rode back through Troutdale there was chocolate ice cream calling our names.
Following our ice cream stop it became evident that there were better priorities than an afternoon meeting. A call was made, and additional time in the sunshine was allotted. We rode out the Marine Drive bike path with thoughts of riding to Kelly Point Park.
Alas, more water, more sun, and a perfect beach to watch the world go by.
It was soon time to be on our way again.
We didn't make it to Kelly Point Park, but my friend did make it to an evening appointment.........barely!
35 miles, and a little sunburn added to the tally.
The next 6 weeks will be a lot of long hard rides, and it all begins early Saturday morning with 148 miles to Eugene, spend the night, and then ride back. Following that will be two rides around Mt Rainier, 1 time around Mt Hood, Seattle to Portland, Race Across Oregon and a lot of other rides. But tonight was an easy spin.
I started off riding with a friend out to Blue Lake Park.
We rode out Marine Drive, but came back via Halsey Street to gain a little shelter from the headwind. I got back in perfect time to sign the folks in for the Thursday Rocky Butte hill repeats. It was a pretty good night, I got 6.5 repeats, and gave assurance to a mom who was riding up the hill on a fat tired hybrid bike with a tag-a-long on the back with about a 6 yr old. I also looped around and helped some girls on roller skates who weren't exactly sure where they were. So, it was a day in the sun doing some bike riding, and doing some good deeds.
Oh, and even our post ride carbo loading was good, we went to the Laurelwood Brew Pub, where they were giving 10% of receipts tonight to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. When else can you have a brew and support bicycling at the same time? :-)
The beach in question would be Oceanside, California.
The long ride would be Race Across America.
Good luck to all who are undertaking this monumental endeavor.
This afternoon I brought my bike to Rocky Butte in preparation of the hill repeats tonight. I had some free time so did a little preride out to Multnomah Falls. There were a few rain showers around, but I was lucky and missed them. One of the showers hit Rocky Butte about 30 minutes before our hill repeat ride started but that ride too was dry. 8 of the 11 RSVP'd showed up, and we all had a good time! 3 of us extended the evening by going for a little "carbo reloading" session.
Fun, fun, fun!
........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today........77..............0..............0..........0............77
Jan.........105.............34.............0..........0..........139
Feb.........428............108.............0.........24..........536
March.......809..............0.............0.........22............831
April.........1010..............0.............0..........0.........1010
May..........1000..............0.............20..........0.......1020
June...........438...............0...............0............0......438
YTD........3781............142............20.........46.........3964
I've been in bike clothes all morning, but got sidetracked swapping wheels, cassettes, tires and lubing both my road bikes. I'm leading a 300 mile ride next weekend and moving right into a big mile month so I wanted everything ready to go. By the way, still room on that 300 mile/2 day ride, join us!
Now that beautiful sunny day is calling to me, time to go ride!
update to follow
OK, hardly worth updating but here goes:
I had a few errands to run before getting on a ride, I did them via bike. Following the errands I checked my email via my cell phone and had an email from a friend saying that if it weren't for that wedding I was to attend in the afternoon we should go for a ride. Yikes! I took a quick shower, got into decent clothes and off I went to a friend's wedding.
A very nice wedding, I even arrived on time. Congratulations to Tim and Cecilia, wishing many happy years ahead of you.
But a whopping 8 miles total today. So much for hoping to get 200 mile weekends. I didn't even make 50 miles this weekend. :-(
I couldn't get my game face on today. I got into bike clothes, then kept finding other chores. Finally just before noon I loaded my bike and drove to Portland to meet a friend for lunch and to talk bike politics. Following the lunch and chat we rode to North Portland where my friend had an appointment. I kept riding and made my way to Heron Lakes Golf Course where I accessed the 40 mile loop route and pedaled part of that. I had a good tailwind as I rode along Marine Drive, never dropping below 24 mph from the Interstate Bridge to the Glen Jackson Bridge. :-)
Low miles today, not what I need to be doing, but at least I got some miles in.
I biked over to the Sherwood YMCA this afternoon to facilitate a CD exchange. I arrived a bit early and just laid my bike down on a grassy hillside next to the parking lot while I waited for my friend to finish swimming laps. It was such a nice sunny afternoon that I laid down in the grass next to the bike. Within 30 minutes two different people came up to me and asked me if I were ok. I'm wondering if I look half dead or something? :-O
I did get the CD I went for, and got 37 miles and the hills between Wilsonville and Sherwood as bonus.
It was a nice day, even if I did look like I had just had a heart attack, or something! ;-)
It was time once again for Rocky Butte hill repeats. My Race Across Oregon team decided it was a good chance to get together for our inaugural meeting. In the interest of getting some business down before the rest of the group arrived, we opted to cut the ride short by 30 minutes and use that time to get a head start on carbo-replenishing.
I got just over 4 repeats in during the hour we rode. I have a photo of Steve on his new bike, will post it tomorrow, the camera is out in the backpack, and I'm too lazy to go get it tonight. ;-)
I took off today with no real plan, but ended up at Multnomah Falls. The Gorge is famous for it's winds, but today it was calm, while it seems that most of my family was being buffeted by blustery winds (at least in the Forest Grove-Hillsboro area)
As I started out this morning I passed by Metzger City Park where it seems that several hundred girl scouts were celebrating the 100th anniversary of girl scouts.
I climbed up Taylors Ferry Rd and merged onto Burbur for a fun descent into Portland. I crossed the Ross Island bridge and pedaled out to the I-205 path. When I reached Marine Drive I turned east.
I crossed under I-84 and entered Troutdale then followed the Sandy River upstream.
I wasn't riding too hard, and took time to stop and smell the roses, or at least listen to cheering girl scouts and read historical signs
When I got to Chanticleer Point the view across to the Vista House was spectacular. The sky had dark clouds, in fact I had pulled under cover as I rode along Marine Drive to let a few minutes of big rain drops pass. With those dark clouds as background, a patch of sun illuminated the Vista House perfectly.
I continued down to Multnomah Falls, just because no trip to the Gorge is complete without a stop there!
From there on I rode a bit harder, it was getting late in the afternoon and I took off without a headlight this morning. I thought I had one along, it is standard equipment for me, but alas.
It was a perfect day to ride. Even the infamous Gorge winds were calm today!
I made it home shortly after 8PM, the sun was still shining brightly. :-)
Today I rode Portland's 40 mile loop, that includes the Peninsula Crossing Trail, Marine Drive Bike Path, the I-205 Bike Path, Springwater Corridor, and the Eastbank Esplanade. When I was half way around the 40 Mile Loop I rode across the Interstate Bridge and rode a 23 mile loop that included the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail and the Salmon Creek Trail.
I started off with a stop at Performance Bike to take care of my melted brake pad issues from last night. The Kool Stop representative came over to the store and picked up my damaged pads to bring back to their lab to determine what went wrong. He brought along replacement pads for me at no cost. (expected) In addition he handed me 2 more sets, each with different attributes, to try out. Again, without cost. (not expected!)
With my stopping issue resolved, I continued on to Oaks Park where I began the ride today.
It was a nice day to pedal with a comfortable temperature and light winds. The trip was scenic and uneventful, at least for the first 50 miles.
As I rode the Peninsula Crossing trail I stopped for a photo in the usual spot.
When I reached the Interstate Bridge I rode across and entered Washington and began the 23 mile route that my social bike club rode last Wednesday evening. I however rode both of their loops in a counter-clockwise direction, allowing for a climb up the "dreaded" Felida hill. ;-)
Soon after crossing the Interstate Bridge I came across Big Ron, and decided one of his hot dogs would be just about right. It was!
Adequately fueled, I made my way past Propstra Square in Esther Short Park.
I pedaled along and made my way to the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail then a few more miles of road before riding the Salmon Creek Trail. I had never been on the Salmon Creek Trail before, or for that matter, had never been on most of this route before. Washington, is after all, a different state! Both of these trails traverse greenways that are quite scenic.
After riding the two trails, and conquering that "dreaded" Felida hill I crossed back over the Interstate Bridge and continued the 40 Mile Loop where I left off. That all went well until I reached about half way along the I-205 path, about the 50 mile mark of today's ride. I had my Zipp tubular wheels in today. I carried a spare tubular tire and a can of Vittoria Pit Stop. Pit Stop is a can of compressed air and foam, designed to stop leaks and reinflate. As I was pedaling suddenly something didn't quite feel right. Sure enough, I noticed that my front tire was flat. I stopped and used my can of Pit Stop in an attempt to take the easy way out. As the tire came up to pressure I noticed foam leaking out. There was still glass in the tire and that stopped the foam from sealing. I took the tire off and mounted my spare tire. Before I could do that however, I had to deal with trying to get a valve extender off without having any tools to do that. I eventually got the extender wedged in some brickwork and got it off. Note to self, next time have valve extenders installed on spare tires so I don't have to swap them on the road. I pumped the tire up to pressure and pedaled off, only to find that the rear tire was also flat!
Well, this was getting interesting. I had used my spare tire and most of my canned foam. I squirted all the foam I had left into the tire and kept my fingers crossed. I pumped the tire up to pressure and rode off. The little foam I had in the tire did not seal perfectly, and I had to stop about every 15 minutes to top off. During about the third stop to add air, the extender broke off. I tried to put it back on, successful only in letting out a lot of air. Now I had no way to add air and guessing maybe 30 lbs in the tire, about 1/4 of what it should have had. .....and it was still leaking slowly.
I rode the last 7 miles putting all the weight that I could on the front tire. I was carrying the majority of my weight on my arms and only putting enough pressure on the pedals to keep them spinning.
By the time I got back to my pickup the tire was down to about 5psi. But I did make it back, and rain started within minutes after I had the bike loaded and I was safely sitting inside.
In October of 2010 I completed a 4 year goal of finishing the Furnace Creek 508, an Ultra Cycling race billed as "The Toughest 48 Hours in Sport". I had planned to put together a video of the experience, however I could never come up with a plan on how to document what ended up being just a long bike ride.
