It all goes away so quickly

Friends in my social bike club used to always marvel at my cycling and make comments such as "I hope I can ride as well as you can when I get to be that old". There would always be some comments about natural ability.  I'd tell them that it wasn't natural ability, it was hard work that got me where I was.

For the last few months I haven't been riding much, and when I have been, it's been with slower people.  Bike fitness has suffered........... a lot.  It didn't take long to become almost a "person on a bike".

Today I got a good measure of just how far down I've slid.   I rode with Ken.  He's a strong rider, but in times past, the longer the ride the easier it was for me to put distance on him. More recently, we were more closely matched.

Today he didn't have to work very hard to show me that I am no longer in his league.

I started the day off at 11AM along the banks of the Willamette River in SE Portland.  A friend and I decided that we'd ride to the ride from there.  It gave us a nice 10 mile warmup.  Paula had stepped out her door this morning to a rain shower.  She turned around and traded her light bike for her rain bike. As we pedaled out in clearing skies she was wondering about her choice.  The added weight of her rain bike didn't slow her down much on the flat route to the start of the ride. She was concerned about the hills later in the ride.

We arrived at our meeting spot and met Ken.  We continued north on the I-205 Bike Path to the Columbia River then took Marine Drive east.

If you look carefully you can see Ken way out in front

Just as we got to Troutdale Paula decided a 40 mile flattish ride sounded just about right and took her leave and high tailed back.  Ken and I pressed onward.

We crossed the Sandy River and began our climb. It isn't a terrible climb, never more than 6% but today it kicked me.  Ken pedaled up seemingly at will.  When I got to Chanticleer Point he was waiting for me.  I joked that he probably had time for a nap. I last rode with Ken a month or so ago.  He was complaining about not riding much and being out of shape.  We were pretty much evenly matched, and commiserated in our lack of conditioning.  Today he chuckled, and said he was just coming off his best February ever....and I showed up with my worst January and February ever.  It was sort of like bringing a knife to a gun fight.


I was working way harder than I should have had to, but it was a pretty day, and I didn't fail to notice.

I also noted the work done on the road the last few months, the road was buttery smooth.  We made our way down the hill and headed toward Multnomah Falls. When we were less than 2 miles away Ken was waiting for me (again!).  This time he said he really didn't need to ride all the way to Multnomah Falls just to say he did.  The plan was to ride out to Multnomah Falls, retrace back to Evans Rd and drop into the Bull Run Canyon and Sandy River Canyon before reaching Sandy, then Boring, then the Springwater Trail back into SE Portland.  We'd have plenty of miles, and way more than our share of climbing.

We turned around and climbed back up toward Chanticleer Point.  We hardly got going up the hill when I could no longer see Ken.  I stopped to eat a power bar, thinking that it had been way too long since I had any calories.
I also stopped to take a photo.

I was noting the time and was wondering about my ability to finish the route in the daylight.  I had good lights along, but really don't need to ride at night if I don't have to.  Ken was waiting for me just before Chaticleer Point. He said he didn't think we had time to finish before dark.  I pointed out the obvious, HE had time to ride the route, me not so much. After a bit of discussion he continued through the Bull Run and Sandy Canyons, I retraced our route back to Portland.

The day continued to clear.  By the time I got along Marine Drive it was just beautiful.

I was continuing to slow down.  I was hungry and it was beginning to show. When I rode along the I-205 Bike Path I stopped at a convenience store and had two chocolate cupcakes with squiggles on them.  200 badly needed sugary calories.

I rode about 5 miles and stopped at Cartlandia and topped off with Chicken Teriyaki.

I finished up back at Oaks Park just as it was getting dark.  I had plenty of lights on and was mostly on paths so it was fine.  It was a good night to ride, but I was tired and called it a night!  It was my most difficult ride in quite some time.



................road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today.............83..............0.............0..........0..............83 Jan..................93..............0..............0.........0.............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411
March.............146..............0..............0.........0.............146
Total..............647.............0..............0.........0.............647