Getting my butt kicked

A friend was celebrating her birthday with a ride in Portland's West Hills today.  It was posted on a meetup group that I am not a member of, and the invitation was not extended to non-members. It looked like a good ride with about 100 ft of climbing for every mile of distance covered. Since I am not a member I figured I should find some alternate ride. I was thinking about perhaps riding to Multnomah Falls again.

Late last night a facebook friend suggested a ride from the SE area of Portland out to Pumpkin Ridge Road.  I accepted, thinking that would be good training for me and I would enjoy the company.  The morning looked a bit wetter than had been predicted a couple of days ago.   We decided just to ride into the hills, and see where we happened to end up.

She took off across the flats at 18-19 mph.  I'm thinking I'm going to be in for a long day. ;-)
As we started up the hill we stopped so I could take off my rain gear.  We got a few light showers from time to time, but with the effort of trying to keep up with my friend I never got cold.

Paula's smooth pedal stroke always amazes me.  I've never seen that outside of those who've participated in ultra-cycling events such as Race Across Oregon, Furnace Creek 508, or Race Across America, yet she doesn't do any of those.  She attributes it to rowing, where smoothness of stroke is a virtue.  Whatever the cause, it is a pleasure to watch her pedal.......and struggling all day to keep pace, I got to watch her pedal far more than I should have.

When we got to the top of Thompson Rd we got to experience a brief hail shower, always a highlight! :-( We took shelter under a small mail box center's roof and let the worst of the storm pass.
The weather looked dicey, and we rethought the plan to ride out to Pumpkin Ridge.  We instead set our sights on Council Crest.  We made it there and paused just a few minutes to take in the view, take a few photos, and I also put my rain coat back on in anticipation of the descent.

Paula was all smiles

The ascent about killed me!

From there we made our way back down the hill carefully (wet roads!) I was glad I had the rain coat on as it provided protection against the cool air as we descended.  As we neared the Willamette River my front tire caught a seam in the roadway.  For a scary few moments I had no control of the front of my bike. Normally a bike goes down in those conditions, I was happy (and lucky!) to still be upright. We crossed the Willamette River on the Hawthorne Bridge. Once across Paula suggested a bonus side trip to climb Mt Tabor.  It was bad enough that she just buried me on every climb, I didn't want to be a total bike pansy and decline the invitation, so up we went! I still had the rain coat on, and was warm, but not overly so, as I climbed.


We rolled down Mt Tabor then went to a food cart near Paula's house.

I had planned to ride about 140 miles between Saturday and Sunday, instead I got less than 60.  It was still a good day on the bike, and Paula made sure I wasn't slacking.  Thanks!




2785 ft of climbing.

 ................road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today.............28...............0.............0..........0.............28 Jan..................93..............0..............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653..............0.............0.........0............653 April..............204.............0...............0.........0............204 Total.............1364.............0...............0.........0..........1364