low on gas?

More likely low on blood pressure. I got up this morning dizzy. Not unusual for me, my blood pressure runs low normally. Today I couldn't seem to get back to normal. I drank lots of fluids, ate lots of food. Still at the start of today's ride any time I'd dip my head (like to look at my speedometer, shoes, gears, etc) the world would take a spin. I've been climbing a lot of elevation this week and my legs weren't at 100%. I could pedal flat ground, lead the group out at 19-20 mph for the first 8 miles or so, until we started climbing then got passed by one, then another, and another, until the entire group was waiting at Women's Forum Park for me. I did take the turn and head up Larch Mtn Road but wasn't sure how far I'd get. The ride up Larch Mtn was beautiful today.
The plan was for folks to ride uphill for an hour then turn around and cruise back down. Many made it to the snow gate today. I was not one of them. My hour was up and I turned around at MP 8. The cruise back down was fun. I reached the Historic highway in 16 minutes.

The road continued to loose elevation as it looped around the Vista House and made it's way to Multnomah Falls. It was just gorgeous today.

There was a noticeable east wind, but not too bad. Of course my point of view may be slightly askew since I rode in Death Valley into a 40-60 mph wind!


The temperature dropped as we headed east. At Multnomah Falls it was 42. With the shade of the Gorge walls and the wind it was cold. I was shivering AND still dizzy. I had a couple of powerbars from my pack and a hot dog from the concession stand. Along with my bottle of Accelerade I was hoping that would get me back over the hill and back to Troutdale. I shoved off with a group of about 6 and headed west.


The Historic Columbia River Highway was/is and engineering marvel. Gentle 5% maximum grades makes this a very doable ride and even this tired and dizzy guy climbed back up to Chanticleer Point with relative ease.

Our group started out this morning with 22 folks. We scattered a bit during the ride with a few cutting short, a few going long, and a few of us just going slow!
7 of us did manage to arrive back at Edgefield at nearly the same time, 5 of us decided to rest and rehydrate/replace carbs while there.



Today's total elevation gain was a big 8721 vertical feet in 55 miles.

In the last 7 days I've ridden 234 miles........with 28,080 ft of cumulative elevation gain.
It's predicted to be raining Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. Maybe I should go for a FLAT recovery ride tomorrow!



............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.........TOTAL
Today.......55................0.................55
Jan........618...............0................618
Feb........576...............0................576
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....1194...............0...............1194