woo HOO!

Dave and I had planned to join a few folks for a 40 mile ride from Vancouver to Kelly Pt Park today but a last minute plumbing issue delayed our start and forced us to make our own ride. We opted for a 10:30 AM start on a preview ride of my 54 miles birthday route. It was foggy and cold as we started off but within the first 10 or 15 miles we rode into blue skies. We had a great day and Dave ended up with a 1 day maximum mileage. We ended back up at Butteville and I decided to let Dave take my pickup back to his house and I'd ride back via a bit of a circuitous route to bring my miles up to the magic number for the month. It was just too nice of a day to stop without reaching the 500 miles this month. Of course, with all the snow and ice earlier it ended up that I rode most of those miles in the last week!

With Super Bowl issues for many I've scheduled my birthday ride for NEXT Sunday. I hope the weather is as good as it was today, but given the time of year I'll be amazed if it's any where near as close.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............71...............0.................71
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

excuses, excuses

I haven't been on my bike since Monday when I commuted a 103 mile round trip to Salem. Tuesday morning did indeed end up snowy, just like predicted. I drove to Salem for my commitments there and didn't see the asphalt for the first 35 miles! Though they make studded tires for bikes, I prefer the safety of 4 wheels and a protective cocoon of steel around me when there is snow and ice on the roads!

(sorry about the radio on the background, forgot that I was taking audio as well as video!)


Wednesday I had a full day of real life issues.

Thursday I had my bike with me in the afternoon as I drove my upcoming 54 mile birthday route and marked the course with some discreetly place "graffiti" on the pavement. It took a bit longer than expected so I didn't have time for a decent ride.

Today was icy and foggy until well into the day. My afternoon was busy but even if it hadn't been it was just to cold and wet to have me get too enthused about riding.

Tomorrow however I will be out there. I've got two options for rides with friends. I'm sure one will pique my interest! It would be nice to get enough miles to bring my January total to 500, but neither ride will do that....... I might have to add a few miles on my own if the weather is nice!

"commute" meeting "commute" meeting

With a meeting in Salem that began at 11AM and not having to be back to Forest Grove for another meeting until 7PM it looked like a commute by bike was possible. This morning was a bit chilly but the roads were dry so I took off towards Salem with the temperature at 25 degrees. The sky was cloudless and traffic reasonable light since my normal route to Salem involves mostly rural roads. It was a bit cold but the tail wind helped move me along faster and minimize wind chill. My legs were fine after the hard workout and 127 mile ride on Sunday but there was a bit of "saddle interface issue" with my new ISM Race saddle. Just not enough miles on that to have me entirely comfortable on full century rides yet.

After my meeting, that included a few slices of pizza (Thanks Court Street Consulting!)I made my way back, taking a few alternate roads so I would be sure to get in my full 100 miles. My normal round trip would leave me just shy of 100 miles.

As I was pedaling through Salem I was glad that my normal riding position is at the white line on the edge of the traffic lane, and not in the center of the bike lane. If I had been any closer to the woman in the car who opened her door without looking I would still be in Salem somewhere. Other than that it was a nice return ride. There wasn't a very tight time schedule, though there was a head wind, it wasn't imperative that I get back quickly. It did warm up a bit if you consider 38 degrees warm!

I arrived back in plenty of time to get cleaned up and attend the second fire related meeting of the day.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today...........103...............0................103
Jan total.......430.....+.........30.......=.......460
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My first ride as an Oregon Randonneurs member

I got my Oregon Randonneurs membership in the mail yesterday and promptly took off for my first ride with them as an official member today. I was too late to ride the Wetlands and Prairies Permanent as a registered rider dashing my chances for the first check mark on my R12 quest. Then again, I'm not sure that's important to me. I just like riding with folks who aren't afraid to put in some miles.

About a dozen of us began the trip this morning in Newberg and headed south at 7AM eventually arriving at the Gallon House Covered Bridge.

From there we turned around and returned to Newberg via Mt Angel and Gervais. We made reasonable time even with the stops to answer control questions. We arrived back in Newberg with the first 60 miles under our belt by 11AM. From there we headed west on Hwy 99 before turning NW on Mineral Springs Rd then west on Gun Club Rd eventually turning north on Hwy 47 and making our way to Forest Grove. Arriving in Forest Grove with about 105 miles we were pleased to find that Maggie's Buns was open until 3PM, and we just made it under the wire. Most had a bit to eat, but I often find that if I eat "real food" on rides I get bloated so I stuck to my liquid supplements. As we pedaled back toward Newberg on Springhill Rd we were riding pretty quickly hoping to finish up before dark. Around 115 miles into the ride I found myself running out of energy. Not eating enough coupled with a ride at least twice as long as anything I've done in the last few months had almost done me in. I stopped for just over 5 minutes and took a good drink of Perpetuem and had a granola bar, a few shot blocks, and my favorite....a snickers bar! I got back on the bike and continued on my way. I never caught back up with the 5 others I was riding with. They are strong riders and I just didn't have it in me to catch up with them today.......give me a couple of months! I did turn on my front blinky with about 8 miles to go. (ran rear blinkies for much of the day) It never did get dark enough to make me think I needed to stop and set up the HID light. I pulled into the parking lot marking the end of our ride about 5:15PM. I was ruing the fact that on my first Rando ride as an official member I had come in dead last...but had come in. Cecil Anne reminded me that there were others still on the course so really I was just last of the fast group.
That Cecil, she's a glass half full kind of girl!

It was a good ride, and a great group of folks to ride with. With RAO, FC508, and multiple 12/24 veterans (and record holders!) in the group it's right where I need to be.

Not sure about riding tomorrow yet. We started out in the low 40's as we pedaled away this morning, it got colder as the day progressed and we in the upper 30's at 5PM when we finished. It's supposed to continue to cool down tonight with the likelihood of a little snow in the morning. We shall see.

I do have a late morning meeting in Salem on Monday and may just commute by bike (just under 50 miles one way)if the weather cooperates.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today...........127...............0................127
Jan total.......327.....+.........30.......=.......357
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It's official

Today a packet showed up in the mail. It contained a welcome message and a membership number (#5314) Looks like when I show up at Newberg in the morning to join some folks on the Wetlands and Prairies Permanent I'll be an official member. Will I ride any better? Will I have more fun? Who knows, but I will be an official Oregon Randonneur!


I observed the change of status by swapping out my lighter and faster tire/wheel combo with the 11-27 gearing for my slightly heavier and slower setup with my bullet proof Continental Gatorskin tires and the 12-24 cogset. A flat route with winter road conditions makes me think it might be the best way to approach this ride. My Rando brethren aren't nearly as concerned about speed as they are persistance. The next thing you know there may be a generator hub on the horizon! ;-)

A change in the weather

We've been enjoying some beautiful weather recently, frosty mornings but clear blue skies. The east wind through the Columbia Gorge has been keeping clouds and morning fog at bay. That wind has moderated and today the clouds are back. The weather guru's say that we are likely to see some sprinkles this afternoon and are very likely to have a wet Saturday, possibly even some snow by Sunday. I'm planning on riding 200k on Saturday with some friends so I'll be keeping a close eye on that.

In the meantime, maybe it's time to brush up on chain lubing technique?

The right way to lube a bike chain

In the afternoon I took advantage of a little lull in the action and went out for one of my recent favorite short rides, albeit with significant climbing.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............35...............0.................35
Jan total.......200.....+.........30.......=.......230
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

meeting, meeting, short ride, meeting

That's how my schedule goes today.
I had about 90 minutes in the early afternoon to take advantage of the beautiful weather and get a short ride in before cleaning up and attending an early evening meeting. Short available time required a close to home short ride.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............22...............0.................22
Jan total.......165.....+.........30.......=.......200
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What a difference a week makes

Just a week ago 7 of us rode a 37 mile route in honor of Shawn's 37th birthday, some a few more miles, some a few less. Today 4 of us returned to reprise the ride. Since I sent my membership application in for the Oregon Randonneurs I figured I should do the rando thing and ride to the ride. There was a construction road closure so what should have been a 10 mile commute one way ended up as 12 but no big deal.

Today was a bit colder than last week with frost on the roadway in the shady areas in the early parts of our ride but the sun was out and the air was absolutely clear. There was less debris on the sides of the road as well. I took a short video of our ride today at the same location that I took one last week. Note the much cleaner roads!



We avoided the flat tire issues of last week and kept a better pace. Last week we ended two hours late because of those flat tire issues as well as a generally slower pace. This week we ended up right on time!

Shawn had his road bike rather than his cross bike this time. Oddly his road bike has better gearing for the hills we rode today. All of us enjoyed the better weather today with smiles all around.
Here's Steve:


Shawn and Kris:


and myself and Shawn:


For our "post ride debriefing" we ended up at a Vietnamese restaurant where a couple of the folks who rode last week but opted out today joined us.


It was a great day to be on a bicycle!
By the time I commuted to and from, and our little side excursion for lunch, I ended up with a respectable 63 miles.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............63...............0.................63
Jan total.......143.....+.........30.......=.......178
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ah, the sun is shining!

I drove down to Salem for a meeting this morning. There was quite a bit of ice on the road in places but the sun was shining brightly. I did have my bike along hoping to get a ride in after my meeting. As I got into Salem I started seeing a few "serious" type bike folks all gravitating towards the Capitol Building area.

As I got within 2 blocks of my meeting location I stumbled upon the parking area that was the drawing force for them. It seems that a good size group was going to embark from there around 10AM.


I wished them a good ride and continued on to my meeting that also started at 10AM.

I'm finished up with the meeting and hope to get back to the northern part of the Willamette Valley so that I can ride around in the Logie Trail/Skyline/Rock Creek area again before it gets too late.

UPDATE:

I drove the return leg of my birthday ride loop that is coming up in a few weeks. There are a few gravel roads in the area and I wanted to make sure we were avoiding them. I didn't find any gravel but did note one nasty RR crossing so the trip wasn't a total waste........ and it was mostly on my way home. However, the little dilly dallying took enough time that it's too late to go for a ride.
What a waste of a dry week in January! I haven't been on the bike since last weekend. Tomorrow I'm going for a hilly route of about 55 miles. A good workout, but hardly a strong week!

That will all change soon, it's time to get back to being serious about this riding stuff. I will know if I've been accepted to ride the Furnace Creek 508 in just a few short weeks.

Bikes, Borgs, and Brew

I'm sitting here THINKING about riding bike when I really should be out there RIDING bike. I'm justifying it because I rode the last two days and my backside is still getting used to the new saddle. I figured a day off might be a good thing. In the meantime I was looking at the route for a 200k ride I'm likely to do in a few weeks with some of the Oregon Randonneurs. I followed some of the links and ended up on John Kramer's blog. He's proposing a challenging ~850 mile ride over a week in the rather hilly part of NE Oregon. The route covers some of the same country we rode on last Summer's Race Across Oregon, and ends up with about the same 40,000 ft we tallied on that event. If I don't get accepted for the Furnace Creek 508 I may have time available to do this instead. Really, if I am riding the Furnace Creek 508 in October I SHOULD do this as part of my training but probably need to conserve available time and dollars to put towards an all out effort on the 508.

Oh, and this:

I sent my membership application to Oregon Randonneurs this morning. They shamed me into joining them with their constant smiles, quest for more miles, and invitations to join them on rides even though I'm "not one of them". Just like the Borg, they've assimilated me! :-O

EVENING UPDATE:

Finished up the day at the Gemini in Lake Oswego with some active members of one of my more social bike groups. It was a ride leader meeting for those who'd like to plan and lead group rides. We had a great turn out, 11 of 12 who said they'd be there. We should be able to come up with a good variety of rides geared to just about everyone's skills and abilities. Now we just have to get out and ride!