Ride Up Mt. Bachelor (and back) in One Day

Distance: 89 miles
Elevation Gain: 5836 feet
Average Moving Speed: 14.64

We had planned to start riding at 6 but as it was our first morning at Eagle Crest we were moving slow. Didn't get rolling until just after 7, which was just as well cuz it was COLD!

The higher altitude was noticeable by the time we started a bit of climbing heading into Bend. I was struggling even tho my heart rate was only 85 to 90% of my lactate threshold. I had planned to push it to 95% as often as possible as a trial for Ring of Fire, just to see if I could last doing that on a long ride. As it got hotter in the afternoon hitting 95% turned out not to be difficult at all!

We decided to turn around and head back down the mount after stopping for a bagel sandwich and a mocha from the ski shop. Glad we did as we were both exhausted when we got back. The extra 50 miles around the high lakes would have been too much. 89 miles was plenty at the altitide and heat!

Registered for Ring of Fire, 12 hour

I just registered for the Ring of Fire 12-hour race (no way I'd do the 24-hour race this year!). It will be my first 'race' as opposed to a 'ride', and the idea is to learn about it before the riding season is over and see if I want to jump in with both feet next year. So my goal is to finish - anything besides last place would be a bonus. :)

Completing RAPSody in just over 12 hours is what gives me the confidence to try this race. It will be considerably more difficult though. RAPSody was 7800 feet of climbing over 168 miles (or possibly 9600 feet, if you believe the RAPSody website). The 12-hour Ring of Fire is over 9,500 feet of climbing in the first 112 miles, and another 2,000 feet every 25 miles after that. So I'm hoping I will get to about double the amount of climbing as with RAPSody. Yikes, after typing that out it is finally starting to sink in... :-O

RAPSody

Quick Stats
Distance: 168 miles
Elevation Gain: 7872 feet
Average Moving Speed: 15.38 mph

It took us a little over 12 hours to do this ride! Our overall average speed (including rest stops, stop lights, 'natural' breaks, etc.) ended up at 13.72 mph. For the first half of the ride it was actually holding steady at 15 mph! I was amazed about this at the time. It came down because we decided to take a little more of a break on the final 3 rest stops since we were doing so well on overall time. There were only 5 organized rest stop, so roughly 1 every 30 miles.

The first quarter of the ride was simply wonderful with all of the quality scenery of the bays and ports and whatnot. The final quarter (basically from Olympia to Tacoma) was not-so-wonderful with a lot of traffic and that bit of headwind we knew would hit us. Thankfully the headwind wasn't so bad, but the traffic was no fun *at all*.

We survived though, and ended up being the 13th and 14th riders to finish -- Amy was the first woman to finish! There were about 400 total riders, of which only about 40 opted to do the ride in one day. We never saw more than a few since we started as soon as possible in the morning.

All in all, we are very happy we did it. We learned that centuries are more enjoyable than 168-mile rides. :) We learned that there is some beautiful scenery on the Puget Sound.

We are not sure if we would do this ride again. Probably not as the negatives are just too negative, even though the first portion of the ride was awesome.

RAPSody Forecast still looks great!

Looks like a slight tail wind first half of the day and a bit of a headwind on the home stretch.

Time

Condition

Feels Like

Chance Precip

Humidity

Wind

Tacoma:

6 am

(Sunrise at 6:16 a.m.)

54°F
Partly Cloudy

54°F

10%

77%

From NNE
3 mph

Bremerton:

9 am

57°F
Partly Cloudy

57°F

10%

57%

From NNE
4 mph

Shelton:

12 pm

64°F
Mostly Sunny

64°F

0%

65%

From NNW
5 mph

Olympia:

3 pm

68°F
Sunny

68°F

0%

52%

From NNW
7 mph

Tacoma:

7 pm

66°F
Sunny

66°F

0%

54%

From N
7 mph

8 pm

(Sunset at 8:08 p.m.)

64°F
Sunny

64°F

0%

58%

From N
7 mph

VBC Sauvie Island + Non-VBC Frenchman's Bar

Quick Stats
Distance: 94 miles
Elevation Gain: 3107 feet
Average Moving Speed: 15.41 mph

We did the Sauvie Island Cruise with VBC and added some roaming around Vancouver Lake as well, going to both ends of Lower River Road (the one that goes next to Vancouver Lake and the one that goes past Frenchman's Bar).

Amy tried out her aero bars for the first time, but they need to be adjusted so we'll have to do that in the morning.

This was our last ride in preparation for the RAPSody next Saturday, other than 2 or 3 real shorties during this week.

Sure was windy along the river today.

Didn't eat enough during today's ride. All I had was one Cliff bar and about half of another bar. Gotta eat way more during Saturday's ride or I simply won't last...


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Covered Bridge Bicycle Tour

Quick Stats
Distance: 100 miles
Elevation Gain: 3902 feet
Average Moving Speed: 15.95 mph

Great ride! The quality of the roads for bike riding were the best on any ride so far. The scenery was a bit plain, except for the 5 covered bridges of course.

Amy struggled from the start. Her muscles were bothering her all day. Not sure if it was due to yesterday's ride with all the hill work, or just a bad day, or both, or what. We had originally planned to do 133 miles (the full century plus a portion of the 40-mile loop) as our final long ride prior to the RAPSody, which is in two weeks. But we decided to stop at 100 due to Amy's condition. And I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to do more than 100. :)

Root beer floats afterward were unexpectedly delightful. Odd how I wasn't really anticipating them, but once we went over to get them after the ride, they were just what the doctor ordered! In fact, I made mine a double.

All in all, an excellent ride, particularly for the road quality.


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VBC Salmon Falls

Quick Stats
Distance: 61 miles
Elevation Gain: 5978 feet
Average Moving Speed: 14.43 mph

Another ride led by Lap Lai, so you know it'll have some hill work.

We took our own advice from last week and drove to the starting point. Saved 30 miles that way.

It was actually quite cold. We started out too fast, trying to keep up with the lead group before we were warmed up. Gotta go at our own pace!

The only downside of this ride was all the 4x4 rigs towing dirt bikes and such on Washougal River road. Apparently there was some kind of race they were all going to. Lots of not-so-bicycle-friendly traffic on that stretch.

Other than that it was an awesome, beautiful ride. Never knew there were so many big houses (on big hills!) in Clark County. I think we entered into Skamania County too, for what it's worth.


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10-mile Time Trial

Quick Stats
Distance: 10 miles
Elevation Gain: 0 feet
Average Moving Speed: 20.48 mph

Another time trial down on the flat toward Frenchman's Bar.

Did it in 29:18 at average heart rate of 158.

Only 3 seconds faster than prior time trial, but with heart rate 2 beats higher? Weird.

Blackberry bRamble

Quick Stats
Distance: 96.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 6161 feet
Average Moving Speed: 15.4 mph

This was a very nice ride in Eugene, Oregon. The ride moved away from the urban area fairly quickly and before you knew it you were in complete solitude in the middle of a forest.

At about mile 37 we saw what happens when you descend a hill too quickly and come up on too tight of a corner - you fly off the road into some trees and hurt yourself very badly. We stopped immediately after it happened and helped as best we could, but without phone service we couldn't do much. He got up, very slowly, and he thought he could ride but between us and his 3 buddies he was convinced to wait. He was bleeding on his head, it appeared his helmet was impacted, and his shoulder was badly bruised and strawberried. We offered to ride on and call for help as soon as we had phone service and they thought it was a good idea. Turns out it was the start of a very long climb and we didn't have service until the top, which was quite a while later. It ended up that a SAG vehicle had already come upon them and he made it to the hospital okay. At the end of the ride we saw his 3 friends and asked how he was. They didn't know yet, but they said he was having memory troubles so that is why they opted for the SAG vehicle and hospital rather than trying to push on. To be honest I'm not even sure his bike was ridable.

Blackberry pie and ice cream afterwards really hit the spot!


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VBC Ireland

Quick Stats
Distance: 80 miles
Elevation Gain: 3741 feet
Average Moving Speed: 15.12 mph

This was a Lap Lai ride with some nice hills. We started from our house and met up with the club in East Vancouver and then had to ride home afterward as well. Next time we'll probably drive by car to the start, particularly if we have a century on the next day.


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