Back to Plan... A?

Ok, my wife is one of those people that can pretty much accomplish anything she wants to accomplish. She thought she had turned the corner on the idea of racing, but on our first ride simulating a relay team race she discovered rather quickly it was not for her.

I think it was mostly that she didn't like riding alone, particularly if there is traffic. Up to this point we have basically always ridden together. But on a relay race we would be taking turns riding, essentially riding solo the entire time. So it is completely different from our normal routine of actually riding together. I think she also felt much more unsafe as a solo rider. When there are no shoulders or bike lanes I usually ride a little closer to the center of the lane (where the passenger side wheel wears the road smooth) specifically so that any approaching cars will definitely see us and be forced to move over to pass. She has never liked doing that, which is fine when we're together, but doesn't work as well when riding solo. In case you think I am being rude by not riding on the edge of the road, I am not. When you ride on the very edge of the road cars from behind tend to try to squeeze by you even when they shouldn't (e.g. when there are oncoming cars or when there is limited sight distance of the road ahead). Or worse, they don't see you at all.

The other thing she didn't like was the added stress of racing. It made it, well, not fun. Who in their right mind wants to morph something they love doing into something that is not at all fun?

So, I may or may not enter the May 29 ultra race as a solo rider. It will depend on my conditioning and the weather. If either is not up to par it would be not fun for me too.

Team Pugh Rides

First, a note about the new ride map on the right side of the blog. I archived the 2009 map here since it is a bit overkill to include it on every page. And since the right-side 2010 map isn't that big I also provided a post for a larger 2010 map here.

The only downside to the new version is that it requires a plug-in for your browser. But the upside for you is that the map is now interactive: zoom in/out, move around, click on a ride for details, etc. The upside for me is that updating the map after one of our rides is now extremely easy.

Now back to my original intent for this post.

Amy and I had both been thinking she wasn't particularly interested in endurance racing for various reasons. The plan was that I would dabble in solo racing and she would drive the support vehicle.

Then this last weekend happened, which you can read about here. Basically she was still feeling extremely strong at the end of 100 miles, and while she was sitting there on the side of the road waiting for me to come back and pick her up (because of her 3rd flat) she had a little time to reflect. I guess. Or maybe it was all the riders that passed by her and looked on her with pity, quite wrongly assuming she couldn't hack it.

Or maybe she is concerned about me trying to ride 12 hours solo after struggling so much late on Sunday's ride.

We were talking at dinner the other night and she says how we need another challenge because centuries are no longer difficult. I nodded in agreement absent-mindedly, and then a couple microseconds later, after a few neurons actually fired, my head tilted and a confused expression appeared on my face - standard double take response.

Whatever the case, all I know is that we are now tentatively planning on doing the Lewis and Clark Ultra as a relay team, riding 12 hours straight, essentially taking turns so that one of us is always riding.

We are excited about the prospect of racing together as a team. We plan to do at least one training ride on the race route in order to work out some of the kinks of racing as a relay team. It will be interesting to see what it is like to switch back and forth. We're not sure how often we should switch, so we'll be learning some new things.

Should be fun. Especially now that centuries are easy. ;-)

Daffodil Classic

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	105 miles	1057 miles
Elevation Gain	4,132 feet	10.93 miles
Average Moving Speed	15.5 mph	14.6 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

Last weekend was our first century of the season. Today's ride is our first fully supported and organized century of the season.

Non-Urban RACC

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	100.32 miles	870 miles
Elevation Gain	4,462 feet	9.38 miles
Average Moving Speed	15.1 mph	14.4 mph

We attempted our first century of the year yesterday, going on the Ride Around Clark County (RACC) route, but it was dangerously windy, like getting blown into traffic windy, so we ended the ride after around 40 miles.

So today we decided we didn't really like the urban portion of the RACC (which is what we did yesterday). Too many stops. Too much road debris (glass, nails, etc.). So we altered the ride and instead went out to Vancouver Lake (instead of Lacamas Lake) and then Battle Ground to get back on the RACC route.

We're about to get started this morning and I remembered I hadn't changed my front tire, which I had noticed was bulging during yesterday's ride. So I guess the short ride yesterday may have saved us from considerable hassle today.

Tire changed, we finally get going, with the mindset of seeing how we feel as we go. We're not sure if we'll want to do a full century after yesterday's ride. Plus my back is up to its normal shenanigans. We rode the flat roads down at Vancouver Lake and passed by our house at about mile 25 and all seemed well, so we forged ahead.

We hadn't yet ridden on this 5-mile stretch of Lucia Falls road, which follows along the East Fork of the Lewis River for some beautiful scenery. Unfortunately the curvy road has no shoulder and a bit too much traffic for our taste. We'll probably be avoiding it and instead riding over Yacolt Mountain to reach Yacolt on future rides. (I presume there is an actual Yacolt Mountain since one of the roads is named thus.)



Our first rest stop ended up being Moulton Falls at about mile 50. We should have stopped sooner, even if only for a bit. But otherwise we actually felt fairly good. And I was finally loose enough to stretch my back out and even got a nice "pop". The kind where it feels GREAT, or perhaps it is just normal but pain is hidden from my brain? Whatever the case I felt great over the next 25 miles. No water at Moulton Falls, but Yacolt is only 5 miles and has a nice store, so no biggie there.

We particularly liked avoiding all the big hills we've ridden on earlier rides. We will be hitting some of those again I'm sure, but the goal for today was to add horizontal miles, not vertical miles.



Look at the hill on the chart just before mile 70, and then take note of the spike in my heart rate at about mile 69.5. As is our normal fashion going up hills these days, Amy was about 40 yards ahead of me. Only problem is, a blue heeler decided she needed herding. Amy swears he was hiding in a pothole or something cuz she didn't see him until he was *right there*. Makes perfect sense to me since they are the exact color of an asphalt road. Anyway, I see it unfolding but there is basically nothing I can do. Well, don't get me wrong, when I heard Amy scream I sped up like crazy (remember this is a very solid uphill section) and yelled at the dog as loud as I could and probably almost had a heart attack (they do run in the family). Amy says the dog did get ahold of her heel, even above her shoe a little. But apparently did no harm. By the time I got there Amy was way up the hill and the dog had given up, and gave this screaming (and very heaving breathing) maniac a very wide berth. So as I go past the dog I remember that I am now completely exhausted, and even shaking a bit probably due to all the adrenaline. But I was able to stay upright, and even kept going forward, albeit at a much slower pace than when it all began.

The rest of the ride was comparatively completely uneventful, quite thankfully. We did make it home.