2011 Riding Goals

It is hard to believe it is almost 2011. Time sure flies. Although I must admit I'd like it to fly a little faster as I'm getting quite chubby and need some consistently warmer/dryer weather so I can get on my bike!

Yes, I do have an indoor trainer for my bike, but I have to tell you, it's just not the same. It is extremely hard for this boy to be motivated enough to get on that thing. It reminds me of when I was a kid and had to tell my dog to "kennel" for the night. He would hang his head down, put on his most pathetic 'sad puppy' face, and look back at me as if to say "please don't make me go in there!" That's how I feel about getting on my trainer. Well, that has been the case so far this off season, but it is going to change. I've been on it twice in the last week, and it wasn't so bad. I plan to ride it at least twice a week up until outdoor riding begins.

Siouxon Century

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	100.65 miles	4832 miles
Elevation Gain	6766 feet	52.13 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.04 mph	15.00 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

It was a nice day and there won't be that many more of those this cycling season.

I had been wanting to ride out to Siouxon Creek (pronounced "Sue Sawn") for quite some time. I've hiked on the trail out there, but of course got there by car. Perhaps one day I will do both: ride there by bike and hike the trail.

Yakima Weekend

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	45.51 miles	4597 miles
Elevation Gain	2139 feet	49.68 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.76 mph	15.14 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

Saturday's ride started out a little too urban for our taste, but after about 8 miles we turned onto Naches Heights Road and it was like somebody flipped the light switch from "urban" to "rural". Very little traffic from that point on. Save for the occasional tractor. Orchard after orchard after orchard. Nice views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier, and of course all the surrounding hills. It was a very beautiful ride.

We had originally intended to relax Sunday morning but it was such a beautiful and enjoyable ride we decided to do it again on Sunday. Plus we figured the traffic on the first few miles might be a tad better on a Sunday morning than it was on a Saturday morning.

Ring of Fire, 12-hour Time Trial

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	158.33 miles	4352 miles
Elevation Gain	10,913 feet	47.49 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.18 mph	15.04 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

Where to begin...

I guess at the beginning.

Ring of Fire Detailed Forecast

Couldn't ask for much better weather conditions:

Fitness Progress, 2009 vs. 2010

One way to measure my fitness progress is to compare some data from this year to last year. I have a plethora of data available for this year due to my iBike and associated software. Last year I was using my G1 phone with the My Tracks app. Interestingly, while my G1 certainly wasn't as accurate for the elevation gain numbers, it did keep track of my overall time in addition to moving time. I wish my iBike did that! Also note that the 2010 season is not yet over, so those total values will grow a bit more.

Ring of Fire, Weather and Goals

The weather forecast for my race this Saturday looks ideal for cycling:

Weatherbug

Maupin: Partly cloudy. Highs 64 to 74. Lows 44 to 51.
Government Camp: Partly sunny. High 55. Low 45.

The Weather Channel

Maupin: Partly cloudy. Highs in the upper 60s and lows in the upper 40s.
Government Camp: Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the mid 50s and lows in the mid 40s.

AccuWeather

Maupin: Partly sunny. High 76. Low 46.
Government Camp: Partly sunny. High 63. Low 44.

So it looks like it will be a chilly morning, which means warming up will be important. Last year I hardly warmed up at all as I was concerned about being on the bike for 12 hours and didn't want to add more time-on-the-bike before the clock even started. This year is different. I want to be able to hit the first hill (which is right out of Maupin at the very beginning of the race) while fully warmed up so I can climb at full speed. Warming up on a climb is a bad idea. It is hard on the body (joints, muscles, everything) and overdoing it too early can throw you off for the rest of the ride. So I will definitely get in a solid 20 or 30 minutes of riding before I start racing.

The high temperature for the day is quite cool, basically the complete opposite from last year, which for me, is very, very good news. Of course it is good news for all the racers, but I'm sure some deal with the heat much better than I do, so all the better for me.

No real forecast yet as far as how windy it will be. I figure I can deal with wind as well as anyone else so I'm not concerned about it from a tactical standpoint.

Goals from last year edited for this year:

2010 Rides At Altitude

Altitude Comparison	Mountain Lakes Challenge (6/19/2010)	Cascade Lakes Century (7/25/2010)	Mt. Shasta Century (8/1/2010)	Crater Lake Century (8/21/2010)	Cascade Lakes Super (9/1/2010)
Lowest Altitude	1,860 ft	3,600 ft	3,030 ft	4,150 ft	2,700 ft
Average Altitude (over the entire ride)	4,160 ft	4,800 ft	4,350 ft	5,770 ft	4,330 ft
Highest Altitude	5,400 ft	6,400 ft	7,800 ft	7,900 ft	6,400 ft
Ride Distance	95 miles	97 miles	100 miles	102 miles	140 miles
Climbing	8,073 ft	5,424 ft	10,585 ft	6,668 ft	7,574 ft

Which ride was the hardest? Believe it or not it is hard to say. Our fitness level increased through the season, and each of these rides was hard for its own reasons.

2010 Eagle Crest Rides

QUICK STATS	Distance	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Speed
Monday: Rainy Bend OB	46.94 miles	2,225 feet	15.91 mph
Tuesday: Bend Prineville Redmond	110.02 miles	3,712 feet	15.75 mph
Thursday: Active Recovery	11.44 miles	254 feet	14.60 mph
Friday: Cascade Lakes Super	140.35 miles	7,574 feet	15.15 mph
Saturday: Active Recovery	5.41 miles	315 feet	8.12 mph
Cumulative for the Week	314 miles	14,080 feet	15.21 mph
2010 Cumulative	4,142 miles	44.77 miles	15.05 mph

The rain on Monday threw us all out of whack. We had originally planned the Cascade Lakes Super for Monday, the Prineville ride for Wednesday or Thursday, possibly another biggish ride on Friday, and then on Sunday riding from Eagle Crest to Madras to close out the week. We still got in the two big rides though. And probably could have done the Madras ride today, but sleeping in was much nicer, particularly knowing we can do a nice ride on Monday at home.

Cascade Lakes Super

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	140.35 miles	4137 miles
Elevation Gain	7574 feet	44.71 miles
Average Moving Speed	15.15 mph	15.07 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

We were planning on doing this ride yesterday, but having just completed a 110-mile ride a couple days prior our legs decided otherwise. So we waited another day to tackle this 140-mile ride. Plus we had in the back of our mind the option of simply turning around at Mt. Bachelor and making it a 90-mile day.

Bend Prineville Redmond

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	110 miles	3985 miles
Elevation Gain	3712 feet	43.23 miles
Average Moving Speed	15.75 mph	15.07 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

The day started with sunshine. It was a wonderful thing to behold, particularly considering the prior day's adventure in the rain.

I was able to see Mt. Bachelor from Bend and you could definitely see that it had received some snow from yesterday's storm. Perhaps not much, but enough to tell. It made me even more glad we turned around when we did yesterday and didn't try to ride all the way up there.

Rainy Bend OB

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	46.94 miles	3875 miles
Elevation Gain	2225 feet	42.53 miles
Average Moving Speed	15.91 mph	15.04 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

We had planned for the biggest ride of the week on this day. The rain changed all that. It started out cold and dry, and we both felt pretty good, having all the appropriate coverings on arms, legs, hands, ears and torsos.

Until the rain came somewhere around mile 20.

Crater Lake Century

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	101.81 miles	3689 miles
Elevation Gain	6668 feet	40.88 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.79 mph	15.01 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

WEATHER
Our Saturday started out cold, which makes for comfy climbing. Once we got to the top though we were glad we kept our coats and arm/leg warmers. Cold wind on the rim. In fact gusts were a bit scary at times what with traffic and steep cliffs seemingly all around.

RIDE QUALITY (Roads, traffic, support, food, etc)
Road surfaces were pretty good, only a few bad areas.

Old Man Pass

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	79.17 miles	3538 miles
Elevation Gain	5650 feet	39.05 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.26 mph	15.00 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

This was another training ride. Well I guess they all are in a way, but the difference is we've ridden this section of road before, this year even, and decided to do it again in order to get used to the long steep grades. Amy had suggested it, remembering the nice climb on the Lewis & Clark Ultra training route we did this spring. Rather than do the whole grueling 140-mile route again, we drove to Stevenson and climbed over Old Man Pass, descended to the Eagle Cliff General Store near Swift Reservoir, and then returned the same route, over Old Man Pass again.

Kelly and Grantham

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	61.95 miles	3365 miles
Elevation Gain	4205 feet	37.12 miles
Average Moving Speed	15.05 mph	14.88 mph
Dog Bites	close but no cigar!	1

I wasn't going to blog about this ride since it is local and relatively short, but what the hey, why not spam my family on a Monday?

It was short for a couple reasons. My back has been out since Thursday, and that threw a big wrench into our weekend plans. Stayed home and took it easy Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Discovered mentholatum deep heating rub (like Icy Hot or Ben Gay) and that did wonders for my back muscle Saturday and Sunday, so much so that I decided to do some riding today.

We learned a couple things on today's ride. Due to my back problems and the subsequent I-have-no-idea-when-I-will-be-ready-to-ride state of things Amy went to spin class at the local gym on both Saturday and Sunday. She rides hard in those classes. Really hard.

Mount Shasta Summit Century

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	99.70 miles	3239 miles
Elevation Gain	10585 feet	35.63 miles
Average Moving Speed	12.57 mph	14.86 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

I was a little concerned about this ride after last weekend. I was convinced that the biggest problem last weekend was the heat. And perhaps I therefore wasn't drinking enough water. Easy enough problem to fix, or at least improve upon.

The other difference from last weekend is the support. Last weekend I hauled my CamelBak (with about 60 oz. of water) around Mt. Bachelor. Along with two water bottles. Today we had rest/water stops all over the place. I had 3 water bottles, and my original intent was to only fill the third one as needed later in the heat of the day and use it as a mister for cooling off my body.

Did it work? Yep. Although the heat wasn't as bad as it could have been, so it's hard to tell if the solution worked well or if the heat problem simply wasn't that bad this time. It wasn't that it didn't get hot. And my heart rate was higher than ideal during that stretch. But it seemed under control. I was able to keep going and just live with the fact that my heart rate is apparently 10 or 15 beats per minute higher when I am hot.

The main reason we decided to forge ahead and attempt a ride with an advertised elevation gain of 10,500 feet was due to how the organizers mapped out the ride. Basically you start with 35 miles of fluff, and then you do 3 big climbs. And in all 3 cases the climb is an out-and-back. So if your legs decide they just can't go up anymore all you have to do is turn around and ride back down. Pretty cool, eh?

Cascade Lakes Century

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	97.25 miles	3068 miles
Elevation Gain	5424 feet	32.69 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.92 mph	14.94 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

We rode a route very similar to the Cascade Lakes Road Race stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic. Starting spot was a little different, but otherwise road from Bend up toward Bachelor and turned left toward Sunriver. Ours included a 5-mile spur to Sunriver for water. Theirs went around Crane Prairie Reservoir but we cut that section out. They finished at Mt. Bachelor but we rode back to Bend.

Troutdale - Larch OB x2

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	93.13 miles	2910 miles
Elevation Gain	8185 feet	30.98 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.08 mph	14.94 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

Today was a training ride pure and simple. We are hoping to do the Mt. Shasta Summit Century in August, and it has over 10,000 feet of elevation gain. So we are trying to prepare our bodies to handle it.

We did this exact same route last weekend. It is such a good ride we decided to do it again, but double the fun.

Troutdale - Larch OB

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	46.39 miles	2730 miles
Elevation Gain	4270 feet	28.54 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.3 mph	15.0 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

We had originally planned to drive out to Trout Lake, Washington and ride around Mt. Adams. However, I wasn't feeling up to such a long day - a 2 hour drive on either end of a long bike ride. So instead we drove to Troutdale and rode up to Larch Mountain in order to get in some good climbing. Plus, in retrospect, it was so cloudy today I'm not sure we would have had the spectacular views of Mt. Adams that we wanted. So probably ended up for the best. We'll just have to hit Mt. Adams another day. Hopefully we can squeeze it in sometime this year. Gonna be tough though as the weekends are mostly booked. :(

Prior to this we have had two separate occasions where we rode up into the mountains and it was colder than we had expected. The Mountain Lakes Challenge in Ashland and then two weeks later our first attempt up Mt. St. Helens this year, the VBC Tour de Blast. In both cases we were blessed to have made the right call, and had ample clothing to keep warm (including extra gloves and shoe covers, or "toesties").

Johnston Ridge

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	83.66 miles	2667 miles
Elevation Gain	6513 feet	27.62 miles
Average Moving Speed	13.7 mph	15.0 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

This was the second attempt within a week of one of our favorite rides, the Tour de Blast, which was thwarted last weekend due to fog and rain.

VBC Tour de Blast

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	53.45 miles	2528 miles
Elevation Gain	4089 feet	25.69 miles
Average Moving Speed	15.0 mph	15.0 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

We did this ride last year and liked it so much we had to do it this year too.

Our average moving speed last year was 14 mph. But that included all the way to Johnston Ridge, which is another 15 miles out and back, with a hefty climb up to the Johnston Ridge endpoint and then the climb to get back up to Elk Rock on the return. This year we turned around and did not continue past Elk Rock as it was just too foggy and rainy to ride safely. We're glad we did because the descent was quite cold as it was.

Lactate Threshold (Frenchman OB)

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	23.66 miles	2422 miles
Elevation Gain	718 feet	24.24 miles
Average Moving Speed	16.7 mph	15 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

This was a Lactate Threshold test ride, similar to the ones I did last year. You can find them all nicely grouped here. The Quick Stats data above includes the warm-up and cool-down. The relevant Lactate Threshold portion is the blue highlighted section of the graph linked below (and the data on the left side of the graphic is for that portion of the ride).

The difference between now and last year is that instead of doing a maximum effort 10-mile test (which for me was a little shy of 30 minutes) and using my average heart rate for the whole 10 miles, I am now doing a 30-minute test but using the average heart rate from only the last 20 minutes. Very similar. Just different. I think the current method allows your heart rate to stabilize so that the value is more reflective of reality. Or something like that. Relying on what others recommend here. Of course I myself have no clue!

The nice thing about my current iBike software is that I can still compare to my previous 10-mile time-trial tests since I have all the data...

10-mile TT	7/2009	8/2009	6/2010
Time	29m 21s	29m 18s	28m 40s
Average Moving Speed	20.44 mph	20.48 mph	20.93 mph
Average Heart Rate	156 bpm	158 bpm	160.9 bpm
Average Heart Rate (last 20 minutes)	n/a	n/a	165.9 bpm

So I have definitely improved since last year, which is nice to see. Now I just need to catch up to my dear wife!

Oh, if you're wondering what the LT is all about, you can search for it on the web and there is lots of stuff about it. I basically use it as my maximum heart rate, or the 100% value, and then have various heart rate zones that I try to stay within for specific training purposes. The Ultra Marathon Cycling Association's Heart Rate Training Zones page is a nice summary of what each zone is and under what conditions you should be in each zone.

Two County Double Metric Century

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	126 miles	2383 miles
Elevation Gain	3630 feet	23.99 miles
Average Moving Speed	16.6 mph	15.0 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

Another quality ride under our belts. This ride had two of our favorite things: lots of smooth roads and not much traffic. There were exceptions, but the vast distances of thoroughly enjoyable stretches far outweighed those exceptions.

It was a well-supported ride with stops about every 20 miles for a total of 5 stops. Good food selection. Oh, and the pavement markings were the best yet. I didn't ever actually need my cue sheet. I guess if I were picky I would say the cue sheet, based on MapMyRide.com, was nearly impossible to read due to the extremely small font. But of course I'm not picky so I won't say that.

We were told there would be watermelon at the end of the ride, but the big thing driving us forward was the chicken and dumplings waiting for us at Paul & Kay's upon our return.

Oh, the big downer was a flat tire only 2 miles from the finish. Bummer! Though after further reflection I think I would rather have a flat at the end versus at the beginning.

Mountain Lakes Challenge

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	95.25 miles	2,175 miles
Elevation Gain	8,073 feet	22.53 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.0 mph	14.9 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

All I can say is, awesome ride! I am definitely not as fit as I'd like what with all the rain (and therefore a lack of riding) over the last couple months. But it was still worth it. This ride was beautiful, had great roads (except one very rough stretch), low traffic, and extremely well supported food-wise. Can't ask for more than that!

Started out with a 7.5-mile climb at 6% average slope. In other words, all about cardio-shape. Amy rocked. I did okay at this point, but this first big climb pretty much took its toll on me and sapped my oomph for the last half of the ride. I tried to keep it in my climbing zone, but that just meant I had to go slow. I averaged an oddly constant 7 mph.

It was cold up at mile-high elevations. For climbing the temperature was perfect, but a bit cool for flats and quite COLD on descents. We were very thankful we remembered to bring our extra set of gloves each. Amy never took off her jacket. In fact you can see in the photo she warmed up at the camp fire on the lunch stop. Took my jacket off for the first climb and then later sometime in the middle when the sun came out during some climbing. But otherwise it was very needed for the descents. I never even considered removing my arm and leg warmers. Several folks wearing shorts said they were quite cold.

Strawberry Century

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	101 miles	2,023 miles
Elevation Gain	3,239 feet	20.28 miles
Average Moving Speed	17.0 mph	15.0 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

We did this ride last year and we enjoyed it then too. Weather was perfect. A bit cool to start out, but my arm warmers were just enough to keep me warm. And simple to shed later.

Newberry Crater and Crane Prairie

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	78.93 miles	1,784 miles
Elevation Gain	4073 feet	17.84 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.9 mph	14.8 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

This ride started out quite cold. My iBike gave a low of 45 degrees but with the initial headwind it felt much cooler. The climb up to Newberry Crater warmed us up though. We started seeing snow next to the road about half way up, and slush on the road near the top.

We had planned to ride the 5 miles across the flat top of the crater to the east side and back, but it was so cold and wet up there we decided to head straight back down. Before that, though, I rode just a bit into the driveway of the west lodge, or whatever the driveway went to, so I could see the lake. Saw it, and noticed a pickup wanting to exit the driveway, which meant I needed to step onto the inch of snow so he could drive by me. Big mistake. I wasn't able to clip in to my pedals as snow had caked onto my cleats. Amy spent a couple minutes digging the snow/slush out of my cleats with her tire levers and then we started going back down.

Madras Cove Haystack Gateway

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	61.39 miles	1,670 miles
Elevation Gain	2,934 feet	16.76 miles
Average Moving Speed	15.5 mph	14.8 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

Quick weekend in Madras to visit family. Our ride started out quite cool at about 8:45 a.m., but the sun was shining bright and warmed us up quite nicely. For about an hour. Then the clouds came, along with some very cool air, and the rest of the day was actually rather uncomfortably cool. I never did put my jacket back on, but then again the arm and leg warmers never came off all day long.

Lewis and Clark Ultra Training Ride

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	141 miles	1,608 miles
Elevation Gain	8,191 feet	16.20 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.8 mph	14.8 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

I was toying with the idea of racing in the Lewis & Clark Ultra in two weeks, but not sure where I am fitness-wise. No better way to check than to just do the big loop.

Lewis County Historical Ride

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	99 miles	1,398 miles
Elevation Gain	3,551 feet	14.01 miles
Average Moving Speed	16.7 mph	14.7 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

Amy's spin instructor Mike came along with us today, and we had an absolutely great ride.

We did this ride last year too. What a difference a year makes! Here, let me show you:

Sherwood - Salem

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	98 miles	1,268 miles
Elevation Gain	2,691 feet	12.93 miles
Average Moving Speed	15.7 mph	14.7 mph
Dog Bites	0	1

With all the hills we ride around here we decided to do a relatively flat century yesterday, consisting partly of the Monster Cookie route (a metric century loop between Salem and Champoeg Park) which we did last year. They just held the ride last weekend so we figured the paint markings would be fresh. Wrong. I'm pretty sure the faded Dan Henry symbols were leftover from last year. I guess they just used cue sheets this year? No biggie as we had our own cue sheets.

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.

Chelatchie

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	74.46 miles	703 miles
Elevation Gain	4,702 feet	8.07 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.3 mph	14.3 mph

This was very similar to our Tumtum ride on the 6th, including the long climb up Kelly Road. After our stop at the Chelatchie store we eliminated the big Grantham climb and instead went basically east to west across north Clark County, and then south along our now familiar route through La Center and near Ridgefield.

It was our longest ride so far this season, and even though we eliminated a big climb it still had the most elevation gain. Makes sense though since our return route was the rolling hills of Ridgefield rather than the relatively flat central county route as we have used on previous trips.

My use of Hammer Nutrition's Perpetuem is going well. I am not starving after a 5-hour ride. I think Amy might even be willing to try it on long rides now. We'll see I guess.

I am quite exhausted, and after a ride like this I find it hard to believe we rode any centuries last year, let alone a whole bunch of 'em. I question if it is physically possible to squeeze 25 more miles out of this tired body. But it is early in the season and we are ridiculously ahead of where we were last year at this time, so I am told we will get there in due time.

Gardner Cemetery

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	67.14 miles	579 miles
Elevation Gain	4,807 feet	6.73 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.0 mph	14.2 mph

We decided to take Grandma Frye up on her 'mission' idea to investigate whether the new curb over her cemetery plot in Woodland had be relocated or not yet. We arrived at the Gardner Cemetery without any trouble and took some photos to show that the curb is still in the wrong place.

After leaving the cemetery the road both improved and degraded. We left the horribly rough chip seal road surface behind, but we lost the nice wide shoulders, and the traffic was fairly heavy. The climb at approximately mile 30 wasn't too steep or long, but the lack of shoulder and blind corner for heavy traffic wasn't very pleasant. We talked about bailing on 21st Ave toward Jenny Creek if the situation didn't improve, but it did improve, mostly by turning off of Cedar Creek Road onto Etna Road, which had far less traffic.

From this point on the ride became much more enjoyable due to both reduced traffic and incredibly beautiful scenery. We went along Lewis River for a stretch, and the forested areas were, well, beautiful. Etna consisted of rolling hills with one pretty good climb. But the real climbing started after passing the old water mill through a covered bridge on Grist Mill road. It was a 0.4-mile climb at an average of about 10% with a max slope of 17% at a couple spots.

Two miles later Goodnight Road had a couple nice climbs, the first with an average slope of about 10% for a half mile, with a very short quarter-mile break followed by another 10% climb for a quarter mile. At this point I suggested this must be about the last of the big climbs for the day. Looking at the graph there was actually 6 more climbs of 10% slope, but thankfully they were all relatively short. Needless to say, I will refrain from making such pronouncements in the future.

Other than having to stop a couple times to adjust Amy's seat, she was finally very happy with her new Ruby Comp bike. It now seems to be set up correctly for her. To me it appears that she just floats up hills. Of course she has never had problems with hills, but a lighter bike just makes it even better.

Woodland OB

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	49.94 miles	371 miles
Elevation Gain	4,154 feet	4.19 miles
Average Moving Speed	13.8 mph	14.3 mph

I was contemplating a 70-mile ride, but based on how I felt and how the weather looked behind me I decided to turn around at Woodland and basically head back the same way I came, mostly. Turned out to be a good decision as I experienced a very minor sprinkle upon arriving at home. And was pretty tired.

While riding I realized I might not have even had time to do the full 70 miles anyway, particularly since I don't have a headlight on my bike. Timing would have been close, but throw in any unforeseen delay (e.g. flat tire) and I would have been riding in the dark. So the lessons learned here are twofold: 1) Actually think about the fact that the daylight will end before setting out on an afternoon/evening ride. 2) Put my head lamp flashlight in my bike bag and just keep it there. Then if I ever get caught in the dark at least I have some kind of light. Oh, and if you are wondering, we both have tail lights and use them whenever we ride regardless of the time of day.

Probably the coolest part of this ride was the descent from Pine Grove toward Woodland. Dropped 750 feet in less than two miles, and some of it was very curvy. A car passed me just before heading down and I had to use my brakes a couple times just to avoid overtaking him. It was one of those hills you could almost just let her rip, but not quite, particularly at one rather sharp-ish corner. Very fun though. Looks like about a 40 mph average on that stretch. I was too busy to notice if it would have been safe for climbing in the other direction. That would be one serious climb.

Interesting that this ride is the most elevation gain of any so far. It is very close to two others though, so basically tied. I think the difference is that on the other two rides we returned on a relatively flat route. On this ride I returned the same way I went out: on the rolling hills around Ridgefield.

iBike Data
That reminds me, I am now relying exclusively on my iBike for elevation gain data. I used to use my G1 phone for recording trips (using the My Tracks app) and while it was nice it sometimes gave some fairly whacky elevation data. So I didn't trust it that much and relied more on data from sites like Trimble Outdoors (which is what follows). The only problem with the web sites that provide elevation gain data is that they only use as many points as the route that you punch in has. Which can be limited if you are building the route with the "follow streets" option. And this doesn't even consider whether the topographic information is accurate or not, or to what granularity. Anyway, the iBike grabs a data point every 5 seconds, and the slope information, which I can see while riding, seems reasonable. In other words, since it appears to be consistent if not accurate, and the elevation profile looks reasonable, I'm going to assume the data it gathers is the best information available.

Tumtum Ride

QUICK STATS	This Ride	2010 Cumulative
Distance	62.32 miles	321 miles
Elevation Gain	4,061 feet	3.40 miles
Average Moving Speed	14.5 mph	14.4 mph

You can see there were two nice hills on this ride. Both significantly longer than we have around our house. There was supposed to be another big hill...

We had originally planned to do an 84-mile version of this ride which included a nasty climb called Dobler Hill and a return by way of Ridgefield. After we completed 40 miles and at the top of the second major climb (Grantham Road), with Dobler Hill yet to come, we decided to bail out on Dobler. Upping our ride distance from 52 miles last week to 84 miles this week was probably a stretch as it was, but then also adding one of the county's "worst" climbs was probably too much to bite off. Thankfully it was easy to bail. We simply turned the opposite way after the Grantham Road climb and cut off the Dobler Hill portion. In fact, we were so wiped out that we decided to skip Ridgefield and basically went back the way we came, which was both very direct, and relatively flat. Upon reaching our house it was obvious we made the right decision, as we were both exhausted.

In the end, I think I pushed it too hard. My heart rate was an average of 141.8 bpm, or 90% of my lactate threshold. My heart rate spent 30% of the time in zone 4 (Threshold) and 48% of the time in zone 3 (Tempo). It was basically a Tempo ride but I'm not really ready for one of those yet! Oh well, what's done is done. At least we bailed instead of making it completely nutty.

Another Outdoor February Weekend

The somewhat sunny and semi-dry February weather has been... hard to believe.

Quick Stats (all 3 rides below)
Distance: 105.93 miles
Elevation Gain: 6,328 feet
Average Moving Speed: 14.82 mph

Ridgefield OB
This was a solo ride (Amy had to work) all the way to Ridgefield and back. I pushed it pretty hard for this early in the season and was rewarded with my highest average power (184 watts) and speed (15.6 mph) so far this year.



Ridgefield, La Center and Daybreak Park
We wanted to do a 50-miler and Amy had heard about some good riding in the La Center and Woodland areas from her spin instructor. So I scoured the VBC ride maps and came up with our version of one of them.



Immediately starting out we came across some kind of running event, so I asked one of them if they were using the Salmon Creek Trail (since we were planning on using it to get over to Lakeshore). They said yes, so we opted to avoid the throng and went the long way around (Hazel Dell Ave and 99th Street).



All was going well until we got to Allen Canyon at about mile 21. It was a beautiful little canyon (more of a ravine, to me) but since it was so forested the sun had not yet dried out the road. That combined with a very curvy/bumpy stretch of extremely steep road made for some very careful riding. We kept speed to a minimum going down, but the big surprise came on the way up. Man was it steep. My ibike read 20% much of the way up! And since it was wet we had to be careful not to pedal too strong for fear of losing traction and tipping right over (since our shoes are clipped in). Pedaling too strong ended up not being a big issue cuz it was extremely difficult to move forward at all. In my smallest granny gear my cadence was about half of normal (45 pedals per minute) and speed was 4 mph (but seemed like 1 or 2 mph). Crazy. Not used to hills like that. Particularly a full quarter mile of said hill, or 4-minutes of extremely heavy breathing. I am now well versed in the process of converting human muscle into pliable rubber.

Rubber or not we kept going. The big climb after La Center wasn't all that bad since it was an average slope of only 3 or 4%. Until we got to 389th Street. That was a very intimidating hill. The earlier Allen Canyon climb was mostly hidden from our view on a very windy road, so we didn't know how far we had to climb. It just kept going and going. This hill was completely in view and my rubber legs didn't like it one bit. We decided to tackle it though, and it wasn't nearly as bad as it looked. It did steepen up toward the end, but never quite reached 15%. This quarter mile stretch was only 3-minutes of pain, not 4-minutes of Allen Canyon terror.

That was mostly the end of the climbing, even though we had over 20 miles remaining. Interestingly, we passed Amy's spin instructor alongside the road (Mike, and 2 riders with him). A mile or two later we reached Daybreak Park and took a break to eat a Clif Bar lunch. Not sure which route they came back, but they eventually caught up with us just as we reached 134th St (while on 20th Ave).

All in all a great ride, particularly if we want significant climbing (over 4,000 feet) on a 50-mile route starting from our house.

Frenchman OB
Another ride out to Frenchman's Bar and back. I was pretty wiped out from the prior two days, but Amy still had some energy and wanted to get in a simple ride. So I tagged along and basically drafted most of the way. You can really see it graphically in the middle third of the ride (see the blue wind speed underneath the white bike speed line). You can also see how the power and heart rate are affected during that stretch.

2010 Riding Begins

We are fair weather cyclists, so we finally got some sunshine and not-too-cool days to do some riding. And I got a chance to use my newest toy: an iBike power meter (basically a bike computer that has pretty much everything available to view while riding, or for detailed analysis after the ride - hill slope, wind speed, power, heart rate, etc.).

Being as these are all local rides I decided not to map them. I do have some cool data though... I may end up using a different software package since the default software doesn't provide any summary of multiple rides so that you can see fitness progress over time. But for now these graphs show lots of cool data. Okay, too much data, but still, since I have it, I'm gonna include it!

Quick Stats (all 4 rides below)
Distance: 113.41 miles
Elevation Gain: 5,453 feet
Average Moving Speed: 13.9 mph

Frenchman OB
Our first ride was just the two of us on Thursday the 18th, and "Out and Back" to Frenchman's Bar on the Columbia River. As you can see from all of the blue on the speed graph, it was a windy day. The white line is the bike speed. When the blue is on top of the white line it is a head wind. There was some nasty headwinds, but also some tailwinds. It was definitely worth it just for the spectacular clear view of four mountains: Rainier, St. Helens, Adams, and Hood. Being our first significant ride of the season we were going to take the easy way home up Lakeshore. But due to road construction we avoided the mess and went up Fruit Valley, which as you can see is a significant climb.


VBC: Two Volcano Cruise
We had seen this ride on the VBC calendar but never actually ridden it. Definitely worth doing just for the nice views, but a bit too urban for our taste (lots of stops, traffic, pedestrians, etc.). Were it later in the season we would have ridden from our house, adding about 10 miles each way. But starting an hour or so earlier would have been way too cold, not to mention that much longer.


VBC: Salmon Creek - Brush Prairie
A nice club ride. We did start this one from home since the club start is fairly close to us.


Ride Toward Ridgefield
We went toward Ridgefield basically following the reverse course of the Ride Around Clark County. Turned around at 209th St. and 41st Ave. this time, but will normally go all the way in to town. Did the Felida Hill near the end (about mile 18). Nasty! The power spike at the very end is me maintaining momentum coming back up the Cougar Canyon Creek ravine on 119th St. You can see the same thing on the Frenchman's Bar data above. I didn't really go for a max speed on either of these rides. In the future I will be experimenting on this particular stretch to see how much above 40 mph I can get. The fastest speed I recorded last season was 47.53 mph on a steep hill during the Blackberry bRamble in Eugene.