Chelan Century Challenge

Another day, another ride, this time in Chelan, Washington. Teaser: read on to find out about our visit to the hospital emergency room...

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 102 miles   Elevation Gain: 7,420 feet   Average Moving Speed: 14.29 mph

Tour of the Unknown Coast

I guess it is that time again, you know, after we've done another bicycle ride where I take the time to spam family and friends all about it. (Keep reading for lots more good tasting spam!)

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 98 miles   Elevation Gain: 8,725 feet   Average Moving Speed: 12.92 mph

RACC from Home

We've been wanting to do the Ride Around Clark County since 2009, but the weather never cooperated to our satisfaction, until today. Our expectations for the ride were a little off, but our planning was spot on.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 101 miles   Elevation Gain: 5,370 feet   Average Moving Speed: 16.3 mph

Hutch's Pre-Season Century

We had an amazing (for us) average moving speed for the first two-thirds of this century: 19 mph. I thought for sure we would set a new personal best average speed for a century. We were so fast I had visions of cycling sugar plums dancing in my head. Then we climbed the one substantial grade on the ride, a 4-mile climb of 850 feet. Then it hit us, at about mile 73, right at the top of the grade as we turned west for the final leg: headwind.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 101 miles   Elevation Gain: 3,332 feet   Average Moving Speed: 16.5 mph

Mountain Rain Challenge

Probably should have stayed in bed for this one. But since I am writing this two days afterward, I am glad we did it...

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 100 miles   Elevation Gain: 8,976 feet   Average Moving Speed: 14.28 mph

Covered Bridge Bicycle Tour

Today's ride was about as opposite as you can get from last weekend's ride.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 99.36 miles   Elevation Gain: 3,149 feet   Average Moving Speed: 16.68 mph

Mount Shasta Super Century

It was a hot day. The weather reported it as 86 degrees in the City of Mt. Shasta.

Amy's Quick Stats   Ride Distance: 138 miles   Elevation Gain: 16,100 feet   Average Moving Speed: 12.0 mph

John's Quick Stats   Ride Distance: 107.27 miles   Elevation Gain: 10,830 feet   Average Moving Speed: 12.6 mph

Mt. Adams Bike DeTour

We've been meaning to do this ride for three years now. And boy are we glad we finally did. This was one awesome ride. Certainly the best of the year, and among the all-time bests in our three years of riding centuries.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 105.57 miles   Elevation Gain: 6,484 feet   Average Moving Speed: 14.65 mph

Tour de Fronds

The forecasts we looked at (Weatherbug, Weather Channel, local TV, KGW, Fox 12) all were in general agreement: chance of rain in the Glendale area. We had already signed up though, so we went for it and hoped for the best.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 81 miles   Elevation Gain: 7,267 feet   Average Moving Speed: 12.7 mph

Strawberry Century

We rode this century last year and the year before, and thoroughly enjoyed it both times. So we came back for more Strawberry Century. This time we brought Mike Ward with us, Amy's spin class instructor.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 101.38 miles   Elevation Gain: 3239 feet   Average Moving Speed: 16.93 mph

Rhody Bike Tour

Couldn't have asked for a better day to ride our bikes. Sunshine! Particularly with the cold wet winter spring we've had and are still having. So we headed north to Port Townsend and made the most of it.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 61.34 miles Elevation Gain: 3,336 feet Average Moving Speed: 14.99 mph

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.

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.

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?

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.

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:

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.

Harvest Century

Quick Stats
Distance: 104.3 miles
Elevation Gain: 1,991 feet
Average Moving Speed: 15.5 mph

In a word, today's ride was COLD. Yes, beautiful fall colors. Yes, nice to get in "the last organized ride of the season". Yes, fun to ride in general. But very, very cold, particularly when we started at 7:20 this morning. Forecast called for temperature in the 30s in Hillsboro, and I believe it probably was.

I tried my new balaclava to keep my head, face and neck warm. Worked fairly well but after a couple hours started fogging up my lenses while going up hills since my mouth was covered. I brought my ear warmer band thingy but left it in the car.

Amy liked all the pretty scenery: hillsides, orchards, nurseries, pumpkin patches. The ferry over by Canby was kinda fun. Steep climbing up out from the river though.

Quality of the roads was pretty good, but there was quite a bit more traffic than we would have liked after the ferry ride, which was somewhere around the halfway point, probably.

Lots of rest stops with excellent food choices. And the food at the end (burger, corn on the cob, pumkin pie) was delightful.

Quite a few riders today. It was a bit crowded at times, but not as bad as Reach the Beach or Seattle to Portland.

All in all an excellent ride but for the cold. I'm not going to include this as a "do again" ride because of the temperature, but I can see us being tempted to do it again since it was so well supported, and I have to admit it is fitting to wrap up the season on a good, cold ride. For much of the ride I was having positive thoughts about switching to indoor training!