Well, back in my post about all the races I wanted to do this year, I mentioned that there were 2 this weekend. And then midweek I said I was sick. Well, turns out that I was still pretty much sick through Friday. However, both bike races were canceled due to freezing cold ice patches and the other due to snow. So turns out that I didn't miss any races and I didn't have to ride in the snow or freezing cold.
I got back on the bike Saturday and Sunday. My coach told me to take it easy, but I felt demotivated while riding for the first time in 3 days! And I still have a little bit of a cough. I'm really hoping I'll be good enough to train this week since I've got some long and intense intervals scheduled.
Also, I want to give a shoutout and congrats to my teammate Randy Resch who upgraded himself to Cat 4 before the season even started in Washington by going to a Cycle U class. It's going to be a great showing of Tacoma Bike with him, Landon and I at Sequim and Mason Lake the 2nd weekend of March.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Mid week update
Thought I'd give a mid week update here and a summary of some interesting rides I've done. Right now, I'm sick with I don't know what and it is sucking the life out of me. I didn't go into work and played Open TTD most of today. Something hit me yesterday and I haven't been able to fight it off yet. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be all right.
With that I'll reminisce about some cool rides I've done lately. With many of my rides, they are often into areas and roads where I've never been before.
A Long Ride
Two Saturdays ago I had a long ride scheduled for me: 4.5 hours - the longest yet this season. Here is a link to the data from that ride so you can follow along. I decided to go exploring southwest of Beaverton and climb over Bald Mountain and then do an interval near Newberg/Yamhill. I started climbing up Holly Hill rd since on the map it looked more interesting and curvy than going straight up Bald Mountain road. The road was very low traffic which was nice, but then suddenly at maybe 2/3rds up the climb, I see a sign that says "Pavement Ends".
I think "aw crap, I'll just trudge through it, it's probably not that far to the top." It was gravel and slightly muddy gravel, but the bike was handling it very well considering I was riding my Kysrium Elites with Michelin 23c tires. It was maybe 3 miles of gravel, very steep at times until I finally got to Bald Mountain road which was paved.
After this, I bombed down to the Newberg area down some exciting twists and turns. At the bottom I chilled out a bit and started a 1 hr interval in z3 and was really flying towards the end where I had the wind on my back. At the end of this, I was going north on Dopp rd, but it too turned into gravel (at about mile 45). I had had enough gravel already this ride, so I turned around and headed back on a road I knew was paved.
After this I pretty much zoned out in a long journey back to civilization (aka the closest MAX station so I could take the train home). I ran out of food completely at 4hrs. I had 2 water bottles with HEED and 3 CLIF Bars. I stopped by a grocery store to pick up some Gatorade and then headed to the MAX station. Done and done.
Trail Ride in the Dark
Last week on Wednesday I decided to start my ride from the office. Here's the data. Today was an easy day for me, so I usually take this time to go explore some areas of Portland since I don't have to worry about keeping speed. Also, going on trails at night is also good since there isn't much traffic. This combination of riding slow and at night enables me to go on trails more often since I don't have to worry about nailing some kid at 20mph or being that creepy bicyclist who doesn't ring his bell or yell on your left when passing an attractive and vulnerable female just trying to go for a run while not being bothered by the world.
Anyways, I decided to go explore this trail or series of paths from Beaverton along this creek towards Tigard. I got lost or rather didn't know where the next turn was numerous times on this ride so I was checking my handy dandy phone to see where I was and where the trail began again - it wasn't obvious -- especially in the dark. The trail was actually quite long and fun when I got to it. It went through a bunch of wetlands. At one point the trail was flooded about a foot deep, but I decided to go through it since going around would've entailed crossing a delightful 5 lane arterial. I made my way all the way to Tigard and then to Lake Oswego where I picked up the Terwilliger Trail and then Blvd. All in all a pretty fun ride.
Mt Tabor
And finally, this past Sunday, I rode up Mount Tabor for the first time. Like a lot of things in Portland, it is just so cool how special places like this mountain are sort of randomly located in an otherwise flat city and so close together. Portland's terrain and how it was all built upon makes me all happy inside. I had to use someone else's picture for this since my camera had some problems.
With that I'll reminisce about some cool rides I've done lately. With many of my rides, they are often into areas and roads where I've never been before.
A Long Ride
Two Saturdays ago I had a long ride scheduled for me: 4.5 hours - the longest yet this season. Here is a link to the data from that ride so you can follow along. I decided to go exploring southwest of Beaverton and climb over Bald Mountain and then do an interval near Newberg/Yamhill. I started climbing up Holly Hill rd since on the map it looked more interesting and curvy than going straight up Bald Mountain road. The road was very low traffic which was nice, but then suddenly at maybe 2/3rds up the climb, I see a sign that says "Pavement Ends".
I think "aw crap, I'll just trudge through it, it's probably not that far to the top." It was gravel and slightly muddy gravel, but the bike was handling it very well considering I was riding my Kysrium Elites with Michelin 23c tires. It was maybe 3 miles of gravel, very steep at times until I finally got to Bald Mountain road which was paved.
After this, I bombed down to the Newberg area down some exciting twists and turns. At the bottom I chilled out a bit and started a 1 hr interval in z3 and was really flying towards the end where I had the wind on my back. At the end of this, I was going north on Dopp rd, but it too turned into gravel (at about mile 45). I had had enough gravel already this ride, so I turned around and headed back on a road I knew was paved.
After this I pretty much zoned out in a long journey back to civilization (aka the closest MAX station so I could take the train home). I ran out of food completely at 4hrs. I had 2 water bottles with HEED and 3 CLIF Bars. I stopped by a grocery store to pick up some Gatorade and then headed to the MAX station. Done and done.
Trail Ride in the Dark
Last week on Wednesday I decided to start my ride from the office. Here's the data. Today was an easy day for me, so I usually take this time to go explore some areas of Portland since I don't have to worry about keeping speed. Also, going on trails at night is also good since there isn't much traffic. This combination of riding slow and at night enables me to go on trails more often since I don't have to worry about nailing some kid at 20mph or being that creepy bicyclist who doesn't ring his bell or yell on your left when passing an attractive and vulnerable female just trying to go for a run while not being bothered by the world.
Anyways, I decided to go explore this trail or series of paths from Beaverton along this creek towards Tigard. I got lost or rather didn't know where the next turn was numerous times on this ride so I was checking my handy dandy phone to see where I was and where the trail began again - it wasn't obvious -- especially in the dark. The trail was actually quite long and fun when I got to it. It went through a bunch of wetlands. At one point the trail was flooded about a foot deep, but I decided to go through it since going around would've entailed crossing a delightful 5 lane arterial. I made my way all the way to Tigard and then to Lake Oswego where I picked up the Terwilliger Trail and then Blvd. All in all a pretty fun ride.
Mt Tabor
And finally, this past Sunday, I rode up Mount Tabor for the first time. Like a lot of things in Portland, it is just so cool how special places like this mountain are sort of randomly located in an otherwise flat city and so close together. Portland's terrain and how it was all built upon makes me all happy inside. I had to use someone else's picture for this since my camera had some problems.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
7th in Cherry Pie Cat 4
This was a great race to start the season off with. It was gorgeous sunny out in the Willamette Valley between Corvalis and Salem. My race started at 12:50 so it wasn't freezing which was great. The race was somewhere around 60 miles, so no attacks every stuck and I didn't ever attempt any myself. The finish had two uphills. I was able to squeeze through traffic a bit, but started too far back. In the end it was 7th which I'll settle for for the first race. Next weekend should be good as well with two races both with slight climbs to the finish.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Racing! My 2011 tentative schedule
Both the WSBA and OBRA schedules have been up for a while, so I've made a little schedule of what races I'd like to do. Here it goes:
February:
19: Cherry Pie
26: Sublime Sublimity
27: Banana Belt I
March:
6: Banana Belt II
12: Sequim I
13: Mason Lake II
19: Willamette Crit or Sequim II
26: Piece of Cake or IVRR
April:
1-3: Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic
9: Kings Valley Road Race
10: Vance Creek
15-17: Tour of Walla Walla
23-24: No OBRA or WSBA RRs or Crits :( Maybe I'll find some alleycat to do. There are 2 races this weekend in the Sacramento area.
30: Longbranch
May:
1: Olympic View
7: Ravensdale
14-15: Wenatchee Omnium
21-22: Mutual of Enumclaw or Take Weekend off
28-29: Umpqua Crit and RR
June:
3-5: Mt. Hood Cycling Classic
10-12: Capitol Stage Race
17-19: Elkhorn Stage Race
25: Franz Criterium
26: Fairview Circuit Race
July:
2: Swan Island Criterium
9-10: High Desert Omnium
16: Fremont Crit or Ironclad Crit
17: Brad Lewis Crit
22-24: Cascade Cycling Classic
30: Tacoma Twilight Criterium or Gresham Crit
31: Renton Crit or Vancouver Crit
August:
6: Longview Crit
7: Albany Crit
13: LWV: Gig Harbor
20: Tigard Crit
21: Ronde Ohop
27-28: Eugene Celebration
September:
18: Mt. Ashland Hillclimb - rather late in the season with no other races in between (in WA or OR). Not sure if I'll do this.
February:
19: Cherry Pie
26: Sublime Sublimity
27: Banana Belt I
March:
6: Banana Belt II
12: Sequim I
13: Mason Lake II
19: Willamette Crit or Sequim II
26: Piece of Cake or IVRR
April:
1-3: Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic
9: Kings Valley Road Race
10: Vance Creek
15-17: Tour of Walla Walla
23-24: No OBRA or WSBA RRs or Crits :( Maybe I'll find some alleycat to do. There are 2 races this weekend in the Sacramento area.
30: Longbranch
May:
1: Olympic View
7: Ravensdale
14-15: Wenatchee Omnium
21-22: Mutual of Enumclaw or Take Weekend off
28-29: Umpqua Crit and RR
June:
3-5: Mt. Hood Cycling Classic
10-12: Capitol Stage Race
17-19: Elkhorn Stage Race
25: Franz Criterium
26: Fairview Circuit Race
July:
2: Swan Island Criterium
9-10: High Desert Omnium
16: Fremont Crit or Ironclad Crit
17: Brad Lewis Crit
22-24: Cascade Cycling Classic
30: Tacoma Twilight Criterium or Gresham Crit
31: Renton Crit or Vancouver Crit
August:
6: Longview Crit
7: Albany Crit
13: LWV: Gig Harbor
20: Tigard Crit
21: Ronde Ohop
27-28: Eugene Celebration
September:
18: Mt. Ashland Hillclimb - rather late in the season with no other races in between (in WA or OR). Not sure if I'll do this.
Monday, February 7, 2011
2,000 miles and counting
This past week it seems that I have surpassed 2,000 miles of logged bicycle rides since I formally began in September. That seemed like a statistic worth sharing. Now I really need to go to bed, this week is going to be intense.
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