Almost a metric century

I completed a 60-mile (96.5 km) loop today. The weather forecast for this afternoon called for temps in the upper 80's, so I started my training ride first thing in the morning.

I decided that today's route will be mostly flat excpet for two climbs -- up Cooper Mountain and up home on Bull Mountain. For the most part, it was flat, though there were some rollers along the way. Around here, it's impossible to find a completely flat route.

Anyway, I set out and headed out to North Plains area, and then over to Beaverton, down to Tigard, Tualatin, and then back home. The total time on the ride was 3 hours and 50 minutes.

I was pleasantly surprised that in the fourth hour, my legs were still feeling pretty strong. I was able to maintain 16-20 mph over the relatively flat sections, and even close a gap to and pass a couple of cyclists that I saw ahead of me on Roy Rogers Road. After the ride, I was tired, but not exhausted, which I think is also a good sign of my improving fitness.

I'll be tapering down my training a bit over the next few weeks before ramping it back up again towards the 2nd half of August through mid-September. My goal still is to do a 75-mile training ride two weeks before the LIVESTRONG ride on September 25.

This next weekend, I probably won't get a chance to do a long ride, as we will be having a neighborhood block party Saturday afternoon, and then I'll be volunteering all day in Forest Grove for the MS150 bicycle ride.

The Sunday after that (August 14) is the annual Bridge Pedal. I'll be riding the 10-bridge, 38-mile route.

-Mark

45 miles, 3 hours 10 minutes

Forty-five miles in 3 hours and 10 minutes -- that was my long ride for the week that I did yesterday afternoon. It included four climbs:

• Laurel Ridge, elev. 780 feet - around a 550 feet climb from the valley
• Mountain Home, 880 feet - from Laurel Ridge, goes down to a river at around 700 feet, and then back up
• Bald Peak, elev. 1600 feet - a 1420 feet climb from valley floor at 180 feet over 4.5 miles
• Back home, elev. 550 feet - a final 300 feet climb back home

So including the other little rollers, the ride probably had around 3,000 feet of climbing. I think that in order to successfully complete the LIVESTRONG ride, I'm going to need to add another 1,000 feet of climbing on my training rides.

I rode with a heart rate monitor to get an idea of what my heart rate looks like during a ride. From what I saw, my maximum HR is probably somewhere around 192-195 and my lactate threshold (LT) is somewhere in the uppper 170's. What this means to me is that my cardiovascular system is sufficiently conditioned.

My main limitation right now is that I don't yet have sufficient muscular endurance. To fix that though is going to simply require long times on the bike. My goal by the start of September is to be able to ride for five hours and 70-75 miles.

In the last hour of yesterday's ride, another solo cyclist came past me. I had been fighting headwind for over half an hour at that point. I managed to hook up onto his rear wheel, and was able to get a nice draft for the next half an hour. I felt kind of bad for not being able to take a pull in the front, but I was already at my LT and doing anything more would have pushed me into the red zone. What a difference drafting makes! I was struggling to hold 13-14 mph in the wind, but as soon as I was drafting, the same effort got me going up to 19-20 mph.

-Mark

All rider positions are full

I just checked the LIVESTRONG ride web site and noticed that all 3,500 rider positions are now full. Most of the event rides around here only attract a few hundred to maybe around a thousand, so this ride is going to be one big event.

-Mark

Hot, Hilly, and Windy

That pretty much sums up my training ride today. After watching a very inspirational stage 15 of the Tour de France, won by George Hincapie (USA) of Discovery Team, I suited up to go out for 2:30 hours or so wiht several stretches of climbing.

When I started out, the weather was about 70F and winds fairly calm. After about an hour, there a long stretch of flat/rolling terrain on Roy Rogers Road that turned out to be head/crosswind all the way from Sherwood to where the road hits Scholls Ferry. Not only that but the temperatures had also quickly escalated up past 80F.

I ended riding for 2:37 and climbing up the hill on which I live a total of three times. With all the other little rollers along the way, I estimate that was about 2,000 feet of climbing today.

I was absolutely exhausted by the end. To do a hilly century though, I'm going to have to increase my long rides to about 4:30-5:00 hours and probably 4,000-5,000 feet of total climbing, or about double what I can comfortably do today. The good thing though is that on an organized ride, I'll have the benefit of drafting behind other riders, conserving 30-40% of my energy, at least on the flats.

-Mark

Midsummer Night's Bicycle Tour of Portland

This last Saturday night was the annual Bike Gallery's Midsummer Night's Bike Tour of Portland. It's a 16-mile, fairly easy ride through the night time streets of Southeast Portland, starting and ending at Oaks Amusement Park right off the Sellwood Bridge.

I've ridden it every year since its inauguration four years ago. But, no, I didn't ride it this year. (To make up for it though, I rode 38 miles in the afternoon.) I volunteered as a course marshal, and ended up spending about 3 hours (9:45 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. or so) at the corner of SE 23rd and SE Madison. I was there with an 8th grade math teacher from Lake Oswego.

It was an interesting to be "on the other side" of the ride, watching the headlights (and many with no lights - tsk, tsk...) and the blinking taillights going past as I helped direct the riders through a left turn at the intersection.

I also got to interact with some passers-by curious about why we were standing there, and why these cyclists were going through at this time of the night.

The first group of cyclists came through about 10:40 p.m. These were the hard-core ones with the lightweight rides and full technical apparel -- the ones I was with in past years. As the minutes and hours went by, the composition changed. Towards the end it was mostly recreational riders in t-shirts and shorts, some of them on bikes that could really use some chain lube at a minimum. There were a fair number of kids coming through, too. Regardless, everyone was having fun.

By 11:30 p.m., the last group had gone through. We waited around and another 20 minutes later, a solitary rider, weaving back and forth on the street came through. We speculated he had stopped in at one or more bars on the way to our location.

At around 12:10 p.m., four more cyclists in various constumes came through, showing obvious signs of having stopped at a few watering holes along the way. When told they were now about halfway through the course, after some discussion amongst themselves (probably wisely) decided to turn around and backtrack the course along the Wilamette instead of trying to find their way through the darker roads of residential Southeast Portland.

The whole point of these organized rides, for whatever cause, is to ultimately, have fun.

Mark

Thanks for all your support

Thank you to everyone who has contributed support so far. I really appreciate it.

Mark

Going on a ride

Lance Armstrong is coming to Portland. Together with Nike and OHSU, the Lance Armstrong Foundation is sponsoring a fundraising bicycle ride to support cancer research. More about the ride is at the LiveSTRONG Ride site.

Why does this concern me? I love cycling, the LAF is a worthy cause, and I registered to ride the 100 mile course. You can support LAF and my efforts at the above link. Just find the "Support A Rider" link on the left column, enter "Kubo" in the search field to find my account to make a donation.

One of the coolest things about this ride for me is that many of the roads used are the same ones I ride for my normal training. The roads are very familiar to me, so I know exactly what to expect. For example, I've been on Bald Peak Road a number of times, although only once up to the summit. I frequently go through the Mountain Home area to do some extended climbing and to practice descending skills down into Scholls.

Thanks,
Mark