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