Whew! What a weekend it has been, let me fill you in on all the happenings.
…SATURDAY…
UO team ride leaves from LifeCycle Bike Shop promptly at 9:00 am. I wake up at 8:35, throw on some clothes (which haven’t fully dried yet) shovel some oatmeal down my throat, grab some food and head out the door. I’m out for 4 hours today. Luckily it’s sunny and relatively warm with a small but noticeable breeze which would get annoying if you were going for a long bike ride (good thing I was). The UO team has some photo shoot for our calender that was taking place at the crit course which I didn’t care to indulge in the slightest, so I continued down the bike path toward the airport. I had the wind at my back and was cruising fairly comfortably at 24mph, my HR was low (somewhere in the 145-153 range) and I was feeling good. I knew that I would be battling this wind on my way home but decided to continue downwind anyway. I reached the big red STOP sign where I usually turn around at but I was going so fast that I had reached it ahead of schedule. I have never gone past this stop sign so I decided that with a day like today and the egregious amount of food in my pockets, today was the day. I headed onward (northbound) and cruised past several very beautiful farm houses, rode past horses, sheep and even some buffalo in the pasture. I was still going strong so I continued down this winding country road without a car in sight. By now I was about 15 miles off course and had never ridden this road before, it started to climb and I thought that if I could get over this ridge, the road would intersect with something I was maybe familiar with (I was in the vicinity of Hwy 38 and Territorial Hwy). I continued to climb, feeling pretty good when suddenly I hear an overly excited dog gallivanting toward me. Nearly nipping at my heals I shift down very quickly and while trying to get away from the hound, I’m screaming at it to go home. Eventually the dog decides I’m no longer any fun and turns around. Now that my HR is somewhere in the 280-300 zone I very slowly and arduously continue to climb the ridge. I arrive to what looks like the summit, only to see that what once was a lovely paved road suddenly stops and transforms into gravel. Well, time to turn around (damn, I know that dog is waiting for me). I head down the ridge and sure enough there was that dog again, nearly catching me this time as it was waiting on the side of the road. I almost unclipped and kicked it in the nose before it stopped and went home. As if that wasn’t enough I ride back the way I had come, only to find that lovely little breeze waiting to shut me down. I get my cadence up and prepare for a long day at the office. 2 hours into the headwind at a grueling 11mph, I was so drained by the time I got home I could barely make my recovery pasta. After a long shower and a whole lot more food, a friend came over and we watched some climbing and kayaking movies. Now off to bed, to do it all over again in the morning, only this time it’s hills…
….SUNDAY…
You know you’ve had a good ride when you can only speak in one word sentences because you’re so hungry, tired, wet, cold, miserable, dirty, smelly, wet, freezing, numb, hungry, drained, exhausted, oh did I mention hungry? 3.5 hours this time and lots of climbing to go with it, I totaled 4,250 ft in elevation gain, the descents were so long I got my machine up to 42 mph, while coasting. Chris Swan, a local pro racer came down from Portland to race on Saturday and do some coaching with the UO team on Sunday. We started bright and early at 9:00am from the shop and orientated ourselves to the crit course. Once there, we did some work on riding in a group, practicing a pace-line, and cornering. Chris’ coaching was great, the riders in the pack were much the latter. We decided to head out to the road and get some real riding in. Making our way up Lorane Hwy we headed toward Briggs hill, individually this takes you about 30 minutes to get there, and usually less if you’re in a group, today it took us over an hour due to 4 flat tires and people not being prepared with tubes, CO2, pump, levers, etc. (Being someone who tries to be prepared all the time, I found this extremely frustrating) Once we arrived at the first climb, our legs about the consistency of lead weights from standing around for so long waiting for the flat fix. After a good 45 minutes of pure suffering my legs were somewhat back to normal (still very heavy). We continued to ride back into Eugene, but I was going out longer and Chris was as well so the two of us branched off and climbed the back side of Fox Hollow, by now the weather was upon us and we were caught in an involuntary shower. Chris and I enjoyed good conversation as we headed up Fox Hollow, continued down the front side and realized that we still had another hour of riding to do so we decided to climb Dillard hill. Continuing the slow pace up to the summit, the rain held off. We descended, the rain held off. We turned around and climbed back up Dillard, the rain held off. We descended down the back side, here comes the rain. This time it wasn’t just wet, but it was like little ice rocks of pain, just thrashing any part of your body that was exposed (in this case it happened to be your face). We reached the bottom, and were both about as warm as a popsicle. Chris and I continued to ride back into town where we parted ways. I went home, showered, ate (about one cubic ton of pasta), and then Lauren and I walked around 5th St. Market and had coffee before we both went home to do homework. Another glorious day in the office, life is good.
Until next time, cheers.
