84 miles!

Yesterday we hit our peak riding miles before starting to taper down for the big event. Here’s the story.

We started the ride at the beautiful Champoeg State Park. I bet the majority of you have no idea how to pronounce that. Sham-poo-ee. Yeah, not what you'd think The first 25 miles was a flat and fast. We had a great tailwind which kept my pace about 17mph with virtually no effort. The entire time I was trying to convince myself that the winds would reverse by the time we returned on that route and we'd also have a tailwind on the return. (foreshadowing here). Along this route I discovered that I left my memory card for the camera in my pc so I was limited to the 16mb (if that) on my internal card. I did see some pretty things so I took a few. There were tons of hop farms and trucks loaded down with hops which were then scattered about the roadway.

Around mile 22 we reached the Wheatland Ferry. It's this barge like boat that ferries cars and people across the Willamette all day. Free for bikes, we hop on and continue our ride.

Our ride continues through some gorgeous farmland. We hit a pretty long hill but with one stop to catch my breath, I make it to the top. I knew that was just minor to the hills to come. This is called the "Eola Hills" loop for a reason.

We reach Amity at mile 50 and break for lunch at a little park. Probably not the smartest stop since the "hill" was only 1.5 miles from there. Never ride up a monster hill on a full stomach. But I was feeling great after 50 miles and thought - dang, we only have 35 miles left to go! I don't remember what time it was but I want to say it was close to noon. At that point my average pace was about 14.5mph which is huge for me.

So then we head out to attack the hill. I immediately felt sluggish and tired. I was practically in my granny gear on the flat approaching the hill (there was a bit of a headwind at that point). Coach Becky had warned the hill was about 3.5 miles long and the first .1 of the hill was STEEP. Uh, you ain't kidding there Becky. I had to stop twice going up just that 10th of a mile (after stopping at the bottom before even starting!). After that, it was a bit less steep but still one heck of a hill. I can't even count how many times I stopped. Every time I hit some shade, stop. It probably took me an hour just to climb that 3.5 miles. However, as promised by Becky, there were some gorgeous views at the top.

I started the descent which was super steep but fun. I had to stop myself once because I was feeling out of control. Last thing I wanted to do was crash going 27 mph.

After the hill, it was basically heading back the way we came. Unfortunately that nice tailwind we had coming out had NOT reversed. It was horrible (like last week on Marine Drive) but still difficult. My pace slowed down significantly. I was also running out of steam so that probably had more to do with my slow down than the wind.

But I finished the ride, dang it! Here are the stats:

Miles: 83.8

Saddle time: 6:16:56

Average Speed: 13.1 mph

Max Speed: 32.2 mph

Calories burned: 3418

Total time out (including breaks): ~8hrs

For a few more pictures check out the usual place:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdxmichele/collections/72157606267073957/

Elevation of the Hill:

Views from the top: