The Youth of America On Bikes Doing Paperwork

The ORR 300km was great. I've been to Balliston. A fine route. Great company. Near perfect cycling weather. From a technical perspective, the ride went more or less according to plan. The technical goal was to ride at about 120bpm and average about 22km/hr. Near hits at 125bpm and 21.8km/hr - close enough, especially given the (lack of) cycling so far this year and the fact that I'm working at my typical January weight in April. Other goals were to ride with people, take a few pictures and enjoy the day. These all happened.

The weather was as good as at gets. A little cold in the morning. A little warm in the afternoon. No rain. The wind was not a factor. Enjoyed the ride out of town, and the ride up the hill towards Timbers. I took a few pictures as we worked our way towards the coast:



We got to the coast, there were some nasty hills, and some great views of the ocean. Into Pacific City for a snack (I had coffee). And then back over Sawgrass from the coast - a simple enough climb.

Somewhere after Grande Ronde I realized I had a flat - dropped out of the group. First pass was just to inflate the tire (a mistake - but, it seemed like it might work at the time. Don't ask. It was a complicated rationalization that was shown to be clearly incorrect). This cost me about 4 minutes of non-riding time. I worked myself back within sight of the group (took about 30 minutes) when it became obvious that the tire wouldn't hold the rest of the way back. So, I stopped and replaced the tube completely. More than 4 minutes. Resuming I took it easy at first. Rummaged through the front bag for a snack. Ate a bar. Called home etc. Basically with 70-80km to go I felt great and was taking it easy. Took a picture across a field when I saw part of the group - two riders in the distance (Bill and Ray).



Eventually caught up with some of the people - the photo at the top was at the point of regrouping. In the group was a person who might know the origin of the phrase 'faffing around'. Enquiring minds wanted to know. I received a little more insight into the phrase (subsequently, at home and hitting the web, I found no satisfactory history of the phrase. The intent and meaning are clear from context though).

Eventually I ended up riding in with Bill - we'd finished another long ride together once. It turned out to be very good for me that we ended up riding in together. I started 'sugar cycling' after dark - and hit a sleepy patch. He was riding stronger; but, stopped at a few key corners to mark them so I didn't miss them in the dark. Thanks Bill. We got in a little after 10:00pm. Another great ride.

The OBM 1200 - Approaching from Richland

Richland-Heppner

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John Kramer's mapped out an 'interesting' sequence of rides in Eastern Oregon - the OBM 1200.

Conveniently for residents of Hood River, White Salmon, or even Bingen, the OBM1200 ride sequence starts and ends in Bingen. The OBM1200 is a sequence of permanents put together to result in a tour of a great part of the world. Of course, they're permanents. One could start and end anywhere else convenient and join the festivities in progress. One could link other permanents into these permanents...

The map above shows a nice, direct, and interesting route from Richland (there's a Starbucks AND a mini-mart near this start location) to Heppner. And a finish from Condon to Richland looks like this:

Condon-Heppner-Richland

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This doesn't add up to a nice 1200; but, it certainly adds up to an interesting sequence of days on the bike. See you out there in the middle of nowhere.

Flexibility - A Non-Ride Report

The short version of the non-ride report for the re-do of the spring SIR 300km: I left behind my front wheel. The longer version of the report is better. Pictures that capture aspects of the alternate activity for the ride are here.

It says something (interesting?) about how the brain works that I realized I'd left the wheel behind a few miles from the hotel, at about 10:45pm. The brain pieced together 1) that for some reason the garage door was still open when I sat down in the car to leave (I hit the remote control button and drove off) 2) I didn't have to move the wheel in the trunk when I went to get my dinner contribution and 3) I had no recollection of actually putting the wheel in the car. It would have been better to have had those thoughts juxtaposed all at once much earlier in the evening, much closer to home. But...

I ended up getting good sleep and having a rare day. Tomorrow - a nice 80-100km ride to maintain training and I'll have to work to get a re-re-do 300km on my schedule.