Covered Bridge Bicycle Tour - Aug 12th 2007

Two days after the Mt St. Helens climb with a strained quadricep to boot , we were heading down to the mid Willamette valley methopolis known as Albany to the start line for the Covered Bridge Bicycle tour http://www.mvbc.com/. Not sure if this is the Albany mascot? German Shepherd sniffing drugs; Chasing crazy hillbilly's...








Larwood Covered Bridge

First bridge we came across during our 75 mile route...

Shimanek Covered Bridge
Bridge #2

The falling bikes lunch stop. Everyone got their bikes knocked over in our group except for me. The worse was when some pre-pubescent boy was aimlessly wandering and knocked over an older gentleman's $5000 Scott. The owner was noticeably PO'd, I am not sure if I had a $5000 bike if I would have been as calm. The boy showed no remorse when scolded by his father. The offenders sister was then crying (for 20 minutes straight) about what I assumed to be nothing. Suddenly I remembered to pick up my birth control prescription on the way home...

Gilkey Covered Bridge

The third and final bridge (we were supposed to see 5 in total).

My competitiveness came out and shortly after I got excited trying to catch a woman who consequently turned off to do the 100 mile route. Result was unexpected climb (which quads needed like a hole in the head) and bike rest stop in Deliveranceville...

Not sure what the yokels in Lebanon thought of the cyclists passing through (note to self - do not EVER, at ANY cost pull off I5 to stop in this town while by myself without toting one or both of the following - Rottweiler and/or hand gun); one guy came up to scroy and angrily asked "is that your bike with the flashing lights". It wasn't but I wanted the light to stop flashing for I could sense a nam or LCD flashback coming on...

Thanks to shortcuts we only ended up adding 7 extra miles to the planned 68. We borrowed hubby's truck, sent on our way with the instructions "to not to lean up against the truck for it might dent the sides". As we were discussing this the guys next to us were making fun of my hubby in his abscence commenting "trucks are meant to be beat up". When we arrived back from our ride this was left as a present for the beloved truck. Happy early b-day Nick!!!

No better place to advertise cock fighting then off the main west coast traffic artery otherwise known as I5..

Stuck in 2 hour traffic jam on the way home; good thing I had my muscle toothbrush.

5th Annual 80's Party Sat August 11th

What an amazing tradition this has become amongst us 30 somethings. Brings back nightmares from Junior High. Do not forget to Double Click all images for a full view of like the totally tubular pictures!! I tried to get hubby to leave the house in the cutoff jean shorts but it was a no go. At least I got him to sport the mullet wig and pornolicious historic woodburn tshirt. Sorry Tonya, I think Chad Kroeger has another hair twin ;-)

sHEEMAN, Sheera, and some other random character from the 80's.

Had a 70's party to attend beforehand so went for a late 70's/early 80's theme. Terry cloth and attempted feathered hair were my contribution.

Mt. St. Helens - August 10 2007

After living in Portland for 10 years I finally ventured up to Mt. St Helen's! Steph had some passes she had pre-purchased months ago (there are only 100 people allowed on the mountain per day). I thought "12 mile hike no big deal". I quickly learned, and am still learning 4 days later with blown up quads that being a reasonably strong runner and cyclist doesn't mean crap when you are ascending over 4000 feet of elevation gain, climbing over boulders, then using muscles you never knew you had to break and descend down the same 4000 feet. am clearly not outfitted for hiking (I am wearing cycling shorts with gator and hiking boots). Nick thought I looked dead sexy!






Started the climb 2 miles from where you see the trees in the picture. At this point we were barely an hour into the hike.












So much energy expended after an hour and a half we had to stop for a snack.








Where the true mountain climbing started. No, the rocks are not background, this is what we crawled over for a few miles as we pushed upwards. I thought I had turrets bad until I met Mark! He couldn't hold back with the comment "Yea, there is a lot of cows up here" as an urban cowboy passed on on the way down (some random guy in a cowboy hat). He retorted with some disparaging remark about my cycling shorts ;-) Another guy was coming down the mountain and when I told him I was from Portland Mark replied "she's from Tigard" I then fictitiously told the man Mark was from Coeur d' Alene Idaho. Since I incessantly joke about "white trash North Idaho" the inner circle laughed as expected. What was disturbing was the 10 year old boy who overheard also started laughing. They must have had white supremacy week during his history class that week.



Here is one of those volcanic movement monitoring thingy's. I was trying to simulate kissing my ass good by in the event this started screaming/flashing while we are on the mountain. For those of you still wondering, Mt. St. Helen's is indeed still an active volcano.











Finally reached the summit about 4.5 hours later. Above the clouds (not steam).












Another amazing view from the top.

Bull Lestor (double click on image to view name)

Found this little treat posted on the window outside of Fat Jacks (where we call the place we sign in/sign out). If you ever bear witness to the area between the Couve and Mt St Helen's running across characters like this is not the least bit shocking. This particular catch had an affinity for 15 year old girls in wheelchairs. Nice.

One of 5 people we saw stop and look at the sign within 5 minutes. We were all hoping this woman was not looking for a baby sitter.

Midsummer Olympic Triathlon - July 22, 2007

On Sunday, July 29th I completed the Midsummer Olympic Distance Triathlon (1 mile swim, 24 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) out at Blue Lake. I was powered by my usual breakfast of Oatmeal, banana, and a Harvest Powerbar . It was the exact same course and close to the same weather conditions as the Blue Lake Triathlon I completed June 10th. I beat my 2007 Blue Lake Tri time this last Sunday by a little over 6 minutes! Thanks coach Julie for your butt, thigh, hamstring, quadricep, calf muscle burning workouts! I guess barf intervals do pay off!

My swim sucked as usual (I am currently seeking out masters swim group to join this fall). Nothing exciting to report on the swim; no violence needed; everyone stayed out of my space ;-). On the bike I managed to keep up with Bridget Dawson, an ex pro triathlete (she is 50 now, but still gives all the 20 and 30 something’s a run for their money at any event she chooses to partake in). My proudest moment of the tri was looking down at my odometer and seeing I beat my previous bike time by about 4.5 minutes! Result was annoying perm grin for the remainder of the race. On the bike my average HR was 160-165 for the first 16 miles (able to maintain a higher HR for longer because I am stronger then I was in June). During the last 8 miles kept in high 160's to 170's. Almost finished an entire bottle of accelerade on the bike.

My run was uneventful and consistent. I started off with an espresso 2x cliff shot and grabbed water at the first two aid stations to wash down the syrupy contraption. I kept my hr about 170 for the first 4 miles then the last 2 wavered between 174-180. I beat my Blue lake time by an entire 20 seconds (I say this sarcastically). My goal was to try to run sub 8 min mile in my run portion this year (close but no cigar – hey, every blog is entitled to at least one bad cliché). I guess I have a new training goal for 2008 in addition to not being a flailing fish in the water. Overall this is the proudest to date I have felt about any of my triathlon accomplishments. Especially when I looked at the race results and beat out two women overall (one by 9 minutes and one by 7 minutes) who have whipped me by 10 + minutes in the past!!!

Results Summary for Midsummer Tri (comparing to Blue Lake) - Double click image to expand

Bike Pace 20:85 mph
Run Pace 8:06 mpm

This is my last Olympic Distance Tri for 2007. I am preparing for my first ever Half Ironman Distance in Enumclaw Washington September 22nd 2007. This is the Black Diamond Triathlon http://www.racecenter.com/blackdiamond/halftridu/index.htm (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13 mile run).

Event Photos http://www.finishshots.com/racerresults3.php?raceid=487&bibnumber=108

Central Oregon Coast Trip

The weekend following the fourth of July my hubby and I were off to the Oregon Coast. Lincoln City and Pacific City; Land O' beautiful ocean meets rows of useless crap souvenir shops. We managed to pass our time by playing "slug tank" (think slug bug when you were a kid, where if you saw a vw bug first you would get to punch the innocent party sitting next to you in the arm). The variation of "Slug Tank" is walking through Chinook Winds Casino and hunting for oxygen tanks in one hand, and a burning cig in the other. Nick had the bruises to reflect my victory.

We also had a contest to see who could find the most white trash souvenir gift for the other person. We had the rule we couldn't spend more then $5; we were to exchange over lunch. We are now net $10 poorer and we are the proud owners of...

Pirate eye patch...

Wolf Dream Catcher

Still in awe this is two hours from our house! Oregon Rocks!

Pacific Crest Triathlon

On Sunday, June 24 I completed my 2nd Olympic Distance Triathlon of the season(1 mile Swim, 25.8 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) in Sunriver Oregon. Nice thing about central Oregon is the chance of rain is almost zero; however the benefits are negated by the extreme drop in temperature at night. It was around 35 degrees when we arrived at Wikiup reservoir! I was excited to swim in a non radioactive, non Portland area body of water. No "Poo Lake" (Blue Lake) or "Vansewer Lake" (Vancouver Lake). Despite the clean reservoir water, I knew the swim was going to be interesting when fellow athletes expressed concern about my sleeveless wetsuit. ..
It was announced the water was 62 degrees and I was one of the few athletes wearing a farmer john wetsuit (full body sans the arms). I think the outside temperature maybe warmed up to 55 degrees by the time we were to start the swim (thank god!) During the last third of the swim my arms and feet were majorly chilled!







When I got out of the water to pull my wetsuit off to get ready for the bike my arms/hands were frozen and could barely move my fingers (note to self, wear full body wetsuit with arms if ever do this event again).


After fumbling and grunting for a few minutes I was finally on the bike.





The bike course was mostly a rolling downhill. As a result of being frozen from the swim and my equilibrium being off (symptom of borderline hypothermia), I almost crashed when I went to get on my aerobars. At this point I knew safety was more important then gaining 1 mph on the bike. Other effects from the mild hypothermia included my heart rate registering lower (150 - 155 bpm) while my RPE being the same as the Blue Lake tri I did two weeks prior (with my HR around 160) and not being able to drink my bottle of accelerade on the ride. My hands could barely grab the bottle. When I was able to finally grab the bottle , my mouth and throat were so cold I couldn't tolerate more then baby sips. After about 15 miles into the bike I finally started to warm up! Due to road construction there were a ton of cars on the road. The peak of the frustration for myself and other cyclists involved was when some stupid camper blocked the course by hanging over in the bike lane while being positioned on the road in a fashion preventing us from going around. I didn't have to say anything (disparaging words and hand signals from the fellow cyclists were flying liberally ;-) During the end of the bike I was freaked out from not drinking my accelerade and feared bonking (muscles shutting down) on the run.

Before the run I did a cliff espresso 2x shot and off I went through the lovely 6 mile paved trail stretch through Sun River Resort. I was told by a bystander I had nice running form! This is something I have diligently been working on for the last three years; I naturally run a little bit like Phoebe from friends (legs flail out to the side) but have been working on keeping my feet straight and utilizing some of the techniques out of the Chi running book. Not long after I passed a little girl who stuck her hand out for me to tag; I felt like a rock star. The run is both the most daunting (after swimming and biking first) and most rewarding part of a tri. Being cheered on and supported by spectators gives the extra motivation needed to survive the last 2 miles of the run. This is the point when you think to yourself you may not be able to take another step. On the run HR around 168-170. Pushed 172 to 175ish last two miles.

The race was a blast! There were 800 of us, including the duathletes. I was happy with my results and I cannot wait to go back and do the race next year!

Overall Time 245:07:00
Overall Women 42/186 23%
Age Group 8/39 21%
Swim 26/39 67%
Bike 7/39 18%
Run 9/39 23%

Bike MPH 20:49 Run MPM 8:20

More Photos http://www.finishshots.com/racerresults3.php?raceid=473&bibnumber=164

Columbia River Gorge Ride

On Saturday, June 16th my two friends and I (the same group did the RTB ride in May) set out to do a 38 mile bike loop (about 3000 total feet of elevation gain) in the Columbia River Gorge. The ride started outside of The Dalles and was put on by the organization “Friends of the Historic Columbia River Highway” the http://www.hcrh.org/events.html. It was the windiest bike ride I have ever done (I do not have proof but I believe the crosswinds were 30mph!) Here is a simple math equation

World renowned wind surfing location = sucky road bike conditions


Although the winds were challenging, leading me to almost get blown off my bike no less then 4 times and causing a varity of expletives to fly out of my mouth while repeating “I will NEVER do a ride in the gorge again” the views were absolutely breathtaking and it was worth enduring tornado like conditions (okay maybe I am exaggerating just a little..) to climb and descend Rowena Crest , Mayerdale Estate, Mosier Viewpoint, and the Mosier Twin Tunnels.












View from Rowena Crest
















..what we had to climb to reach the top of Rowena Crest






The rest stop at Mayerdale Estate had the amazing fresh fruit Oregon is known for this time of year. I think I cleaned out half of their Watermelon supply and as a result cleaned myself out the next day.

I remember us girls philosophizing when the ride was over about why they didn’t warn us about the wind and then I had this common sensical epiphany. How is this any more logical then someone doing a ride in Portland then saying “I cannot believe they didn’t tell us it would be raining and the roads would be wet” ;-)



HCRH State Trail

Road biking is almost always an adventure, the conditions rarely perfect but with each ride and new challenging condition, you become that much of a better cyclist and learn something new about yourself not only physically, but as a human being. For me it was being reaffirmed when things get tough (like the wind) you just can’t stop, you have to push through it.







Outside Mosier Twin Tunnels

I am looking forward to my next ride in the gorge toward the end of summer when the winds are supposedly a little milder; maybe there will only be 20mph wind gusts ;-)