Day 188: Training For The Route

Update: 205.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 7 lbs to 60 lb goal.

Following up on my last post, I got out the next day and did my 30 mile route on Saturday. The ride was pretty uneventful, and I felt great from start to completion. Was really beat the next morning, but that was probably a combination of the ride, and being up most of the night with a sick kid.

I finally tracked down the key points of the Portland Livestrong Challenge route, and mapped it out on Bikely.com so I could get a birdseye view of what we're in for come September 29. Here's a quick look at the map.



As you can see, we'll take off from the Nike campus in Beaverton and then head out towards Hagg Lake, make a loop around the lake, and essentially head back in after riding 70 miles. 70 miles, I'm still shocked that we're going to do it. That's like riding from Keizer out to Lincoln City, and then down to Depoe Bay. Or, it's about the same as taking off from Keizer and heading down past Eugene and almost to Cottage Grove. OR, (one last one) leaving from Keizer, heading north out of Oregon and making it past Woodland, Washington.



In addition to the length of the ride, I'm actually starting to get more nervous about the elevation of the ride. According to the notes, there will be 3000+ feet of elevation gain over the course of the ride, most of it in a 15 miles stretch. From the Bikely map, it shows somewhere in the mid 2000's of climbing...which is still no easy task. (Who knows if I pinput it correctly into the map.) My 20 and 30 mile routes have somewhere between 600-900 feet of climbing, and those are plenty un-fun for me as it is.

From here on out, I'm going to try to hit the longer routes more often, as well as try to find some routes with some climbing...ugh. At the end of my 30 mile route I wondered if I could turn the corner and ride it again...that'd be 60 miles--nearly the distance of the LAF ride in September. It didn't seem totallly impossible. I'm also thinking about driving up and taking a look at the actual route at some point, just to see the site of my future punishment. Less than two months away now, and I'm actually getting kind of excited about it!

Hasta!

ps - Mac announcements at 10 am PST time today...be sure to tune in!