Day 234: Back To The Hagg!

Update: 207.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 9 lbs to 60 lb goal.

Less than a week now until my ride...final preparations underway for the big day!

On Saturday I drove back up to Hagg Lake in order to give it a pre-Livestrong Challenge test ride. I was nervous to see what would happen. On one hand, if I got into it and hated it, or couldn't finish, then it would make this whole next week stink, knowing what would be waiting for me 25 miles into my 70 mile ride. However, if on the other hand I could get around the lake without too much trouble, then I could feel like I was ready for the challenge at hand. So without going on and on, the good news is...I think I'm ready!


The day was beautiful despite forecasts calling for showers in the morning. The air up around Hagg is brisk, and I was thankful for arm and knee warmers (see image below) that kept me from freezing on my ride. I've been enjoying the sun, but know that colder mornings are coming, so I'm slowly starting to gear up for riding in Oregon fall days.


On my bike I have three gear rings up front, and spend most of my time in the middle ring. If I get up over 20 mph, then I'll shift up into the outside ring, but that doesn't happen all that often. Only once or twice before have I shifted into the smallest ring for climbing, but I figured I may need to use it at Hagg, which is either uphill or downhill the whole time without any real flat spots. As it turns out, I only dropped down to it for one longer hill, and pretty much stayed in my saddle in the middle ring on the other hills, aside from standing up for one shorter steeper segment. Below is the arial satelite view from my GPS export of the ride. You can get my Motion Based animated version of the route by clicking here.

I also passed a couple on one hill (they *were* on mountain bikes) and left another guy in the dust who was following me up the first hill. All in all I felt pretty strong, and finished the 15 mile ride with an average speed of 15.3 mph, which combines the slow climbs uphill and the fast coasts down the other sides.


On another note, I made a pitstop back at Maggies Buns after my ride and picked up some rolls for the fam. Let me just say, they are ginormous. See the picture above...I put an oreo sized cookie on top of one the rolls so you can see just how big they are. And that's a big old trough of icing for them too. Definitely worth the stop!

Hasta!

Day 231: I Don't Know My Own Strength

Update: 207.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 9 lbs to 60 lb goal.

I know I've been losing fat and gaining some muscle mass, but I guess I didn't realize just how much.

Pictured below are my clubs. A few TaylorMade woods, three different wedges - a sand wedge from my old Tommy Armour 845s, a new Titleist gap wedge, and my trusty old rusty Cobra Phil Rodgers 60 degree that I've had since I was 12 years old. Until this summer, I've played that Cobra and my same Ping Anser putter...that's 26 years for those who are counting. I recently retired the Ping and have moved on to a Titleist putter, but the Cobra will never leave my bag. Anyway, you also see a set of TaylorMade R7 (draw bias) irons that I started playing about 2 months ago. So far, so good, I've been dialing them in and have been having some decent rounds with them. I really like the set up of my bag right now.


Now, pictured below is what happened out on hole 5 at Creekside on an approach shot to a cozy little green. Apparently I must have some pent up anger or frustration or something because as I came down on that ball with my 9 iron, something felt funky after impact, and then something felt really funky on the back of my head. I pulled my club back around to see this:


Yep, that's right, snapped it near the top of the shaft on impact - two month old clubs. The funky feeling I felt on my head was the club not stopping on the follow through and wacking me in the back of the head, leaving me with a headache for a few holes. After looking at my club for a few moments in amazement, I figured I'd better check out the damage from a wayward shot with a broken club, but to my bewilderment, I was about 10 feet from the cup, on the green. Two putts in, and a par. Crazy.

Now I've got to go replace my 9 iron.

Hasta.

Day 230: Maggie's Buns

Update: 207.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 9 lbs to 60 lb goal.

I've hesitated posting this blog for the obvious jokes that can come from it...so I'll be careful in my word choices.

This past weekend was supposed to be our annual business partner golf trip, but for a couple of reasons, it didn't happen last minute. Since I had already requested a Sunday away from iglesia, I figured it would be a great time to take my favorite group of Lopi away for a much needed quick vacation. So we loaded up the truck and headed to Forest Grove.

Yeah, "Forest Grove?", you might ask - but there's a good reason...Maggie's Buns. In my preparation for the Hagg Lake section of the ride, I searched out other people online who've ridden that segment to get their experiences. More than once this funky little restaurant showed up as a place that cyclists had stopped at for a refueling snack, or full blown meal. Since I was hoping to get up to Hagg to do a quick pre-ride around the lake, I figured we might try to get to MB for a meal knowing that everyone in our house would love a quaint, funky new place to eat.

As it turns out, they were only open until the afternoon hours on Saturday so after I rode 50 miles that morning, we had to break land-speed records to get there before they locked the door. We were literally the last people they served before locking up, and all through our meal people kept coming to the door. We decided to sit outside, so we even had to knock on the door ourselves a couple times to ask for condiments, napkins, or a to-go box at the end, but I will say that it was worth getting over there.



Our meal consisted of Walnut Crusted Chicken with Asian Noodle Salad, Prime Rib with Coos Coos, three various sandwiches with fresh homemade bread and giant cookies, poppyseed cake, and some toffee cookie thing for dessert. We had plenty to eat, and even though we ate dinner before 4 pm were full enough that we didn't have another meal that night. In fact, we took the desserts with us and ate them in our hotel later that night with some coffee we picked up at Peets after the girls hit Anthropologie in downtown Portland.

And you don't have to believe me, you can read the reviews for Maggie's Buns online - which if nothing else are good for a giggle if you personally know a Maggie yourself. I've intentionally tried to live above the obvious lines here, but the reviews definitely show how people truly love Maggie's Buns....the restaurant.

Day 228: Yet Again, More Life Lessons From the Road

Update: 207.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 9 lbs to 60 lb goal.

Sometimes my cycling thoughts are plain silly, and others are more introspective. Today's post is a combo of the two of them....

With just two weeks left until my 70 mile Livestrong Challenge ride in Portland, I figured it was time to work just a little harder at training for the big day. I had a week of not feeling great, and having zero motivation to do much of anything, so coming off of that and making my biggest effort to date was a great challenge in itself, but one I'm glad to have taken on. As a nice little benefit to riding 50 miles on Saturday were some more life lessons from the road. In no particular order:

Who Knew It Was Pepperoni Season?
Seriously, somewhere between Keizer and St. Paul, someone is harvesting Pepperoni sticks. I didn't actually get to see any of my people harvesting the amazing food itself, but I could sure SMELL the pepperoni in mid-harvest. Did the Oberto's move into town?...Oh Boy! And if so, I wonder when Beef Jerkey season is...and if they'll be having a crop of Lizard Bacon to boot?

It's Good To Have Mini-Goals Along the Path To The Big Goal.
My "big goal" was to ride 50 miles on Saturday, but the first mini-goal for the day was just to get to The Banker's Cup in St. Paul and have a nice little espresso break.



Last week, I rode out and had part of a latte, but this week I was determined to get something without the milk, so I just ordered 3 shots of espresso with a splash of sugar free vanilla syrup for a little kick. Forget Red Bull, this is really nature's little energy drink. I also decided to do a little refueling and had a small raspberry scone to go with my party in a cup. After riding 25 miles, it's amazing what a 10 minute break can do in helping to make it to the big goal.



If You Think A Ghost Rider is Following You, He Probably Is.
I check over my shoulder every so often, but sometimes I can ride 5-10 miles without really looking back. At about mile 20, I happened to slide out to a weigh station just to coast for a few moments, stand up out of the saddle, and stretch a second. While I was coasting I looked over my shoulder and all of a sudden a fully kitted cyclist was about 100 yds back of me. Being caught off guard a bit, I got back in my seat, kicked it back up to my cruising speed, and kept after it. Another mile later, I looked over my shoulder, and the guy was pretty much drafting me, so I figured it'd be good exercise to pull someone else for a while. Finally, about 4 miles later, I was pulling into St. Paul and turned around to say something like 'sorry if I slowed you down there,' but Ghost Rider was nowhere to be found. He either decided to take his roadie off-road for the day, found some sideroad I blew by, or teleported to another dimension.

You Can Always Go Back Home Again.
One thing I've come to realize and appreciate is the fact that I LOVE my home. It's my favorite place to be, especially as we get to this time of the year. I love the months from September to December, and I enjoy them most when our family is cozied up inside our little home in K-town. On days when something at work sucks, or something in life in general sucks, I relish in the thought that soon enough that moment will pass and I'll be headed up River Road towards the warm glow of our kitchen window and the comfort of my favorite place, with my favorite people in the world. And on days when I'm cranking away on my bike, wondering why in the heck I decided to commit myself to pedaling away for more than 3 hours to travel a great distance on two skinny wheels, I know that that pain/agony will also pass, and before I know it, I'll be back home, around my beautiful wife and precious kids. A triple shot espresso at one end of the ride is a great motivator to get halfway there, but getting back to my home and family are an even greater kick in the butt to make it to the big goal...every time!



That's it for me. With less than two weeks left, I'm going to cut back to just 12-25 mile rides until the big day, with maybe one last shot at getting up to Hagg Lake before then, but in any case, we're in the final countdown now!

Day 222: Headwind / Tailwind

Update: 208.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 10 lbs to 60 lb goal.

I just realized that in 2 days I'll have maintained my 50 lb loss for 100 days. That's not too shabby. Course, its also time to hit that last 20 lbs.

I started feeling not-so-hot on Thursday and had zero motivation for getting out and riding over the weekend, but the Livestrong ride date is starting glow on the calendar now. 19 days until I put my butt on that skinny little seat and pedal for 70 miles. Realizing that I need every bit of training I can get, I forced myself to get out and put a couple rides in, logging more miles towards the effort.

On Saturday I set out to ride to St. Paul and back, home of the famous St. Paul Rodeo, and also home to a little espresso shop called the Bankers Cup, which is literally in an old bank...vault and all. A round trip of 40 miles, this would be my longest training ride so far, with a few 30 milers being my longest before. I figured I'd ride out, grab a cup of coffee at the 20 mile break, and then head back in.

Since my motivation was low, I knew I'd have to just keep pedalling and fight the urge to turn back. To make matters worse, I hit a headwind within the first few miles and it didn't give up the whole way. I normally cruise around the 15-16 mph speed for my routes, but I was maxing out at 11-12 mph for most of the ride. At about the 16 mile point, after taking on the oncoming traffic to pass a slow moving combine, I pulled over and considered whether or not I wanted to push on...I really hate a headwind. After a few sips of water, and an inspiring Marvin Gaye's Mercy Me coming across the shuffle, I decided I'd forge ahead. The last few miles into St. Paul weren't that bad after the tiny break, and I was really glad that I didn't give in to my giving up.

I had a quick small espresso and then started back to Keizer. I had hoped and prayed that God wouldn't change the direction of that wind and that I might get a little help on the way back, and sure enough it held for most of my ride home. I have three gear rings up front and normally hang on the middle ring, peeking at about 17-18 miles mph when I really am moving along. However, for a good chunk of the ride home I actually had to step up to my third ring as I was cruising anywhere from 20-23 mph for good chunks at a time, and probably not dropping below 19 mph until I was fairly close to Keizer. The wind was really pushing me, and I didn't even feel like I was working. I started thinking that I could maybe handle headwinds a little better in the future if I knew that the tailwind would be that great on the way back.

I also put a quick 12 mile loop in yesterday, but the mid-day 95 degree heat on top of still not feeling 100% really zapped me, but I know every mile is a good one right now. And somewhere in the past couple weeks I've crossed the 1000 mile mark this year for road biking. That's counting the almost-200 I put on Nicks bike on loan, as well as the miles on my road bike. I probably also have another couple hunny on my comfort bike, but I haven't added those into these numbers. My permanent bike computer somehow got reset, so I've had to piece together the data from bike logs, and GPS information. I'd love to hit 2000 miles before the end of the year, but that will all depend on the weather, which I hear will be an Indian Summer, but colder and wetter winter....well, according to the almanac anyway.

So that's it. Still needing to find motivation to get out somewhere, but with 19 days left, I'm feeling the heat catching up to me.

Hasta.

Day 216: And Now A Word From Our Sponsor

Update: 208.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 10 lbs to 60 lb goal.

Well, actually a word TO my sponsors, and not for this site, but for my upcoming ride....much love, and many thanks.

I haven't made a huge campaign to get sponsors for my upcoming Livestrong Challenge ride, aside from an initial blog post, a few direct emails to some friends, and the link off to the right. But with about 25 days left, I wanted to say thanks to those of you who have offered to make a contribution. I'm not a full time Armstrong Foundation worker, nor do I do fundraising for organizations outside of the Middle School group at our church very often, so I hate asking for dough. Again, thanks to everyone who has chipped in and will chip in...it IS for a great cause.

Yesterday I started actually having some second thoughts about the ride. For lots of different reasons I've not had as many training days as I'd like. By now I was hoping to have some 50 mile rides under my belt, but that hasn't happened. I was also hoping to be riding at least every other day, but that hasn't been possible either, and I didn't get a chance to take advantage of the holiday weekend to log some big miles. But as the day was ending I received a notice that one contributer made a four figure donation to the cause in my name, and I realized I couldn't really NOT do it at this point.

I set a goal of $2500 in fundraising for the LAF, with a minimum of $250 needed to be able to ride. I didn't really think I'd hit the $2500 mark, but now I'm over halfway there, and think I just might have a shot. The team I'm a part of historically has one of the largest fundraising efforts for the Portland ride, and I'm happy to be helping the cause. I won't mention the name of the person, but if you hop over to my page (since it IS a public page) you can figure it out. A very generous gesture from some really good friends of ours.....who would have thought all those years ago when I was a punk high school student....well, I won't go on and on.

Anyway, I'm going to keep trying to squeeze in rides where I can, and get as prepped as I can. I may have to find a garage sale and get one of those old lady beige colored Sears indoor bike machines so I can ride after everyone's gone to sleep, but one way or another I'm going to ride those 70 miles at the end of the month!

Again, BIG THANK YOU to all the sponsors! I appreciate it!

Hasta!

Day 214: What a Hagg!

Update: 208.2 lbs, 50 lb Goal Reached Day 124. 10 lbs to 60 lb goal.

I'm posting a night blog, which I never do. Tomorrow (today for some of you) is the first day of school for our oldest -- first full year of high school for us.

Last week we drove up to Henry Hagg Lake, the place of the most elevation gain in our 70 mile Livestrong Challenge ride. I'd been nervous because I'd been getting mixed information depending on where I turned to find out what exactly we were in for. Some reports said 3000 feet of elevation gain in about a 20 mile span, and others were between 1000-2000. Turns out that the 100 mile route has all the elevation gain, with the hardest part being the Bald Peak climb, which is in fact supposed to be one of the toughest climbs in Oregon. Fortunately for us, the 70 mile route skips all the Bald Peak fun.

Anyway, I still wanted to see for myself what we would be in for, so we hopped in the gas guzzling SUV and made a day of it. Along the way we stopped in Newberg for some breakfast, and to my surprise there are not really any quaint little cafe's in the Foxy City, aside from a couple of coffee shops. We were hoping for some great dive diners, or some little country good eats kind of place, but sadly we ate at Shari's...so yeah, nothing really to speak of there. After breakfast we hit one of the local feed stores to find some boots for the Missus, but they didn't have anything that struck her fancy, so we got back on the highway and headed off to Hagg.


Hagg Lake is apparently a man-made lake, officially in Forest Grove, and you need a day pass if you're going to stop. They didn't charge us to just drive around, so I was thankful for that. Total distance around the lake is about 13.5 miles, and according to The Edge, there's just under 1000 feet of climbing. Now, the crazy thing is, you have to take off from one place, and come back to that place again, as it is indeed a loop around the lake, however...it really felt like all I was doing was going up, up, and more up. I told myself that I must be letting my imagination run away, and that 1000 feet in 13 miles wouldn't be a breeze, but would totally be doable.


On the way back home we stopped in Gaston -- not to be confused with Gaston of Beauty and The Beast fame, of course. There was some sort of City Wide BBQ Fest going on, and we pulled over to get some drinks and snacks. Right on the main street were a gaggle of sweet older ladies pimping their baked goods, so we bought a plate of cookies from them to eat on the drive home. While the rest of the fam was in buying their snackins, I chatted it up with three cyclists who pulled in after us. I asked if they had just ridden down from the lake, and they said no, but in fact had been riding over Bald Peak...go figure. But one of them had ridden Hagg Lake in last years Livestrong and he said 'oh man, that's a pretty tough ride.' When I asked him why he said that, especially since it was less of a climb than the BP trip they had just done he said it basically feels like you're going uphill all the way around the lake! That's what I thought!

I'm still fairly confident I'll be able to make it, it just may be uncomfortable along the way. As of now I've still only done 30 miles at a time for my longest rides, and have been pulling 25 miles as my go to ride the past couple weeks. With just 27 days till the ride, I'm not sure if I'll have any days to do a real ride...maybe one weekend, but we'll see how it goes. Until then I think the max I may get is 25 miles at a shot, but at least I won't have to tackle 3000 miles of elevation come September 30!

Ok, that's it for me...it's after midnight now and we gotta get up before 6 for school...yeehaw!

Hasta!