My Goal

Okay, I'm just going to say this: I want my odometer on my road bike computer to click past 3000 by the end of the year. I'm actually not too far away from 3000 miles total for the year if you count both bikes. I racked up a lot of miles on my hybrid before I got my road bike, but this goal is simply for Amie. 3000 miles since I bought her in March. Currently, I'm at 1668 which leaves 1332 left to do over the next 18 weeks. If I figure that I'll take two weeks off out of that 18 (for vacations and whatnot) that means that I need to average 83 miles a week. Sounds easy, I know, but when the rain really gets going, my stationary bike and elliptical start looking more and more appealing. "Come, ride us," they say. "You can stay warm and dry and watch a movie instead." This makes racking up even more mileage over the course of September that much more important. September is beautiful in Oregon and I could easily put in 500 miles that month. Which leads me to today's ride.

I start all my calculations for the week on Sunday. Sunday did 7.5 miles on the elliptical, did some Pilates and watched the movie Whip It in an effort to cross-train. Monday I did 27 miles. It wasn't a very exciting ride (aside from narrowly missing running over a snake) so I didn't blog about it. Tuesday was my rest day and tomorrow we leave for 3 days of hiking and camping. I made my goal of 3000 miles the day I went to pick up Amie from the bike shop and even with the excuse of our mini-vacation (boy, I hope it feels like that) I didn't want to drop below 83 miles so early. Which meant I needed to do a 56-mile ride today.

I was in it for the miles today, pure and simple. I wasn't interested in climbing hills (which I did on Monday). I just wanted to ride hard and fast. So, I headed over to the Springwater, which to my dismay was under construction today. Before and after every light, they were pouring concrete into little ditches. Whether it was fresh concrete or the ditches you had to slow down and ride over gravel and grasses to get to the other side. Not for the first time this reminded me of how great my bike is. Amie took the abuse like a champ.



Having completed the full length of the Springwater and looking for more mileage, I headed south on the I-205 bike path through a great stretch of fast turns and smooth pavement. At one point after riding down a hill and hitting a flat with all that momentum I was going 31 miles an hour and thinking, "So this is what it feels like to be Lance Armstrong."

Heading back north I got to my favorite stretch of Burnside and started pedaling east. I was starting to feel a little tired, so I ate a banana and drank some water. Then as I was heading into the next stoplight I was actually thinking, "I most decidedly will not bonk!" and I had that little momentary lapse of concentration that is all it takes to tip you the wrong way. I fell pretty hard into the pavement and gravel, cutting my leg and scraping my elbow.

A very nice man wearing a U of Oregon shirt helped me up and said, "Are you okay?" I did a quick check, and aside from the blood gushing down my leg, I felt fine. Embarrassed, but fine. So, I got on my bike, noticing as I was riding that the handlebars were a bit crooked and the right brake was bent in. But, it seemed to be working alright.

The strange thing was, the adrenaline and embarrassment had completely rejuvenated me. I felt great and pedaled happily all the way home. When I got home I realized I had made the best time I'd ever done on a 60-ish mile ride(90 minutes faster than my first 60 mile ride - of course, that included a 40 minute break to walk my dog and refuel).