Spinning it on the Sunny side, Surf's Up.

Holly Smokes Batman, this last weekend the weather was just AWESOME! I never thought I'd be shouting the praise of high pressure, but this last weekend it worked wonders. A high pressure region came in, blanked Oregon, resulting in weather more characteristic of late Spring then early February. Unfortunately in the it's too good to be true department, it is February and the weather women are saying that we might get snow in the valley this next week, just in time for Cherry Pie. But, enough about all that, so what sort of wicked training runs went down this last weekend?

Going into the weekend I'd been feel a little knee/leg buzz. After the RAO 2004 debacle, I'm sensitive to it and really try and listen to my body. So with that in mind this weekend I opted to skip the Beaver hammer sessions and just do my own thing. Saturday, with the awesome weather I thought it would be fun to try some new routes so I threw the bike in the back of the Jetta, zipped out to Newport, and hit the road from there. Not sure if I should go north or south, I opted for the northern route and headed up along the highway towards Lincoln city. Bouncing off of Lincoln city, stopping off a lighthouse, the ride ended up being ~60 miles, nothing too big but riding on the coast is fun. The only real bummer was traffic. Heading north the traffic just got worse and worse in hind sight it makes since the blasted Casinos are all up north. But the traffic also had a welcome upside, can you say “beach Jeep hotties”, I can!

On getting back, I spent some quality time on the foam roller, ate a pizza, and started fiddling with the bike shoes. I'd first started fiddling with my shoes back in November. Having been on the cleats since a little before RAO the cleats were starting to show there age. My attempt to unscrew the cleat bolts from the shoes was an utter failure the cleat bolts had sized. The end result of this was after a little over a year my Sidi's had become disposable and it was time to order new shoes. But what to do in the mean time? Well, after placing the order for the new shoes, I suddenly remembered the old pair I had in the back of the closet. I figured I could use the old ones till the new shoes showed up. The old shoes definitely didn’t feel as good, but they worked, after the new shoes showed up I decided to stay on the old ones through the bad weather, for there was no reason to prematurely destroy the new ones. Well with the knee buzz it was time to switch back.

Sunday, I had a meeting with my master’s advisor scheduled for 4:00 so there was a pre-sunset constraint on the ride. I hit the road right around 11:00. Initially I had thought I might ride the Alsea falls loop, hitting the metropolis of Philomath I paused briefly to adjust my saddle height and in the process snapped my seat post bolt! SHIT! DAM! The ride plans changed then and there. Back to my apartment all out of the saddle, 1.5 cheese sandwiches and new seat post bolt and I was back on the road. This time on hitting Philomath, I wasn’t sure I’d have time for the Alsea loop so I opted for the king valley loop. The idea was that if time started to become scarce this route had multiple options for an early exit. I should have known that with the great weather there would be no turning back. On getting to the first turn off spot, I said no way, on the second spot, I didn’t even contemplate it and soon I was in Monmouth. I briefly headed back north on 99, then there was a brief back track on the standard KV loop, up and over the saddle and back to the cycling crib with 10 minutes to spare. I chugged a Hammer Pro-Whey Recovery Smoothie, grabbed my data, and was off to my meeting. Later, in the evening for further recovery I spent some quality time with the Compex Sport. The newly shimmed shoes felt like butter. Daily mileage 80 on the nose.

Plans for Monday? - Recovery day, there will be some foam rollering, possibly a little time in the weight room, maybe a brief stint in the hot tub, and lots of time with the books.

Laters, It’s Tartan Time