One last breakfast with Iris before she leaves to return to grad school. Sad face. Next #biketour she comes with! She also like hiding behind coffee, apparently.

Day two pictures

The first two are on McKenzie pass, and the last is sisters from sisters!

Day 2 Paradise to Redmond

I need to get library access so I can do a real update, but this little one will do for now. Day 1 was 60 miles of intermittent tailwind and uphill to paradise campground where Iris joined me for the night. It was a hard day for me and I realized I was carrying too much food.

Today was 60 miles over McKenzie pass to Redmond. The pass took 4 hours for 22 miles, but the later part of the day was nice with a killer tailwind and only slight hills in to Redmond. Tonight is my last night with Iris so we have a room and are going out to eat shortly.

The pictures (if they upload] are the McKenzie pass summit and the Sisters from near Sisters.

2nd breakfast halfway up McKenzie Pass. #biketour

Home sweet home, 60 miles of slight uphill. Paid for a campsite so Iris could visit. #biketour

Late start for day 1 of the #biketour , heading to paradise campground at 1:40 pm!

It's sure going to be hard to leave my garden for the summer. #biketour problems.

Training

I wanted to post the training I did for this trip, mainly as a record to myself.  Hell, this whole blog is pretty much a record to myself.  I enjoy reading my old ones from my 2003 and 2007 trips that roughly went from Astoria->Boston and Eugene->Boston. I do, however, hope that some of my wonderful weirdo friends and family back in Eugene and Iowa, and other places do enjoy it.

The Eugene Disaster Relief Trials (3rd Place!)

So, training.  This is hard to figure out since I bike commute ballpark 3,500 miles a year and have probably put in close to 25,000 commuting miles (including weekend commutes) since my 2007 trip.  But, those are generally in 5-10 mile chunks, and thus not great training. Those miles do, however, contribute greatly to a lack of recovery days when actually training.  They also happen to be on this bad-ass Xtracycle.

If you don't count off-road unicycling (muni) miles (of which I have tons this year, including a trip to Moab Munifest), I started training for this ride on May 3rd and since have put in 276.5 miles plus a 10 mile muni ride, riding almost every weekend since.

Training Ride 1: 43 miles, 3,000-ish feet climbing (Crow)
Training Ride 2: 43 miles, 3,000-ish feet climbing (Crow)
Training Ride 3: 71 miles, 5,600 feet climbing (Wolf Creek)
Training Ride 4: 9.8 miles, 1,300 feet climbing on an off-road unicycle (McKenzie River)
Training Ride 5: 43 miles, 3,000-ish feet climbing  (Crow)
Training Ride 6: 77 miles, 5,800 feet climbing (Quad Peak)

I haven't done any of these rides loaded, and was going to do the 43 mile route last weekend but I got sick (and still am).  Better sick now then in 2 days though.  I suppose I'll have all summer to ride loaded...