Hawaii vs. Oregon in March

Mark and his friend Ron decided to ride out in the Columbia Gorge yesterday.  I think they picked a perfect day:

7 Mile Hill

 Looks like fun!

Hawaii

We just returned from the big island of Hawaii.  Craig got some good tips for riding from Bike Works in Waikoloa.  The first day we rode to Hawi, going out against strong headwinds.  

One of our favorite routes was the Old Mamloahoa Highway.  This relatively traffic free road takes you down to the NE side of the island from Waimea.

The first time we rode this, we parked in Waimea, headed down and then west on Honoka'a Road (Highway 240) to the Waipi'o Valley.  The next trip took us east for about 8 miles on Highway 19 toward Hilo and then up a quiet country road to the Vanilla Factory.  We were constantly amazed by the variety of climate zones and changing landscapes.  One could almost imagine you were riding in Scotland or Ireland.  Then you'd descend a bit, turn a corner and have a vertigo producing view of the Pacific Ocean.

The bad part about riding the Old Mamalahoa Highway is Tex Drive-In, situated at the intersection of Highway 19 & Highway 240 in the small town of Honoka'a.  Bad because of the malasadas - they are amazing, warm, high caloric donuts, available with a variety of fruit fillings that are only filled upon ordering.  I found myself only wanting to ride as far as that intersection just to get a malasada.  Craig pushed on for some more miles and sightseeing.

The last ride we took was from Hawi north on Highway 270 to the Pololu Valley.  A short ride, it takes you by the Kamehameha Statue and Lapakahi State Historical Park.  When you reach the valley you can almost see over to the Waipi'o Valley.  Unfortunately, the road dead ends here.  There is, however,  a hike down to the black sand beach.

wild ride

Saturday's Velo ride proved a little wild; a large group going out to Dairy Creek, single, double pace lines disintegrating due to tactical errors, pothole carnage, flat tires, bent wheels....but nothing compared to this vertigo producing video, a mountain bike race course in Valparaiso, Chile:

(link taken from Cycling Tips blog)

Is he wearing a pin striped suit?

Not much biking these days

I've been on my bike 2 times in the last 9 days.  Mostly due to bad weather.  Thankfully, we have great trails to run at the Arboretum in the west hills of Portland.  Paisley loves it.

This past weekend I went to Claremont to visit Andy, who is finishing up her last semester at Scripps College.  We visited the Huntington Gardens and took a quick trip to Disneyland.  I really enjoyed running the trails east of Claremont under sunny skies.

Andy with posters from her thesis project

Huntington Gardens

Disneyland

VA goes to the rest home

VA met me at my Mom's apartment yesterday, complete with a batch of home-made oatmeal cookies tucked into her back pocket.  We rode home in the sunshine via 143rd and Old GT.  Perfect day.  Thank you, Vrai Mére!*

Next time we will stage this photo better - Mom with a bike, VA with the walker!

*VA's daughter is livng with a host family in France.

Ride clinic with Team Veloforma

Another perk of being a member of Portland Velo are the special rides and today was the 'women's clinic' led by Tina Brubaker of Team Veloforma accompanied by several other women racers, including Heidi Swift, who also has a weekly column in the Oregonian. Riding out from Longbottom Coffee we practiced pace lines mixed with some sprinting on Dairy Creek Road.  A fun but hard ride.

I have to put in a plug for one of Team Veloforma's coaches, Russell Cree at Upper Echelon Fitness.  Craig had PT at UEF post collarbone break and is now training on the rollers a couple times/week.  I had a bike fitting with Russell Thursday.  UEF has state of the art technology to give you a great fit - he raised my seat 1 cm (I need a new saddle) and tweaked my cleats with a recommendation to go with less float - perhaps Speedplay Zero's.  Cree or RC, as the Veloforma women call him,  has recently become the dealer for Parlee bikes and I have my sights set on the Z1. You can waste a lot of time on this site, playing with colors and finishes.  I like the black on black matte finish with red or maybe even black Chris King headsets and hubs.  Maybe some electronic Dura-Ace or Campagnolo components?  $$$$$$   One can dream.

still riding

I've been preoccupied due to the fact that my elderly mother moved to Portland.  Duty calls, but we are still riding.  In fact, I commented to Craig that I should 'freak out' more often.  Last week I logged in over 200 miles.  Today is the MAC coaches ride.  Clear skies and a cold east wind, but I'll take cold and dry any day over the usual soggy Portland weather.  The crazy Scotsman rode in San Diego Sunday.  While we rode in sun, he suffered on wet roads.  Ha!