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!

Now that's what I'm talking about...

Great weekend for riding.  Clear skies yesterday for the Portland Velo Saturday ride, then today, cloudy but dry for a brisk jaunt courtesy of another wicked Scotsman I know:

LO-Willamette-Petes-Advance-Grahams Ferry-Tualatin- South Shore-LOLO by markafhayes at Garmin Connect - Details

'Rubbing Salt into the Wound' or 'Lets go to San Jose to Ride'

After seeing the last two pictures of our great Portland riding weather, Dennis, our friend from the Pacific Coast Century, sent me the following email:
"Saw the last couple of pictures in Sue's blog , so thought I would share my 1st ride of the year.  Started out in pea soup fog in San Jose, but after climbing a couple of miles on Mt. Hamilton Road, broke out into sunshine,,, as usual I forgot the sun block, and started to boil in my own sweat.... way over dressed in my winter gear (for San Jose), leg warmers, heavy jersey, and cycling jacket.  It turned out to be one of the best cycling days on Mt. Hamilton, no wind, no bugs, no traffic, no clouds, just a great ride.  Attached are a couple of pictures."

Wahhhh....the rain returned today after a semi-dry day of riding yesterday with the Monday Velo group.  Here's my pitiful pictures, although we did have some sun, after a wet start:

KRhea on Council Crest; 3000 feet of gain - he doesn't go by miles (35)

The sun WE had in Portland

I say we need to jump into the cars and head down this weekend to San Jose and do the Mt. Hamilton ride.  

Seriously, thanks to Dennis for sending the pictures and reminding me that spring is around the corner.   (But I still want to head south sooner than later)

Oh - one more good one from Dennis - switchbacks leading to the observatory:

Now that looks like fun!

cycle cross?

Not cycle cross but a rather wet 40 mile ride with Portland Velo.  I'm still cleaning equipment.

snow day

Thompson at Skyline.  

We went out to Hillsboro to ride with Velo this morning.  It was 27 degrees with ice on the road and bike lanes so we headed back into town to Upper Echelon to use the rollers.  The sky cleared and we decided to ride outside.  Heading up 53rd to Skyline it started snowing!  Only in Portland on January 8th can you ride in sun, ice, snow and rain.