After my Gorgeous Gorge ride, I came down with the stomach flu. I have been taking it very easy, getting plenty of rest and sleep. This has caused me to delay my weekly training update.

I posted on 11/2/14 my intended training for the upcoming week.

On Monday, I took a rest day (except for my lunch walk). My plan was to do a gym workout ion the evening, but that did not happen as I was tired. Tuesday should have been an Indoor Trainer ride, but I had forgotten that Tuesday was the Salem Bicycle Club meeting which I attended. On Wednesday, I did get on the bike for the Wednesday Night Keizer Ride Joanne and I lead. It was a recovery paced ride. Thursday was an indoor training ride, my first with TrainerRoad and it was hard, so hard I stopped early. Of course, Friday is a rest day.

Saturday, I headed up into the clouds on an East Salem Hills ride which included two times up Fox Road. Sunday morning Joanne did a moderate ride early in the morning due to a commitment that afternoon.

Monday was another TrainerRoad indoor ride and Tuesday was Gorgeous Gorge.

The Columbia Gorge is one of the most beautify places I know. So when Chris Hoy decided to lead a Salem Bicycle Club ride along the old historic highway on Veteran’s Day, I jumped at the chance to join him.

Chris Hoy – Our Ride Leader

Our Route would have us starting in Hood River and riding to The Dallas for lunch and then back the way we came. We started on the Columbia River in Hood River and climbed up hill on a very steep Old Columbia River Dr. Soon, we were at the entrance to the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. Our climbing continued but at a lessor grade. Very soon, we reached a view point overlooking the gorge.

Columbia Gorge Looking Toward the West

Columbia Gorge Looking Toward the East

As the day of the ride approached, we were concerned about the weather. However, our concerns evaporated and as the sky cleared. It was a bit cold and windy, but we were dressed well and were warm. I took my Litespeed Appalachian out. I love riding this bike.

My ride for the day – my Litespeed Appalachian

The road was neither flat nor straight.

While TrainerRoad has a multitude to workouts that you can choose from, I’m a tweaker. So I had to explore the ability for TrainerRoad to create a custom workout.

I used a workout from the December issue of Bicycling magazine from an article entitled “Arctic Blasts”.

The workout creation interface ran slowly on my under powered PC, but that just gave me time to think about what to do next.

Once I had a few minutes of experience and after a couple of oppies, I got the hand of it and quickly created my workout.

Then I rode it. The method you use to determine the intensity of the intervals is by percent of Functional Threshold Power. The workout described in the magazine was based upon perceived exertion. My translation was a bit low and as such, my actual values (yellow) ended up a bit higher than my targeted values (blue). But the beauty of the TrainerRoad tool is that I can edit my custom workout to increase the targeted efforts. I’m going to have some fun with this!

Just an easy flat ride – except for the wind and rain.

My legs felt tired after yesterday’s hills so I decided to follow my wife around the flats of the Willamette Valley. Just the two of us and we had great fun.

It’s Saturday, so it must be hill climbs.

I was having (yet more) work done on my car so I was limited in the choice of hills I could climb today.  But that is OK as I was close to Fox Road, so that is where I headed.

Just like last weekend, there was low clouds that was almost fog.  But this weekend, I dressed a bit better.  I wore my winter cycling shoes, wool socks and brought two sets of gloves with me – a light climbing set and a heavy descending set.  I was ready.

I decided to ride up State Street – a good, long climb.  As I gained altitude, the clouds became more than fog and less like clouds.  The temperature dropped also, dipping down from the low 40’s to the high 30’s.

After reaching the end of State St., I continued on Doerfler Road and came upon some trash that someone had left along side of the road.

People, please pick up your trash!

After Doerfler, came Fox Road to Drift Creek to Victor Point and back to Fox. This loop is 8.7 miles long and I did it twice, just because it’s twice as nice.

Ride Statistics

I tested out TrainerRoad (www.trainerroad.com) tonight. Easy to set up, easy to pair my ant+ devices (powertap wheel and heart rate monitor) and went for a ride.

The website offers a multitude of workouts and I just pick the first one that seemed interesting – California Roads. Once loaded, I learned that the video that goes with the workout is an extra cost item, so instead I watched my DVD of the 1992 Raris Roubaix. I have to admit that this workout hurt me as much as the cobbles were hurting Greg LeMond.

I was not completely rested tonight, and as such, I found myself tiring quickly. The workout is 55 minutes long, but I shorten it by ten minutes. Nonetheless, it was fun!

Such a beautiful night for a ride! Eight of us got to enjoy a perfect night for a ride.

At 6:30 pm, the temperature was 58° F!  Because there was no wind, there was a bit of ground fog near the river, but overall we were quite happy with the weather.

Last week, I got in 9 hours and 23 minutes of training on five rides totaling 127.1 miles.

Monday was a short and fast ride around Windsor Island.
Tuesday I intended to ride the trainer, but instead I attended the Salem Bicycle Club monthly meeting.
Wednesday was our Keizer Night Ride on a rainless night.
Thursday was an intense hour on the indoor trainer. This session really knackered my legs!
Friday was a rest day.
Saturday was an epic climb up Larch Mountain.
Sunday was recovery ride.

I did my core workout on Monday, Thursday and Sunday. In addition, I did my noontime walk on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The Week Ahead

This is my plan for next week:

Monday – Strength workout at the gym
Tuesday – Indoor Trainer
Wednesday – Keizer Night Ride (recovery pace)
Thursday – Indoor Trainer
Friday – rest day
Saturday – hills somewhere
Sunday – Recovery Ride

After yesterday’s mountainous ride, I needed something a bit easier.  The Salem Bicycle Club afternoon ride was perfect.