Stay on target...

Well, I'm still biking, still running a bit. I'm trying to pick out a new bike seat in the midst of all this training - it's daunting to commit to riding five hours on a new seat, without being sure it will be remotely comfortable! And sometimes..it's really not! But a local bike shop has a seat lending library, so I don't have to commit without testing, and that's fantastic. I've managed to get just about 100 miles in on each of the two seats I've tried so far, and I don't think I've found my one true seat yet but the process is pretty great.

According to my gadget, I've biked just shy of 600 miles so far this season. That's great, since my goal before Cycle Oregon is 1,000 (1,200 would be even better). I think I can pretty confidently say I'll get another 400-600 miles in the next five weeks.

The hills will still be brutal, and there's no help for it. Sunday I rode 25 miles in the West Hills:

 

I'm proud of the fact that it's a figure 8. You know what that means? It means we absolutely killed ourselves getting up into the hills (that wiggly bit on the bottom-right was crazy crazy steep), and then we went down some and opted to go back uphill again. Woo! Here's the elevation profile (in meters, but you can see the gist of it): 

Brutal. The worst bit was a quarter-mile at a 13% grade. I was in my smallest gear, could barely bring the pedals around, going under 3mph, and I accidentally lifted the front part of the bike right off the ground in my struggle to keep going. Yikes! But hey, it's over now. And that whole ride was 25 miles, 2200 feet of climbing - one-third the mileage and one-third the climbing on the worst days. 

I honestly don't know how on earth I'm going to get through that ride in one piece, without sagging. One of my friends has already dropped, but the rest of us are holding firm so far!