Did my first metric (Warning long post with pics)
 

Today I met my long time goal of doing my first metric. The event was the Cover Bridge Tour sponsored by the Mid-Valley Bicycle club. My ride was called a metric plus since it was actually 68 miles. There was 1900 feet of climbing which felt like more of course. :lol: I want to thank all the Clyde's for the great advise on how to prepare for it. I don't think I could have done it as well as I did without all the help.

So without any further ado, the ride report. Here is a link to the map so you can check out the elevation profile.
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united...any/1164062781

Here are my stats for the ride
Total time actually riding:4 hour 5 minute
Total event time with stops: 5 hours 5 minutes
Total mileage:68.66 miles
Average speed:16.7 mph
Top speed:37.4 mph

I started the morning at 5:45 AM with the alarm going off. I made my breakfast of oatmeal, yogurt, and a banana. Then I fixed up a bottle of Cyto-Sport to drink on the way to hydrate before the ride. After loading the bike and filling my bottles with Cyto-Sport and Hammer Sustained Energy, I drove to the event. When I got there, the temperature on the reader said it was 53 degrees. After picking up my ride map and unloading the bike, i slipped on some arm warmers and took off on my adventure. The first five miles were pretty flat with a small inclines. It turned into the first set of hills. I had trained on this set of hills and always huffed and puffed up them, but today, I hardly noticed my breathing changing at all. This was a good sign. At the end of those hills, the road turned to more flats with the small inclines until the first rest stop. My time to the first stop was 1 hour 6 minutes for 19 miles. After eating a banana and Cliff Bar and stretching for a bit, I was off again. The second leg started off with a set of big rollers about 3 miles out from the stop. My legs felt pretty good at this point, so kept spinning the hills with pretty good success. This was the second biggest set of hills on the ride. Finally after the big rollers I got a nice downhill, it sort of recharged the legs on to the flat portion of the section until I hit the next rest stop for lunch. Again, I stretched out the leg, ate lunch and topped off the bottles before heading out again. the third leg was by far the hardest. One mile out of the rest stop was the biggest hill of the ride. My legs were still stiff and lunch had not kicked in for fuel yet. I ended up standing up on the bike to finish off the hill. It was the only hill that I did not spin through on the whole ride. After the big hill, I got into some flat s with small rollers for a bit. Lunch was starting to kick in now and just in time, The next part of this leg was nothing but big rollers. I would spin to the top, and power off the backside of the hill. I would then coast while hugging the bars and set up for the next hill. This went of for what seemed like forever. i did manage to roll over the top of one of hills at 24 mph. The last part of that section finally flattened out into the last rest stop. The legs were feeling good despite the harsh beating that I had just gave them. The third stop was just 14 miles from the finish, so I decided to make it a short one. After eating another banana and stretching a bit, plus a little water, I was off again. The last section was one that I have trained on before. It is almost all flat. With that in mind, I made the choice to hammer it home. i was pounding out 20 mph for most of the last section with the exception the one small incline. The last 2 miles my side started to hurt a little and the legs were getting tired. I finished with what I had left to the parking lot. After getting to my car, I sat in the shade for awhile until my side quit hurting so I could change out of my bike shoes. The day was ended with a nice root beer float and talking to the event staff. So there you have it, my first metric !!!!

Now for the pictures

This me at the first of the ride, fresh and ready to go.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture755.jpg

This is the first section of the ride before the first set of hills.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture756.jpg

This is the first bridge that we rode across, it was not one of the covered ones, but it has a nice view.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture757.jpg

In the same vain as MissBumble, one of our bovine friends
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture759.jpg

The first covered bridge
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture760.jpg

... and the view from it
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture761.jpg

The second biggest hill of the ride. What you see is actually the first part of the big roller.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture763.jpg

More pictures.....

The second covered bridge
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture764.jpg

Water spaying is usually a welcome site, but in this case it was not. It was dairy that was pumping its lagoon out for watering, which means it was pumping animal waste. YUCK!!! Very smelly!!!
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture767.jpg

LUNCH !!!
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture769.jpg

The third covered bridge of the tour.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture771.jpg

... and its view
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture773.jpg

This was the last bridge of the tour. The 85 and 102 milers saw one more bridge then I did.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture775.jpg

This was the most interesting bikes of the whole tour. He was riding the 40 miler.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture776.jpg

.. and finally me at the end with my root beer float in hand.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...Picture777.jpg

Nice, thanks for posting.

Awesome! A well-deserved root-beer float!

Great ride report..wasn't that fresh water so refreshing!!! Blech!
I'm so glad you posted pictures!! My camera had a dead battery at the start :( Congratulations on your first metric+!! Do you have the distance bug now??? Too bad we missed you at the start. Next time right? What is your next goal?

Nice report.

I really want to try a bike like that!!!!

Thanks for the ride, it looks like it was fun.

Congratulations. It looks like a great route, but then again I love covered bridges. Thanks for the photographs.

Thanks everyone, it was a really fun ride to go on. The great thing is this was really just out my back door. The starting point was only a 10 minute drive from my house. What is interesting to me is that I did not even know where most of the covered bridges were before the ride.

If you want the pictures, shoot me a PM with your e-mail address and I would be glad to send you a set. As far as a goal, I want to do 2 or 3 full centuries next year. I'll most likely do the Strawberry as my first 100 miler and of course I'll do the Covered Bridge again next year. So, I hope to actually meet you guys next year. ;) If I get the chance, I might try to squeeze in doing the Peach as a metric this year, but that is doubtful at this point. Fortunately, as you know we are blessed with a good selection of rides to go on in this area, so I will get to explore this distance bug thing that speak of.:)

Neil, I have alway enjoyed the pictures that you have posted, so I thought that I would do the same. I can't remember who, but they said that they liked seeing pictures from different rides, so I tried to accommodate them.

man this makes me miss the willamette valley, but then I think about the rain and how awesome the weather is in Albuquerque.

It looks like there is a century out of Newport as well. That coastal range riding is some of the best in Oregon, so that may be a good one to do.