First Race of the Year

As my family and close friends know the further away from population centers I get the happier I am. Therefore the chance to make what is becoming an annual pilgrimage out to Echo, OR for the Echo Red 2 Red mountain bike race was just what I needed. A drive out to eastern Oregon and spend some time in the desert racing my bike. Sounds like a good way to spend a Saturday.

33523284088_fe9ee6deca_b — Every now and again I race the “normal” bike

Echo is a haul from home. It’s a little over 200 miles each way from home to “downtown” Echo. Other than the bs of dealing with PDX traffic though it’s a straight shot east on I-84 the whole way. This race is not one that plays to my strengths. It’s got a lot of short, punchy, power climbs where I would much rather have some sustained and lengthy climbs. Coming this early in the season it is always a shock to the system to go from workouts/rides to race pace too. It is a good chance to blow some cobwebs out of the system and get in a hard effort.

40433555383_0244e5967b_b — Post race cookie from Buttercreek Coffee & Mercantile in Echo, OR

46484098975_be94144aea_b — I love hidden gems like this

As is typical I will not give the dorky blow by blow race commentary. All I will say is that it wasn’t bad and it wasn’t great. Just like last year there were some total sandbaggers racing the sport category. I did not fade the last 30 minutes like last year and, in fact, felt pretty decent the whole time. Just need to work on those punchy climbs.

Sunday – Finally spend time with Mia

It was nice to finally get home last night though. Being gone for work stuff from Sunday-Wednesday (I did still get to have some fun though) and then leaving for a race on Friday after work left me feeling like I needed to put in some quality time with my better half. Lucky for me Mia ditched her planned long run and we went on a nice 25 mile road ride instead.

47407730901_10569ae449_b — Out for a little jaunt

Mia and I have some pretty dialed in routes from the old house. Moving to Forest Grove has shifted things a bit and forced us to reevaluate some of our options. Just getting out to FG from Hillsboro was a 26 mile roundtrip affair. A 36 mile loop from the old house is now 12 miles. So yeah, we need to find a groove again and tweak a couple things. The best part now is that in about 1-2 miles we are in rural farmland. Even from our old location in Hillsboro it was 5-7 miles to get out into the wilds.

47354900652_5242be026f_b — Today’s ride was blessedly flat

All in all though things are working out. I’ve already shown Mia some new roads and we’ve patched together some previous routes to make a couple new options. No complaints here.