June Event #3

This year Tom and I rode the Tour de Blast for the first time. Robin mentioned this ride a few months ago and we thought it would be nice to join her since Mark & Matt would be riding all the way to Johnston Ridge. It was a fun ride and there were some hills that I was not expecting - it's been a while since we last went to Mt. St. Helens so I forgot what the road was like. I liked the challenge and we had a pretty good average going to Hoffstadt Bluffs which made our overall average pretty decent, even with the wind going back to Toutle.

Robin and I turned back to return to Toutle and Tom continued on from Hoffstadt to Elk Rock which was at 3800'. Hoffstadt was at 1400' (you do the math) and according to Tom it was a grind all the way up. At one point he saw a sign that said passing lane ahead...he knew that meant it would be getting steeper! That part of the route was definitely a head-down-get-into-a-groove type of deal. I'm intrigued with the idea of riding that route next year, but we'll see when we get there. That would require some training, for sure, but I do like a challenge so it might be on my 2010 agenda of things to do. I'm so proud of Tom for doing that route, he really wanted to experience a more challenging route and it was good because he didn't have me slowing him down.

So, the ride back to Toutle wasn't exactly a breeze. There were a couple of spots that took some effort to go downhill and with my legs (near my rear end) being a little sore the effort was somewhat painful. Good ol' Robin, my partner in crime reminded me that "Pain is weakness leaving that body." Well if that is so, I think a lot of weakness left my body this morning!

I'm already looking forward to this ride for next year - I'm hoping that my muscles will be recovered by then!

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