Suz
Well-Known Member
If you haven’t experienced a multi-day cycling tour, I highly recommend it. June 20-27th I took a 7 day 377 mile fully supported tour on my S30 around Oregon and Washington. The tour started and ended in Gresham, OR. and was through Adventure Cycling Tours.
I can sum it up as the most refreshing, challenging, relaxing vacation I’ve ever taken. Other than riding from point A to point B, you were completely taken care of. The scenery was spectacular; the weather although hot was outstanding for riding – sunshine with no rain.
I have NO pain from the trip. People at work are asking if I’m sore and I myself am shocked to say I’m not. Me of all people, I’m sore all the time from my back issues. LOL. I actually feel better from the week long work out.
This particular tour was full of mountains. While not over most of your capabilities, it was over mine with only 2 months into my Silvio experience and only 4 months back into cycling. The main problem was the previous 14 years I had taken off from cycling, not the mere 2 months on the Silvio. The Silvio was a champ.
I learned a lot about my riding and how to tackle mountains using your advice and my body’s feedback. I finally settled into a great pedal/breathing/handle bar pull motion that worked. However if I was distracted for even a few seconds it took quite a bit of energy to pull it back together on the climbs. My heartrate told me when my cadence was too high, so I had to modify that to last longer on the hills. But all this is mainly because I’m out of shape.
I can see with practice that I will make it up these mountains when I get into better cardio/overall shape and get my recumbent muscles up to speed.
You learn a lot when you ride 4-6 hrs a day. There is a lot of time to figure out how to change it up and make it work. When I focused on my breath/pedal/pull method my wobbling on hills was drastically reduced. There were a lot of chances to work on uphill starts. I tackled the climbs whether by foot or by peddle and got noticeably better as the week went on, taking the advice of the crew on this forum.
Downhills – OH MY GOSH are SO fun. I was accused of having rocket launchers once and told I moved downhill like lightning another time. I had to have an advantage somewhere. Ha!
The tour was a success on all fronts.
Random Thoughts/Day: I'll attach a picture of the daily elevation.
Day 1: Registration: I see skinny people.
Day 2: You’ve got to be kidding! I’m going to die. It sure is pretty. Daisies!
Day 3: Hey, at least I can start peddling on this mountain. Why is my braid wet? The beauty is astounding. There’s Mt. Hood again, how did it get back there? Damn RV’s.
Day 4: Ah, 9 flat miles along the river. I could handle this view every morning. Oh crap – really? That hill? Ha ha ha ha ha, where’s the truck? (To be fair, I tried. I had no movement forward … )
Day 5: Gorgeous, Gorgeous, Gorgeous. Recumbents rule in the wind! Riding the windy Columbia river gorge. Wind is my friend.
Day 6: Where am I? There’s Mt. Hood again. Wait a minute, what Mt. is that? Hey, I made it up that pass! HYDRATE! Heat exhaustion. 102°F, but it’s a “dry heat”.
Hydrate
Hydrate
Hydrate
Day 7: Uh oh why did I hydrate? Thank goodness for shade – 100+ again! Oh - pretty water fall. Ah, relaxing water noises coming from the woods. Um, how many miles to the rest room? So if I hurry I could use the outdoor “fern room” before another rider shows up. Why did I drink 90oz of water last night? Please please please don’t let anyone drive by.
I’m being lapped by a fly. I’m riding slower than a fly. IT’S UPHILL – leave me alone. What is dripping from my braid? Eww, that’s sweat. Should I be proud of sweat dripping from my braid? Yes!!
DOWNHILLS ROCK.
I DID IT – I TACKLED YOU, YOU NASTY BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAIN, WHOOT WHOOT. (They may have heard me yelling at camp.)
Day 8: This can’t be over. So proud! Best vacation EVER. So satisfied. Hmm, I’m not sore … anywhere. Icing on the cake. The last day was a day full of majestic water falls, gorgeous paths/highways and a “relatively” flat ride back to Gresham.
Day 1 back at work: Why is everyone so grumpy?
Since it’s taken so long to write my ride report, I’ve been riding my regular route. Easy peasy. Wow, it was fun taking a full minute off the hill I hate most, that I like now. Got PR’s on lots of other segments and made my friend whine in pain. Hee hee. Now if I could take a week off every month and ride all day, every day life would be good.
It’s shocking how much improvement was made over that week, way more than I realized because of the challenging daily rides. But now that I'm home it’s very noticeable. My wobbles are virtually gone and it’s time to find more challenging rides, and oh, I’m way more addicted now to my Silvio.
Pics:
I can sum it up as the most refreshing, challenging, relaxing vacation I’ve ever taken. Other than riding from point A to point B, you were completely taken care of. The scenery was spectacular; the weather although hot was outstanding for riding – sunshine with no rain.
I have NO pain from the trip. People at work are asking if I’m sore and I myself am shocked to say I’m not. Me of all people, I’m sore all the time from my back issues. LOL. I actually feel better from the week long work out.
This particular tour was full of mountains. While not over most of your capabilities, it was over mine with only 2 months into my Silvio experience and only 4 months back into cycling. The main problem was the previous 14 years I had taken off from cycling, not the mere 2 months on the Silvio. The Silvio was a champ.
I learned a lot about my riding and how to tackle mountains using your advice and my body’s feedback. I finally settled into a great pedal/breathing/handle bar pull motion that worked. However if I was distracted for even a few seconds it took quite a bit of energy to pull it back together on the climbs. My heartrate told me when my cadence was too high, so I had to modify that to last longer on the hills. But all this is mainly because I’m out of shape.
I can see with practice that I will make it up these mountains when I get into better cardio/overall shape and get my recumbent muscles up to speed.
You learn a lot when you ride 4-6 hrs a day. There is a lot of time to figure out how to change it up and make it work. When I focused on my breath/pedal/pull method my wobbling on hills was drastically reduced. There were a lot of chances to work on uphill starts. I tackled the climbs whether by foot or by peddle and got noticeably better as the week went on, taking the advice of the crew on this forum.
Downhills – OH MY GOSH are SO fun. I was accused of having rocket launchers once and told I moved downhill like lightning another time. I had to have an advantage somewhere. Ha!
The tour was a success on all fronts.
- I wanted a challenge – GOT THAT+.
- I got to talk about my Cruzbike, had LOTS of conversations throughout the week regarding the configuration, impact on the body and just random bike nerd talk.
- I wanted a thrust back into riding. Yep, uh huh, I probably could have taken a less challenging ride for that. Ha. But where’s the fun in that?
- I was inspired by the elderly riders on the trip. People in their 70’s still cycling up gnarly mountains and having a blast.
Random Thoughts/Day: I'll attach a picture of the daily elevation.
Day 1: Registration: I see skinny people.
Day 2: You’ve got to be kidding! I’m going to die. It sure is pretty. Daisies!
Day 3: Hey, at least I can start peddling on this mountain. Why is my braid wet? The beauty is astounding. There’s Mt. Hood again, how did it get back there? Damn RV’s.
Day 4: Ah, 9 flat miles along the river. I could handle this view every morning. Oh crap – really? That hill? Ha ha ha ha ha, where’s the truck? (To be fair, I tried. I had no movement forward … )
Day 5: Gorgeous, Gorgeous, Gorgeous. Recumbents rule in the wind! Riding the windy Columbia river gorge. Wind is my friend.
Day 6: Where am I? There’s Mt. Hood again. Wait a minute, what Mt. is that? Hey, I made it up that pass! HYDRATE! Heat exhaustion. 102°F, but it’s a “dry heat”.
Hydrate
Hydrate
Hydrate
Day 7: Uh oh why did I hydrate? Thank goodness for shade – 100+ again! Oh - pretty water fall. Ah, relaxing water noises coming from the woods. Um, how many miles to the rest room? So if I hurry I could use the outdoor “fern room” before another rider shows up. Why did I drink 90oz of water last night? Please please please don’t let anyone drive by.
I’m being lapped by a fly. I’m riding slower than a fly. IT’S UPHILL – leave me alone. What is dripping from my braid? Eww, that’s sweat. Should I be proud of sweat dripping from my braid? Yes!!
DOWNHILLS ROCK.
I DID IT – I TACKLED YOU, YOU NASTY BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAIN, WHOOT WHOOT. (They may have heard me yelling at camp.)
Day 8: This can’t be over. So proud! Best vacation EVER. So satisfied. Hmm, I’m not sore … anywhere. Icing on the cake. The last day was a day full of majestic water falls, gorgeous paths/highways and a “relatively” flat ride back to Gresham.
Day 1 back at work: Why is everyone so grumpy?
Since it’s taken so long to write my ride report, I’ve been riding my regular route. Easy peasy. Wow, it was fun taking a full minute off the hill I hate most, that I like now. Got PR’s on lots of other segments and made my friend whine in pain. Hee hee. Now if I could take a week off every month and ride all day, every day life would be good.
It’s shocking how much improvement was made over that week, way more than I realized because of the challenging daily rides. But now that I'm home it’s very noticeable. My wobbles are virtually gone and it’s time to find more challenging rides, and oh, I’m way more addicted now to my Silvio.
Pics:
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