Youngs River Road Loop

Bicycle -- Schwinn 564

31.5 miles, 2 hr. 15 min. 14 mph av. speed

This is a longer ride, because we rode into 3 Cups, and then across the bay to Warrenton, out along Ft. Clatsop, Lewis & Clark Rd.

We're discovering that pace is best mediated by heart rate, not speed. The comfortable heart rate window is 138 bpm -- 85%. Climbing heart rate is running 148 / 150 bpm -- 90%.

We're feeling stronger. Maybe it's because two days off and not climbing the ascent coming out of Seaside on Lewis & Clark Road. That's 1.5 miles of steep, hard, slow climbing -- both directions.

Youngs River Loop -- roads are patchy in spots, rough, broken pavement. Waluski Road gets me around the bridge grating near the fairgrounds and adds some distance. We suffered up Williamsport, climbing heart rate at 150 bpm, but not hopeless and decent recovery at the top of the climb. Then across the crest of Smith Pt. and down to 3 Cups Coffee House

We had a tire failure -- tube leak which we fixed with the spare tube. But then the bead was giving out on the front tire. These tires are maybe 20 yrs old and deteriorating. We'll replace them both.

Moving the bars down a bit seems to be perfect now. I opened up the brake tension to provide more clearance. The Trek Radar computer seems to have a loose battery connection, and so we re-tensioned the spring. I keep losing my Max Spd reading when the computer blanks out then reads 99.9 mph for a second. It's reading temperature all wrong too -- 81F.

Protein shake for breakfast: skim milk, non-fat yogurt, banana, strawberry, blueberry, whey protein, wheat germ -- about 32 oz. Ride and then another shake.

214.6 lbs 25%

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Later --

We drove into Bikes & Beyond, bought two 700 x 23 cm tires (Bontrager, the Trek accessory brand), also bought two sets of SPD clipless pedals -- one set for the Schwinn, one for the Trek. And some Bontrager shoes for the pedals, a small tire pressure gauge, and a 15 mm pedal wrench.



We got the tires installed, a new rim strip for the front. New tube. Patched the old tube for a spare. Installed the pedals and adjusted them. They're taking some getting used to -- not really easy to find the clip-in spot under the shoe. We have the pedal releases adjusted, fairly tight because we're used to riding "tied in" with toe clips.

These pedals should address the knee problems. I was getting rt. knee pain again today, but not like Sunday. These pedals allow for some lateral movement in the foot to remedy knee alignment. This is the whole theory behind the clipless pedal design.

We're looking to ride tomorrow. Some stiffness, recovery tiredness. I like the Youngs River Loop, a decent mix of flat and short incline -- the right distance, some options for distance/terrain, and not much traffic. The roads have some patchy spots heading toward Youngs River Falls, but we're able to pick a line though most of the broken pavement.