Portland Century Ride

After the 'agony of defeat' I experienced on the Seattle to Portland ride, I decided to re-evaluate my riding goals.

Last summer I had set a goal of riding a century - 100 miles - and trained pretty hard for it.  I signed up for the Portland Century ride and completed the 80 mile option.  I felt confident and in good shape for the Harvest Century in September, but Mother Nature had other plans and sent a ride-canceling storm.  I was half tempted to do the ride on my own anyway - but so much debris had been blown into the streets that it would have been impossible.  I was incredibly disappointed.

My training this year has not been nearly as intense, and I've hit more obstacles.  The "Worst Day of the Year" ride in February was canceled and I got a flat tire the night before the Bridge Pedal.  And I've already written extensively about my fore-shortened StP ride.  So I saw this year's Portland Century as a last-ditch effort to actually reach my year-old goal of riding a 100 miles in one go.  I needed a win!

I got up at 0'dark thirty and rode 5 miles up to the University of Portland for the start of the ride.

Waiting in line to register for the ride

Fortunately I had picked up my packet early, so I didn't need to wait in line - just ran in to grab a bit of breakfast before heading out.  

Mile 0 - Feeling pretty good.  It's chilly, so I've got an extra shirt on.  But the ride starts out flat in familiar territory.

Mile 10 - going along Marine Drive past the airport.  Did you know that PDX uses air-cannons to scare away birds?  Boom!  Boom!  Boom!!  It's a bit of an unnerving sound as you ride past.

Don't much like the look of those clouds hanging over Vancouver.

Looking back at Portland it's nothing but clear skies!

Mile 14 - After a harrowing climb up the I-205 bike path with cars zooming past on either side, we reach the first stop of the day.  It's nice to get a breather after that hill, especially knowing that we've got a bit more climbing to do within the next 10 or so miles.  

Mile 20 - I ride right past the cut-off for the folks doing the 45 mile option.  Feeling pretty good.

Climb baby climb.

A few people ask me "So are you doing the 100?" and I'm always hesitant to say "yes", so I reply "Well, that's what I signed up for." because when you aim to do something you've never done before - how do you know if you're going to make it or not?  Day 2 of StP was haunting me.  I kept telling myself that I'd just see how I felt and take the 80 mile option if I needed to.

Hill climbs = excellent views

Mile 30 - Second stop of the day at Lacamas Lake.  Despite the clouds it's really quite pretty out.  And this stop has bagels with lox.  I can't describe how motivating that is to this Jersey girl.

Lacamas Lake

Mile 35 - There's a bit more climbing but I take it slow and steady.  I've decided to take a relaxed approach to this ride - and even stop a few times to take pictures or when ripe blackberries tempt me off the path. "They were off my path so I never had dared... " I find myself singing the Into the Woods soundtrack as I ride along tree-lined roads.

Mile 40 - Immediately after the next rest stop we come to the big decision point - 80 mile option or 100?  I'm hardly the fastest rider, and the hills - although modest - do put my legs to the test.  But despite the chill, I'm feeling pretty darn good.

This is what I came here to do!

Mile 50 - We've had a quite a few rollers, and I have to say my legs definitely feel it.  But it warmed up and the views are impressive.  This is why I ride - to see beautiful places, to spend the day outside in the fresh air, and to get the exercise that I don't get in my day-job.

Getting close to La Center Washington.

Mile 60 - We're past the half-way point, and about to turn south to head back to Portland.  This stop was in a lovely park.

La Center rest stop

Stop and smell the flowers.

There were lots of statues and carvings. 

In a somewhat unpopular move, the organizers put the food down a hilly path.  After the hill climbing we'd just done - no one was particularly happy about the stairs.

It was interesting to chat with people and to overhear snippets of conversation from exhausted riders -  "Those hills were killing me"   "The thing is - these folks ride all the time, we just do weekends...."  - because I was feeling ok.  Tired and a bit sore, sure... but not wiped out.    Most everyone on this ride looked the part of a serious cyclist in spandex with clip-in shoes.  But in the end a pretty jersey is no substitute for training.

Mile 65 - Back on the road.  We pass lots of farms, goats, cows, horses, pigs, chickens and lots of apple orchards.  It's quite a scenic ride.

Mile 68 - I hear a rider say "This is the farthest I've ever gone!" and several of us congratulate him. This is the first century for a lot of us and the more experienced riders give us words of encouragement.  The recreational cycling community is incredibly supportive.  

Gotta love an old red barn

Mile 70 - More rollers.  There's no one giant hill to conquer on this ride like there was on StP, but there's a total of about 3,000 feet of elevation change, so I'm getting quite a workout.  Fortunately there haven't been any stop lights at the bottom of the hills so I've been able to carry the momentum half way up the next hill.  It's still a challenge though - to maintain control as you're barreling down the hill at 30+ mph, and then rapidly down-shifting to be able to climb the rest of the next hill.

At one point my chain just refuses to get into first gear and I'm screaming at it to just GO GO GO GO COME ON!!!   I try up-shifting and then trying to down-shift again, it finally clicks in.   Pedaling in the wrong gear sapped every bit of strength I had in my legs.  OMG - PAINFUL!!

Mile 75 -  Much needed rest stop at NW Organic Farms.  The farm provides organic heirloom tomatoes in a simple salad with olive oil and salt.  It is absolute perfection on this hot summer day.

Mile 77 - Because this is not a race and people start whenever they want, and take as long as they need at the rest stops, the riders get quite spread out.  This is nice because it means you're not just staring at someone's butt the entire time, and you don't constantly need to maneuver around other riders to pass or be passed.

But we ran into a bit of trouble here - they were paving the road, and traffic was being held up to take turns going around it.  While we were stopped, at least 50 other riders all caught up and when we were eventually allowed to go - there was quite a crowd.

paving crew

Mile 78 - I'm still surrounded by several other riders and overhear one saying "We're at mile 78... last hill at mile 80." And sure enough, a few minutes later we hit a down-hill section and I start building up quite a bit of speed.

It sounds weird to say, but I feel like I have bit of an advantage on the down-hill. My daily commute involves going down a long steep hill - rain or shine, wind or gravel - I go.  I'm also a heavy girl on a heavy bike, so momentum is in my favor.  So when I see that I've got a down & up in front of me - I embrace the slightly out-of-control feeling of zooming down the hill.  I was able to overtake a few riders on down hills earlier in the day - one lady calling out "you're awesome" as I passed her.

But I can't here - there are too many other riders.  Slow or fast - they're each just taking whatever clear lane they can find - 3 or 4 wide in the road.  I hold on and barely touch on my brakes to keep me from running into the person directly in front of me while still keeping as much speed as I can - and GAH!  There's a huge pothole in my path!  Rider to my left, rider to my right, and more behind - no place to go.  Ka-thunk!  Snowflake takes it like a champ.  I know on a lighter bike - on thinner tires -  I'd have been toast.  But nope... my girl is solid.

But then we still have to get back up the hill in front of us - again, too many riders around.  It's hard to stay out of each others way.  I'm trying to get into gear and it's taking too long.  I didn't get nearly enough momentum from the down-hill and my legs are wiped.  What kind of sadist puts a hill climb at mile 80 of a century??

A few riders are stopping and walking - I vow to at least catch up to one of the walkers before I stop.  But my legs are screaming.  I'm in my lowest gear and that's all I've got.  50 yards from the top, I get off and walk.  Dang!  I wanted to take it.  But I'm hardly the only one walking at this point.  The hill won that battle.

Mile 85 - Our last rest stop is at a winery.  Sweaty cyclists nibbling on cheese and crackers and enjoying a wine tasting - yup, this is the Portland Century.

Mile 88 - we cross the Columbia again and as we pass Jantzen Beach there's a woman sitting under a tree ringing her cowbell!  First cowbell of the day.   There's a van with bikes on the roof driving back up to Washington - they honk and cheer at us.  Yay!  This little burst of encouragement perks me up for the last push.

Mile 90 - The last 10 miles of the ride are flat and uneventful.  I'm back in familiar territory and could reach the school even without the road markings.  I take one last blackberry break before the end of the ride.

Mile 100 - Done!  My first official century completed.  In fact, I think the final mile-count for the ride is 101.9 miles, plus the 5 miles that I rode to and from home puts me at 111 for the day.  w00t!  I did it.

I take it on faith that the ice sculpture was prettier earlier in the day.

Music, food, and lots of smelly people - what more could you want?

Despite the fact that I'd covered more miles and about the same elevation changes - I felt so much better than I had after the first day of StP.   What was the difference?

1.  Gear - I'm on the same bike, but after getting two flats in a week I decided to splash out and buy new tires.  They're nothing fancy - about the same as my old ones.  But as soon as the new tires were on, I immediately noticed an increase in my average speed.  Good gear makes a difference!

My Special Snowflake, taking a well earned break herself.  

I also caved in and bought a pair of padded bike shorts.  I'm not convinced that it is much of an improvement - after 50 miles in the saddle, you're going to feel sore - but it may have helped.

2.  Training - I still haven't done as much training as I did last summer, but I managed to get in a few 20-50 mile rides and a good hill climb practice in the month after StP.  And, well, of course doing StP definitely counts as training for this ride.

3.  Support - I had actually planned to ride with a friend but didn't meet up until the end.  We did text each other from the route though which was nice.

At the first rest stop, I saw a gal who I'd done a few group rides with last year.  I was too shy to approach her until I ran into her again at the second stop.  We chatted and encouraged each other.  She was a bit ahead of me all day, but I'd catch up to her at the stops and chat.  It was definitely nice to see a familiar face.

(I was however, sorely disappointed by the overall lack of cowbell on this ride!)

4.  Weather.  I was quite cold for the first half of the ride, but that was probably a good thing.  It ended up being a hot day, but nowhere near 100 degrees like it had been for StP.   That kind of heat can really sap your energy on an endurance event like this.  Cooler weather made a difference.

5.  Home court advantage.  The first 15 and last 15 miles of the ride were easy peasy.  No major hills, no surprises, all places I'd ridden before.  You can study the route map all you want, but there's no substitute for knowing the roads yourself.


So that's it!  My first century... and probably my last... on Snowflake at least.  She's a great bike, but if I want to get serious about distance rides, I need to invest in a road bike.  That's just not going to happen this year.  I've achieved my goal, and I'll feel good about only signing up for shorter rides for the next year or so.  Lord knows I've got plenty of other goals (cough cough - grad school - cough cough) in my life right now!

Post race party with a co-worker!

Actual Crafty Content

In between all of my other summer adventures this year I have actually been doing a little bit of quilting.  I made this one in a bit of a rush between school getting out and my trip to Las Vegas.

I didn't have months and months to do anything complicated so I chose a fun pattern with lots of fabrics that had been used in other baby blankets for mutual friends, and a few special fabrics for this little girl.

I really love I-spy quilts, because you can tell stories with them, or play matching games, or counting games.  Heck, I really should just make myself one because I like them so much.

This particular little girl lives in France with her American mother and French father, so I made sure to include some flashes of France (see if you can spot the Eiffel Tower) and allusions to America (I spy some cowboy boots and an American flag).  And then, of course, there are rocket ships, kittens, pirates, pumpkins, and baked potatoes.  Because - why not?

I didn't have enough fabric in my stash for the back so I picked up something with a little international flair:  

And a few French phrases:

The backing all together:

It may not be heirloom quality, but it was made with love!!

Grad school is hard.

Nobody said it wouldn't be and I certainly wasn't expecting anything other than to work my ass off.  But like most things, it's difficult to know exactly what to expect until you're in it.  And all I can say is that grad school is hard.

I started this whole plan of going back to school to get my Masters shortly after I returned from Thailand in December 2009.  I started looking into programs, and researching different options.  One of the first things I learned was that I would need to take two years of a foreign language at the college level before I could be accepted into the MA-TESOL program.  So by summer term 2010, I was enrolled in Spanish 101.  By March 2012 I had finished up my Spanish classes and just had two more pre-reqs. to take before I officially started graduate school in Fall of 2012.

So I've been doing this whole "going back to school" thing for a solid 4 years now, and it's not over yet!!  To revisit that Winston Churchill quote "This is not the end, it is not the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning", I would say that I am definitely in the middle of the middle.  If I continue to go to school part time while working, I have at least one more full year of classes, and then however long it takes me to do a culminating project or thesis.  So I'm just trying to take stock of where I am and what I've been doing.

(and not doing especially well at times)

Time-management has been hard.  The content of some of my classes has been hard.  Working with group members has, at times, been hard.  Coming up with new ideas and planning lessons for my classes and tutoring sessions has been hard.  But I think what's been hardest has been the constant mental and emotional roller-coaster I've been on.  When I'm at work, I need to have my work brain on.  Then I go to class and I have to switch to my school brain.  Then I go back to work and try to shift back into work brain without losing what I was starting to absorb during class.  After work sometimes I have to shift into my teacher brain.  Then in the few hours I have at home before I need to go to sleep - I make my brain try to produce things like syntax trees for class or communication exercises for my students.  I have been asking a hell of a lot from the three pounds of grey-matter between my ears lately.  Seriously - for an itty bitty little squishy thing, there's been a ton of work going on up there.

(this is the kind of thing professional language educators do apparently)

The process of becoming a "Professional Language Educator" has been hard.  I'm having trouble developing my identity.  I mean... that's a sentence I don't think I would have even written before starting this whole grad school thing.  But we talk about things like that - what kind of teacher do I want to be.  Do I want to be a skilled technician, a reflective practitioner, or a transformative intellectual?  Am I going to take a normative approach or will I embrace critical theory?  I thought I just wanted to be a teacher.... like, a *good* one.  Hmmm.... not sure what that means anymore.  One of my assignments was to write out my teaching philosophy.  I banged my head against that assignment over and over  - I still have no idea what my philosophy is.

There's so much to think about when you think about how to teach.  Content and techniques, of course, but then there's culture, interpersonal dynamics, and political systems at work on local, national, and global levels.  We are constantly being asked to reflect on our experiences in the program, as students, tutors, and teachers.  I broke down in tears in the middle of the computer lab while writing up one of those reflection papers.

As hard as it's been to develop my identity as a teacher, I'm also trying to merge that with my already existing identity, as a woman, as a single woman who dates men, as a traveler, as a friend, as an employee, as a crafter, as a geeky dorky nerd.  Who the fuck am I anymore?  I mean, I know who I am, and I do actually think I'm pretty awesome ... but if I try to articulate it... I get lost.  And a lot of the time I don't feel like I'm doing especially well in any of those areas, and that makes me sad.

(Apparently I am the girl who smiles in pictures regardless of how stressed out I am.)

I do know what I need though.  I need some time to process all of the things I've experienced this year but haven't had time to sort through.  I need to vomit out a lot of the crap that I've been subjected to, and find a way to reinforce my emotional boundaries.  And I need to fill the well.  I need to fill my soul up with good things.  I need to spend what time I can this summer taking care of myself so I can go into next year strong and ready.

One of the things that really helped me when I was living abroad and going through that whole transformation was having a blog where I could document and organize my thoughts... but also get a little feedback from people.  I mean, obviously I talk to people all the time, and Facebook is great for quick updates and witty one-liners.  But the kind of stuff I've been experiencing cannot easily be condensed into modern-attention-span-chunks so I'm going to give it the time and space it needs.   I enjoy reading blogs where people are authentic - and not just pinterest-perfect  - and I know I'm not the only one.  So hopefully little injection of authenticity will help me sort myself out but also show other people that you know, life can be hard sometimes.  But you know... you keep going.. and hopefully one day you look back and you realize what an awesome thing you did and it will feel good.

Time And Relative Dimension In Space

I may be a bit new to the Doctor Who world, but I love the Doctor and all he stands for.  I've been so busy the last few years I would have loved the opportunity to step into that beautiful blue box travel the universe live all my crazy adventures, and then pop back home in time to go to school / work again. 

Alas, I'll have to settle for making my own mini-tardis pillow.

There's some basic piecing, and a bit of embroidery... but the big secret is, I used Time-Lord Technology.  I poured all of time & space into the heart of the TARDIS.


  

 The TARDIS is ... as you must know... bigger on the inside!

 

 It can travel through space... and time!  (although it only travels through time forward... and very slowly. ;)  )

A little bit of timey-wimey outline quilting on the TARDIS, and some wibledy-wobledy meander quilting in the sky.

Instructions which will be roundly ignored were embroidered on the door. 


It's just a lap-sized quilt.  Although, since I'm short, that's usually all I ever need.  Ooooh... and the plus side of making a pillow-quilt is that when it's all pulled out... I have a little pocket for keeping my feet warm! 

I think the Doctor would agree - Quilts are cool!

School's out for summer!!!

Spring term finished up in June, so I've actually had a few weeks to relax and breathe.  The very first thing I did was pull out my sewing machine and start playing with fabric.

Like most respectable crafters, I have an abundance of works in progress... fabric purchased, patterns planned out, everything I need except for time to work on them! 

I've had it in my head to do a Doctor Who TARDIS quilt for a while and finally started putting it all together.  

This is just the mock up to see if I had all the pieces right.  But I've been working on it and should have a finished object to show off soon. 


Here's the unquilted top:

In other news, the Sister's Outdoor Quilt show is this Saturday and I will be attending again so look forward to a post about that!

Actual crafty content!

I haven't had a ton of time to craft, but I warped my loom with some dish cloth cotton a while back and whenever I got a few minutes I'd weave a bit.

Little by little.... and there you go - dishtowels!

Ok - not the sexiest of finished objects... but I wanted to make something practical and I've got more than a few scarves in my closet already. ;)   I was also excited to try warping stripes and seeing how they looked when I used different colors for the weft.

Also - I finished the edges by hand sewing the first/last two rows together - just to keep them from unraveling when I took them off the loom.  Then I folded the ends over and machine sewed a zig-zag stitch for a hem.  It's not super neat, but it does look finished, and held up through the wash.

I made a super long warp and then tried to measure out the length for three separate towels.  It was a bit tricky... but I actually got it kind of close.  Two of the towels are almost exactly the same length - the other one is maybe two inches longer.  Not too bad.  And heck - it's dish towels... nobody's going to care. =)

Weaving ABCs

Last Saturday I went to my first weaving class.  There were four of us, so it was a nice cozy class, with ages ranging from 13 to retired.

Since I'd already muddled through my first and second weaving projects the first few things she'd taught us, I'd already figured out.  But I did learn a few useful things - how to do a weaver's knot, how to wind the yarn onto the shuttle to get the maximum amount of yarn with the minimal amount of bulk, how to direct warp onto the loop by tying the yarn directly onto the apron rods, and what the correct tension should be.

Now, the tension - that's one of those things I never would have figured out just by reading books and watching you-tube videos.  After I'd tightened up my loom, the instructor came by and gave it another couple of turns.  I was really shocked at how tight it was supposed to be!

She also showed us a different technique for how the weft yarn should lay between the warps before beating.  The video's I'd seen showed a 30 degree angle, but she had us do a semi-circle.  Both methods essentially just make sure you have enough extra weft yarn to go over and under each warp yarn without having to stretch.  Hmm... hard to describe... but you can kinda see it in this picture.

I also learned that when I'm not weaving, or when I'm transporting my loom, I should stick the shuttle between the yarns, and set the reed in the neutral position.  Seems pretty basic, but it wasn't something I'd thought of.

Overall it was a good class.  No mind-blowing discoveries, but several little tips and tricks I'm not sure I would have picked up on my own.  It was nice to have someone there double checking what I was doing and letting me know I was on the right track.  Now I need to finish the weaving part and bring it back in two weeks for the second part of the class - how to finish the project & remove it from the loom.

Playing with colors: Red

Here is the next quilt in my series playing with color and value. For this one I divided my fabrics into lights and darks, and further divided them into light lights & medium lights, and dark darks & medium darks. One stripe is alternating light light/medium light fabrics, and the next stripe alternates between dark dark and medium dark.

I used straight line quilting in the dark rows, and wavy lines in the lighter rows.  Kind of a darker reds = serious & steady,  lighter pinks = playful kind of thing.

I think this was a much more successful project than the blue quilt.  I do like the way I've given some organization to the colors, but still kept the individual strips somewhat random in size and distribution. 

So far, the lesson learned with these first two quilts is what happens when you randomly distribute high and low value colors (your eyes kind of bounce around the entire quilt), and what happens when you organize them (eye movement is more focused).  In these two examples, I definitely prefer the more organized approach.  But I do think this is something I want to keep playing with.

Playing with colors: Blue

For a while now, one of thing things I've wanted to do is work on a series of monochromatic quilts to kind of play with color and value, and basically as an excuse to buy lots and lots and lots of batik fabrics.

In between work and class and homework and occasionally cleaning house I've managed to put together three lap-sized quilts, each taking a slightly different approach towards color values.  All of them using stripes as the primary motif.  I'd already made my niece's quilt, and my big green quilt using this general technique... but I wanted to see what else I could do with it.

First up (or second if you count my green quilt) is blue.  I just used various length strips and alternated between dark and light blues.  The black lines were meant to give the quilt some visual structure and to bring down the overall color of the quilt into something a bit deeper.

I used straight-line quilting for the black strips, but wavy lines for the blue.  The intention was to evoke ocean waves.

Part of me thinks that this quilt was not especially successful.  It doesn't really evoke the ocean, and the variation between the colors is much too intense in places.

But on the other hand, the whole point of this series was to just kinda see what happened if I put the colors together this way or that way, and well, now I know.

Shedir

Hey look - I knit too!  And have actually finished something. =)

Here is Shedir from knitty.com:

I started this hat some time last year (maybe earlier)... so this has been a long-term WIP and it's nice to have it finished.

It actually ended up being a bit bigger than it should have been, but I washed it by hand and tossed it in the dryer for a bit so it shrunk.  Now it fits nicely, and I look forward to wearing it when it gets cool again.  Which might be next week the way this crazy weather has been going!

Warp Core Breach

Ok, maybe not a full on breach, but I've got some warp problems on my second weaving piece.

I'm not sure what is going on here.... it's not supposed to be all crisscrossed like this behind the reed.

 And it's not supposed to be in three layers in front of the reed like this. I will be reaching out for the collective wisdom of weavers on the web to figure out what's going on.

But the actual weaving is going well.  This yarn is a sport-weight soy silk, so while it's still a bit thin for the reed, it's working fine.

And yeah, purple again.  I'm not sure how I ended up with so much purple in my stash.

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

when first we practice to... uh... weave.


Here's my first woven project.  I learned quite a bit, which is just a nice way to say that I messed up a lot.

There's not a ton that you can do wrong basic weaving, I mean it's just sending the shuttle full of yarn back and forth.  But the edges get wonky if you're not careful, and I tried to get fancy tying off the fringe and it looks a bit sloppy.  I also misjudged how long to make the warp (vertical) yarns because I hadn't factored in how much would be needed to tie the yarn onto the loom but which wouldn't actually become part of the weaving.

The biggest issue I had was that I used the wrong sized yarn for the reed that came with my loom.  The reed is the wood & plastic thing in the middle that the warp yarn goes through.  Reeds are spaced wider for thicker yarns and narrower for thinner yarns.  Since the spaces on my reed were bigger than needed for the lace-weight yarn I used, it ended up being a very loose, drape-y weave.  Which isn't necessarily a problem.  But it's one of those things that is supposed to be a choice and not an accident.  Which it was. ;)

Oh well. I've already got another project on the loom and hopefully it will turn out a bit better.