Larch Mt

Saturday a group of seven of us rode from the club in Camas Washington over the 205 bridge to the Oregon side and up to Larch Mountain a 4200 foot peak that has a paved road up to about 4000 feet. The forecast was for 80 degrees and sunny, but it was cloudy and misting at times instead. First we did a 2100 meter group swim and then started out on the ride. We climbed and then climbed some more and then climbed some more. Last year I did Larch Mountain from the Women's Forum park which is about 750 feet up so less climbing and the total ride last year was 30 miles. This year I didn't get to the Larch Mountain road until almost 30 miles into the ride. Then 14 miles of steep climbing. Got to the top and the legs were shaking for awhile, went 7-9 MPH the whole time climbing. Passed a recumbent bike going up and I said "that looks too comfortable, it's supposed to hurt" he said "It hurts!" Saw 4 bikes going down as we were going up and passed 4 or 5 bikes going up. At the top we waited until everyone was together, coach Denise was very slow, she hurt her shin on the last Friday run with me when she went straight from running to teaching a step class. She got off the bike and was limping- very bad sign. We ate in the bright sunand headed down after awhile. It was misting at first on the descent, I guess the top was above the clouds, and at first Gigi wanted to go fast, so I zoomed and then some of the sharp corners were a little hairy, so I got nervous and slowed way down. Denise caught up and said "what's wrong with Gigi" and I said "she's scaring me." We passed around 15-20 bikes who were going up while we were going down, must have been a large club ride. After a 35 or so average MPH descent for the 14 miles we went down some more to the town of Corbett and stopped for a water refill. Then down to town and over the bridge and back to the club at 86.1 miles and a 15.8 average.
Today was long run day and coach Denise can't run, so I went with a group of four and they are all fast, so we started out and were soon zooming along at a 7:40 or so pace. I stayed with them for about 3.5 miles and then had to fall back and kept them in sight until about 5 miles when there was a turn along LaCamas lake and I a saw a really pretty girl throwing a stick in the water for her dog so I slowed down to say hi and then couldn't speed back up. Then the long climb back to the club and through a neighborhood and back at 10 miles in an 8:43 pace- very fast for me lately. I should run with them each time and try to hold on longer and longer.