Overview

Today I went on a 50-mile training ride organized by Geoff Weaver. A group of us at work are going to be riding in the Peach of a Century 100-mile road race in September, so we figured that we had better start getting in shape for it. Prior to this day's ride, the farthest I had ever ridden in one shot, be it mountain or road bike, was about 30 miles.

We met up 10:15am Saturday morning at some random office building parking lot off of Cornelius Pass Road. The intrepid trainees included myself, Mike Witteman, Kurt, Bruce Bridges, Terry Smith, and (the organizer) Geoff Weaver. We set by cycling west for approximately 5-6 miles to North Plains. Once we got here, we followed the course description (see below). The ride out was mostly unorganized, with a few attempts at drafting, but mostly small groups of 2 people biking by themselves.

At the halfway point, Bruce turned around as this was his first time road biking in almost 7 years. The rest of us pressed on. Around the 15-mile point, my legs started to let me know that they were ready for a break, but, as I had told Mike earlier in the day, I have learned the art of suffering from years of mountaineering, so I kept at it. The last 5 miles passed quickly, and soon we were pulling up to Maggie's Buns, a bakery/cafe in Forest Grove where we would rest and refuel.

A quick note on Maggie's: This is the prototypical small town/college eating establishment: oozing with character, slightly rundown decor, super cheap prices, super slow service. I ordered a chicken sandwich (for protein) and a Pepsi (for caffeine and carbs) and ended up waiting about 10 minutes to get them, but it was worth it. The chicken sandwich was HUGE. I ended up giving half of it away since there was no way I was going to be able to finish it.

Back on our bikes for the return trip, we opted to ride as a team and draft the entire way back. Since I was complaining the loudest about hurting, I got to ride in the last position the whole way back. I definitely noticed how much easier I had it over the others who were toiling away up front. Even with the 20-30% aerodynamic savings, my legs were still protesting at every stroke. I was able to hang in there all the way up until North Plains (45-mile point) when my quads almost started locking up. I told the others to ride on without me, and spun solo back to the parking lot. My only goal was to get back to the parking lot before everybody else had packed up their bikes and left, and so it was with great satisfaction that I turned the final corner to the random office building parking lot and saw that everybody was still there changing clothes, putting bikes on cars, etc.

Trip stats: 50.54 miles, 15.6 mph average speed, 3:13:00 ride time, approx. 4:00:00 total time.

Useful tips I learned from the others:

Try to keep 0-3 feet behind the person you are drafting. Analysis has shown that the drafting benefit at 3 feet is almost the same as at 0 feet, so there is no need to ride the other guys wheel.
Always pass somebody on the left, because riders assume that they will always be able to go right in an emergency and you don't want to be there blocking them.
A basic formula for determining correct saddle height is 0.883*(Pant Inseam Length). This will yield the distance measured from the center bolt of the bottom bracket to the seat.
A simple way to increase peddling efficiency is to pretend that the bottoms of your shoes are muddy and you are trying to scrape the mud off onto the pedals with each stroke.
In professional races, if somebody falls behind the pack, somebody will often stay behind and help "pull" that person back to the pack by letting that person draft off of him.
When riding in a drafting line, each person takes his turn at front of the line. When he gets tired, he drops to the back of the line (on the left side), and everybody else shifts up one spot.

Route description (courtesy Geoff Weaver):

Step	Mile (approx)	Instruction	For
1	0.0	Depart North Plains City Hall and proceed west until the road T's	0.6 mi
2	0.6	RIGHT (North) onto NW Gordon Rd. Go about one block then through stop sign. Follow the road as it curves left and goes by the glider field on the left.	0.2 mi
3	2.1	LEFT (South) at T intersection at Dersham Rd. Cross the freeway.	1.1 mi
4	2.6	RIGHT (West) onto NW Dersham Rd. The road will make turn to the south. Stop at the railroad tracks.	1.4 mi
5	4.0	RIGHT (West) onto NW Harrington Rd	2.0 mi
6	6.0	LEFT (South) onto NW Roy Rd. More railroad tracks.	0.2 mi
7	6.2	RIGHT (West) onto NW Greenville Rd	1.5 mi
8	7.8	Stop at Highway 47. Be careful of the high-speed traffic when crossing. Continue on NW Greenville Rd (West). The road will jog right and left and then T.	1.8 mi
9	9.5	LEFT (South) onto NW Kansas City Rd which will become Thatcher Rd	2.4 mi
10	12.0	LEFT (East) onto NW Kemper Rd	1.8 mi
11	13.8	Stop at Highway 47. Be careful of the high-speed traffic when crossing. Continue (East) on NW Osterman Rd	0.9 mi
12	14.7	RIGHT (South) onto NW Visitation Rd	0.7 mi
13	15.4	RIGHT (West) onto NW Heesacker Rd	0.1 mi
14	15.5	The road turns LEFT. Stay on NW Heesacker Rd (South)	0.2 mi
15	15.7	Stop at Verboort Road. Be careful of the high-speed traffic when crossing. Continue (South) onto NW Porter Rd	1.5 mi
	17.2	Stop at Highway 47 which is not shown on the map. Be careful of the high-speed traffic when crossing. Continue (South) on Oak St and be careful at the railroad tracks	0.4 mi
16	17.6	RIGHT (West) onto 22nd Ave	0.5 mi
17	18.1	LEFT (South) onto Hawthorne St	0.1 mi
18	18.2	RIGHT (West) onto 21st Ave	0.4 mi
19	18.6	RIGHT (North) onto Cedar St	0.1 mi
20	18.7	LEFT (West) onto University Ave	0.1 mi
21	18.9	Left on College Way	0.1 mi
22	19.1	RIGHT (West) onto 21st Ave	43 yds