Theme of the day: "Just keep pedaling". This is what kept running through my head, especially as I made my way up the last big climb of the day, which was almost 9 miles, over 2100 ft, and took about an hour. And for anyone who has seen Finding Nemo, it sounded similar to when Dory was singing, "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming." (For those of you that wondered what I think about while riding, well here was a little glimpse. It isn't as profound as you may have thought.)
And because "Just keep pedaling" was the theme of the day, I don't have a lot of pictures. However, from a scenery perspective we started in the lush, wet portion of western Oregon and ended in the high desert of Eastern Oregon. The transition was rather abrupt. One minute it was green with lots of trees and the next it was brown with rolling hills, farms, and windmills. Both quite beautiful and interesting.
When I was reviewing the itinerary, Day 4 was one of the days I was most concerned about because it was both long and a lot of climbing, so I'm happy that I not only survived it (which was the goal), but actually rode well. I wasn't completely dead at the end, but I also didn't have a lot left in the tank.
It was definitely a hard day. We started with two smallish climbs right out of the gate followed by a long flat section that involved another 10 miles of Interstate riding. I tried to conserve as much energy as possible during the first 42 miles so that the big climbs would be manageable. I also managed my nutrition, particularly my water intake, better than on Day 2, which helped a lot. We ended our day in Condon, OR, which is small farming community with a population under 700.
Day 4 stats:
distance: 93.66 miles
elevation gain: 7408 ft (a bit less than the route profile indicated)
nutrition:
breakfast: eggs, oatmeal with brown sugar and walnuts, yogurt, banana, muffin, and NuGo protein bar
lunch: tofurkey and cheese sandwich, 1 mint milano cookie, small coke
post-ride: 1 recovery drink, 1 small coke, kate's real food chocolate cherry & almond bar, and an orange
gels: 3
bloks: 1 sleeve
39 oz scratch superfuel, 26 oz zym, 78 oz water
Day 5 details - Condon to Hermiston
planned distance: 92 miles
planned elevation gain: 4163 ft