A wonderful day that started at 8:30 with me trying to ride from our house to Anthony’s without going uphill. I miscalculated and added elevation.

Still a great ride. Anthony and I made it to the cut off (to the trail that goes by the UW Bothell Campus) in under an hour, James showed up shortly there after. We only had one or two missed turns, up through to the Lowell Larimer road, but all in all made it to Snohomish and Pie in about 2hr 45 minutes ride time (just before noon with stops). The weather and view was gorgeous.

In Snohomish we had great sandwiches and pie behind the building in a Gazebo. Apparently we had arrived right in time - when we went back there were about 10 bikes parked out front. James and I eyed a couple of the recumbent bikes and soft-rides (including one lemon yellow one with a Sponge Bob Squarepants attached to it). When we went inside, I saw someone I knew (as will other people on this list from UW CSE department) - Richard Rodgers (and his new wife). Turns out Richard has the nifty red recumbent I was eying.

We rode back via Broadway hill (and Richard’s group passed us going up). But they stopped about halfway up and we just kept going. They didn’t pass us again Oh and I got to see a field of Irises in full bloom - what a treat!

On one of our almost missed turns James found our new Mascot: Maltby the Rescued Sea Otter (I’ve CC’d my sister here - who wants to start an Otter Rescue in the Pacific Northwest). Guess where we found him. Anyway, poor dirty Maltby road on my Voide Pack the rest of back, apparently flapping in the breeze.

Then Anthony and I got a crazy idea: let’s do 100 miles. So we followed James to his break off point (near Marymoor). After some discussion we went down East Lake Sammamish Pkwy through Issaquah and back around the lake.

Totals: My GPS says 103.55 miles, 7:37 road time, 10:24 total time.

Oh and 13 road kills (although we’re not quite sure if we should count the dead catfish on the trail near Newport). Four of the road kills were spotting in a 1 block stretch on Seattle Hill Road (Yes Jacki - I passed your work).

Two things I was personally proud of on this ride (other than being in the saddle for that long:

• In comparison to doing the Lowell Snohomish road last year where I was just WIPED at 14. or so MPH unless I was drafting Megan, I was able to sustain 17-19 mph unaided on the new bike with the aerobars.
• I was able to take the Broadway hill faster (note not FAST, just faster) than last time. It didn’t hurt as much either.

So is it the new lighter bike or is it the legs that are a bit better at climbing hills. Who knows.

Respectfully submitted,
Lauren

This morning, I got up literally at the crack of dawn and got on the road at 6am. I made it to Kirkland (via the 1 hill in Ravenna and the Juanita/Seminary and Market hills of Kirkland) in 1hr 11 minutes and signed up for the “7 hills of Kirkland.” I LAUGH at 7 hills.

Silvia showed up and we got started just after 8am. Hill #1? back up Market hill (210ft), to Juanita Hill (285 feet), then Seminary Hill (455ft). Then Norway (475ft), Kingsgate (412ft), - food stop with yummy peanut butter on everything - Winery hill (”Only 390 feet, but a 21% grade at the bottom AND my gears wouldn’t go down into the granny - I had to stop and fix that). We stopped at the food stop again for more peanut butter and cookies.

Here’s where dorky Lauren apparently turned off the GPS for 11 miles - skipping 1000+ ft of elevation gain)… For next was Education hill (410 feet), Redmond Ridge (617 feet), (the GPS was back on here) Mc Whirter Hill (266 ft), Education HIll (part II - 330 ft) and finally Rose Hill (a VERY long 525 feet).

Silvia did fantasticly well on the uphills. The only reason why she didn’t have to wait for me was that I was really good at catching up on the downhills. If you ask me, she’s ready for the Victoria 1/2 iron

After the Best Strawberry Shortcake ever, I went back up and over Market and Juanita/Seminary hill.

Total - approx 91 miles, 7000ft elevation gain. This link will show most - some is missing. The weather was perfect - cloudy so not too warm - just a little cool in spots until around 2pm on my way home. I met up with Ruben at U village and we walked the bike back up the hill to the house. I just couldn’t get myself to do that last 200 ft gain with a frappacino in my hand

Man I am glad I went biking yesterday as opposed to today.

As I managed to get myself a ticket for RAMROD, I am currently trying to get a lot of long hills in on my rides. Fortunately, Cascade Bicycling has a Saturday morning ride for people training for RAMROD.

The ride (70 miles, 5000ft) yesterday was gorgeous and took me downs some roads and parts of Bellevue that I had never ridden through. The weather was perfect, as it was partly cloudy and appropriately cool on the uphill and warm on the flats. The faster part of the ride was when we formed a pace-line for the final stretch from Maltby back to Marymoor park. Unusually, I was borrowing Lauren’s bike today which was _REALLY_ good since she had a triple which I had to use once on a particularly nasty uphill, and had the nice psychological effect of knowing I had a bail-out gear if I really needed it. In talking about this with the other bikers, I was able to get from most people that a triple would be a good thing to have esp at 6500 feet

The interesting part is that every stop people mentioned other interesting rides to do like the Bluett ride today, and another ride called the “Death Ride”. I will let you read the details for that here: http://www.deathride.com/

-Ruben ” Back to your regularly scheduled memorial day weekend …. ” Ortega

Although I wasn’t planning on it, earlier this week I decided to ride in the Mutual of Enumclaw Omnium road race. An omnium is a multi-event race, similar to a normal stage race. However, rather than scoring the winner of the GC - general classification, e.g. overall winner - based on overall shortest time, the omnium is scored on points. Points are awarded for each event; in this case, a time trial, criterium, and a road race. I ended up registering late (online only), and by that time Cat 4/5 was full. Thus, I ended up registering and racing Masters C/D. Masters C/D is similar to Cat 4/5, with the difference being Masters is 35+ (35 as of Dec. 31, 2007, so I just made it!). Also, Masters is typically previous Cat N-1… so Masters C/D is really more like older Cat 3/4, mostly Cat 3. Oh, and they’re all still pretty much in shape. Needless to say, I knew going in I was going to get my legs ripped off.

While the race bible said that the course would be a loop around Mud Mountain and then another loop north of Enumclaw, on the day of the race it ended up that the race would instead be 3 laps around Mud Mountain, similar to previous years. Mud Mountain is a about a 650 foot climb over 2 miles. There’s a short steep section, followed by a flat, followed by a medium not-so-steep section and a longer flat, followed by a long slog uphill. Then, it’s a fast, fast downhill on Route 410 back into Enumclaw.

Today, the hill kicked my ass. I was able to do OK on the first two parts of the hill, but I wasn’t able to keep the pace of the main group on the third hill and started falling behind. At the top of the hill, I regrouped with another teammate and two others and we tried to chase back on. While we made great time, we were still 200 yards away from a chase group a bit ahead of us and probably 400+ yards away from the main peleton. I had been thinking of just bailing after the first lap, but I missed the turn to the finish and ended up going onto the second lap. I let the group I was working with get ahead, as I was out of gas right before the hill. Well, some food, water, and active recovery, and it was back up Mud Mountain again. I did OK, a little slower than the first time through, but a much better heartrate. I made the summit solo, and had an enjoyable time bombing downhill. Only downside was that it had started to rain a bit, so it was getting cold and rainy. But hey, it was still nice and downhill.

I did make the right turn (literally) to the finish, and ended my day at two laps, about 1:40 into the ride. I was a bit disappointed I didn’t keep with the pack on the first hill and get some downhill peleton practice, but overall I was reasonably pleased with the two laps I had under me. I definitely need to work on my climbing though!

For your enjoyment, my HR chart from my Polar:

Now we had always said “Issaquah (70 miles) and now I understand - 70 miles is the U district to Issaquah and back. That’s not what we did today. This is:

Scott and I met up at UZ at 9, then we headed out. Right in Woodinville we suddenly had someone tailing us. It was ERIK! Riding to work. Very cool.

We met up with James around 10:30 in Redmond and continued to cycle south. Erik peeled off to work. We took West Lake Sammamish - which is busy with loads of cars (more than 12 years ago for sure!) but a nice wide shoulder.

The only problem is south of 43rd, it’s a 4 lane road, but no bike lane. There’s the bike TRAIL but it’s gravel. Where do they expect cyclists to cycle? I wonder what Cascade says about that. And why the decision to make East Lake Sammamamish trail gravel.

Anyway, a bit of traffic through Issaquah, which used to be a lovely place to stop for lunch. We didn’t though. We plowed on. We also found that it appears the Bellevue bike map is not up to date. At least the one I got from on line. We found the I-90 bike trail through signs - you pick it up right near Sunset school and it takes you UP the twisty windy switch backs (a beautiful wooded area) - towards the highway. It dumps you out near Eastgate - for about a 2 mile not-so-fun stretch - but again it’s busy but plenty of room for cyclists.

Right at Factoria, you pick up the trail again and it dumps you out right where the split off at Lake WA Blvd. From there we just did the south end of the lake - stopping for quite a bit at Kidd Valley in Coulon Park.

At Montlake, Scott peeled off and went home. By the time I got back to the U district I was only at 66 miles. Bound and determined to hit 70, I followed James back all the way up to 97th - to try a route to Meadowbrook that Greg recommended. It did quite the trick Greg. Thanks. James continued on the trail home.

So there you go. 73 miles. 5.5 hours ride time (7.75 total time with stops). My butt is sore.

Lauren

It’s a weekend for a ride around the lake, and the sun even started to peak through the clouds!

On Saturday, Lauren wrote:

Greg, Elizabeth, Sean, Anthony, Emma and I did a loop around the lake today. Here’s the data from my Garmin. I forgot to turn my garmin back on after Coulon Park, so I’m Motion Based interpolated the mileage from there to south Bellevue. Basically that means the totals (including the moving average) is off, but probably not by much. GPS log on MotionBased

On Sunday, we had two concurrent routes clockwise around the lake. First from Ruben:

Sunday morning’s ride ended up with a 9am start at Blakely and 25th near University Zoka. Sylvia, Erik and I met with his bike team to do a lap around the lake. However, Sylvia and I ended up taking a different path and diverged at logboom park to take Juanita, Kirkland and Medina hills to get through Bellevue. I highly recommend the route since it takes you by Bill G’s house and you can easily identify his because of the unusual (and pretty) gate that marks the front of his house. It was my first time through that section and liked the lack of cars and the wide roads. Given it was just the two of us, we ended up settling into a nice groove of chatting and occasionally sprinting off to climb hills and fly down the downhill sections. The weather was cool and overcast with no rain and a minimum of cars on a Sunday to pull you off the road. Sylvia and I were worried we would keep slowing each other down as her training for the triathalon included a 40 mile bike ride + run yesterday. Yikes!

Here is the obligatory route map, and the recommendation to go out biking soon.

GPS log on MotionBased

Sadly, I don’t have a MotionBased log, but for what it’s worth:

As for me, I and 4 other Winos also rode around the lake clockwise. Ruben & Sylvia passed us while at a pee break at Logboom, and then we headed south along 96th Ave, taking the back way into Kirkland. We cruised along Market St. in Kirkland and did the standard loop around. We made good time with plenty of chatter; about 3:15 for the loop. We were in a 5-person group, so riding mostly in a double line, keeping to between 18-22 MPH.

Next week: Whidbey!

I did just over 40 miles around the south part of Whidbey on Saturday. I got a late start (at 2pm) but managed to do the whole thing, including 3675 feet of elevation gain (a couple of monster hills!) in 3.5 hours (4 hours total time - I had to stop for an extra bike tire in Freeland and a latte in Langley).
Things to note: - Bike on top of Prius == overheight charge on the ferry. Note to self: next time put bike on Joan’s car before getting in ferry line (we did this on the way home).

• GREAT Artsy coffee house near where we were staying in Clinton (right off 525 across from a scary looking restaurant called Cozy’s)
• South Whidbey is really pretty, and pretty hilly.
• My new bike tires need tubes with long stems.
• My legs weren’t terribly sore yesterday or today - just tired.
• I saw 3 live bunnies, 1 road kill bunny, 1 green garter-ish snake, a bunch of horses, cows and a sheep who had just started to eat a dandelion puff ball from the bottom up when I called out “baaa” and it looked up, puff ball sticking out of it mouth. I wish I had my camera for all but the road kill.
• Elizabeth biked from Seattle -> Whidbey on Friday (and made the same ferry we did - leaving at the same time from Seattle we did - we were stuck in 1 hour of ferry traffic…). She biked Whidbey->Seattle on Saturday and made damn fine time.

Here’s the Motion Based report.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=37665&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=2604181
Lauren

Today ended up being a great day for a ride out in Pierce County. Erik (with Laura being towed in the trailer) and I ended up doing the 62 mile bike ride with no flats and no injuries. The conditions were fast and dry most of the day. There was a 5 mile stretch where it rained, but the reward was the sun came out by the time we were climbing hills in Eaton and the day got wonderfully warm. The food at each of the rest stops were grapes, cantaloupes, bananas, bagels, red potatoes and my weakness (extra chunky peanut butter). Most of the day is spent climbing the foothills heading towards Mt. Rainier and Eatonville. There were tons of farms, and cows and farm animals to entertain Laura. The big reward at the end of the ride is a 500 foot drop into Orting where we hit a max speed of 44MPH and an average of 35MPH for a mile.

The other reward is Strawberry Shortcake

Link to the ride:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=13403&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=2535634

-Ruben

I think I broke the “Lauren goes to Alki and it Rains” curse. We had some sprinkles on the way out, but on my way back it was pretty nice and I had to take off my rain gear.
We started at Greg and Elizabeth’s and did the “flat route” to Alki. We had a great lunch at Sunfish fish and chips, and I got a really yummy cookie at the Alki bakery for Elias (and some coffee and a cookie for me too). On the way back, Greg and I split off at the Sculpture garden to Fisherman’s terminal, then I split off from Greg and took the “long way home,” up NE 95th St to see if I could do it.
Note to self - get the compact chain ring changed back to a triple.
Here’s the data from the Garmin.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=37665&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=2523104

Ruben, Lauren, Megan, Katy, Elizabeth (towing Emmett), and Erik (towing Laura) went on our (mostly) annual Toeclips through the Tulips ride yesterday. The weather was threatening, but we only got hit with a couple of early AM sprinkles before lunch. Temperatures were in the 50s and it wasn’t too windy. The route starts in Mt. Vernon at the public parking next to the river.

The route starts heading south from Mt. Vernon following the east side of the Skagit River, then wraps around as we head to La Conner. For the most part, the road is chip seal, and the early going this year was rough… new chip seal, so rough going. Erik got a flat pretty early on! The southern half of the ride won’t show many tulips, by the way. It’s mostly there to rack up some miles and get warmed up!

At La Conner, met up with Lupe and Elias and had lunch in the La Conner Brewing Company. They have a small beer garden on the side of the restaurant, and some open space behind (available via the beer garden or by cycling around the block onto 2nd) where you can park your bikes. We typically eat in the garden, as they have heat lamps and we’re already dressed for warmth (and the restaurant can be a bit crowded around lunchtime!).

After La Conner, we start to head to the tulip fields. While our planned route is a 20-mile zig-zag course through the Skagit Valley by the fields, invariably we make various detours depending on what fields are actually blooming. Plus, at any point if people are tired or the weather turns inclement, it’s easy enough to hop back on McLean and take it in to Mt. Vernon for a quick escape. Megan, Katy, Elizabeth, and Erik headed up the first up & down and saw some lovely tulip fields, but after about an hour we weren’t seeing much so we bagged it and headed back along McLean. Lauren and Ruben had stopped to fix a flat after heading out a bit later than the rest, and simply sped down along McLean to catch up with the rest at Mt. Vernon. Back at Mt. Vernon, we hung out at the Same Ol Grind coffeehouse, where we had some lovely cookies and coffee and took in some of the town before heading back.

Here’s a quick Live Maps collection with the starting location & food of record, and a MotionBased trail for what Lauren and Ruben rode. And some obligatory pics!

Erik towing Laura:

Katy:

Megan:

Elizabeth:

Kids coloring, with Lauren and Erik looking on:

Ruben next to some beautiful tulips:

A daffodil field:

Update 4/15/07: Here’s a MotionBased link to the 20-mile Tulip Pedal that Skagit County Medic One holds. Similar route to ours.