3/4 done!

Broke a spoke… But repair is at hand!

50 miles!

On Saturday, James, Anthony and I went on the Cascade century ride down to Flaming Geyser state park. I didn’t post sooner because I’m missing quite a bit of data apparently (I pressed a button by mistake). Anthony’s garmin may have done better. I saw Linda on the way home - she was the sweep for the yellow group. I saw her husband Mitchel back at the Cascade headquarters - he was apparently the lead for the crazy Orange riders.

(Anthony, James and I were in the Green group.)

Today I ventured out to Fall City to Linda’s house. We did her “Red Barn Loop” - a leisurely ride up through Carnation and near the Nestle farm. It was gorgeous today! We got to see the foals along the route, but the Osprey apparently are not nesting this year. Oh and Sandy’s in Carnation is a great place to get a cold drink. There was a parade/vintage car show/craft fair in Carnation as well.

Good Morning Ride Fans,

Saturday morning found Greg and myself up at 6:45 am and driving towards Lakemont to the start of the ride. The hill climb up Lakemont is daunting because as you are driving up the steep hill, you realize the only way home at the end of the ride will involve you climbing it again to get to the car. The sprinkles while we were loading the car were making us wonder if this ride were a good idea, but by the time we got to the ride start everything is partly sunny and dry. The ride was a 100 mile loop south to Enumclaw via Ravensdale and back up to Lakemont via Black Diamond and Factoria. The ride leader was especially cruel in that he specifically chose side routes that had the steepest/ugliest/gnarliest hills I have ever seen on a ride. The majority of them were relatively short, but to end the ride on a 1200 foot climb is just not nice.

The only things of note were that for the first time this season my inner leg cramped while I was in the 95th mile and I realized I was just pushing to hard for too long. I was doing a paceline with a bunch of young’uns who were leading it out at 22-25MPH pacelines which was a little beyond my capacity (at least for 100 miles). Luckily some of my compatriot riders realized the same and we ended up taking the last hill at our own pace. Fortunately, the cramping disappeared after a mile of riding (slower) and standing up and stretching on my bike. It was intense enough I was worried it was going to lock up my right leg and cause me to fall off my bike.

I still want Lauren’s triple for RAMROD, but I was able to slog out some very steep hills on my double.

Greg was a trooper in that he did the entire ride using a very heavy bike, and large tires which put him completely out of drafting zone of the rest of the group. That said he soldiered through the entire ride and we were both able to get back in time to do kid duty and let Lauren and Elizabeth go out for a ride.

Obligatory trip stats:
104Miles, 7700 feet of elevation gain. 15.9mph base

5 _very_ steep multiple mile ascents.

Ah, a lovely day for a long ride. Ruben, Elizabeth, James, and I did the Cascade Flying Wheels Summer Century , a lovely tour on the east side of Lake Sammamish. It had been raining the week before, and forecase called for a 30% chance of rain. Well, Ruben came to get me about 7:30, and we were off. In Ruben’s words:

Great day for a bike ride!

Erik and I headed out at 7:30 on the Burke Gilman Trail to get to the ride start at Marymoor. There was the option to drive out, do 100 miles and then drive home, but that seemed silly. So we ended up biking out to Marymoor, catching up with Elizabeth (who also biked out) and James. The weather was lovely and the 65 mile route had enough hills to keep it entertaining. We all overdosed on peanut butter, bagels and clif bars. By the end of the ride I would have killed for an egg burrito with a steak, and James was talking about taking a hard salami to cut up and eat while riding, and Elizabeth thought about cubed cheeses. Can you tell we were tired of all the sugar and cheap carbs on the ride?

The weather conditions were overcast with occasional sun breaks which kept the weather warm enough to ride without a jacket, but not so warm that you ever felt overheated. There was some opportunities to tuck in some pacelines, and on one of the down hills I averaged 31 MPH for a mile and peaked at 44MPH. The total ride was 108 miles and well supported. Next year I take Elias on the tandem…..

Ruben is far too modest, but he’s looking in great shape for RAMROD. Clearly, my race training has put me in shape for short races - 2-3 hour hard intensity. I was doing fine until about the halfway point, 55 miles or so. Then I started to run low on gas. Yeah, there are decent hills on the ride, and my bike probably has 10 pounds on Ruben’s, not to mention my 25 pounds of gut. But that’s no excuse — I just haven’t been pushing on the endurance as much as I thought, and it showed today!

For the second half of the ride, Ruben and I went ahead of Elizabeth and James. We found a couple of other riders in a paceline, and made some reasonable time. Ruben took a monster pull — clearly he still had plenty of gas left in the tank. I sat on his wheel for a few miles, and then let him go ahead on the beginning of the last, and biggest, hill. I was talking to a woman in a Velo Bella shirt… and she mentions so casually, “Is this the 3-mile hill?” Yeah, not something I really wanted to hear. So I huffed it up mostly in the granny gear. Just before the top of the final summit, my right calf started to cramp hard. I quickly got to the side and rested it for a bit… it was fine for the rest of the ride.

The only other issue that cropped up was on the final steep downhill. My rear tube got a small leak - puncture at the rip in the tire from a glass shard I ran over 6 months or so ago. So I pulled off at the side halfway down, pumped up the tire a bit to get me back, and was off. I caught up with Elizabeth and pulled her in to Marymoor, where I swapped the tubes for the ride back at the Pedro’s tent. Ruben, Elizabeth, and I then headed home for the recovery portion of the ride — check out the HRMs below!

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

The 2007 season kicked off in fine form with Cascade’s annual Chilly Hilly bike ride! Or, if you’re a .83‘er, the FHR. It’s the same course that they’ve used for a while — a nice loop around Bainbridge Island, which includes a couple of nice hills. Here’s the elevation profile I stole from Cascade:

Due to random ferry times, we had a few going on each ferry, but sadly this meant we weren’t together as one big group. Jeanie, Vickie, Lynn, Didi, and her husband hit the 7:45 for the loop. Ruben, Megan, and Elizabeth managed to hit the 8:45 ferry and did the entire loop. I roped my friend Nick, visiting from Cambridge, UK, into coming with me and Laura. It took us a bit longer to get our act together, so we hit the 9:30. Here are some shots of them being photogenic before boarding:

Gotta love the cameraphone!

Nick, Laura, and I bailed after the Cider Stop… turns out hauling 55 pounds or so up some of those hills was a lot more tiring than I thought! Not to mention I was still recovering from the flu and had just done a race prep the day before. I know I know… WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

Let the season begin!

Chilly Hilly:
http://www.cascade.org/EandR/chilly/index.cfm

And STP

http://www.cascade.org/EandR/stp/index.cfm

And Registration opens on 1/15 for RSVP

http://www.cascade.org/EandR/rsvp/index.cfm

Ruben and I represented the Pastry Powered T(o)uring Machines at the final ride of the cycling season (according to Cascade , at any rate) — the Kitsap Color Classic . We did the Poulsbo loop and Hanville loop, for a total of about 55 miles (GPS forthcoming). The route was surprisingly hilly, especially the Hanville portion. Here are some pics we took along the way:

Ruben and Erik at Port Gamble

Ruben finishing a climb. Notice the bay in the background of the road? We came up from that…. huff!

Now, just how many bikes can you fit on the back of a Washington State ferry?

Erik’s Bell helmet gives him a lovely ‘do after a ride… just imagine how much he’d have to pay for that!