Month: May 2008

So my time of 18:20 was co 14th out of 65 riders. Pretty good improvement over last year.

A couple of photos from the secret control towards the end of the ride. I was feeling a bit more beat up than I may look in the photos.

Arriving at the secret control (about 3 hours left to go)

Refueling

Still resting

Stats for the ride

Saturday saw a weather forecast for record temperatures and for once it was right. This ride was an SIR “classic” crossing 3 mountain passes; Snoqualmie, Blewit and Stevens and some steep bonus hills once back on the west side of the mountains.

We started at 5am from North Bend and I got over the first two passes before the worst of the heat and made it to Leavenworth in 6 hours, riding with Bob and Mike for a good chunk of the time and assorted others. It’s fun to be closer to the front group now. Not as many people in front of me on the rides as there were last year.

The climb out of Leavenworth, post Subway fueling, was a 30+ mile slog in pretty high temperatures. It was in the high 80’s with little breeze in the canyon. It was nice to hit the snow line and get some cooler air blowing off the melt.

Then it was a fast descent into Skykomish and 100 miles to go to get back to North Bend. This was the harder part of the ride for me as my over heated body was having a tough time eating food. There were also some steep hills to tackle on well used legs.

At the top of one of the steepest climbs I had a dog suddenly come out and start chasing me. I had enough in my legs to get away from him as he seemed to mean business. I remembered him being mentioned in the pre-ride report so it seemed that he was doing this a lot. I was thinking ill thoughts towards the owner who would leave a dog loose like this to attack anyone who passed. As a final note, I heard from a couple of people that passed there later in the day that he had come chasing after them as well. Unfortunately a car was passing them just at the same moment and wiped out the dog as it tore across the road to attack them. Much as I don’t like being chased by dogs it’s still sad to think of one being killed just because his owner wouldn’t control him.

Anyway, the ride continued through more rollers and then hit a secret control (to make sure no one had taken a short cut to avoid the bonus hills). Always nice to hit these manned controls during the rides as everyone is very encouraging and keen to help you get refueled and stocked up to complete the rest of the ride. I didn’t stay too long as I was trying to take advantage of the last of the daylight so I coated myself with more saddle cream (as I was rubbing myself a bit raw in places) and headed on.

Mark Thomas had come out to provide moral support at the next official control and then it was time for the final couple hours to the end.

I only needed to ride in the dark for about 2 hours on this ride which was a bit of a change. I came in well under my goal of beating 20 hours (finishing at 18h 20mins). Last year I’d ridden 2 400k’s, one flattish one in 20 hours and another rain soaked one in 24 hours. If I can manage this on my longer multi day rides coming up I should get more sleep at the rest stops.

No major aches from this ride. The main thing I think I need to think about a bit more is what to eat over the course of these rides. I’m still a bit ad hoc at the moment, eating well at the start of the ride until my initial supplies run out but then grabbing whatever is to hand at the controls. 600k in 3 weeks …

The route

Elevation Profile

Undaunted by the 400k coming up on the weekend I decided to go along to the weekly Thursday evening Native Planet training ride with my fixed gear bike.

It was pretty interesting riding it on the route, which has a lot of steep hills. Quite a change from doing it with my triple. The downhills were pretty tough as my legs had to spin at a high rpm to keep a decent speed so I didn’t fall behind too much. Going up I managed not to be at the back but had to zig zag up the steeper climbs to avoid walking.

With each climb labeled with an appropriate name like, Death Threat, Guillotine and Goat Hill you can take it that there are some decent pitches to ascend.

My legs were fine during the group ride and for most of the way home to Ballard but they cramped up just before getting home as I went up a hill after crossing Aurora. I’d run out of electrolyte drink a good while back so I guess I needed more to fend off the cramps. My left leg seized up completely and I got off the bike to stretch for a while and then gingerly rode the last couple miles home.

A good 50 odd mile workout.

The Cascade 1200 is creeping up on me. There’s only 7 weeks to go before it starts. I thought I’d throw up an image of the elevation profile I’ll be dealing with during this loop around Washington, 770 miles and around 40,000 ft of climbing, all in under 93 hours.

I better continue the hill training rides I’ve been doing …