Year: 2010

I registered for the Cascade 1000k last night, lining up the final step for optimal positioning for pre-registration for PBP next year. The larger the rides you do in 2010 the earlier you can pre-register for PBP in 2011.

It was a toss up between doing the official Cascade 1200 or doing the Cascade 1000 + RUSA permanent #413 (260k). You ride the same course but get slightly different credit for it depending on which combination you decide on. I still kind of want PBP to be my first official 1200 and the 1000 will also count towards the Randonneur 5000 award which would be another nice accomplishment to get lined up in conjunction with PBP: http://www.rusa.org/award_r5000.html.

Here’s the course:

and the various mountain passes

(Images from Robert’s blog)

This Saturday’s ride was from South Center in a loop around Dash Point. It was back to the rain with non-stop light rain for the whole ride. Plenty of climbing and a good workout for the legs. My pace was about 1mph slower than last year (probably due to the rain).

It was time for the yearly outing around Camano Island today. It was a bit foggy at the start but that quickly burnt off for blue skies for the bulk of the ride. The faster riders took off early on and my only further sighting of them was as I turned into the rest stop about a third of the way into the ride as they were leaving. It shows the difference riding through the year can make as my pace definitely drops off with my winter break. Still hopefully by the time the official brevet series starts and my fitness has improved a bit I’ll be seeing more of them 🙂

Great ride today and a nice chat with Rene who I rode with for the later half of the ride. My thighs were burning for the last 5 miles or so but other than that felt pretty good at the pace I was going at.

The kickoff to the SIR training rides for 2010 saw a break in the rain and a nice loop out from Sammamish Valley Cycle. Just a couple of climbs.