Author: James

I’m getting back into cycling shape in preparation for  the summer SIR Brevet series which will kick off next month with a 200k on July 25th. I took a couple months off around Ethan’s birth but am feeling the lack of exercise (and the body is showing it as the weight creeps up).

So far my rides have mainly consisted of my daily commute to work but I’m trying to get slightly longer rides in on the weekend.

Today was a return to the Burke Gilman trail for a ride out to Marymoor Park and back. I haven’t done this in a couple years (as the BG is not the smoothest of rides with all the tree roots pushing up the pavement). I remember bonking big time on this ride back in 2006 when I did it with Christian.

This time around I was able to hold a 17.3 mph average pace riding my fixed gear for the 56 mile ride (an improvement of a couple mph since my last time).

I’m planning on riding STP again this year with Christian (and hopefully his brother Clint as well). Today’s ride went well enough for me to stick with my plan to ride it on my fixed gear.

A 43 mile hilly loop around Dash Point this morning. My legs felt pretty good throughout (though a bit of a twinge in my left knee on some hills). I better start doing my PT exercises again on it to strengthen up the associated muscles.

My times and speed for this route are essentially the same as the last 2 years.

Since the middle of 2006 I have spent roughly 840 hours on my bike riding 10,000 miles. (What’s scary is that I have spent nearly exactly the same number of hours, 838, barely moving in front of  a computer playing WOW)

Saturday’s ride was the annual loop around Camano Island. It was a really foggy day and visibility was pretty low for most of the ride. Riders up ahead of me would disappear pretty quickly into the fog and cars would appear out of nowhere. Thankfully the roads are pretty low traffic and the ride went well.

It wasn’t quite as cold at the start as in previous year’s (though I had remembered mittens this year so that made quite a difference for my hands, compared to fingerless gloves).

My legs felt a bit better for this ride so I think commuting a couple of days last week had helped them a bit. My pace seemed much the same as previous years so hopefully on track to build on that this year to get faster by the summer. 

As a side note, I nearly brought along my single speed for the ride but was glad enough to have the lower gears on my regular rando bike as the ride was hillier than I remembered. Got over 40 mph on one of the downhills without speed wobble setting in (focussing on keeping my arms relaxed).