Author: James

No riding for me this weekend as Susan’s away and so I’m full time juggling kids activities, from dance recitals to birthday parties.

I did manage to install my new saddle this morning. I’ve taken the plunge and decided to try a Brooks saddle (a hand made leather saddle from an English company which seems to be the saddle maker of choice for many randonneurs) . The idea is that this rock hard saddle molds to your body once broken in and is extremely comfortable. It’s meant to take at least a couple hundred miles though before it’s bearable so let’s hope it’s worth it.

Sheldon Brown’s website describes it as “The Professional series is most appropriate for vigorous cyclists who set their handlebars somewhat lower than their saddles. The leather is a bit thicker than other models, making the professional a little slower to break in, but making it the most durable model.”

First test will be on my Monday commute. We’ll see how much I’m hobbling around the office afterwards.  I’ve two weeks before a 300K so hope to have it ready by then. I’m generally averaging 100 miles a week at the moment.

The Bike Expo was on this weekend and I went along to it with Christian in the morning. Of course, we rode our bikes there. It was in a new location this year on the waterfront so most of the ride was along my daily commute.

We hung out there for a while admiring some nice bikes and gear on display. A lot of exhibitors and I ran into various people I know from the assorted clubs I ride with.

Saturday night saw my first exposure to Rockband. I went around to Clint and Kristeen’s place to rock out with them and Christian and Jennifer. Susan was on kid duty (she’d headed out the night before so fair’s fair).

We rotated through the instruments and vocals to an assortment of songs from “Roxanne” by The Police (which I sang with an under appreciated falsetto 🙂 ) to Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs to some more hard core rock offerings.

Pretty cool game!

The lads in fine form.

Sunday morning saw the start of the 2009 brevet season with a somewhat hilly 100k Populaire. The good weather saw well over a hundred people show up, which Eric and team managed to accommodate  well (considering only around 50 had pre registered).

The ride started in the U-District so I biked over there from our house for 9 am. We left on time as usual and started our loop around Seattle. The route found some nice steep hills to warm up the legs, actually ended up using my small chain ring for once on some of the steeper pitches after I went anaerobic. I paced myself a bit better on the later hills.

Susan and the girls had positioned themselves at the 15 mile mark at a local coffee shop to keep an eye out for me. (Ashley had been a bit upset that I wasn’t going to be around so this helped alleviate that). It was great to see them all on the café balcony at the top of a little hill cheering us all on.

I stopped to say hi and shed my rain jacket and then carried on to see if I could chase down the group I’d been riding with. (or rather the group I had just caught prior to seeing my cheering section after having been caught out at a couple traffic lights earlier in the ride and seen them vanish in the distance).

The ride went down to the Ballard Locks, where we had to dismount and walk across to Magnolia. A quick loop around Magnolia and then over to West Seattle we went. I’d joined up with some more riders by this time and rode with them for a while.

At the control at Lincoln Park I headed out with a group of 4 riders who kept a decent pace up the ensuing hills as we cut over to Seward park. 20+ mph pace lines make the flats go by pretty fast. We reached Seward park and after getting our cards stamped did a fast little stretch along Lake Washington Blvd. My legs finally decided that enough was enough at this pace and I dropped off the group to finish the ride solo and refuel. I actually ended up catching up to the group again just at the end so must have kept going at an OK pace even after I dropped.

The final stretch was through the Arboretum and then back to the Ave for the final control in a local Alehouse. A quick stop and then I rode home before I stiffened up to much.

A nice course and great day for a ride. All in all a good kick off to the season.

My primary randonneuring goal for this year is the Cascade 1200 (http://www.cascade1200.com).

It will be held from June 28th through July 2nd, doing a big loop around Washington state for 1240 km in a 93 hour time limit.

My registration is submitted so I’m committed (or should be, depending on who you talk to …)

Saturday was the final ride of the SIR Winter training series. It started in Conway (about an hour north of Seattle) and conditions were quite a contrast to last year. Last year it was overcast, raining and very windy and about 10 intrepid souls showed up to ride it. This year the sun was beaming down and about 60 people showed up at the start.

It was a great day for a ride and as usually happens different groups quickly formed of people riding at similar paces. I ended up riding with about 20 people going at a decent clip for the 83 mile ride. We averaged 17.6 mph over a fairly flat route (which is good going for me). I was pleased with how good I still felt at the end of it.

There were a couple moments that stuck in my mind, one when I had to stop to adjust my cadence monitor that was clicking on my wheel and then chased down the group to get back in a draft. Took a while hammering along at 25 mph to catch up (fun to see I could sustain that speed for a while by myself).

A first for me was taking part in both a double and circular pace line on one stretch of low traffic secondary roads. These areas are pretty exposed to the wind so we set up a dual pace line initially and then a circular one that was constantly revolving so you were either going up one side for a brief stint at the front or else falling back along the other side. Pretty cool and made the miles fly by.

(http://www.sceniccityvelo.com/content.php?id=Training_paceline_riding&format=1111)

Brevet season starts next weekend with the 100K Populaire. This year it’s going to be around the Seattle urban area on a route very similar to the PROS ride I did at the end of last year.