Author: James

I’d lined up this 300K for Northwest Crank this year as I’d ridden some of the roads before last year and loved the scenery. I was anticipating finishing around sunset and was initially heading out without a jacket until I heard that I might run into snow (despite the sunny forecast). I raced back to my room to get my jacket and got back to find that everyone had left promptly at 6am, it was now 6:03am. I chased down the various people out there until I got to what I thought was the front and settled in there with Ken Bonner and Suzanne. I found out later that Chris Ragsdale was further out in front but I wouldn’t have caught him 🙂

The route headed up into the Pallisades on a road I hadn’t been along before which included a 7 mile stretch of gravel. I had to walk the bike up a couple of the steeper stretches as my wheels were spinning out on the loose gravel but all in all it went all right on my 25s. I was happy to back onto pavement but it was at this point that the wind started to pick up and impact us more. I still made reasonable time along this stretch to the Dry Falls Visitor Center for the first 100k as some of the stretch had a tailwind. I hit there in about 4 1/2 hours but then took around 13 hours for the next 200k, most of it into very strong headwinds.

We even had some snow pellets hitting us out at Banks Lake on our out and back leg from Coulee City. I rode most of this ride on my own as my knee was twinging a bit so I wasn’t pushing it to stay with any group that wasn’t going at a pace that my knee felt all right with.

As dark fell up on the plateau it started getting quite a bit colder and the fact that I was only going about 6 mph into the headwind pushing hard meant that it was going to be a long day. Susan was tracking me on my iPhone and I was able to call her from Waterville as I huddled behind a bale of turf trying to get some shelter from the wind before moving on.

I got in around 11:20 pm. Probably the toughest 300k I’ve done due to the wind.

Friday evening was spent getting my bike all set up for Saturday’s 300k brevet. This ride was starting from the U-Village so I decided to ride to the start (a 6 mile warmup for the day ahead). My alarm woke me at 4:30am and I left the house a little after 5. This ended up being the only riding in the dark I had to do, which gives a sneak preview of how fast I was on the official ride.

Around 80 or so riders were milling around the Starbucks near Barnes and Noble (one of 4 in the village and naturally open at this early hour). There was a good buzz and we left promptly at 6am essentially biking back towards Ballard before turning North for our big loop up to Mt. Vernon via Mukilteo. I try to work my way up towards the front early on in a ride to find a group going at a compatible pace. The risk is that you miss a group that you could ride with if the large initial mass of riders gets separated by a changing light that splits the group and then you never see the people who made the light again.

Made good time out to Mukilteo via familiar roads and then started climbing out of the port.  This was about 20 miles in and a larger group caught up with me and the guy I was chatting with as we climbed along. This was the group training for Charley Miller type pace at PBP (they’d stopped for a puncture earlier on hence they were behind us). I joined up with them and ended up sticking with them for the rest of the road.

Great organized pacelines and short control stops meant we motored along and made good time. I ended up finishing the ride in 12:33, which is about 3 1/2 hours faster than my previous times for this distance and 1:20 faster than my target time for the ride.

I was pretty tired after the ride but no real aches or pains. All the P90X is definitely helping I think. I was pleased that I was able to hold my own with this group of faster riders and take my turns up front in the pacelines. The electrolytes prevented any cramping though I could have used a bit more variety in my food. The gel blocks get a bit too sweet about 100 miles in and I can only stomach so many energy bars.

This bodes well for a considerably different experience in my longer rides this year if I can keep riding faster and have more time in the bank for sleep or cafe stops in France!

A quick catch up on my riding since the 200k. I’ve started riding the Native Planet Thursday night rides again (well one so far). It was good to be back riding with the NP crowd and hitting some familiar hills. I’ll try to make it a fairly regular ride. I’ve also been introduced to a new website for tracking biking stats called Strava. It allows you to easily break up rides into segments so you can compare your times on the same climbs over time (and hopefully see how you improve). You can also see how you’re doing against other people who have ridden the same segments. Very cool.

http://app.strava.com/athletes/15349

I’ve also done a couple of shorter Cascade rides on the weekends with the CATS groups. The one two weekends ago started at Magnuson Park and rode down south hitting some new climbs that I hadn’t done before. I rode with the fastest group and the pace seemed fine. This last weekend I went down to Southcenter to start the CATS ride there. This was a larger group and everyone was in the same group. As such there were a lot more breaks and the rhythm of the ride was a bit different than I’m used to with a lot of regroups and waits. I went solo after a couple hours as I wanted to be back home in the early afternoon to work on building a Playhouse with the kids.

A busy month of rides ahead with the 300k this weekend, Northwest Crank later in the month (with plans to ride a 200, 300 and 400k at it) and rounding out the month with a 370k Fleche. A lot of good base miles ahead.

P90X is also progressing well. Susan and I have entered Month 2 now. It’s helping to work on the other muscles that are needed, but not necessarily developed, by riding and should help prevent injuries. Before and after photos will be provided once we complete the 90 days!

The first official brevet of the SIR 2011 season drew a large crowd of 120 riders to the 7am start. I got up at 5am to make sure I could get to the start on time and didn’t forget any of my gear (the previous ride had seen me without any water bottles)!

We set off at a good pace, spurred on by a downhill descent from the top of the hill that we had started on. This hill would await us at the end of the ride after 123 miles for a final 2 miles of climbing to finish us off.

I stayed near the front of the main group, though Chris Ragsdale, Jan Heine and a couple others were off the front immediately riding a different ride altogether. They eventually finished in 7:15. We all made good time until the first vertical climb at 18 miles which spread the pack out a bit. My legs were feeling good, after making the wise choice to skip the P90X leg workout the day before so as not to fry them, and I hung on near the front as we climbed up and then on to the first official control at 24 miles or so.

I was trying to minimize my time at stops for this ride and did a pretty good job of it. My target was 1:10 off the bike and I held it to :50. I still didn’t feel to rushed and did eat a little at the 87 mile control though the food selection wasn’t great. I was eyeing some hot dogs but when the attendant couldn’t tell me how long they had been sitting keeping warm I decided to pass.

The course was a nice mixture of climbs, rollers and flats for some recovery. Overall I felt good though I started to cramp a little 80 miles in and had to back off the pace a little to let my electrolyte tablets kick in. I should probably start taking them a little earlier on my next ride. I didn’t have my usual gel bloks along so was mostly caffeine free for this ride.

I finished in under 9 hours (8:54) which was a good time for me and well inside my R70 target time of 9:28. Overall I was in the top quarter of the 120 riders which is an improvement over previous years.

Next up is the 300k on April 9th (Target time 13:50).

The SIR season officially kicked off with the Spring Populaire, a 100k ride starting in Woodinville and looping around country roads through Carnation and then back via Redmond.

There was a great turnout of close to 100 riders and it was great to see so many familiar faces from previous years.

My meticulous planning the night before ran into some snags when I realized that my two water bottles were still at home in the fridge and my Garmin GPS had no battery charge (it must have not charged properly after Thursday’s ride which had drained the battery). So it was off with the heart rate monitor and I scrounged a temporary bottle of regular bottled water so at least I would have some water with me. I reckoned I’d just need to drink when I stopped rather than as I rode.

The peleton took off at 9am at a leisurely pace along the trail before we left it a couple miles along and started our  climb out of Woodinville. My legs were feeling good despite a 110 mile ride on Thursday so I moved up the pack as we ascended the hill and then hopped on the Ragsdale express as it swept by me with Bob, Mike and other fast riders in the group. (They can ride a lot faster than me but I can hang on drafting for a while on any given day). It was fun riding some of the same roads that I’d been on solo on Thursday at a much faster pace. I stuck with them until the first control but then my extra minute spent drinking my make shift water meant they had left ahead of me.

I took off chasing and got on another group. My chain had been shifting a bit strangely on Thursday and I was planning to drop the bike in for a service this week. While I thought I could get one more ride out of it my chain didn’t go along wiht the plan.

I was pushing uphill on one of the rollers when it snapped. This had never happened to me before and lacking a chain tool (which was also safely at home) I didn’t have many options. Thankfully there were other riders who stopped and walked me through the steps to take out a couple of links and attach the chain back together again with their tool. It was great to have gone through this on a sunny day so that I should be able to do it again if need be (particularly if I’m by myself at 3am on a mountain pass in the rain … ). That will be the last ride that I don’t have a chain tool along with me.

I also checked my maintenance logs and that chain had about 3000 miles on it which is really too much. I think the average life expectancy is around 2000 miles.

Once the chain was back together (now a couple of links shorter) I babied it in for the rest of the ride, staying out of the big chain ring and staying seated on all the climbs. It survived but it meant my time and pace was a bit slower than usual.

A good stop at Sandy’s for refueling and then a climb over the hills to Redmond and back up along the trail to Woodinville. Next up is the 200k in 2 weeks as the first of my 4 qualifying rides for PBP this year.

I’ve a couple of speed targets for the various brevets this year. These were created by the Cyclos Montagnards group as a series of speed awards for those who are motivated by trying to go faster on these longer rides, http://www.cyclosmontagnards.org/R80Rules.html.

The R80 award seems very doable and the R70 as a stretch goal (I have ridden both a 200k and 400k at R70 pace in the past). The main issue is the 600k as I don’t think I can have a sleep break and achieve the necessary times.

The R80 honor requires completion of a brevet series (200, 300, 400 and 600 km) with each brevet completed in 80% or less of the maximum allowed time limit. The R70 and R60 honors are for those who complete the brevets in 70% or 60% of the allowed time, respectively.

R80:
200 km: 10:48 hours
300 km: 16:00 hours
400 km: 21:36 hours
600 km: 32:00 hours

R70:
200 km: 9:27 hours
300 km: 14:00 hours
400 km: 18:54 hours
600 km: 28:00 hours

R60:
200 km: 8:06 hours
300 km: 12:00 hours
400 km: 16:12 hours
600 km: 24:00 hours

I’ll be riding the inaugural running of a new 1200k bike ride in Colorado in July this year.

Here are a few of the challenges that the organizer has shared about this ride. I think the altitude will be the most “interesting” one based on my experiences living at 6000 ft in Nairobi and 8000 ft in Thimphu and the debilitating impact it can have on you when you first reach that altitude. I need to work out how far in advance I should arrive before the event starts to acclimatize sufficiently.

That said the altitude training should make me that much stronger for PBP in August. At least that’s the theory…

Source: http://coloradohighcountry1200k.blogspot.com/

TOP CHALLENGES:

• Altitude
• Extended Climbs
• Wind
• Temperature Range
• Chilly Precipitation
• Hydration
• Wildlife

CHALLENGES RESERVED FOR OTHER EVENTS (what you won’t be facing!):

• Steep Grades
• Technical Turns
• Complex Routefinding
• Congested Areas
• Crowds of Riders
• Humidity
• Insects
• Poisonous Animals

I mention these topics – and others, such as cattle guards – on the Rider Info page, but here are a few more gratuitous thoughts:

• Altitude – You’ll top out above 10,000 ft. three times on the route, and sleep near 9,000 ft. the final night.  This verges on being “at altitude” as they say here, and does have its effect, even for folks who live here on the Plains (at 5,000 ft.).  What effect??  I’ll discuss this more in a separate post, since a number of you have asked.
• Wind – Canyons can channel wind.  The open high-country areas (“parks” in Colorado terminology) have few trees so wind can have its way there, too.  A good reason to practice those social skills and cultivate riding partners early on?
• Extended Climbs – Those “endless rollers” where you may come from may seem tough (and are!), but you at least get a break every mile or two.  The one, or two, or three-hour climbs on this ride can grind a rider down.  Take this into account.  Take a stretch break; hydration break; chat break; whatever, if you need it.
• Temperature Range – Although it’s a “dry cold” and “dry heat” here because of the low humidity, you may need to carry more layering – for chillier parts of the day –  than you might otherwise in a more humid climate.  Have a look at the statistical low and high temps on the Rider Info page.
• Chilly Precipitation – Summer showers in the mountains can be cold, not a tropical shower.  You should be fine if you have the right outerwear, are smart, and don your gear in a timely fashion.
• Hydration – An arid climate + wind = lots of potential moisture loss.  It’s the same old advice: you won’t know you’re dehydrated in a cool, dry climate until it’s become a big problem.  So keep ahead of the game.  I’ll have a post about hydration-challenging segments later on.
• Wildlife – Each region has wildlife considerations.  Much of the High Country route passes through sparsely-populated areas: National Forests and National Wildlife Areas, where wildlife flourish.  Be mindful of moose, which are large and can be aggressive, and general wildlife on the roads in the pre-dawn and post-dawn hours (coyotes, deer, etc.)

Ashley and I decided during the week to take part in the annual Chilly Hilly bike ride around Bainbridge Island this year. Last year saw over 6000 participants take part but a forecast of the coldest, wettest conditions in many years led to a lower turnout this year (~3500). The ride lived up to it’s name with many hills, strong winds, snow and rain to make for an epic ride.

We left the house at 8:30 am to catch the 9:35 ferry to the island. We’d planned out our layering strategy to stay warm the previous night and Ashley was well protected (though our protection of her extremities needed revision as the ride progressed .. more on that later).

Everyone was up to see us off though our farewell comittee quickly retreated back into the warmth of the house as we biked off.

A strong head wind was blowing in our face as we rode the 7 miles to the ferry and Ashley’s hands got pretty cold through her gloves so I gave her my wool ones as a second layer which did the trick for her but left me with chilly fingers later in the ride once it started snowing! I ended up taking her original pair later to give my fingers a bit of protection.

Once we got to the ferry we quickly registered and lined up for the 9:35 ferry.

Once we reached Bainbridge we rode off with our 1000 riding partners and started on the loop around the island. It was great for Ashley to see various other kids her age on tandems, tag alongs and even their own bikes. We saw one triple as well set up for two kids.

The ride was great with a nice tailwind initially and we powered up the hills (past all the people walking the steeper ones). A lot of friendly people cheered Ashley on as everyone was out for a fun day out. The conditions deteriorated a bit as we got to the first official rest stop at Mile 15 or so and it started to snow.

I drew on my Randonneuring experience and moved us out of the wind and snow into a heated toilet nearby for Ashley to warm up a bit with some hot chocolate 🙂

Then it was back out into the elements and onto the hot cider stop at Mile 20. Ashley’s feet were getting cold at this stage as they got wetter so we decided at the next stop to take the handy shortcut back to the finish and cut off about 10 miles. I used a couple sandwich bags over her socks to keep the wind chill down and that helped.

We got back to the finish and rushed down to catch the ferry which was just leaving. Then it was 7 miles back to the house and a nice hot bath to remove the chill. We had a great time! A fine introduction for Ashley to riding longer group rides in tough conditions.

All told we rode 35.5 miles (Ashley longest ride to date by about 30 miles…)

So 2010 is coming to an end and with it my biggest mileage year to date. A grand total of 5176 miles, just pipping 2007 which was my first year of active randonneuring.

2011 brings with it another PBP year and roughly 5000 miles of official SIR rando rides possible (that’s on top of commuting and any other club rides I choose to do). Suffice to say I won’t be doing all of those rides but it does present an nice selection of options in the year ahead.

Official Randonneuring Results for 2010

MCKEE, James | Seattle International Randonneurs | 947018

2010 ACP SR, annual total=3569 km

Km (Date)

100 (2010/02/28) Spring Populaire

200 (2010/03/20) Bellingham 200k

300 (2010/04/03) Bellingham 300k

200 (2010/04/25) Northwest Crank 200k

400 (2010/05/15) Bremerton 400k

600 (2010/06/05) 4 Passes 600k

1000 (2010/06/26) Cascade 1000k

261 (2010/06/29) Cascade 261k

100 (2010/07/10) Summer Populaire

300 (2010/08/07) 3 Volcanoes 300k

108 (2010/08/29) Mountain Populaire

I drove down to Mount Rainier on Saturday morning for the chance to climb up to Paradise along Steven’s Canyon Road. It was raining on the way down and driving over Cayuse there was practically zero visibility in the low fog. I actually overshot the turn and had to drive up to Chinook before I could turn around. It was looking a bit hairy for the ride up to Paradise if similar conditions prevailed.

Thankfully they didn’t! The cloud cover started to burn off and we had ideal riding conditions heading up to Paradise. Some sun but not overly hot. The only downside was that Rainier itself was obscured by cloud for the whole time so we didn’t get the stunning views of it that are potentially available.

There were 4 of us in total; Marcel, Rosemarie, Annie and me. I’d decided I would stop and take more photos along the way this ride as I had no time constraints to get to the next control which are always prevalent on my randonneuring rides. It’s a nice steady climb with plenty of spots to stop and admire the views.

We climbed at our own paces regrouping periodically and stopped for a bite to eat at the top before descending back to the cars. My bike worked well and the new wheels and tires rolled well going down hill. I had plenty of opportunity to practice hopping my bike over the numerous grates in the road as I headed down at 35+ mph.