Category: Cycling

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.