It’s time to get serious
Saturday, June 26, 2010
We’ve been farting around with our STP training. Today, we’re riding our first century to get ready:
I like hills!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
When Nick and I biked around Tuscany in 2007 with our good friends Dave, Karen, Bruce and Sylvia, I made up this silly song to help me climb the impossibly steep hills that plagued each day’s route. When I saw this icon of a biker going uphill yesterday, I knew there was some new computer wallpaper in our future. Now that it’s installed I crack up every time I sit down at the computer and read the lyrics.
Click the picture for a popup of the full-sized image.
Tour de Snoqualmie
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The sun started to shine just about the time today’s Giro stage finished up, so Nick and I saddled up for what should have been a 65-mile ride today. (More on the “should have been” later.)
The day was just warm enough to leave the house wearing just a jersey, arm warmers, shorts and knee warmers - perhaps the first long ride of the year without a vest! From our house, we dropped down into Redmond to Marymoor Park and crossed over to the other side of Lake Sammammish. By the time we hit Inglewood Hill Road (devilishly steep), we were good and warmed up. Nick stood up and rode away from me like a juiced, Eurotrash cyclist. I tried to hang on his wheel, but ultimately had to be satisfied with grinding my way slowly up the hill, confident he’d be waiting for me at the top. The 12% descent down to Redmond-Fall City Road made it all worth it, of course. And I had no trouble keeping up then!
We weren’t done climbing yet, though. In order to get the Snoqualmie Valley with the least amount of time spent on a highway, we took Ames Lake Road. It’s a windy road that works it’s way up through heavy forest. Did I mention it went up? Nick rode away from me again, waited at the top, and then we were rewarded with another happy, twisty descent, this time into the Snoqualmie Valley. Which reminds me, I really should sing the puppet song more often when I’m climbing on the bike...what goes up, must come down, spinning wheels round and round.
By the time we got to Carnation, we’d ridden about 25 miles and had hungry bellies. Fortunately I made some spinach & chickpea almond salad wraps before we left, which made excellent snacks. I think this was the first time I’d made wraps instead of sandwiches for cycling, and I’d like to take a minute to extol their virtue. Sandwiches are good - very good, in fact, and unquestionably better than Clif Bars or Gu - but they tend to get smushed in your jersey pocket. Tortillas, however, do not degrade when pressed, and they roll up into a very convenient, longish, pocket-sized shape. If you wrap them in plastic wrap, they hold their filling nicely. Who knew?! I’m a convert and will be looking for more interesting wrap ideas for future adventures!
Back to the ride…
This was a two-Snoqualmie ride, so we headed south along the Snoqualmie Valley until we got to Fall City. From there we turned up the hill for Snoqualmie Falls. The flood gates were open and the falls were roaring. We paused for a peek at the nesting peregrine falcons - little puffs of white on the cliffs opposite us.
(For more pictures of the falcons visit http://sfpf2010.zoomshare.com/ . The journal of the falcons’ growth it pretty interesting.)
After another snack, we headed back down the hill for home. Unfortunately, our clothing choice proved not as wise as we thought. As soon as we hit Fall City, little spatters of rain started to fall. We took stock of our intended route over Duthie Hill (pretty dark and ominous) and a shorter, less hilly alternate route back to Redmond (lighter, less likely to rain), and picked the alternate. That meant 10+ miles of riding on Highway 203 - yuck! Nick took the lead and we peddled at 20+ mph along the highway. Within 20 minutes, it was raining hard. So hard, that I couldn’t draft Nick anymore because his rooster tail was throwing grit into my face.
We got to Redmond without too much fuss then encountered the most angry set of drivers I’d ever seen. We signaled our intent to cross two lanes of traffic to get to the left hand turn lane and were met with all sorts of honking and yelling. “Follow the rules of the road!” Um, we did. Maybe you need to learn the rules of the road *ssh*le.
As we turned off the main road, we heard a driver lob the last parting “insult,” calling us gay and a lesbian. We laughed the whole way down to Lake Sammammish, wondering what sorry state of the world we live in where someone actually thinks that was insulting. Was that the best she could do? Then we peddled hard to work out a bit of anger and frustration...what kind of person actually thinks being gay is so terrible that it would be insulting? A horrible, ignorant bigot, that’s who.
By the time we got to Marymoor Park, the rain had let off and we only had wet road to contend with. Then it was back up to the top of Rose Hill, where the roads were dry. I felt really good - like I could go for another 20 miles without blinking - but we were a bit soggy, so we headed for home and a lovely warm shower. In the end, our shortcut only took 5 miles off the route. We finished with a solid 60 miles in the saddle.
Here’s the route. If you’re looking for a nice 50-miler, you could start and finish at Marymoor Park instead of our front door.
Pedaling through the tulips
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Click on the image to view the other pictures of today’s biking adventure with Mark & Michelle. No Alp d’Huez climbs, just pretty flowers!