Category: Big Ride

Catchin’ the Buzz

Put this in the “this doesn’t happen every day” file. I was 75 miles into a beautiful training ride last Saturday - just a few miles from Marymore Park in Redmond - when I felt something tickling my cleavage. A drop of sweat sliding down my skin perhaps? A stray string from my jersey or sports bra?

Not being one for ceremony, I continued peddling and slid my hand down my sports bra to stop the tickle only to discover a bug nestled between my boobs - yuck! A quick flick sent the bug into a tailspin, but not out of my bra. Just as I was reaching in for a second grab, I discovered that I was dealing with a bee. Before I could coax it out, though, the little piss-pot stung me square on my boob! Yeowww!

Bees have many redeeming qualities, I’m sure - some of which I’ll remember as soon as my left breast stops throbbing.

Rolling Stock

Last weekend my family all went to see Andrew Lloyd Weber's Starlight Express at the Paramount. What I didn't realize until just the other day, was how fun it is to hum the songs while riding your bike. Take the first song in the musical - Rolling Stock - for example. If you didn't know any better, it could easily apply to bikes instead of trains!

I'm just the fastest thing you'll ever see.
That streak of lightning you just missed was me.
Don't stop now - we gotta keep it going all night.

Rolling Stock! Rolling Stock!
You got no wheels, you don't know how it feels.
Rolling Stock! Rolling Stock!
You got no lovers if you got no wheels.

Don't try to show you can go faster than me.
This is my back view and it's all you'll see.
Don't stop now - we gotta keep it going all night.

Rolling Stock! We're Rolling Stock!

So get the motion in your wheels somehow.
The racing action's starting here and now.
Don't stop now - we gotta keep it all night.

Rolling Stock! We're Rolling Stock!
Rolling Stock! We're Rolling Stock!
Rolling Stock! We're Rolling Stock!

So, if you hear some goofball on the Burke Gilman singing about lightning and lovers with wheels, you'll know it's me.

Big Ride Training

This weekend was my first weekend of long riding in prep for the Big Ride. My two and half hour ride on Friday afternoon was thwarted by kitten birthing in my back bedroom, but the rest of the weekend went according to plan:

Saturday, April 10: 40 miles in 3 hrs. 10 min.
Sunday, April 11: 51.3 miles in 3 hrs. 30 min.

Today, I'll ride another 40 miles with Nick, probably around the top of Lake Washington, across I-90 and back up through Bellevue. So far I've ridden about 475 miles. I'm a little down on where I'd like to be because of our trip to Europe, but I think I'll be fine. I've noticed that my hiking strength isn't what it used to be. Hiking and biking muscles just aren't the same! I'll have to incorporate more hiking into my plan if I think I'm going to do things like Eldorado as a day trip in June.

McClinchy Mile

A bunch of Big Riders headed to Monroe yesterday for the annual McClinchy Mile bike ride. I did the 47 mile loop from Monroe to Granite Falls and back. Despite being off a bike for three weeks, I felt pretty good. Not the fastest in the group, but not the slowest either. Somewhere near Roeskelly Lake, I had a revelation about bike riding: It's a pretty good mode of transportation and excercise, but as a form of recreation (or re-creation) it doesn't hold a candle to hiking and climbing. You simply just don't get away from civilization on a bike.

$1094 down…$4,406 to go

I broke the $1000 barrier today on my fundraising for the Big Ride! The best thing about this ride is the generosity that people have shown. What goes around, really does come around. And it feels so good!