Memorial Day Weekend was all BBQ’s and bicycles. You can’t avoid the bummer life easier than that.

Saturday morning Chris and I left around 4am to ride the SBS (Snoqualmie, Blewitt, and Stevens’ Passes) 356k permanent. It was one part eagerness to ride in the mountains, two parts training and prep for the upcoming 600k.

Friday afternoon I had geeked out on nutritional facts on the internet. I’ve been trying to find my magic bullet for long distance bicycling. According to sources, I had been in-taking about half of the needed carbohydrates per hour since I got off of Perpetuem. I thought it might be worth giving the stuff a second shot. I reasoned that I could half dose it in a multi hour bottle and substitute bike and real food to get the other half of the nutrition necessary. I’ll bet you can’t guess where this is going.

We rode through a bit of North Bend to pick up I90 up towards Snoqualmie Pass. I remember it being a bit easier than the others, but we really cranked up it this time. Traffic started to get a little heavy as the day wore on. A Memorial Day weekend with some sun is a recipe for some busy highways.

I had calculated some times that we might hit controls and wrote them down on my cue sheet. The first time was if we kept a 16 mph pace (with stops… unlikely over the mountains) and the second showing a slowest possible pace of 10 mph. I also had a little hourly reminder about what I should be eating. Even if it didn’t work, I could at least say that I tried.

We made it in to the first control at Cle Elum (mile 55) around the 16 mph pace. The long decent really helped and we seemed to have the wind at our backs. We got the usual stares from the locals and moved on our way.

Blewitt Pass was much busier than in the past, but we had enough shoulder to not really let that bug us. The decent off the top is one of the longest high speed rides around. It isn’t quite as scenic or steep as some of the other passes, but I think it might be one of the most fun. It feels like you are descending forever and all you have to do is steer.

Leavenworth (mile 105) came up quickly and we only had 7 hours under our belts after 2 passes! We grabbed some small bites to eat and refueled on water. Chris sat next to some surly biker guys. I didn’t notice him at first so he called me over. He said he was trying to blend in. One of the guys looked out and gave him an evil eye. They then proceeded to make a number of ignorant comments about immigrants, jacket patches, and life in general. The spandex wasn’t impressing them. I had a stare down contest with one of them as we all left. We saw them going up Stevens’ Pass and they gave a little effeminate wave to let us know what they thought of us. Not to our faces of course. It would have been a messy fight, chamois cream and do-rags everywhere…

Not to give bikers a bad name in general, we got a number of fists and horns on the road from people giving us respect for tackling the climbs.

Stevens was a major slog. I started to feel the burn in my legs and a slight discomfort with my food situation. We faced a head wind and an endless series of ups and downs (mostly up) to reach the 4,056 foot summit. I don’t know what it was about that climb, but it really took the life out of me. To top it off, the temperatures were in the mid to high 80’s for the first time this year. It may not sound like much (and I realize it isn’t), but my body hasn’t really adjusted from the 50-60 degree weather we keep around these parts.

My new low 12-28 cassette helped me reach an even lower slow speed of about 5-6 mph. I was contrasting my performance with what I’ve been watching on the Giro over the last couple of weeks. Even the guys that are busted and broken were looking better than I felt.

Somehow, some way, we finally made it to the top. We (okay, I) took a breather and hit the decent. It looked a lot like this, except we had on different jerseys, and I was on a different bike. I didn’t snap a ton of pictures because it seemed like I was always working for a climb or descending way too fast for photos.

Skykomish was the next control and we spent a little time eating and reaccessed possible finish times. It looked pretty positive even though the climb up Stevens took like 3 1/2 hours. My only real goal was to get home before midnight, and we were well on track for that.

The next few miles flew by. The headwinds finally went away and we were cruising along at 17-18 mph. I actually felt really good and my stomach had settled a bit from Stevens.

Then it hit me insanely fast. My stomach started to churn and I felt queasy. I know the feeling a little too well so it is pretty demoralizing once it comes on. It is hard to eat or drink anything because it only seems to make it worse. Everything you’ve been eating sounds disgusting and makes you even more queasy. I told Chris that I needed to stop at the first gas station for a carbonated drink. I figured I might be able to burp out some gas and settle the stomach with a sit down.

That might have worked if I didn’t throw up right when I got to the station. Again, lost nutrition, terrible taste in the mouth, where did it go wrong? Right when I got out of the bathroom, a small Indian man hovered near the door and ran to get some aerosol spray. He peppered the bathroom and the surrounding hall immediately. Even sick, I got a chuckle from that. I drank some 7up and burped a bit. Chris and I sat on the corner for a while and watched the locals in Gold Bar.

There was a family that pulled up straight out of Devil’s Rejects. They had 3 in a 2 seater bucket car that was ready to die. “Hillbilly” as a word doesn’t do justice. They looked out for murder. I avoided eye contact. Chest puffing motorcyclists don’t scare me. This family did.

We hit the road again and it felt promising for a couple of miles. Then it came back. I barely made it to the next town (Sultan) and tried to find a bathroom. I’m not above a little roadside display, but I thought I could make it. Once I got in, the door was locked and a man from inside started yelling, “Someone is in here!” Calm down guy, I only tried once. A little vomit came up in my throat and I spun around looking for somewhere to put it, quickly. There was a service sink and I spit it out into there. I ran the sink for a second to clean up any mess and then sprinted outside to finish what I started. Sorry, too much info?

Our “for fun” training ride was turning out to not be worth finishing. I’m pretty confident that I could have limped in to the finish. It was only 40 miles away. I didn’t think it was worth burning a bunch of muscle and feeling like crap over a bit of credit. Chris called his wife Emily and she was sweet enough to drive out and pick us up.

I wasn’t able to eat anything until later that night. On the plus side, I still got home before midnight. Other than that, it was a beautiful day on a bike. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sunday and Monday both held BBQ’s with friends and coworkers. Monday’s was at Chris and Emily’s house. They were showing off some puppies that they’ve been fostering. They are up for adoption in 3 weeks and are looking for good homes. Jane and I have our name on the list for a little white one named Ciabatta that looks kind of like our last dog Shiska. All of the dogs were named after breads.

Tiny puppies are automatic high voice inducers. I dare you to not make a baby voice to this.

I’ve got a lot on my mind this week.

Chris and I are going to ride Permanent 0189 this Saturday by ourselves. That puts us over the 3 mountain passes from last year’s 400k. I’m not really scared about the passes anymore, but they really have me thinking about my equipment and nutrition again.

I got off Hammer’s Perpetuem last year when I had one too many cases of stomach sickness. I can’t recall the last ride I did with the stuff, maybe around May or June. My sickness on the Fleche has got me thinking that it might be other things, like a lack of electrolytes, pushing my body over the edge. Still, I seem to be doing better now than when I first started. I’d like to get through more 200k+ rides without a serious low or headache though.

Somehow I came across a website that had “Cooking with Allen” videos up. Allen Lim is the nutritionist for Team Garmin Slipstream (apparently the Chipotle burritos weren’t cutting it) and he had plenty of neat little treats for eating on the road. Racing is obviously a different sport than what I am doing, but there are certainly some truths that hold amongst all bicyclists over-exerting themselves. If it is good enough to get a bunch of scrawny punks over 200k+ and multiple mountain passes every day for 21 days, hopefully it will be good enough for me.

Shopping last night, I picked up some stuff to try out the “rice cakes” and the sandwiches. I’ve always made a sandwich of some sort, but these are especially calorie dense with cream cheese, Canadian bacon, and jam on a croissant. My mouth is kind of watering just writing that down. Normally you cut it in half, but I found these little mini croissants at the store that are perfect bite sized portions.

As far as my gear is concerned, I’ve added a third water bottle since we won’t have any support/control at Blewitt pass. It is looking like a relatively hot day on Saturday so I want to be prepared. It is confusing though because the weather should be pretty darned chilly in the morning on the passes and at night. I want to bring enough clothing, but hopefully not too much. I don’t want to slog an extra 15 pounds up the mountains for nothing. I already have that in my gut, thank you.

I sent Chris and early morning text about my confusion and some other rambling. Sorry Chris. Not everyone has to get up at 5:30am to go to work I guess.

None of this will really mean much when it comes right down to it though. These are just a musings of someone antsy to get out of his office and get on the road.

Saturday was a stunningly beautiful day to be on a bicycle.

Matt, Chris and I set out to ride our proposed Summer 100k route. After a late start (I’m looking at you, Matt), we hit the bike trail out towards West Seattle.

I’ve worried a bit that we might have aimed too high with some of the early hills on this particular route. They really excited me and I wanted to work them in to a course, but we need to consider the newbies that might be just starting with the group on a shorter ride like this. I’m happy to report that the course is difficult, but very doable.

There are a couple of steep pitches that are walkable if needed. Still, you should bring your low gears. I would really like to advise against fixed or single speed bikes. Still, do what you wanna… weirdos.

I can only hope that this summer has similar weather to what we had on this pre ride. It is the first time I’ve been able to wear just shorts and no arm warmers since last year.

I’ve been slacking bad on the blog this week. I’ve been swamped with both jobs and a workout program that Jane and I started 14 days ago. Where to start…

Last weekend we had rough plans to ride out to Dan’s house to see the progress on the new bike. We weren’t able to go there, but we made a run to Columbia city to try out the Skillet food truck. It is run out of an airstream trailer and goes to a new neighborhood every week. They update the menu pretty often and serve amazing food. I definiately recommend tracking it down. Seattle needs more street food.

Jane got a burger with their (quickly becoming famous) bacon jam. It was a complete winner. I can’t say enough good things about it. I mixed it up with a fried spaghetti sandwich and a side of poutine. The sandwich was very good, but didn’t really touch the burger. The poutine though… my god. Heaven is a heart attack. Beautiful.

To offset that meal, Jane and I just wrapped up 14 days of the P90X workout program. I was pretty hesitant to start it for a number of reasons. The first and formost, the people running it struck me as… well… pretty douchey.

Secondly, I am not at all interested in bulking up. Riding my bike is a (notice I didn’t say “the”) main love and anything that would hinder that is evil. I just wanted to get in better shape and I know that Jane feels the same way. I thought that it might be a little too extreme for our needs. A friend that tried the program a while back always talked about how much it kicked his butt and how sore he always was. It wasn’t the most welcoming invitation to a program.

Why did we try it? I have no idea. There the DVD’s where though, and Jane was really motivating to give it a go.

The first two or three… or hell, maybe the whole first week was pretty brutal. It was painful in a wonderful way though. It was never so hard as to be discouraging, just hard enough to know that you need to get better at it. The program runs every single day, so you really need to find a way to fit it in to your schedule. That is definiately the hardest part of the process. An hour isn’t that long, but when Jane gets home at 6:30-7, and we still need to eat dinner, work out, relax, and do whatever around the house before bed at around 10-10:30 (for me)… it really takes some effort.

Still, we haven’t slacked a single day on it so far. We are both finding muscles that we weren’t entirely sure were there. I am really pushing my weak areas and it feels good. That said, I’ve bene pretty sore in the mornings and have only commuted by bike a few days in the last couple weeks. I am hoping it is just an early trade off for better overall fitness. Time will tell.

I’ll leave you with a pretty solid recipe for a weeknight. It is great by itself or over some rice.

Seared Baby Bok Choy with Tofu & Shitake Mushrooms
via Fine Cooking

• 1/2 lb. extra-firm tofu
• 1/3 cup chicken broth – original calls for low sodium… don’t bother
• 1 small jalapeño, diced
• 2 tsp. Asian sesame oil
• 1 tsp. granulated sugar
• 3 Tbs. canola oil
• 1/2 lb. baby bok choy (about 2), split in half lengthwise
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1-1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced (about 2 Tbs.) - In the future, I’ll probably grate the ginger… the flavor is always too strong when I get a piece of it all at once
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (about 1 Tbs.)
• 3-1/2 oz. fresh shitake mushrooms, stemmed – I went a little light on shitakes because of the price. I kind of regret on substituting the remainder with crimini or white.