Lobster Joe

Chris stopped by at 7am to ride the Leschi – Auburn – Leschi 200k on Saturday. Both of us were fresh off colds that kept us off of our bikes for a couple of weeks. Making matters worse (for myself at least), I’ve been eating pasta here and there… and there. There might have been beer and bourbon involved too. It is the holidays after all.

The forecast was “chance of rain” throughout the day. Seattlites know that means “definite rain” at least part of the day. As it turns out, the weather was all rain, all day. It was never dumping rain, but it was a steady drizzle throughout. Enough to soak through every layer I had on and then some. I was decked out in my full wool getup, so I was warm, but it wasn’t very comfortable either.

The start of a soggy ride

Cedar River Trail

My cold was gone, but my chest was still full of flu and I spent a good chunk of the day hacking it back up.

We had amazing company with Joe Llona, John Whitenack and Steve Frey throughout the morning keeping a steady (if a bit fast for me at the time) tempo on the front. They are all great guys and fun to talk to.

By the time I started the climb into Black Diamond though, my legs weren’t having it. I hadn’t really done a bit of riding for almost 2 straight weeks and my thighs were burning. We started the descent into Auburn and I couldn’t get them to calm down.

Once we got into Auburn (45 miles into the 200k, 55 miles into the day), I opted to pack it in and ride the (flat) Interurban back home. Chris decided to ride back with me and nurse the rest of his cold at home. I felt really bad dropping the others, but as soon as I was headed home, I knew it was the right decision.

The Interurban trail took an eternity to ride back. I felt like I was doing interval training. My legs would get a little pep in them, trying to hold a tempo, and then die again after a minute or so to where I was crawling along. It is amazing how much fitness you can lose in a couple of weeks.

A shower was the first thing on the menu once I got back. Well, a shower and a sandwich. And a beer. Old habits die hard.

I had a headache that rolled throughout the weekend and my muscles all hurt. I think I really underestimated my general health. My cough is still stuck with me to this day.

Thanks to the other guys for hanging out with me, even if only for a short while. I love riding my bike so it was good to be out with out, even while suffering.

Speaking of food, I have a post coming up on how to make the perfect Croque-Madame. This should get you all excited for Paris in 2011. Don’t eat too many though. You will never make it to the end of a 1200K that way.

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Steve Frey blocking wind (somewhat, he needs to gain a few pounds)

Between cooking and eating and cooking and eating some more, I occasionally confuse my body with some exercising. I can only imagine what my muscles must think when I neglect them for weeks on end (up to a month) and then jump on a bike for 10 or so hours in a lump sum of punishment. Thankfully, I don’t much care what my body thinks of it. I’m always happy to get out on the road.

I left the warmth of my bed to drive out at 6am for a 7am start of the 3 Rivers Cruise 200K in Arlington, WA. We could have started later, but I was happy to minimize the amount of night time riding we might be doing towards the end of the ride. Chris and I were joined by Steve Frey, John Whitenack, Jeff Loomis  and Alan Bell. It ended up being a perfect group since we were all riding at about the same pace for the day, and we were all happy to enjoy a sit down lunch mid-ride.

The view from Marblemount

Concrete, WA - We get lumped in with the roller-bladers

The temperature was in the low 30’s from the start. I had all of my usual winter riding layers of wool on, but I forgot a couple of pieces that I meant to bring to keep my face and hands a bit warmer. It didn’t seem to matter at first. We clicked out the initial 30 miles in no time. I even felt comfortable enough to take off my jacket and just stick with the arm warmers and wind vest (along with my wool jersey and base layer). This was a combination that proved unreliable though. We gained a bit more elevation and it kept getting colder. There was snow on the ground at a point and I started to get numb hands. My vision was blurring and I was slurring when I tried to hold a conversation. Thankfully, everyone stopped with me while I attempted to pull my jacket on through cold hands. I kept the windvest on underneath the jacket for the rest of the ride. It was the most layers I’ve ever comfortably worn for the length of a 200K. This extra layer seemed to do the trick. It warmed my core and, in turn, kept my joints comfortable.

By the time we got to Marblemount (55 miles or so), I was starting to come back around. I treated myself to some Doritos and juice. One of those food combos that I would never actually eat outside of a bike ride. It was incredible.

The town is interesting because it is a stop on the way through the North Cascades Highway. Since the pass is shut down for the winter, there is no reason to drive through the area unless you live there. The convenience store owner knew the drill of making sure we had receipts and seemed to be more than happy to have the business. He was quite pleasant actually.

Some of the group expressed an interest in a hot meal so we decided to have a sit down in the town Concrete (around 75 miles). The downtown area was tucked away off of the freeway. The only place with food that was open was a bar. The food were pretty delicious though, and our waitress was attentive and pleasant. I managed to sneak in probably 3 or 4 cups of coffee before we left along with a great tuna sandwich.

Snow levels are falling

Jeff and Steve

The stretch of roads out of town were among the most beautiful on the ride. They hugged a wide river to our right with some snow dusted mountains on our left. There was no real climbing to speak of so we were pretty free to enjoy ourselves and the company. If anyone ever wants to dip their toe in the randonneuring waters, this would be an excellent first ride candidate.

Cinnamon Donut

Once we started heading back south towards Arlington, there was a 4 or 5 mile stretch of road that was much less pleasant than the rest of the ride. It had little to no shoulder and relatively high traffic. The locals didn’t seemed too pleased to have us their either. Eventually the shoulder widened and we were given a little more breathing room.

Somewhere near Arlington, Steve got hit with a plastic… something or other… from a passing motorist. I really hate people like that. Thankfully, it was small and didn’t hurt anything other than our tempers.

We cruised in at around the average finish time of somewhere around 10 hours. Despite the last minute annoyances and the cold weather, it was a fantastic ride and a good way to spend a Saturday.

Chibi helped me warm up when I got home.

I’m pretty sure there were one or two suggestions that weren’t fit for print… Ignore the title of this post.

Farmland in the Snoqualmie Valley

On our way to making a rainbow

A massive tree

Greasy fingers all up on some grub

Saturday’s 200K to and from Queen Anne was the most rain I can ever remember getting on a ride of any distance. You need to keep in mind that my brain is a little hazy from all of this idiotic torture I put myself through, so I could be wrong.

The day before, the plan was to come home straight from work and make a lasagna for dinner. We would be able to lounge around and I could theoretically get to bed early. I hadn’t gotten much sleep the couple of nights leading up to this, so I knew that I needed to sneak it in somewhere.

Jane sent me a text message while I was at work. “I won Sunny Day Real Estate tickets for tonight!” So Friday night we went out to what turned out to be a great show at the Paramount. The emo highschool kid in me was pretty excited to see them, and they sounded amazing.

I got about 5 1/2 hours of sleep before waking up to ride. There had been a steady rain all night and the streets were really pooling up with water. Chris and I left at 6 to ride to the 7am start on Queen Anne (one of the many hilltop neighborhoods in Seattle). I managed to get a flat 4 miles in to our ride. It was a nail-gun spike about half an inch long. I hate flatting, but it gives me a little bit of relief to know that it probably couldn’t have been avoided. This put us in trouble of keeping others waiting at the start for us to show up, so we stepped up the pace a little bit.

The ride through downtown was pretty amazing at 6:30 on a Saturday morning. There were a few people out, but it felt like we had the town to ourselves. We ran a light or two or three to keep pace. Every single light down 3rd was red and we got sick of waiting for the traffic that wasn’t there.

Once at the bottom of Queen Anne, we had a decision to make about how to get up it. With 15 minutes to spare, we figured that going up the Counterbalance was the only way to assure that we would make it on time. It was tiring to say the least. We had a tough time keeping our back wheels from spinning on the slick 18 some odd percent grade up the hill. Still, the move worked and we got to the “start” with 3 minutes to spare.

The riders were Andy Speier, Noel Howes, John Whitenack, Jeff Loomis, Chris Gay and myself. From the very first descent, we all knew this was going to be a crazy ride. Every descent was steep and waterlogged and every climb seemed to be filled with soggy leaves waiting to mess with your traction. I had on my full ninja suit and was still completely soaked in the first 30 miles. We were all wearing plenty of wool (and manly facial hair), so we were warm, but wet none the less.

My legs felt like lead for the first part of the ride. I was scared that it would only get worse as the day went on, but amazingly I felt better and better. The good company really made this ride easier all around. We stuck together despite a number of mechanical issues and differing strengths. These guys are all really representative of why I love SIR so much. I’ve never felt like I was being a nuisance or holding someone up, no matter how slow I’ve been at times.

We took an extended stop at Kidd Valley in Renton despite being 20 miles from the finish line. Hot food was just too tempting to pass up. I somehow managed to stick to my new ‘no soda’ policy for the day, despite it sounding delicious. Chris asked me to photograph his hands eating his sandwich. Andy figured it would be a good submission for Joe Platzner’s “That’s Rando” theme. Poor sanitation doesn’t stop the hot food from being stuffed down your throat after a few miles in the saddle.

Between the mechanicals, the extended food stops, the sketchy and brake filled descents, the six million jacket changes, and the Jay-Z concert attempting to block our path back to Queen Anne, we somehow finished with only 20 minutes to spare. That makes this ride my longest 200K ever. I am kind of proud of that.

Jane was nice enough to pick us up in Queen Anne once the ride was over. We were outside the Safeway drinking beer already. Thanks honey.

Up next: attempting to clean my bike.

Chris and I decided that we needed to get a long ride in before the upcoming Mountain 600K. The Sunrise permanent has been on our radar since we starting doing these rides. I suggested that we ride to the start in Black Diamond from Seattle and turn the 200K in to a 300K. It looked easy enough on paper…

We set out at 4:30am from our homes in South Park. Within the first five miles, I questioned what the hell I was even doing up that early. Those thoughts started to fade as the sun rose, little by little. By the time we were making the climb from Auburn to Black Diamond, the sun was really starting to make an appearance. Riding through a sunrise never fails to completely perk me up.

We reached Black Diamond exactly when we expected to, around 7am. We spent some time prepping for the day and making sure we were ready for the ride ahead of us.

We followed the Green River Gorge out of town and out towards Cumberland. The roads were hilly but very pleasant with almost no traffic and the sun just starting to warm us. We had some trouble with the first control question. It asked for some information that we weren’t seeing in the area. I snapped some photos and hoped for the best. Worst case scenario, I have a wonderful (unofficial) ride to talk about.

I had a friend who asked last minute if he could join us up to Sunrise from Enumclaw. He agreed to meet us on the corner of our turn on to Highway 410. We reached him about 8am and started our climb in to the mountains around Mount Rainier.

It was nice to have company for the climb. Talking keeps the mind off of the suffering. The highway shoulder is tight at times though, so we kept our eye on the prize. I’m pretty sure that we reached Greenwater (about 1,800 feet elevation and 25 miles from Enumclaw?) faster than I’ve done on previous rides that have passed it. We had a solid tempo going, nothing super impressive, but pretty good for a bunch of large guys on steel bikes.

The turn off of Highway 410 and on to Sunrise Road came at about mile 84 on the day (for Chris and I). I was extremely happy to see that there was a place to get some water here. We still had 15 and a half miles until we were going to reach the top, and I needed all the liquid I could get.

The law of diminishing ride returns kicked in pretty early. 9 mph with 15 miles to go… we should get there in a couple of hours. 7 mph and 14 miles to go… we should get there in a couple of hours. 6 mph and 13 miles to go… it might take over 2 hours. Thankfully I have a minimum speed for the most part, or I would never get there.

We discussed the possibility of seeing the famed Snow Tiger Lion at some point in the ride. Legend has it, the roads were built out of mostly bald eagle bones and scat. They seemed pretty smooth anyways. Maybe I was just delirious from the heat. I was suffering at the back pretty much the entire 15 miles. I had a couple of second winds that were quickly followed by my body remembering that it hurt. The views more than made up for any pain though. With every turn in the road, the trees were thinning. You could see the valleys down below. I’ve never been up so high before. It was simply stunning.

We reached the Sunrise lookout and I mistook it for the top. I snapped a picture of my bike with the elevation sign. Oh wait, we have a couple of miles left? Alright…

Despite that disappointment, the next 2 miles were probably the best of the climb. The road was facing the peak of Rainier and the climbing had let up a bit. The pictures help describe it, but they don’t do it justice. The mountain is just so massive and epic. The photos do nothing to capture that sense.

We reached the top (6,400 feet) to a lodge with a cafeteria and restrooms. I wasn’t expecting all of the amenities, but it was pleasant enough. I bought the worst sandwich I’ve ever wasted my money on there though. One turkey sandwich, a tiny bag of chips and a soda cost me over 11 dollars. Normally, even the weakest foods are pretty tasty on a bike ride. This didn’t even fit that bill. Still, calories are calories and it was nice to get some “food” down.

On to the downhill… that sweet, sweet descent. We had 15 miles of pretty epic downhill with long stretches of visible roads followed by loose switchbacks. I had a huge grin on the whole ride down.

We had a mile of climbing to get back off of Sunrise Rd and on to Highway 410 again. For the most part, it was downhill all the way back to Enumclaw. We were all feeling the effects of the day though. We all were standing often and stretching whenever possible. Our friend stopped off at his car at the bottom of the climb and Chris and I kept on moving. We were only 8 miles from the official finish of the 200K in Black Diamond. True to all SIR rides, there was one last long climb right at the very end of the ride.

We reached the final gas station around 5pm. That put our 200K time at around 10 hours. I was pretty happy with that considering all of the climbing involved.

All that was left was a downhill to Auburn and a ride up the Interurban Trail back to Seattle. Though it was quite possibly the longest 35 miles ever, we made it back to Seattle by 7:30 or so. My feet and butt were singing.

I drove to work today.