I was pretty determined to stick with Dylan, Joshua (up from Portland) and Chris all day. If only to use “That’s what she said” jokes and talk about relaxing on Abraham’s Bosom (man tits). 400K was bound to fly by if I was blinded by cheap laughter.

Saturday promised to be sunny and 75 degrees according to the weather people. I’m not sure we ever got quite there, but it was pleasant enough. The air was cool enough for me to leave my arm and knee warmers on throughout the 250 mile ride. The result is the weirdest tan lines yet. I have a stripe round my wrist and and oval over the top of my hand. There is a pink band around the middle of my calf. I wore shorts on Sunday just to show them off.

Joshua arrived at the train station on Friday afternoon after I got off of work. I rode down and picked him up. He was going to get to sleep on our luxurious couch for the evening. I made up some pasta and we drank too much beer while watching No Reservations on Netflix. I was pretty determined to get to bed at a decent hour. We had a boat to catch at 6am.

For some reason, I didn’t sleep especially well. I knocked right out at first, but eventually woke up around 2:30am and couldn’t really settle back down. The alarm finally went off around 4:15 and I got up to get some coffee brewing. It was going to be a long day.

Chris showed up at 5 and we rode out to catch the ferry out to Bremerton. I enjoy the ferry generally, but it was disappointing to have to work it into a ride schedule. The final ferry out of Bremerton (also the finish) was at 11:40pm. I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to finish that quickly with stops. I decided to be content with a more relaxed pace with some good friends.

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After our wonderful trip to the Olympic Bay Tidelands, we ended up with a whole bunch of clams to use up. I quickly figured out exactly what I wanted to make with them.

I decided on three separate recipes: Clam Chowder (obviously… jeez), a clam pasta and a clam pizza. I wanted to make the pizza a bit like the wonderful one at Tom Douglas’ Serious Pie. Pasta was kind of a no brainer for me since I love to make the stuff lately.

We had a total draw of 80 clams (the limit for the two of us, per day). I split off 40 of those for the chowder and roughly split the rest between the pasta and pizza dishes, with a little more going towards the pasta.

I decided to make the first meal the pasta. That way the clams would be at their freshest. The other dishes had a bit more flavor and ingredients to mask the seafood if they weren’t as fresh.

Obviously, you don’t have to roll out the pasta on your own. Just use any long pasta like linguine. If you want to give it a shot though (and I really recommend that you try), check out Saveur’s tagliatelle recipe. It is my go to dough. If you don’t have a pasta roller, you can use a rolling pin the old fashioned way.

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Jane and I went clamming for the first time this weekend. We set out on Saturday and drove to the south end of the Hood Canal, just north of Shelton, WA. It took about an hour and a half to drive there, but man, was it worth it.

This might sound silly, but I’ve been antsy to go forage food ever since I read Omnivore’s Dilemma. I don’t feel confident enough in my skills to go out and grab wild plants, even though I’m pretty sure I know what they look like. I’ve cooked with them a few times, so I shouldn’t worry so much. Still, there was a great draw to the shell-fishing that I can’t quite put my finger on. I was excited; we both were.

On Friday afternoon, we took a trip down to Burien to get some licenses at Fred Meyer (Washington’s Wal-Mart… there, I said it). We stood in line with people returning their carpet shampooers and cheap electronics. A man with a low wheeze came in behind us. He started to quiz us about what kind of fishing we planned on doing and where at.

“Olympic Bay? Oh, I used to get huge draws out of there. Yeah, I actually went to prison for catching 10,000 over my limit (The limit is 40 per person…). A year and a day.”

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I’ve been a real (asian) soup fiend lately. I’m constantly craving Phở and have been known to order a bowl of ramen here and there. As soon as I saw this recipe (originally with mackerel), I knew that I had to make it.

Interestingly, this also marks the first time I’ve actually gone inside and purchased something from the Seattle Fish Company on California Ave in West Seattle. I’ve been by it many times and kept promising that I would. It is a wonderful shop with anything seafood related that you could possibly want, right up to the lemons and limes near the register. I’ll be back soon.

adapted from the Spilled Milk podcast (so excellent)
serves 4

• 1 lb. of red-snapper (feel free to try any white fish as a sub)
• salt
• 1/4 lb. daikon – peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 1 tbsp dashi bouillon (or 2 cups of fish stock)
• 4 1/2 cups water (2 1/2 if using the stock)
• 1/2 cup sake
• 1/2 cup white miso
• 1/2 head of napa cabbage – chopped roughly
• 1/2 package firm tofu – cut into four pieces
• 4 ounces oyster mushrooms -  pulled apart
• 1 bunch spinach – stemmed
• 4 teaspoons grated ginger (a microplane works best)
• sliced scallions

Salt the fish generously on a plate and place in the fridge for roughly 30 minutes while you prep the rest of the ingredients.

Get a large pot of water boiling and lower the heat to simmer the chopped daikon for about 5 minutes, or until tender. Remove the daikon slices and rinse them under cold water in a strainer to stop the cooking process. Set them aside but keep the water on the stove.

Slice the fish into 1 inch squares. Set up a bowl with cold water near by. Once the water is simmering again, blanch the fish in batches for roughly 15 seconds and transfer immediately to the cold water bowl. Once all the fish is done, drain, and dry the fish on towels.

Combine the dashi, water, sake and miso in a large mixing bowl. Whisk it all together.

Place the chopped cabbage in the bottom of a large stockpot so it covers the bottom. Put the spinach in a layer above that. Arrange the tofu, mushrooms, and daikon into individual, neat bunches on top of the greens. Leave some room for the fish in one corner. Pour in the broth. Don’t worry if the liquid doesn’t seem to cover the top yet.

Place a cover over pot and bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Take off the cover and reduce the heat to low / medium-low. Add the fish back in to the space that you saved. Cook for an additional 10 minutes. Try to maintain a very low simmer.

Serve in bowls with scallions and ginger.

As it turns out, beer and an oversized pastrami sandwich are the perfect thing to start a ride out with, even when you have to climb several hundred feet to get out of Portland. Nothing keeps you more awake than a couple of relaxing downers. It looks like we might have to pick up some trucker speed on the road, boys.

I started off the week really sick. Jane had gotten it a few days prior, and I picked it up strong around Tuesday night. I went home from work on Wednesday and called in the next day. I never really questioned whether or not I was going to ride though. I had too much money on the line and a couple of friends that needed me out there. It was just a question of exactly how sick I was going to be when it came time to pedal.

Thankfully, I woke up feeling quite a bit better on Friday morning. I had my stuff laid out and got prepped to ride to the King Street train station with Chris. We got on a 7:30am train headed south to Portland to meet up with Joshua Bryant. We were annoyed from the start with a gaggle of older women who were obviously on a fun weekend trip to do some tax free shopping in “Washington’s Mexico” (I stole that phrase from Dylan, I love it so much). They told us that it was nice that we had “knees” in order to do riding like this. They claimed to not actually have any, despite their obvious leg bending abilities. Apparently, you lose them when you reach their age (their words, not mine). Unlucky for us, they managed to snag seats directly in front of us and started shrieking loudly at each other. Lucky for us, they all hit the bar up front for mimosas through the entire ride after we got rolling.

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Word spread pretty quickly that we were looking for a possible 12 hour 30 minute 300K. That wasn’t my idea of fun, but I knew that I wanted to do my best to keep up with Joshua Bryant and his scrappy gang of Oregon Randonneurs.

“I feel like we are the Bad News Bears compared to SIR,” ORR’s Michael Johnson told me early into the ride. “You guys get pampered at controls; Foot massages, gourmet food, air conditioned tents.”

I managed to keep up with the heavy hitters until we hit the major climb up Wilson River highway going towards Tillamook. The tempo was just going too high and I resigned myself to riding solo for a while. It was a beautiful road that never seemed to be too far from amazing rivers. It was still pretty cold out and I was happy to have full tights on that morning.

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I won’t lie to you. I’m going to wimp out on this ride report a bit. I’ve been too busy this week and these things take time. The limited amount of pictures that I took will have to do the talking.

Know this though: I rode well. Mark Thomas was disappointed with my lack of vomiting the last couple of rides.  I think he is going to have to get used to it. I’ve been feeling really good.

I’ve also mentioned in the past that a 300K was my benchmark for my new’ish saddle. I’m glad to say that the Regal has been good to me. It is a definite keeper for this here butt.

I plan on driving down to the Oregon Randonneurs’ 300K this weekend and am crossing my fingers that the weather is kind. I’m not really counting on it though. I’ve gotten too luck on my rides so far this year. I’m pretty overdue for a wet weather pounding.

P.S. Thanks to Gary for putting on an awesome “urban” ride. Special thanks for letting me eat almost 3 Tofu Bahn Mi’s throughout the day. I dare say that might be my future rando food. Watch out for the jalapeno!

I had two goals for the day: 1) Don’t throw up and 2) Finish the damn ride.

I was successful at both. Somehow I even knocked 2 hours off of my last 200K’s time on top of all of that. A large part of that was thanks to a relatively easy course and a large group of strong riders at the start that were able to drag my butt into Sedro Wooley in record time. I looked at the clock on our first control and realized that if I could keep pace, we could finish in 6 hours or so. That was pretty much a joke, and I knew it right away. I would never be able to keep that kind of pace, but it was a fun thought.

Our group made some lame attempts at a double paceline that kept snapping off at every incline and decline. Still, I maintained it for as long as I could. We hit a little hill that was short but steep and I snapped off the back pretty fast. I made sure that I was riding within myself and no further, so I let them go off without making a chase attempt.

I was surprised shortly thereafter to find Chris pulled over with a flat. I had been pretty anxious for a nature break anyways, so I stopped and gave him some rando moral support. We stuck together for the rest of the day.

The route took us along 3 or so beautiful lakes headed out to Bellingham (starting and finishing in Arlington). There were some nice little risers (no serious climbing for the day), and some very fun extended descents.

We picked up Don Boothby before getting on to (gorgeous) Chuckanut Dr. and played leap frog with him for the remainder of the day. Every time we would pass a cow (and frankly, that was often), Don would scream at it to give him cream or a t-bone or something. It was amusing and a little frightening. Thanks for the entertainment, Don. He stopped for pie near La Conner and we lost him for a little bit.

Chris and I stopped for the daffodils (thanks, Cecil!) that grow near Mount Vernon just before the annual tulip festival. We got some artsy fartsy photos and enjoyed the breather for a moment.

Don latched back on to our mini group just in time to watch a bunch of migrating snow geese take flight directly over our heads. I’m guessing there were a couple thousand of them, and they all seemed to have to take a dump. It was quite literally raining poop all around us. We were all doing our best to not look up (or smile) and were relieved to not get hit.

Don caught back up pretty shortly after that, followed by Pat Lahey and one other rider (sorry, I’m spacing on your name).

We all suffered through vicious side and head winds for the last 50K. I knew they were coming, but it made the whole process no less fun. I’m pretty sure I was the slowest of the bunch. Any time the winds hit me from the side, it felt like riding through quicksand. In the last 3 or 4 miles, Pat and I lost the group entirely. Chris and Don waited at a light so we could all roll in together (thanks!). All in all, it was a wonderful ride. Thanks to Matt and Dan and everyone for the support.

Homemade Energy Bars

I refuse to say “Power Bar”… it makes me think of that chalky crap bar they sling.
Via Bitchin Camaro (a new one for me).

These bars are AMAZING, plain and simple. I know Elvis wasn’t a health nut, but if he rode brevets (or ran marathons), this would be his bar. I’m sure he would have one of his chefs whip it together. Me, I have to dig out the cookware myself. It is a rough life.

I tried out a couple of different recipes with success, including these bars from Grit and Glimmer. They were very good as well (especially the medjool dates), but these are just outstanding. I have a love for the peanut butter and banana combo though, so I may be biased.

One thing you want to keep in mind with both of these recipes, it really helps to spend some time chopping the nuts with a knife. I could never get the “pound out with a roller” technique to give me very consistent sizes. It seemed like they were either smashed to a fine powder or completely whole. As soon as I switched over to a good, sharp chefs knife, everything kind of fell into line on that front.

Some of the ingredients might cost a bit up front (brown rice syrup, specifically), but you will have plenty left over for another round of awesomeness. For what it’s worth, I omitted the vanilla and don’t think I lost too much. I had the agave nectar on hand, but I’m definitely going to try a batch with some honey next time.

As always, the bulk section is your friend on this. PCC has an amazing spice and grain bulk section that you should hit up. I personally don’t need a whole bottle of ground cardamom sitting around collecting dust. Just pick up what you need for a few cents.

Greg and Mary Cox have a wonderful toilet bowl for throwing up in. It has good height off the ground and easy access from the finish line. I wish I didn’t know that.

I’ve been completely ruined by a stomach flu for the past few days. I first noticed it on Saturday morning before my ride and chalked it up to nerves or maybe dinner the night before. Midway through the pre-ride though, my body was starting to shut down. Every time I’ve eaten since Saturday, I end up with a weird gaseous, pukey feeling that doesn’t stay too long, but makes it hard to get excited about food. Today is actually the first day that I haven’t felt it, so things are looking better already. Too much information?

Saturday morning Chris and I packed up his car and drove out to the start at the top of the tallest hill in Kent to pre-ride Greg’s wonderful Chili Feed 200K course. This was my third time on the route and I was happy to get back into the randonneuring season. The first time I rode it was my first 200K ever, and the second I set my fastest 200K pace so far. There are plenty of memories on this route, and it appears that I now have more to add to that.

Somehow I messed up navigation to the start so we were really close to being late, but just snuck in on time. I had to pull up my knee warmers on the road. There were an astonishing number of riders for a pre-ride (close to 20) and everyone was a pleasure to ride with.

Everyone stuck together for the most part leading in to Dash Point. A couple of the more serious climbs split us up, but the faster of the bunch couldn’t resist the siren call of coffee at the first control.

Most of the day seemed to work like this (from what I heard/saw). The super fast riders shot out front and towed a few of the relatively fast riders, maybe dumping a few here and there. They would converge on a control and bunch back up like a slinky, only to do it all over again to the next stop.

I got snapped off that slinky in Auburn at 5 or maybe 9 terrible back to back stop lights with a couple of other riders. I lost my rhythm pretty quick, but I knew I just had to keep my own pace for a bit. I didn’t want to cramp up like I had the Sunday prior, and I could feel some of the tenderness from that ride in the back of my legs still. That was fine, except I couldn’t quite keep up with the other two I was riding with, so I ended up in kind of a no man’s land (riding solo) for a while.

Going down Green River Valley, the route stuck me dead in the middle of an official time trial race. I had to slow down so I wouldn’t hit a woman turning around to finish her race. It was really surreal to ride down the road and have these super loud carbon bikes (disc wheels and all) whip by you like you were standing still. The really crazy part was actually crossing the finish line though. People were in folding chairs, waiting for loved ones and snapping photos. I’m sure they saw my bright orange, handle-bagged bike and just shook their heads. What a waste of a digital photo.

I made it to Black Diamond Bakery with one thing on my mind – DONUTS. I bought two donuts and a chocolate milk for $2.50. That place is a steal! Amazingly, everyone else was still there. They were wrapping things up, but it was good to know that I wasn’t that slow. I crammed a donut down and chugged my chocolate milk so I could get back on the road with the group.

Within 2 miles, the group had dropped me. I just really didn’t have it that day. It wasn’t a huge deal though. The sun was out and it was turning into an outstanding day. I found myself in between the lead (main) group and a bit slower group for a long, long time. I was actually really enjoying my solo ride at that point.

At one point I called Jane just to say hi. I think that I usually only contact her when I’m in some emergency situation, so I figured I should change that up a bit.

The climb from Enumclaw into Greenwater is always kind of a slog. It is a scenic one, but I always expect to see the return riders on the decent, taunting me with the fact that I still have X amount of miles to the top. None of the pitches are very steep though. If  you are feeling good, you can climb the whole thing (17 miles) quite fast. I wasn’t feeling good though. My legs were just naturally sore from the lack of distance riding and the Sunday ride prior and my stomach was starting to rumble like it has in the past.

Right before I made it in to town, Geoff and Lynn caught me on the climb and seemed to shoot by me without too much effort. I saw the lead group starting to descend at around that point as well. I wanted to keep the stop short, but I didn’t have it in me. I took the time to rest, hopefully settling my stomach with a Sprite and some light food. 1 million K Vincent rolled up (surprisingly) around then and had a snack and talk with us.

We all rolled out together, and I was dropped again, this time on a downhill. That is extra embarrassing for me, because there is nothing this beer gut does better than whip downhill.

My stomach never settled down though. I fought with it all day to keep everything inside. Once again, I wasn’t able to eat very much. I had the best luck with gel packets though. That is something I’ll keep in mind for the future. They tasted awful, but seemed to really help get some needed calories in me. I spent the rest of the ride basically by myself. I saw Geoff and Lynn pulled over for a flat, and they quickly passed me again after it was fixed, but that was it. I was nursing myself in.

10 miles from the finish, I kept looking at soft grass spots in the sun. They all seemed so appealing. After maybe a mile, I pulled over and flopped my bike down. I sprawled out in the sun and just laid there. It was an amazing feeling. A random bicyclist pulled up and gave me a “Dude, are you okay?”. I gave Chris a call and let him know that I was coming… just very slowly. I spent maybe 5 minutes or so there, it is hard to say really.

I figured that would be enough, but literally 2 miles from the finish, I stopped again. This time it was in front of a fire station. I flopped out again onto the lawn. My stomach felt great until I had to get back up again. I pretty much limped in to the finish. I was a pretty pathetic sight. Bob Brudvick grabbed my card for me and I bee lined to the bathroom.

Doesn’t that make you want to do this ride? It should.