Today I spent the an awesome sunny day cycling through Redmond, Duvall, Snohomish as past of the the Flying wheels summer century ride.
I have done this ride in twice before (2006 – 70miles, 2007 – 100 miles). I had a sort of deja vu from 2007 I started getting cramps around mile 70, but the good part of I’m quite happy with how i pushed myself. I learnt two things –
1. Human body is amazing, if you push it can survive a lot of things. I ended up pushing through the last 3 miles hill with cramps, after a few pedals the cramps disappeared.
2. Make sure your condition your muscles for performance not just endurance. I did hard run on Thursday and I was still sore from it. I should use my training time effectively, just like Body by Science.
Anyways, the Asha Team and Emel (a friend from Run, Dinner Social) did awesome! Most riders finished the 65 mile loop, now folks are eyeing the STP. Emel did awesome on her first century beating me by a full hour!
My stats: Ride time 8 hours 20 min. No where good but given the conditions I’m very happy with how i pushed myself.
Now the pictures.
7:30 start ended up being 8:20 start as i forgot my helmet
Gorgeous sunny day! Rest Stops – I did about 1:30 of rest stop time (Slacker )
Alrite summer is just around the corner! Its the time we folks in Northwest look forward to! The entire misery of dark winters and rainy days is worth the gorgeous 3 months of summer we get around here!
I have been meaning to do a few outdoorsy things this summer, and wanted to started chalking my list here so that friends and family can join in, talk me in to and out of few things -
Rock-climbing & Bouldering
A weekend bouldering trip to Squamish!
Climbing as many single-pitch 5.8s as I can. May be pick up Exit-38 Wednesdays!
Goal: Outer space (?) (July 2nd week or Aug 2nd week) – Outer space is a six pitch climb near Leavenworth, and it has been my goal since i started cragging a couple of years ago. Given my space and rock-climbing touch, it might not happen this year but still a worthy goal.
Mountaineering –
Mt. Adams (June 19th?)
Mt. Baker (June 26th)
Mt. Shuskan (?)
Goal: Lead a trip up Mt. Rainier (July 17th), may be two
Goal: One ice-climb, may be Mt. Hood late in the season (Aug 1st week?)
Cycling
Flying Wheels Summer Century! (June 12th)
Goal: Lead a week-long trip along Oregon Coast (week of July 24th), in preparation to India biking adventure.
Motorcycling
Now that i still have my SV650s for this season I would love to do some long riding and track days with it. I have already been eyeing some routes.
Goal: Do at-least one long ride and one track day!
Backpacking
Yosemite (?) (Late summer Aug(?))
Need suggestions and friends to go with!
Hiking & Camping
Granite Mountain
Camp Muir
Goal: At-least do one camping trip with friends
Try a new activity
Rafting down Yakima river! (July 4th –?)
Sea-kayaking or Sailing
Goal: Learn to swim in open water
May be I should make a outdoor activities calendar. Making it public is a little itchy but hey its summer in the northwest!!
One of my long overdue goal is to commute in winter at least a couple of times a week. The bike commute from Capitol hill to Redmond is about 18 miles and takes me anywhere from 50 minutes to 1:30 hours.
The hard things in Seattle winter are rain, cold temperature and the short day light. I’m summarizing below the list of things i need to do in order to be ready for this hefty goal (other than getting motivated ).
The ride
I’m planning to finish building the the touring bike I started to build with Chris earlier this season. I would require a good frame for the same. I’m planning on putting cyclo-cross tires on them, fenders and of-course use the panniers from Seattle to SF ride.
The lights
This is tough and expensive category. I need light to-see and to-be seen.
Experienced cyclists recommend the Niterider as a backlight and MagicShine as a helmet lite.
For blinkers REI sells the planet bike blaze (1W), and the planet bike super-lasher.
Clothing
I guess i would need to buy -
Facemask
Incandescent Jacket
Thermal Gloves (Gauntlets?)
Thermal bike wear – Performance bike wear?
Rain pants – (I have them already?)
Shoes
Waterproof shoes is a hard thing. I’m planning to use booties over my current bike shoes. Some folks recommend the Shimano MT60’s.
Anything I missed? Please leave suggestions in the comments. I’m specifically looking to buy multipurpose gear and equipment. I already have too much of it from my climbing and snow-boarding.
This year I’m doing a video report of our Seattle to Portland 2-day, 200+ mile bike ride. Be gentle with my experimentation in movie making and spelling skills, and if you have not donated already please consider supporting this ride, by making your contributions here.
I’m impressed by Raji’s ability and peotic talent here is the sampler:
‘Twas early on a Saturday morn, That 5 brave bikers wound their way, Six and ten score miles they rode, Into Portland to make their foray.
Thro’ sun and rain and wind and gale, Over hill and valley and plain and dale, A flat tire here, a torn tube there, Survive they did, many a scare!
Read their saga in the thread below (Actually it’s just a picture slideshow) And if you’re inspired to do similar feats Go grab your bikes, put on those cleats!
‘So, what’s next?!’, you may impatiently ask Well, if you haven’t guessed it yet This weekend is when we will start Training for STP 2006, you bet!
Watch out for more info in Friday’s mail On the ride we will take on this time (And I’ll stick to prose instead of verse And spare you the pain of my corny rhyme!) J
I’m impressed by Raji’s ability and peotic talent here is the sampler:
‘Twas early on a Saturday morn, That 5 brave bikers wound their way, Six and ten score miles they rode, Into Portland to make their foray.
Thro’ sun and rain and wind and gale, Over hill and valley and plain and dale, A flat tire here, a torn tube there, Survive they did, many a scare!
Read their saga in the thread below (Actually it’s just a picture slideshow) And if you’re inspired to do similar feats Go grab your bikes, put on those cleats!
‘So, what’s next?!’, you may impatiently ask Well, if you haven’t guessed it yet This weekend is when we will start Training for STP 2006, you bet!
Watch out for more info in Friday’s mail On the ride we will take on this time (And I’ll stick to prose instead of verse And spare you the pain of my corny rhyme!) J
