Hill = Fun

We had an awesome A-team ride on Saturday. Our team prez organized a wonderful selection of some steep and/or long grade climbs in Bothell, Woodinville and Kirkland. I was pretty stoked, since riding up hills is one of my pastimes. The ride began at the Bothell Park & Ride (OK, actually at the Lyon's Den coffee shop) which is an 8 mile ride North from our place - it works out to a nice warm up. We covered a number of hills, many of which were at least 15% and some must have had sections of 20%+. I split from the group about 8 miles from the planned ending, intending to ride straight home. But, I saw that I was only 7 miles shy of getting to 60 miles and only 30 minutes shy of a four hour ride time, so I persevered to 62 miles and 3:58 before I pulled in to our home. The average speed belies the hills on the ride - on at least a couple of them I looked down and saw 5.5 mph! Just as I pulled in to the house is started to get really wet, so my timing was good (I was soaked, but only having reached that state minutes earlier).

Emy had her first piano lesson while I was riding, and from all signs, she loved it. When we suggested we try to schedule a 10 minute practice time every day, she said, "Maybe, 12 minutes?" On Sunday she must have played for at least an hour total, and with our help, she worked through the next few lessons in her workbook. It certainly brings back memories of my childhood....

Sunday I got in an easy spin to loosen the legs after the hill ride. I started out pretty sore and slow, but the intention was to take it easy, so I played it by feel. After about 20 minutes the legs loosened up and I had a nice spin. I passed through a freak wall of sleet, wind and rain that lasted just long enough to get me covered with ice pellets and quite damp, but I was prepared with the rain gear this time. Amazingly, the sun was out on the other side of the weather wall, and it stayed nice for the rest of my ride. I was actually "HOT" for the last 10 minutes.

Today is the "run day" in my weekly training plan, which is the same 3 mile flat route every Monday (at least until we get closer to cross season in a short 8 months). Good thing today is for running, since the forecasted snow actually happened on schedule. They even closed Emy's school for the day, which, now that it is nearly noon and the snow is melting, seems like a poor choice. They didn't close the school the last time it snowed/rained, and that time it stayed below freezing, which actually made for treacherous driving conditions. Oh well, they just don't know how to handle WINTER here.

Its COLD, but that means I'm a wimp

I'm from Minnesota. It gets cold there in the winter (well, it used to, until Dubya created global warming). Really cold. Yesterday the temp was 23.9 F and I opted to take the bus to work. Mondays are my running day, so I didn't feel too guilty about not riding to work. But, after work there's a big letdown when I walk to the bus. Why a letdown? Because the bus is never there. Yesterday I was attempting to catch the 545 bus from the Overlake Transit Center at 4:08 PM. I left my desk at 3:56 PM, and I know it takes me 7 minutes at my usual brisk walking pace to get to the bus stop. As I waited to cross 156th Ave to get to the transit center, about 50 meters from the bus stop, I see the bus pull up and right on through. It didn't stop, because there was no one waiting, and it was MLK day, so all reasonable employers give you the day off to reflect upon the wonderful civil rights we enjoy in this country (even white males like me). I'm sure this was running through the drivers mind as he rolled through the stop at 4:03 PM and continued on. I watched helplessly, opting not to play frogger with the crazy driving of my fellow micro$ofties. I resigned myself to the 4:23 bus and sauntered slowly to the stop. It was warm (above 40 F) and sunny, and not having my bicycle, simply for the convenience of departing when I wanted, sucked. When I got home, I suited up for a run. The house was lonely, since Bree, Emy and Bree's parents went to the ocean for the day:
Despite my best efforts, I failed to find them a decent place to eat in Aberdeen, WA on the way home (Bree called me at work requesting an immediate Googling).

Today the temperature was 22.8 F out, but that wasn't going to stop me. I suited up, and added a neck warmer as a concession to the cold in addition to the same outfit I would use for riding in 40 F. When I rolled out of the garage, I was shocked at the impact of the cold on my recently shorn head. Usually I head North on the Sammamish R. Trail for at least 10 minutes before turning around and heading to work, but today my toes got cold after the first 3 minutes, so I cut it short. I guess I've adapted to the temperature here, since 20's would be a lovely high temperature in Minnespolis in January.

Of course, on the ride home it was warm and sunny (at least for January in Redmond), and I got in some great tempo riding (20 minutes at just below 160 bpm on the HR monitor), plus four "spinups" with 2 min rest in between. I love spinups. To do a spinup, you put yourself in an easy gear (39x15) and then pedal faster and faster until your cadence is so high you start bouncing. Of course, the smoother you are as a pedaler, the higher the cadence gets. I don't have a cadence measure on my bike computer, but I maxed out the 39x15 at 29 mph and had an imperceptible bounce. I'd estimate my cadence was between 150 and 180. I think that bodes well for the track season, and hopefully suggests I have my bike position close to spot on.

Tomorrow the low is supposed to be again in the 20's. And you thought it didn't get cold here! Oh wait - that's not cold!

Next Time I will Take a Picture

So yesterday on my road home I experienced sleet and wind. It was not pleasant. I rode with my head down, looking at my water bottle, with the occasional glance ahead to avoid certain death. This was almost my fate flying downhill along 520 (the trail! not the freeway) when I happened to glance up and see I was about to ram a slowly moving mountain biker in the middle of the trail. I swerved, said something I wouldn't want Emy to hear, and then promptly put my head back down. When I got home, Bree was amused that I immediately switched into my running shoes and went for a 20 minute jog along the Sammamish River. The sleet switched over to snow on the run, and my wet clothes from the ride just barely kept me above hypothermic levels as I got back. I figure it was good training for cross season in the Fall. Anyone who knows me knows I was loving every minute of it.

Today I awoke to a light dusting of snow everywhere, and a temperature of 32.6F. I wasn't worried, since I had that extra 0.6F to ensure there would be no ice on my ride in. Yeah, right! The ride in was on crusty slush, which held up amazingly well, and offered a reasonable amount of traction. When I got on the trail I saw there were at least three other skinny tire riders who came before me, and so I figured if they could do it, then so could I. There were only a couple of times when I worried I would start going backwards as I made my way up the 6 to 12% gradient along 520, and at one point I was surprised to see I was going 4 mph (fast walking pace)! The ride in would have been uneventful except for the hasty minivan driver that almost took me out in a crosswalk. Unfortunately I had to dab my right foot, which loaded the right cleat with ice, and for the remaining one mile I could only balance that shoe on top of my pedals (which are Speedplays, so it is kinda like balancing your foot on a lollipop).

The ride after work was smooth as butter. Funny - there were not too many people riding today!

Withdrawal

I'm going through a bit of cyclocross withdrawal. There's not as much happening, although I guess the tension is building before Sven Nys wins the world championship in two weeks. Last weekend was the national championships for most of the European countries, and most of the winners were predictable. The USA holds ours in December, but according to this, it looks like we are trying to follow the European lead and hold ours on the same January weekend. I agree with the linked blogger - it seems OK for us to be different, in the interests of allowing our country's finest the best, uninterrupted European campaign leading up to Worlds. But, if we do move it to January, I'm betting it won't be held in cities such as Kansas City, since coming from the midwest, we know that January's weather is typically even less hospitable, and perhaps "too cold for cross". Perhaps that's good for Seattle and Portland - maybe we'll host Nationals more regularly.

My withdrawal is the usual doldrums of not much happening in the professional cycling world, but thankfully, now that I have found cyclocross, the doldrums will be much shorter! It used to be that when the road world championships were over (in the Fall, after the Vuelta), there were just a couple of races left, and then I had to hold out until February of the next year. The minor lull in cross racing activity now means there's really only a two week hiatus from results, live and delayed video coverage and commentary. I guess it is OK - I can catch up on reading books (when I am done reading all the cycling blogs I follow!).

A Call for Help, and Trail Rage?

So, today included a couple of firsts for me. I headed out for a planned 25 miles on the Sammamish Trail, and at around 10 miles out, there were two guys riding and chatting on the trail that I would soon need to pass. One was on a mountain bike with extremely wide handlebars, plus a mirror, and he was riding on the left side of the trail. His buddy was riding in the middle of the trail on a road bike with two empty panniers. They were chatting about which saddle the road bike guy thought was the best, blah, blah blah, and so, to play it safe and not disturb them too much (although in my head I was thinking "Couldn't you guys ride on the right side of the trail instead of the left and middle?"), I announced my pass - "On your right!" Of course, this threw road bike guy for a loop - he swerved right, and I yelled, "No! I'm on your right!" He swerves back to the middle and starts swearing and yelling at me about how you "cannot pass on the right" and "what is wrong with you", etc. I calmy say, "Well, your friend was on the left, and you were occupying the middle" (I might have used the terms "hogging the middle", oops) "so I felt the safest thing to do was pass where it was clear." He yells at me some more as I am now already about 10 meters past them, and I turn back to say, "Please relax sir, we're all fine now." He said something under his breath, but we then had to slow for a stop sign where the trail joins a road for a short stretch and he catches up to me, still yelling about something. I sprinted a bit and said, "I hope you both have a really nice day!" in as friendly a voice as I could muster. He again muttered something like, "we will after you're far away." I got to a stop light, willing it to change quickly, which it did, and turned left up Juanita Dr hill. They did not go this way, thankfully, and I was surprised to have had this incident, since I have never encoutered such vehemence on the trail. I got to the top, turned around, and started down. About 1/4 mile down the hill I hear the dreaded sound of my front wheel going flat (I earned this by bragging on yesterday's ride about how I "never" get flats these days!). I pull off Juanita and start changing the tube. During the install of the new tube (my only spare) I hear the telltale sound of air escaping again - I must have pinched the tube between the tire and rim while installing it - no surprising since it was raining on me and I was hurried. That's it - no more tubes, and tearing off duct tape from my fenders to use as a patch failed miserably. Right about then I started thinking of my own misery as it starts rain/snowing on me while I sit on someone's driveway. I did the unthinkable - I called Bree to come and pick me up. I considered hailing one of the many riders flying down Juanita, but they are all going 30-40 mph, and it's raining and snowing (did I mention that already?). Bree and Emy rescued me about 20 minutes later. I was quite the novelty in the little neighborhood where I waited - I was offered food, shelter, a bathroom, tea, and just plain "help" but I politely refused since this all happened about 5 minutes before I knew Bree would pull up. When we were on the drive home and I finished telling the story, Emy said, "Daddy, why was the man angry?" Bree and I explained to her about how some people react to surprise and embarrassment with anger and frustration, blaming their embarrassment on the others involved. She said, "Like I do sometimes?" We tiptoed here a bit and said that many people do this sometimes, but there are people out there who just can't accept blame or easily blow off incidents like I had - they just don't know how to deal with a mix of fear and shame.

All I can say is that I have no problem with how I dealt with the situation on the trail. I can only hope those guys learned some sort of lesson and at least moved to the right side of the trail. If I have to take the fall for them paying a little more attention on a Sunday afternoon ride on a crowded trail, then so be it. I just wish the next thing to happen to me wasn't a double flat in the freezing rain. Please tell me I erased all my bad Karma today?

Looks like tomorrow's forecast will be more of the same - but I have two spare tubes now!

Foul Weather Friends

Yet another rainy and cold team ride today, but we had an extra bonus - high winds! Here's what it looked like on the radar when I woke up:

(image from wunderground.com)

The temps stayed below 42 F, and we all got quite shivery waiting for a flat tire fix about halfway through the 48 mile ride. But, there's really nothing better than suffering in the weather with a great group of like-minded people, all working toward a common goal - getting in shape for the racing season. First official race is Feb 24th "Frostbite TT". I'll be there, of course...