At some point riding a single speed bicycle with geared bikes gets stupid. I think I reached that point today.
Things were going okay until we hit Tiger Mt and then it was weight lifting pure and simple. We're talking a full body workout and I was paper-boying all over the damn road. Once over the top the majority vote was to turn around and do it again. You could hear my legs breaking from miles away.
Too much wine last night! And too much food! I feel like a truck hit me this AM. Funny how sometimes eating a lot helps buffer the alcohol and sometimes it just makes you feel fat and bloated. And by 'funny' I of course mean 'interesting from an objective perspective' because I was not laughing. Needless to say, breakfast was not big and included some Ibuprofen.
I rolled down to Leschi and surprise, surprise… there were only a handful of people there. Oh well, we rode anyway. :) It was a great group, we had RC R, Tim F, Gabe T, Jessie N and Dave H of all people! It was nice to connect with him again for sure.
In Renton RC peeled off to loop the lake as he had time constraints.
At the end of Jones Rd Dave lamented the fact that we were not going to climb the big hill. Turns out what he really wanted was to see me TRY to climb that hill on my single speed. Nice.
As we rolled into Tiger Mt I was trying to visualize the pitch and decide if I was being foolish or reasonable. At the very first steeper section Tim scooted up the road soon to be followed by Jessie and foolish was looking like the obvious answer. As we got the first steep corner (I had already been out of the saddle for a bit) I had to literally snake across the road some to keep the bike going. Not only was I getting a killer leg workout I was torching my back and arms as I pulled with all my might on the bars. I had to go pretty much as hard as I could or risk falling over!
To my surprise, going this hard meant I caught Tim! But I gotta say, if that hill had been any longer I would have blown a mile high and the carnage would not have been pretty.
We regrouped at the top and descended where Dave peeled off to finish up on his own. I asked those that were left if they wanted to head back over Tiger or take a right on Issaquah-Hobart and in a show of hands that broke my spirit to my delight everyone voted for up and over one more time. Let's just say I made it to the top using a lot of body English.
The day was turning out to be fantastic!
ASIDE - I had checked the weather forecast which said upper 40s and sun so in my haste I opted for knee warmers. Too bad I did not notice that it was still in the low 30s at home AND PRETTY MUCH THE ENTIRE FIRST HALF OF THE RIDE. Yep, Martin froze for a few hours. Things did not change much until we topped out on Tiger where the temperature was a good 10 degrees warmer than in the valley.
We elected to return home via May Valley for the scenic value and damn we saw a lot of riders heading out… There was a big group from Garage Racing, no less than three groups from Bikesale.com, a group from Audi and two groups of recreational riders. Wow.
Here it was eventually down to just three of us (Tim, Jessie and myself) and so we picked up the pace just a little and rotated. What a blast to be moving along some and not be hating life. Sometimes it's the little things.
As we reached Mercer Island Jessie said he had to head home (plus he had started riding 10 miles further away from where we all initially met) and I was just about to go with him when Tim stated emphatically that this was a great day and he was going to enjoy some more of it by looping the island. I thought about it for three seconds and joined him. It was a good call.
But it also wore me out! On that last climb back to I-90 I finally cracked and Tim rode away from me. :( He did this again crossing the floating bridge and that is when I knew I was well and truly done in.
Still, good times. And a great group to be out with. I did not bonk but I got super worn out. I really need to finish building my geared bike.
| Sleep | 6 |
| Waking HR | |
| Body Weight | |
| Body Fat | |
| Breakfast | 5:45 AM - big bowl of applesauce w/1 scoop protein powder, walnuts, 2 bananas, water |
| Lunch | |
| Dinner | |
| Workout Food | 1.5 large bottles each w/3 scoops Perpetuem and 2 Endurolytes, gel, 2 Perpetuem Solids |
| Injuries | |
| Therapy | |
| Time of Day | 8:30 AM |
| Workout Type | endurance, power |
| Weather | low 30s to low 40s, cloudy at first, sunny at the end, calm, dry |
| Course | |
| Results | |
| Time | 4:09 |
| Distance | 67 miles |
| Pace | |
| Equipment | Single Speed Bike |
| Clothing | Sugoi shoe covers, bib shorts, knee warmers, Craft long sleeve undershirt, short sleeve jersey, arm warmers, Windtex vest, Polypropylene gloves, OR Gripper gloves, cap |
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