July 16, 2002
Rider #374
-38 hrs.:
We’re still up in the air about a full commitment to doing a single day ride. My thinking is that we shoot for a minimum of 150miles and/or 12hrs on the bike. Of course, if we get to the 12hr. mark and we are at 170 I think we’ll just shoot for doing it in a single day.
Either way, we plan on getting a motel between miles 150-200 and then drive back to where we left off Sunday Morning. The strategy here is we bike more the first day, so there is less the second day. Start time is 5:00am from Husky Stadium. We’ve done 100 miles in about 8hrs, and with alot of breaks. I’m shooting for a low intensity, snack/drink alot on the bike, with perhaps one major stop. I’m curious how the restroom facilities will be. I’d hate to kill 20min. just waiting in line to use the loo.
I think this should be a real kick in the pants. Between 7-8k riders. Should be fun. 200 miles in one day. It’s odd. It doesn’t sound as daunting as it has before. I don’t think I’d want to do too much more than that in a single day. It makes me wonder about these endurance athelets. Ones that do Eco-Challenge sorts of things, or RAAM. You just must be at a completely different level of existence both physically and mentally for that kind of work. Rather impressive. Unfortunately unbalanced. Oh well, to be great you need to be unbalanced.
-20hrs:
Getting closer isn’t it. So I was thinking it would be fun to bring along the little voice recorder to keep a better track of what was going on for the ride, so when I do a write up here later I can have some good details. Perhaps I’ll even encode some of the audio to give the reader a richer experience.
My riding buddy picked up a cell-phone yesterday, so that is good. I’m sure we’ll get separated at some point, so it will be nice to have that handy to keep in touch if needed.
Things are pretty much wrapped up here, I’m going to try to pick up a sleeveless jersey in an attempt to keep cooler. The idea of getting up at 3:45 isn’t very inviting, hopefully the adrenaline will help with that. I was thinking about bringing some tunes, but I don’t have an MP3/CD player so that is a bit impractical. Perhaps the radio. This will probably be the last post before the ride. I doubt I’ll have anything usefull to say tomorrow morning.
I still feel good about the whole thing, and am starting to get excited.
-1hr:
Just some quick stats here. It’s too damned early.(3:55am)
(Mileage from 1/1 - 7/12)
ODO: 1143miles
AVG: 14.9mph
WT: 193lb
RHR: 55bpm
We left the Husky Stadium parking lot at 5:10am. They had us all leave in groups of about 25. I had a fresh cyclo-computer (aside from ODO), and we headed out. We weaved across and down Pacific street and then up Brooklyn or University Ave. What as troubling about this was that we saw a cyclist down and covered with a blanket, being assisted by some EMT looking folks. Hmmm. About a mile down the road as we were turning left off of the University bridge, we saw another cyclist down (same story). This wasn’t looking to be a good start. I can only assume they didn’t hydrate or something.
The ride continued through parts of the Arbouretum and onto Lake Washingotn Blvd, where we continued on underneath I-90 and down to Seward Park. Ironically enough, that same day the Cannonball was going on. That is a ride put on by the Redmond Cycling Club. That route is easier to follow. Get on I-90 in Seattle, get off I-90 in Spokane, 275miles !. Once at Seward park we went through Rainier Valley, and down towards Tukwilla/Kent. The first pit stop was at REI headquarters in Kent. There were people handing out Alohas and laies. After a quick restroom break, and some food, we both headed out.
The next part of the ride just flew by. I guess what was most surprising about the whole thing was that it didn’t seem like that long to get to Puyallup. It was just there all of a sudden. You start thinking, wow. Seattle to Tacoma is sorta far… and I just biked that. At this point I was almost exclusively in a paceline, and quite enjoying myself.
Things started getting funky around mile 65 or so. I started feeling a pain on the inside of my right knee, if I pedaled a certain way. There was a pit stop at mile 70, and I took 2 ibuprofin’s. At this point it was around 10am. What tricks you is that you start to think, goodness I’ve ridden 70 miles and it’s only 10am. What you tend to forget is that you’ve been riding for 5hrs already. From here to Centralia was fine, the ibuprofin was working and we strolled into Centralia about 12:15.
Perhaps it was a mistake to spend an hour at Centralia. I think the 2 orange cicles had something to do with it as well. Or maybe it was the fact that it was getting hot now. The first half had been pretty much all cloud cover. Not so anymore. In either case, the next 20 miles completely sucked. We left at 1, and I didn’t get to the 120mi rest stop until 2:30.
I rested a bit there, hosed off and had most of a jumbo snickers bar. This also wasn’t as refreshing as I would have thought. My knee alternated between being bearable, and feeling completely fine. I spent the next 20 miles in shadier, friendlier riding conditions. This was great. Spending time on the country roads is really refreshing, and relaxing. A good way to get an idea of where you are is to notice the names of the paper boxes that are attached to everyones mailbox. It was during this leg that 2 interesting things happened. First, I came across a clearing to my left, and looked over and saw Mt. St. Helens. This doesn’t tend to happen very often to a biker who is based out of Seattle. It sunk in though, and for the first time I realized I had ridden over 100 miles in one day and how amazing that was. The other cool thing was someone had the chariots of fire theme song blasting out of their home. That was cool. Definitely worth a smile on your face.
At about mile 145 was a major pitstop in lexington. It was agreed upon with Michelle that I”d call around 150 to see where she was in transit, and where we should meet. The only problem, was that I had a cheap cellphone plan, and once I was out of my home calling area, it just said “Searching for Home”. At this point I was starting to wonder if you could make a collect call to a cell. I spent about 20min. here and looked around for my riding buddy, but no luck came out of that. I took off.
Longview was just 5 miles down the road, and it was a miserable 5 miles. I’m wondering if taking big breaks and not letting your food digest is a bad thing. 2 for 2 on that one. As (luck/God/fate) should have it, I saw Michelle across the intersection from where we were turning to go over the Longview bridge, pulled off to the side of the road. I explained to her what was going on for the past 50, and unloaded some stuff since I didn’t really need it anymore. I was sitting at 150. 50 to go, and I knew that I wasn’t going to finish. My knee was hurting too much. It was about 5pm, and I didn’t know where my riding buddy was. We verbally agreed to meet at the bridge but he wasn’t there, and I was sure he was way ahead of me. I made plans with Michelle to meet up in Oregon about 10 miles up the road and I’d just stop there and rest for awhile and see how things were.
Well the place I was supposed to stop evidentally doesn’t exist, and I met up with her at a mini-stop which was about 5 miles out of Deer Island. We made contact with my riding buddy, and it turned out he was behind me. So we waited there, and I took a tylenol. Once we were all together, he said he felt great and was going to finish. I said I’d ride up to deer island as that was a good place to continue for the next day. My cyclometer showed 168 miles, the STP map said 170. We loaded up the bike and went into Portland to find a motel. Once that was done, I showered and we went back and picked up my riding buddy. He had his wife come pick him up, so Michelle and I found dinner at 10pm at Wendy’s (potato, fries, and shake). I took another tylenol, iced the knee and went to sleep. Saturday morning came all too soon, and I felt the knee and walked on it a bit. It still didn’t feel to well and this was walking on it, so I decided to call it quits. STP finish will have to wait another time. What I was able to walk away with was a 170mile ride in one day. What is great, is that it makes a 50mile ride look like a joke.
I have a theory about the knee. (It is fine now). 1. I spent alot of time in the paceline, and I was up a gear to high. The result being that my cadence was lower than it should’ve been. This was putting alot of stress on my joints. 2. I haven’t been weight training my legs.. thinking that the biking is taking care of that. Wrong. I need the weights for the strength.
At this point I’m well over a week since the ride, and I am going to take a big break from riding until I can get some more strength in the legs. Aside from commuting, I may not do an organized ride until the Chilly Hilly next Feb. I may try the Kitsap Color Classic in October and do a shorter loop. Additional photos and the official riderlist (I’m #375)
Daily Log
Stats:(by my cyclocomputer)
Distance: 167.92 miles
Max speed: N/A mph
(somewhere around 38mph)
Avg speed: Err mph
(+17mph @ halfway point)
Food
(as best as I can remember)
~140oz water,sports drink
2 banana
2 cups dried apples
2 clif-bar shots
1 other shot thing
1 bagel, with peanut butter
2 large fig newtons
3 fruit leathers
2 orange-cicles
1 jumbo snickers
2 sandwich pita thingies (pitstop thing)
3 clif bars
July 16, 2002
Rider #374
-38 hrs.:
We’re still up in the air about a full commitment to doing a single day ride. My thinking is that we shoot for a minimum of 150miles and/or 12hrs on the bike. Of course, if we get to the 12hr. mark and we are at 170 I think we’ll just shoot for doing it in a single day.
Either way, we plan on getting a motel between miles 150-200 and then drive back to where we left off Sunday Morning. The strategy here is we bike more the first day, so there is less the second day. Start time is 5:00am from Husky Stadium. We’ve done 100 miles in about 8hrs, and with alot of breaks. I’m shooting for a low intensity, snack/drink alot on the bike, with perhaps one major stop. I’m curious how the restroom facilities will be. I’d hate to kill 20min. just waiting in line to use the loo.
I think this should be a real kick in the pants. Between 7-8k riders. Should be fun. 200 miles in one day. It’s odd. It doesn’t sound as daunting as it has before. I don’t think I’d want to do too much more than that in a single day. It makes me wonder about these endurance athelets. Ones that do Eco-Challenge sorts of things, or RAAM. You just must be at a completely different level of existence both physically and mentally for that kind of work. Rather impressive. Unfortunately unbalanced. Oh well, to be great you need to be unbalanced.
-20hrs:
Getting closer isn’t it. So I was thinking it would be fun to bring along the little voice recorder to keep a better track of what was going on for the ride, so when I do a write up here later I can have some good details. Perhaps I’ll even encode some of the audio to give the reader a richer experience.
My riding buddy picked up a cell-phone yesterday, so that is good. I’m sure we’ll get separated at some point, so it will be nice to have that handy to keep in touch if needed.
Things are pretty much wrapped up here, I’m going to try to pick up a sleeveless jersey in an attempt to keep cooler. The idea of getting up at 3:45 isn’t very inviting, hopefully the adrenaline will help with that. I was thinking about bringing some tunes, but I don’t have an MP3/CD player so that is a bit impractical. Perhaps the radio. This will probably be the last post before the ride. I doubt I’ll have anything usefull to say tomorrow morning.
I still feel good about the whole thing, and am starting to get excited.
-1hr:
Just some quick stats here. It’s too damned early.(3:55am)
(Mileage from 1/1 - 7/12)
ODO: 1143miles
AVG: 14.9mph
WT: 193lb
RHR: 55bpm
We left the Husky Stadium parking lot at 5:10am. They had us all leave in groups of about 25. I had a fresh cyclo-computer (aside from ODO), and we headed out. We weaved across and down Pacific street and then up Brooklyn or University Ave. What as troubling about this was that we saw a cyclist down and covered with a blanket, being assisted by some EMT looking folks. Hmmm. About a mile down the road as we were turning left off of the University bridge, we saw another cyclist down (same story). This wasn’t looking to be a good start. I can only assume they didn’t hydrate or something.
The ride continued through parts of the Arbouretum and onto Lake Washingotn Blvd, where we continued on underneath I-90 and down to Seward Park. Ironically enough, that same day the Cannonball was going on. That is a ride put on by the Redmond Cycling Club. That route is easier to follow. Get on I-90 in Seattle, get off I-90 in Spokane, 275miles !. Once at Seward park we went through Rainier Valley, and down towards Tukwilla/Kent. The first pit stop was at REI headquarters in Kent. There were people handing out Alohas and laies. After a quick restroom break, and some food, we both headed out.
The next part of the ride just flew by. I guess what was most surprising about the whole thing was that it didn’t seem like that long to get to Puyallup. It was just there all of a sudden. You start thinking, wow. Seattle to Tacoma is sorta far… and I just biked that. At this point I was almost exclusively in a paceline, and quite enjoying myself.
Things started getting funky around mile 65 or so. I started feeling a pain on the inside of my right knee, if I pedaled a certain way. There was a pit stop at mile 70, and I took 2 ibuprofin’s. At this point it was around 10am. What tricks you is that you start to think, goodness I’ve ridden 70 miles and it’s only 10am. What you tend to forget is that you’ve been riding for 5hrs already. From here to Centralia was fine, the ibuprofin was working and we strolled into Centralia about 12:15.
Perhaps it was a mistake to spend an hour at Centralia. I think the 2 orange cicles had something to do with it as well. Or maybe it was the fact that it was getting hot now. The first half had been pretty much all cloud cover. Not so anymore. In either case, the next 20 miles completely sucked. We left at 1, and I didn’t get to the 120mi rest stop until 2:30.
I rested a bit there, hosed off and had most of a jumbo snickers bar. This also wasn’t as refreshing as I would have thought. My knee alternated between being bearable, and feeling completely fine. I spent the next 20 miles in shadier, friendlier riding conditions. This was great. Spending time on the country roads is really refreshing, and relaxing. A good way to get an idea of where you are is to notice the names of the paper boxes that are attached to everyones mailbox. It was during this leg that 2 interesting things happened. First, I came across a clearing to my left, and looked over and saw Mt. St. Helens. This doesn’t tend to happen very often to a biker who is based out of Seattle. It sunk in though, and for the first time I realized I had ridden over 100 miles in one day and how amazing that was. The other cool thing was someone had the chariots of fire theme song blasting out of their home. That was cool. Definitely worth a smile on your face.
At about mile 145 was a major pitstop in lexington. It was agreed upon with Michelle that I”d call around 150 to see where she was in transit, and where we should meet. The only problem, was that I had a cheap cellphone plan, and once I was out of my home calling area, it just said “Searching for Home”. At this point I was starting to wonder if you could make a collect call to a cell. I spent about 20min. here and looked around for my riding buddy, but no luck came out of that. I took off.
Longview was just 5 miles down the road, and it was a miserable 5 miles. I’m wondering if taking big breaks and not letting your food digest is a bad thing. 2 for 2 on that one. As (luck/God/fate) should have it, I saw Michelle across the intersection from where we were turning to go over the Longview bridge, pulled off to the side of the road. I explained to her what was going on for the past 50, and unloaded some stuff since I didn’t really need it anymore. I was sitting at 150. 50 to go, and I knew that I wasn’t going to finish. My knee was hurting too much. It was about 5pm, and I didn’t know where my riding buddy was. We verbally agreed to meet at the bridge but he wasn’t there, and I was sure he was way ahead of me. I made plans with Michelle to meet up in Oregon about 10 miles up the road and I’d just stop there and rest for awhile and see how things were.
Well the place I was supposed to stop evidentally doesn’t exist, and I met up with her at a mini-stop which was about 5 miles out of Deer Island. We made contact with my riding buddy, and it turned out he was behind me. So we waited there, and I took a tylenol. Once we were all together, he said he felt great and was going to finish. I said I’d ride up to deer island as that was a good place to continue for the next day. My cyclometer showed 168 miles, the STP map said 170. We loaded up the bike and went into Portland to find a motel. Once that was done, I showered and we went back and picked up my riding buddy. He had his wife come pick him up, so Michelle and I found dinner at 10pm at Wendy’s (potato, fries, and shake). I took another tylenol, iced the knee and went to sleep. Saturday morning came all too soon, and I felt the knee and walked on it a bit. It still didn’t feel to well and this was walking on it, so I decided to call it quits. STP finish will have to wait another time. What I was able to walk away with was a 170mile ride in one day. What is great, is that it makes a 50mile ride look like a joke.
I have a theory about the knee. (It is fine now). 1. I spent alot of time in the paceline, and I was up a gear to high. The result being that my cadence was lower than it should’ve been. This was putting alot of stress on my joints. 2. I haven’t been weight training my legs.. thinking that the biking is taking care of that. Wrong. I need the weights for the strength.
At this point I’m well over a week since the ride, and I am going to take a big break from riding until I can get some more strength in the legs. Aside from commuting, I may not do an organized ride until the Chilly Hilly next Feb. I may try the Kitsap Color Classic in October and do a shorter loop. Additional photos and the official riderlist (I’m #375)
Daily Log
Stats:(by my cyclocomputer)
Distance: 167.92 miles
Max speed: N/A mph
(somewhere around 38mph)
Avg speed: Err mph
(+17mph @ halfway point)
Food
(as best as I can remember)
~140oz water,sports drink
2 banana
2 cups dried apples
2 clif-bar shots
1 other shot thing
1 bagel, with peanut butter
2 large fig newtons
3 fruit leathers
2 orange-cicles
1 jumbo snickers
2 sandwich pita thingies (pitstop thing)
3 clif bars