Monday, October 12, 2015

Lies, Lies, and More Lies

There are a lot of sayings one could use for such an occasion - like:
"Liar, liar, pants on fire"
Ok, so there's really just one. I lied.

Except this saying won't really do since there's no way anyone's pants are gonna catch fire when they are soaking wet.

I went biking this Saturday with hubby - our usual lap around the lake. It was pouring down. Cats and dogs and probably goldfish as well. Hard to tell because I couldn't really see that well due to the rain on my eyeballs. However, I knew this going into the ride as the weather forecast happened to be right for once, predicting 100% chance of rain. I was excited about this because it would offer a great opportunity to sport my new rain jacket, the glorious Showers Pass.

Ten minutes into the ride I was soaking wet - on the inside! First I thought it might be sweat. All though that would be a little weird since I had been biking downhill - no exertion, no sweat. Turns out the jacket was leaking like a sieve.

Yeah, yeah, before you start hating on me for not getting the Elite 2.1 instead of the Double Century, this is what the company says about the jacket:

"New and Improved! The Double Century RTX is a super light and packable shell for long miles in the saddle.  Featuring Artex 2.5DC tech fabric, this ultra-light waterproof-breathable cycling jacket offers a drier next to skin feel than your average 2.5 layer jacket."

Bullcrap! Last time I checked there weren't degrees of waterproof. A jacket either is waterproof or not. It's not like a jacket can be sort of waterproof or partially waterproof. Boooo! (Not in a Halloween kind of way)

Also, if this is the new and improved version, I'd hate to see the old and inferior version.

Anywho, I didn't let this little mishap deter me from doing my longer ride on Sunday. Man, did this weekend prove how bipolar the weather is here in the Pacific Northwest. Sunday was wonderful and perfect in every way. Again, 2/3 of Team Wheels went biking. This time we did the route of Ride the WAVE with some moderations - some of them intentional and some of them because we got a little lost.

Here is some fall porn:

On the way to Marymoore Park

Colors on the ground

Are they growing weed?

Pumpkin patch with angry geese

This is what fancy neighborhoods buy ya

If you were living in this house...

Fancy bus shack

Road down from Sammamish

The climbs on our slightly moderated route were great. My legs worked perfectly and I felt strong. Perhaps this was a reward for the wet ride the day before. The ride was about 65 miles. This is the ride profile, but instead of riding up 164th, we rode up NW Village Park Drive.



NW Village Park Drive is long and for some reason much harder to climb than any of the other hills in the area even though it isn't steeper. Below you can see the climb profile of it. It starts on the 8.8 mile mark and goes up to around 10.



See that I mean? Not that steep. Yet, somehow it took me four months to conquer it.

2 comments:

  1. The hill from mile 8.8 to 10 looks somewhat steeper compared to anything else on that ride. It's not as high as some of the others, but it is more steep.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I think you're right. It just doesn't visually seem that steep when biking up it. I can't explain what happens, my legs are usually fine, it's just that I deflate.

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