Chilly Rainy Windy Hilly

The much anticipated Sunday finally arrived. First organized ride this side of 2016.



I laid out my choice of clothes the night before, packed my handlebar bag with unnecessary things (per usual), put the bike in the car - yes, I decided against riding downtown because I didn't know how much steam I would have left post ride, and set the alarm to 6 am.

The morning arrived with spotty rain in Issaquah, however the weather forecast predicted showers throughout the day. My last ride with COGS was a slightly painful one. Man, oh man, how much difference padded pants make. There are times I am not happy about my lady parts. After the COGS ride I was so sore that I walked like a bowlegged cowboy for days after.

Not wanting to repeat that beaver slaughter, I chose the padded route. However, none of my padded pants have long legs, so I wore knee high socks with the choice of pants. I threw the rain pants in the car just in case, thinking I wouldn't need them. Boy, was I wrong.

As soon as I approached Seattle, the rain started dumping down in buckets. The wind picked up, causing the rain to come sideways. I lucked out with parking, finding a spot right across from the ferry dock. The first thing that happened was a homeless guy knocking on my window, wanting to wash my car - in the rain. He was carrying a bucket full of supplies. He told me he was a veteran  who had fallen on hard times and just needed money for breakfast.

Me, always the bleeding heart, gave him $5 and requested he not wash my car. I know the $5 probably didn't go towards a breakfast, but who am I to judge. One man's recreational fodder is another man's liquid breakfast. The homeless man advised me to put up my seats so my car looked less like it was going to be parked there all day, making it a target. I didn't take the advice, even though it cost me $5.

Bainbridge! A fresh load of spandex coming at ya!

I didn't know how many people would show up due to the weather, but pretty soon the entire ferry dock was as full of spandex as the pride parade.

Find the guy in yellow

Kevin being funny

Turns out Kevin didn't have to wave since he was easily spotted as the only guy texting on his phone.
Kevin and I were soon joined by other people from COGS and together we waited the longest 30 minutes ever for the ferry.

Some of you should NOT wear spandex

The ferry was full of strutting peacocks and, sorry guys, but some of you should really consider concealing your weapons. See, what happens when I'm in a seated position, your non-secured weapons are pointed right at face height. My face. And should your weapon discharge, I won't be very happy.

All the bitches in line at the bathroom

Funny observation: partaking in an organized bike ride is like being in a reverse club. During my party days, the lines of the women's bathroom were miles long, whereas the men's bathroom didn't have a line. On board SS Spandex, the roles were reversed - which just goes to prove that bike rides are male dominated. My guess on this ride is that the ratio was 1/30.

The rain was light when we spewed out of the ferry in Bainbridge and the "hill" from the ferry was not a hill. Slight incline at best. I tried slowing down, but couldn't. My legs just wanted to go, go, go. Pretty soon the rain increased, but I stayed dry in my rain jacket and pants. The only parts of me that suffered slightly were my feet. Didn't wear my goretex shoes. Oh, well, it could have been worse.

The weather was typical Washington. It changed from rain, sun, wind, and every combo in between. The worst part was the wind. There was one stretch of the ride where we biked close to the water in headwinds of 25-30 mph. It felt as if I was biking on a stationary bike. I was pedaling like crazy, but didn't seem to move anywhere.

No gold at the end of the rainbow, but plenty of spandex

As y'all know, I am no fan of stopping when I'm on my bike, but I decided to do a brief swing-by at Battle Point Park where they served the usual grub. I grabbed a few things for later, ate a banana, took a photo, then headed out on the road again.

I made another exception a bit later on.

I can see Russia, I mean, Seattle from my house!

I finished the ride in a little over two hours, which I think is respectable. The people were friendly, the hills were great! Oh, the hills really were alive with the sound of - if not music - huffing and puffing. The hills were my absolute favorite on this ride and I had plenty left in the tank when all was said and done at 33 miles.

Awesome hills!

As I thought, I'm not the fastest, nor the slowest. Mid-pack is my wheel house, but I climb well. The people that were passing me on the flat, I passed on the climbs.

A load of sweaty spandex headed off the island

I caught the 11:30 am ferry back to Seattle. As you can see, it was a real sausage fest. Not sure what's next since there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of rides in March, but if there is one, I will find it!

Oh, and the ride ended with a flat - which must have happened the last stretch from the ferry to my car. Pinch flat. Go figure. My changing time is down to 5 minutes. Yeay!

Managing Great Expectations

The weekend I've been looking forward to with much anticipation is finally here: Chilly Hilly.



Seems I have do adjust my expectations since the best part of the ride might just be the ferry ride. I thought Chilly Hilly came with distance options like Kitsap Color Classic did, but is seems that this is not the case. The entire ride is no more than 33 miles, which is barely enough for the warm-up lap.

Chilly Hilly has been kicking off the cycling season in the Northwest on the last Sunday in February for the past 44 years. The 33-mile route around Bainbridge Island starts with a scenic early morning ferry ride across Puget Sound from Seattle, or you can join the crowd directly on Bainbridge Island.


The climbs amount to just above 2,000 feet. That's what I do on my daily commute. I'm a little disappointed, but I'll get over it. This will teach me to read the details next time I consider signing up for a ride. But it is a Cascade ride, and so far every ride organized by them have been great. All rides have been well supported, the people have been friendly, and the grub has been awesome - except for the boiled potatoes they had at Kitsap Color Classic that I had no idea what to do with. But at least there will be cookies. And maybe heroin. Or meth.

Don't bother, they don't have meth

Post-ride I find myself having all sorts of cravings and sometimes they manifest themselves like this:

Me: I think I’m craving heroin.

Hubby: What?

Me: Well, I assume it’s heroin. It could be crack. I don’t really know.

Hubby: Start over. Make sense this time.

Me: You know when you’re craving something, but nothing satisfies the craving and so you just keep eating? But nothing works and so you’re full but you’re still craving something but still you don’t even know what it is that will satisfy the craving?

Hubby: Not really.

Me: Well, normal people do and I’m one of them, and I’ve eaten everything in the kitchen and I’m still craving something else so I’m assuming it must be something I’ve never had before. Something like heroin.

Hubby: Right. So popcorn didn’t satisfy you, so you just automatically assume you need heroin?

Me: Or maybe meth. Maybe I need to find a meth lab.

Hubby: Just stop talking.

Me: I was just thinking that meth labs aren’t like regular labs because they’re faster than regular labs. Like, if I need to know if my chest x-rays are clean it takes days for a doctor to let me know, but if I go down to that meth lab by the lake I’d probably get served immediately. Or shot immediately. One of those.

Hubby: How do you even know where a meth lab is?

Me: I don’t, but I just assume that there are some by the lake. Because scientists like water sports.

Hubby: Scientists?

Me: I’m pretty sure if you work in a lab all day you’re considered a scientist.

Hubby: Not if it’s a meth lab.

Me: It’s a loose definition, but I’m pretty sure it still counts.

The COGS Went Spinning

First: YEAY! And: WOOOHOOOO!

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I can go on to writing about a great bike ride.

Saturday I went biking with the COGS. This was the ride I thought slightly silly because I would be biking 15 miles to do a 30 mile ride. But, I am nothing if not silly so I hopped on my bike and headed for our meeting point, which was easier said than done it turned out.

Let it be said that I loathe the I-90 trail, Mountain to Sound Greenway. I hate it because it's badly signed and I always get lost at least twice when I attempt to take it. This may or may not be linked to my lack of directional abilities, but I'm only willing to blame share at 30/70 (the 30% being me).

The I-90 Trail

Glorious weather

The I-90 bridge

Probably the only signs on the trail - NOT helpful

Per usual, I took the wrong turn three times but eventually made my way across the water. The weather was glorious, a bit cold, but perfect for biking. I encountered many a +Josh Ross look alikes but all were nice and polite like.

The directions to the meeting point were a little vague so I ended up waiting in the wrong parking lot. We were supposed to meet up at 10 am and take off at 10:15, but when 10 rolled around and I didn't see any other people on bike I decided to head to the other parking lot where our meeting point also could be. Turned out that was it.

There were 11 of us in the group and all of them were worse than me as far as giving signals and knowing how to ride in a line. They were braking left and right and turning willy nilly without letting the people behind know what they were up to. Oh well, I adjusted my riding accordingly and the ride went off without any incidents.

The ride was called Bellevue and Beyond, but turned out to be to Bellevue only where we stopped for lunch (yes, my favorite thing to do... NOT). The bagel was yummy though and the diet Coke was devine!

The ride started out at the Arboretum, across I-90, then the Mercer Island loop, and from there to Bellevue.

From Washington Park Playfield to Bellevue

The Mercer Island Loop

It was a first for me riding the Mercer Island loop and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Not a lot of traffic because the only people driving on the island are people living there. There were no traffic lights, which made for a great non-stop ride.

I found a couple of riders who rode at my pace and the three of us rode around the island together. I highly recommend doing the loop - if  you can find your way onto the island.

Even though this ride wasn't exactly my cup of tea as far as stopping and going and stopping for food, I'm glad I went. For a couple of reasons. One, I met some pretty cool people - and two, it was a good gauge for how I handle longer rides than the 10 miles I do on my commute.

I found out I do well on climbs but I've forgotten how to hydrate well. All in all I biked 50 miles and next Sunday is Chilly Hilly. I got my bib and my meal ticket and I can't wait!

Throwback Friday - High Pass Challenge

This was the first post I wrote, and the weather being the way it is and since I'm feeling a little lazy today - I am reposting my debut in the world of blogging. High Pass Challenge, probably not the logical choice of first organized ride ever, but a great test of strength.

I am also posting this again because I am participating in my first organized ride this year tomorrow with a group of COGS.

I did it - and I think that's very descriptive for most women who do this ride. As a fellow female rider said; "Most women who do this ride do it to see if they can do it, whereas most men do it to prove that they are - in fact, MEN".

I have never done anything close to these kinds of elevations before but being that I commute daily with a pretty solid hill towards the end, I figured it was worth a shot. I've also done a few long rides the past month, all well over 100 miles. I also googled the ride - A LOT. I even watched the full length youtube videos someone has posted. Not the entire eight hours or so, but enough so I thought myself prepared.

I also found this hilarious guide to climbing grades by Fat Cyclist.

However, no one really said anything about how one knows if one is prepared enough to pull this off. There were a lot of bragging blogs about having finished (another one added...), and how fast one was able to finish, but nothing very helpful for my purposes. I will get to that at the end of this.

I took off from home at 3:50 am. Having packed everything the nigh before, I could just get in my car and start driving. The weather forecast had predicted temperatures in the low 70s and 20% chance of rain - yeah, right...

I arrived at Packwood a little before 6 am and stopped at Cruisers Pizza for a very mediocre and expensive breakfast but I needed the fuel. I made my way over to the start line parking lot around 6:30. The parking lot was already pretty full. I got the bike out of my car and loaded it up with everything I had packed. Too much, as it turned out. I had packed a handlebar bag full of power bars and cliff gels. I only needed two bars and two packs of gels. The gels are awesome! I had filled two water bottles with Propel.

The start went off and I waited until the bulk of the riders had gone since I knew I wouldn't push it right off the gate. I was talking to a guy who said he did the ride last year and if "and old guy like he could do it, so could I". I still wasn't sold on the climbing. As much as I love hill climbing, much more so than downhill, I wasn't sure I could do 30+ miles of continuous climbing.

I think I was amongst the last 10 riders out the gate. I rode alone for the first mile or so, but caught up with a group of three other riders. Ok, so I sped up a bit to catch on as I figured I'd give the pace line thing a try. Good thing I did. The four of us picked up another female and rode all the way to Randle together. I pulled once, but wasn't fast enough. Haha. Well, I enjoyed being at the back of the pack.

When we came to Randle, the group dissolved. I tried biking as slow as I could, but needed to go a little faster, so I left my group and started climbing to the first food stop. I had to pee really bad at that point and hurried to the port-a-potties, then took off. I had a full bag of food and plenty of water.

The weather wasn't great with misty rain all the way to Randle. It was very foggy, which only got worse with the climb.

My "view"

The much anticipated climb was surprisingly "easy". The worst part of the ride turned out to be the rain and the cold and not the elevation. As we continued to climb, it got foggier, rainier, and much much colder. I was swearing a lot internally as I got more and more wet. But at least I wasn't cold due to the climbs. In fact, I was bored. Extremely so. When I go on long bike rides, I listen to music to keep the boredom at bay. I'm not the "stop and smell the roses" or enjoy-the-landscape kind of person. For me, it's about the act of biking and being able to get from A to B, so I need the music. On arranged rides, electronics aren't allowed, and being a law abiding citizen, obeying I did. Ergo, no music.

As we came up through the trees, having climbed 25 miles or so, it got colder and foggier. There were rolling hills all the way to the mid point at Windy Ridge. The downhills were brutal. Cold and wet and no sight line. Couldn't see shit. Not fun. Well, at some point it actually got ridiculous - almost to the point of ridiculous in a weirdly fun way.

What I didn't see

Due to the temperature up on the ridge, the road to Windy Ridge seemed much longer than the 10 miles it really was, but I made it. Missed the silver medal by 10 minutes, but it was ok since I had been shooting for simply making it at all. 11:40 am I crossed under the banner at Windy Ridge.

I didn't stay for long. Had half a banana, used the port-a-potty, put on my extra jersey, my rain jacket, blue disposable vinyl gloves over my soaking wet gloves. I felt like the Michelin man, but at least I was somewhat warm and windproof/waterproof. I really wished I had worn pants with legs.

You'd think I would be happy over the downhills, but I found myself longing for the climbs. I kept the speed super low as the wet conditions and the rough patches of road made the descent treacherous. I used up all my break pads that were brand new. Several times, my legs started shaking and my left leg was threatening to cramp up/develop frost bite, and I kept telling it "don't you dare give up on me". My leg listened.

A little after Iron Creek Picnic area, I was joined by another female rider. We ended up riding together the remaining miles to the finish line. All though I'm a bit of a lone wolf when it comes to biking, I enjoyed her company and it made the last bit go by much faster than had I been alone. At 4 pm we crossed the finish line - I had made it!

If you are wondering whether you can do the HPC (for us in the know.... hahahaha), this is my experience:

If you can say yes to the following, you are ready:

• Climb up to Issaquah Highlands three times in a row and still have plenty of fuel left in the tank?
• Ride 150 miles and feel like you could have gone longer x 4 in a month?

Those were my pre ride tests, and with that in the experience column I did the HPC and felt great after. Granted, I didn't bike super fast, I did it in a speed I felt comfortable in without seeing black dots or feel like the darkness was closing around me.

Next stop: Passport to Pain! Or Tour de Blast. Not sure yet. Same day. WTF?

Edit: Quote from the Cascade website.

"The weather conditions this year made the 2015 edition of the HPC the most challenging HPC we have ever had. Just getting to the top was a huge accomplishment!"

I heard 300 people had signed up initially, but only 200 or so showed up. Out of those 200, 180 made it to the top. Some rode in cars back down.

Busy Weekend - Volunteering And Kitsap Color Classic

WOW! I really didn't think anything could top WAVE, but Kitsap Color Classic was nothing short of spectacular. The weather was perfect, crisp, cool and sunny. I'll get back to this later in the post, but first: Volunteering for Cascade.

The event was a lunch for the big donors at their new office at Sandpoint. Gorgeous location with views of the marina and Lake Washington.




I biked to and from, being that it's a bicycle club and all. 60 miles. A good stretch in some rain. It wouldn't have been a true Cascade event without.

The view from the front

The band

Fancy bike rack

Lake Washington

I'm not entirely sure why I'm volunteering at this point because I have decided to buy a season pass come next year, which makes the "24 hours of volunteering will get you a free ride" redundant. Oh, and I just realized I haven't told you about the best part of this gig yet!

Obviously there was food at the lunch, but there was also ice cream in the form of a hired ice cream truck whose name I will leave out. I was hanging out in the kitchen during the lunch and speeches so I finished eating first. I decided to have an ice cream and went out to the truck. The first thing I noticed was the non existent skirt length of the girl in the truck. Her butt was at my eye level being that the truck was elevated. I figured this in combination with her skimpy skirt couldn't possibly be good and I was right. As she bent down in the freezer to scoop up ice cream, I found myself almost blind. The view left nothing to the imagination and I didn't know if I should tip her in singles or not.

Instead of just getting an ice cream, I got dessert and a show. I didn't tell anyone about this as I figured others would - which they did. The stripper/ice cream scooper got a talking to and had to scoop from the side.

Kitsap Color Classic

 

WOW! Wow wow wow. What can I say. The ride was spectacular. From start to finish.

 

Oddly enough, I wasn't sold on going - even the night before. But, knowing myself, I knew I would end up going anyway so I set my alarm for 6 am, giving me enough time to pack and get going. I hadn't even pre-registered, which was a first.

 

High spandex factor in Edmonds

The guy in blue is holding my bike

Bikes on a ferry - not snakes

Nice ferry staff

Helmets invading the ferry

Anxiously waiting the start of the ride at Kingston

 

Up, I got, packed my gear, and stuffed the bike in the back of the car and headed up to Edmonds. I paid my registration, fastened my bib, and headed down to the ferry dock, which was starting to fill up with riders. I have to give thanks to the ferry crew here for making the ride over flawless and enjoyable. I had planned on riding with a guy, Dave, I met at PROS a couple of weeks back, but didn't know if he was taking the ferry or driving up from Tacoma on the other side. I found him on the ferry. Or rather, he found me.

 

He was riding with another guy, named Eric, so the three of us rode together. Poor Eric was riding a mountain bike/hybrid and we were planning on riding a 14-16 miles pace. He decided to retire the hybrid after the ride was over. Dave was saying that a road bike would make it seem as if he was traveling 10 miles per hour while standing still compared to his current ride.

 

Cascade wasn't kidding when they said the ride starts as soon as you get off the ferry. I did the longest ride option (of course I did).

 

 Combination Hansville + Poulsbo Loop

57 miles

3,844 feet of climbing

Order is: Hansville to Poulsbo then Ferry   



If you love climbs as much as I do, this is the perfect ride. Incidentally, the only food stop we stopped at was the gazebo where I got married at. We took a group photo of our newly founded team.



 

Turns out the man downstairs did the ride as well.

Rider 666

I know I've said that I'm not the stop and smell the roses kind of gal, but this time I couldn't help but notice the breathtaking scenery along the route. I regret not taking more pictures, but I didn't want to get off my bike more than I had to. I wouldn't be me if I didn't make a couple of dietary mistakes. This time it was the repeat offender hydration, but also nourishment.

We were about 30 miles into the ride when my legs started not working well. We were at a slight incline, but not a very steep one. However, I just couldn't seem to get my legs to work properly, then it dawned on me that since we skipped the food stop at Kitsap Bank I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. Not good. I wolfed down three Cliff gels, which made it possible to make it to the Poulsbo food stop.

I'm such a moron when it comes to eating properly while riding. Need to work on that one.

I will definitely do this ride again. It's convenient - 30 minutes from my home, and the ferry ride is a definite bonus. We did the ride in a little under 4 hours, averaging 15 miles per hour. Yeay Team Wheels!

Ride the Wave 2015

Wow! Perfect ride. The best ride so far. 65 awesome miles with some good climbs.

Cycle the WAVE is a fully supported bike ride with four different loops to choose from. I did the Burly Girly, which was PERFECT! I guess it was a combination of things that made the ride so perfect, it was like the universe aligned and decided to make this ride special.

I was wearing my newly purchased gaiters since the weather forecast said there was 70% chance of rain.

Gaiters!!!!

It didn't rain. Instead I had wet feet from sweating. No water came out though, so it must mean this gaiter thing works. If it can hold water in, it must be able to hold water out.

So - the weather was perfect. Overcast and cool. Just the way I like it. We headed out of the start area at Bellevue College  at 7 am. The stretch out of the start area was lined with cheerleaders.

I found a group of women to ride with, but the first group was a little too fast. I decided to hang back and picked up a woman named Gail. We ended up riding the whole ride together. Below is the Ride with GPS stats.


The loop we did was 62 miles of awesomeness. Just enough climbs to keep it interesting. I think I just found my new weekend ride.

At the first stop at Whole Foods in Redmond at the edge of Marymoore Park, there were women greeting us with flowers that they put in our helmets. I ate two bananas and some chocolate croissant.

The women handing out flowers

Bananas

The climb up to the highlands was interesting. I haven't biked from that side before and it was nice. I smelled plenty of cow manure which is a good sign of there being little car traffic. The last food stop was in Issaquah at Tibbet's Valley Park, where the firemen greeted us with Hot Tamales and chap sticks.



The sun had started to peek out. Still no rain in sight.

This rest stop marked the place where three of the routes met and we would all bike back to Bellevue College.

The finish line grub was yummy. I had sliders and a taco, milk and coconut water. I'm definitely doing this next year. Come rain or shine. Oh, and they switch up the route from year to year.

After a half hour of rest at the finish, it was time to head back home and up the 164 hill. Awesome day with awesome women.

Tour de Blast - Lots of Tour, Less Blast

Tour de Blast was a bit of a let down. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible but a blast it wasn't.

The drive down to Toutle was long, or rather it seemed long after a week with almost no sleep due to a root canal accompanied by a bad infection. I almost didn't go but sometimes I'm just too stubborn for my own good. I didn't carb load the day before and I think I suffered for it.

At 7 am we started biking from Toutle Lake High School. I picked up my bib and off I went. The ride up to the first climb was hard. At first I thought it was the lack of sleep and the infection paired with the two different kinds of antibiotics that were kicking my ass, but I eventually figured out that the road wasn't flat. I was climbing all the way to Hoffstadt Bluffs, not much, but enough so that my legs didn't get the necessary warm-up like they did at HPC.

My ride with GPS died less than half way through, so this is only part of the ride.



Since my GPS app didn't quite work, here are the stats:

Mile 0: 500 ft. (Toutle – Starting Line)
Mile 11: 1,000 feet (Sediment Dam)
Mile 16: 1,400 feet (Hoffstadt Bluffs – Pit Stop)
Mile 24: 3,000 feet
Mile 27: 3,800 feet (Elk Rock – Pit Stop)
Mile 34: 3,159 feet (Coldwater Ridge – Closed)
Mile 41: 4,314 feet (Johnston Ridge – Pit Stop)

The elevation gain from the start line at Toutle to Elk Rock (27 miles into the ride, elevation 3,800 feet) is approximately 3,300 feet. From there, the highway descends 1,270 feet over five miles to Coldwater Lake (elevation 2,530 feet). Then riders will begin a nine-mile climb of approximately 1,780 feet to the Johnston Ridge viewpoint and turnaround. A rider going all the way to Johnston Ridge and back to Toutle will climb a total of 6,240 vertical feet over 82 miles (132K) including the climb back up the eastern side of Elk Rock.
Borrowed from here.

The weather was great but probably about 10 degrees too high. But the views... Man, were they gorgeous!

Apart from the route itself, another reason why I preferred HPC to TdB was the riders. The people riding TdB weren't the most considerate. Well, not all, but a lot of them. I suppose this ride attracts more casual cyclists, the less experienced ones that give you zero space when they pass you, no heads up, or they simply pass you on the right - for then to hit a wall and for you to pass them later on because they started out way too fast.

I had to dig deep to do the climbs. Not because they were that steep but because I was running on fumes. My leg muscles ached and my breathing was ragged. I just couldn't seem to find my rhythm. But to the top(s) I made it, all thanks to my hard headedness. I had these arguments in my head with one voice whispering "you know, you can always turn back now", and another voice shouting "no fucking way are you giving up now. You are not a quitter!". Guess which voice won...

And man, was I looking forward to the pasta feed at the end of the ride. Hmmm.. Not sure what to call the below.

 

The flaccid phallus looking thing on the tray is the bread stick. Hahaha. Best part of the meal was the chocolate milk.

 

In order not to be hating too much on this ride, I'll give praise to what needs praising. The support of the ride was outstanding. Longview Rotary Club did a great job with smiles and helpfulness. The food at Elk Rock and Johnston Ridge was tasty - they even had hot dogs! 

I just cannot get over the views. I so wish it had been more like this at HPC.



Up

Down

Ultimately, I don't feel I can judge this ride entirely fairly. I wasn't feeling right to begin with and had I not been worn out, I believe it would have been a different story. However, I won't be back for this ride again. Too far away and not worth it in my book when there are so many other rides to experience. Ok, so I am a sucker for shiny things and missed the trinkets from HPC. I still find myself admiring my medal like a freaking five year old.

My precious...

Next up;

Cycle the WAVE

and

Kitsap Color Classic

PROS with COGS

Labor day was bike riding day. The ride was Perimeter Ride of Seattle with Cyclists of Greater Seattle (or at least that's what I think the acronym means).

The ride started out at Discovery Park with registration at 8 am. I decided to ride my bike there because I figured it would be a nice warm-up for the ride.

The way the ride works is we ride in groups we think we belong in. I rode with the intermediate 80 mile loop group, which meant we were riding in a 14 to 16 mile pace. News of that made me slightly nervous since 16 seemed a bit fast for my liking.

At 8:30 off we went and the pace seemed fine. There was quite a bit of climbing - my favorite and the climbs separated our group of about 50 (?). I quite liked my group with the exception of this sub group that represented everything I hate about bicyclists when I drive my car. They rode as if they owned the road and kept passing other bicyclists on the right. I almost rode into a passing car because of this. Those wild west antics got old real fast.

About 1/3 of the way through the ride I lost the front end of my group - as well as the back end. We had just climbed a bit, so the group was stretched out. I kind of knew the way we were going, so I kept biking, hoping I would find the front end again. I had one other bicyclist behind me who was following me - talk about the blind leading the blind. I managed to find someone who was wearing a ride leader jersey and sped up to catch up with him - but man, was he going fast. Somehow I caught up and latched on all the way to the next snack stop, which turned out to be 15 miles away.

When we finally stopped, I was thinking to myself ; "wow, that was fast!" Eugene, who was the other rider from my group, had latched onto me, and he shared the same sentiment. He told me we had been riding 20+ miles per hour - because the ride leader was the sweep from the fast group. Hahaha. No wonder he was gunning it. And little ol' me managed to hold on. I impressed myself ever so slightly.

I'm back on my old bike today, Bluebell, because my new bike started making strange noises right as I approached Discovery Park. The mechanics at the ride had a feeling it was the wheel bearings, and I have absolutely no idea, so off to REI it went after the ride (which explains the end of my ride). I will however get it back by Thursday, so I will be riding it for Tour de Blast.

Here's the ride with GPS (I forgot to pause it):



I liked the ride but I probably won't do it again because I don't like group riding. This ride clinched that notion for me.

Here's a picture from the ride. Our ride leader got a flat during our delicious sandwich stop at Leschi Park. The tire just went "pffffft" as it was laying on the ground. I suppose if you're going to get a flat, the best time to do so is when not riding the bike.

Our ride leader changing tube

Thank you, COGS, for a great ride. I might do other rides with you, just not this one.

Next up: Tour de Blast!

High Pass Challenge

I did it - and I think that's very descriptive for most women who do this ride. As a fellow female rider said; "Most women who do this ride do it to see if they can do it, whereas most men do it to prove that they are - in fact, MEN".

I have never done anything close to these kinds of elevations before but being that I commute daily with a pretty solid hill towards the end, I figured it was worth a shot. I've also done a few long rides the past month, all well over 100 miles. I also googled the ride - A LOT. I even watched the full length youtube videos someone has posted. Not the entire eight hours or so, but enough so I thought myself prepared.

I also found this hilarious guide to climbing grades by Fat Cyclist.

However, no one really said anything about how one knows if one is prepared enough to pull this off. There were a lot of bragging blogs about having finished (another one added...), and how fast one was able to finish, but nothing very helpful for my purposes. I will get to that at the end of this.

I took off from home at 3:50 am. Having packed everything the nigh before, I could just get in my car and start driving. The weather forecast had predicted temperatures in the low 70s and 20% chance of rain - yeah, right...

I arrived at Packwood a little before 6 am and stopped at Cruisers Pizza for a very mediocre and expensive breakfast but I needed the fuel. I made my way over to the start line parking lot around 6:30. The parking lot was already pretty full. I got the bike out of my car and loaded it up with everything I had packed. Too much, as it turned out. I had packed a handlebar bag full of power bars and cliff gels. I only needed two bars and two packs of gels. The gels are awesome! I had filled two water bottles with Propel.

The start went off and I waited until the bulk of the riders had gone since I knew I wouldn't push it right off the gate. I was talking to a guy who said he did the ride last year and if "and old guy like he could do it, so could I". I still wasn't sold on the climbing. As much as I love hill climbing, much more so than downhill, I wasn't sure I could do 30+ miles of continuous climbing.

I think I was amongst the last 10 riders out the gate. I rode alone for the first mile or so, but caught up with a group of three other riders. Ok, so I sped up a bit to catch on as I figured I'd give the pace line thing a try. Good thing I did. The four of us picked up another female and rode all the way to Randle together. I pulled once, but wasn't fast enough. Haha. Well, I enjoyed being at the back of the pack.

When we came to Randle, the group dissolved. I tried biking as slow as I could, but needed to go a little faster, so I left my group and started climbing to the first food stop. I had to pee really bad at that point and hurried to the port-a-potties, then took off. I had a full bag of food and plenty of water.

The weather wasn't great with misty rain all the way to Randle. It was very foggy, which only got worse with the climb.

My "view"

The much anticipated climb was surprisingly "easy". The worst part of the ride turned out to be the rain and the cold and not the elevation. As we continued to climb, it got foggier, rainier, and much much colder. I was swearing a lot internally as I got more and more wet. But at least I wasn't cold due to the climbs. In fact, I was bored. Extremely so. When I go on long bike rides, I listen to music to keep the boredom at bay. I'm not the "stop and smell the roses" or enjoy-the-landscape kind of person. For me, it's about the act of biking and being able to get from A to B, so I need the music. On arranged rides, electronics aren't allowed, and being a law abiding citizen, obeying I did. Ergo, no music.

As we came up through the trees, having climbed 25 miles or so, it got colder and foggier. There were rolling hills all the way to the mid point at Windy Ridge. The downhills were brutal. Cold and wet and no sight line. Couldn't see shit. Not fun. Well, at some point it actually got ridiculous - almost to the point of ridiculous in a weirdly fun way.

What I didn't see

Due to the temperature up on the ridge, the road to Windy Ridge seemed much longer than the 10 miles it really was, but I made it. Missed the silver medal by 10 minutes, but it was ok since I had been shooting for simply making it at all. 11:40 am I crossed under the banner at Windy Ridge.

I didn't stay for long. Had half a banana, used the port-a-potty, put on my extra jersey, my rain jacket, blue disposable vinyl gloves over my soaking wet gloves. I felt like the Michelin man, but at least I was somewhat warm and windproof/waterproof. I really wished I had worn pants with legs.

You'd think I would be happy over the downhills, but I found myself longing for the climbs. I kept the speed super low as the wet conditions and the rough patches of road made the descent treacherous. I used up all my break pads that were brand new. Several times, my legs started shaking and my left leg was threatening to cramp up/develop frost bite, and I kept telling it "don't you dare give up on me". My leg listened.

A little after Iron Creek Picnic area, I was joined by another female rider. We ended up riding together the remaining miles to the finish line. All though I'm a bit of a lone wolf when it comes to biking, I enjoyed her company and it made the last bit go by much faster than had I been alone. At 4 pm we crossed the finish line - I had made it!

If you are wondering whether you can do the HPC (for us in the know.... hahahaha), this is my experience:

If you can say yes to the following, you are ready:

• Climb up to Issaquah Highlands three times in a row and still have plenty of fuel left in the tank?
• Ride 150 miles and feel like you could have gone longer x 4 in a month?

Those were my pre ride tests, and with that in the experience column I did the HPC and felt great after. Granted, I didn't bike super fast, I did it in a speed I felt comfortable in without seeing black dots or feel like the darkness was closing around me.

Next stop: Passport to Pain! Or Tour de Blast. Not sure yet. Same day. WTF?

Edit: Quote from the Cascade website.

"The weather conditions this year made the 2015 edition of the HPC the most challenging HPC we have ever had. Just getting to the top was a huge accomplishment!"

I heard 300 people had signed up initially, but only 200 or so showed up. Out of those 200, 180 made it to the top. Some rode in cars back down.