After dropping Samantha off at preschool and running some earands for Kim I got in a practice ‘commute’ ride in today. Looks like it’s about a 50 minute ride from Issaquah to the Mercer Island Park and Ride. If I get a bike locker at Mercer Island, I can drive to Issaquah and ride to Mercer Island, locker the bike and ride into Seattle without worrying about bike racks on the bus.
On the way back to the car, I realize I’m riding past Zoo Hill. It’s a climb I’ve wanted to do for two years but haven’t seemed to have the time. I figure I have time to make it most of the way up the climb and still get back to the car and pick up Samantha in time so I go for it. I’ve totally got the right attitude for the climb today. It tougher than the gentle grades of the rest of the ride but doesn’t seem any worse than many of the other climbs I’ve done so I just keep plugging away and find that magic place where I zone out on the climb and don’t really pay attention to how long I’ve been climbing or how much longer it might take.
The interesting thing about Zoo Hill is the first part of the climb is switch backs with a nice drop off on one side and then it tops out for some stair step rollers. After two our so of the stair step rollers I’m climbing the 3rd and my quads, both of them, start to cramp up. At first it’s cramping while seated so I stand. Then they start to cramp while standing. I decide it’s a good time to turn around so loop back and notice a gravel road that connects the Zoo Hill road to the Montroux housing development which I imagine has better roads for the descent so I ride the gravel, carefully on my 19mm tires, and start the descent.
As fun as switch backs are to descend, the sweaping curves of the descent through the housing development make for a fast and unrestricted ride down. I find I’m still getting my confidence back from the car accident last fall so I’m not descending quite as fast as I usually do but 40 MPH is still a respectable top speed.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 04/02/2008
- Time: 09:10:00
- Total Time: 1:38:00.00
- Average Heart rate: 161
- Max Heart rate: 197
- Distance: 22.65 miles
- Average Speed: 13.87 mph
- Max Speed: 40.6 mph
- Average Cadence: 68
- Max Cadence: 104
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 9:10 am and is filed under Climbing, Commute, Cycle.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Digg! this story.
Entries (RSS)