I finally decided two weeks ago to pull the trigger.  I would use the beater touring frame that I rode around campus in college that hasn’t been ridden since 1992 (not the Fuso or Ciocc).  Kim’s probably shocked to see the frame move from it’s perch.  It’s been in the same spot in the garage since we moved into this house in 2000.  Except for the one garage sale where I tried to sell it for 5 dollars - obviously no takers.

I believe the frame is from Nishiki from the early - mid 80’s.  It is a touring frame.  It’s a “franken-bike” put together by a Masters rider from my home town.  He painted it black, no decals, and sold it fairly cheap to a friend of mine to get him started riding.  I used to hand down my equipement to this guy when I bought better stuff, shoes, wheels, etc..  He got pretty good and wanted a better bike.  He found a Centurian “Iron Man” but he couldn’t quite afford it so I offered to buy the Nishiki off of him to take to school as a campus/rain/don’t care if it got stolen bike.  That gave him enough to buy the Centurian.
Pulling the trigger meant ordering a wheelset with a flipflop rear hub.  I thought about tricking out the ride, the frame’s black - all black.  I looked at every color rim they make.  I was tempted by white, red, blue, and joked about gold and orange.  Since the Fuso’s black and yellow, I decided to avoid yellow rims.  I looked at matching annodized chain rings and colored chains.  It was my kind of shopping - all bikes all the time.  I try to tell Kim that the smell of a bike shop for me is like the smell of a tack shop for her - me rubber, her leather (that should generate some comments if anybody still reads my blog).  She says she still doesn’t get it.

Anyway, I kind of figured I wanted to do the fixie build as part of the experience but kept noticing that I could buy a new fixie for ~$250+S&H so I kind of figured I should stay under that price tag since half of the standard “expensive part” of the bike - the frame - I already had.  Because of that I chose the bargan basement wheels from e-bay.  I found a supplier that sold wheels, tubes, tires, and 16T free and fixed spockets all for $99+S&H.  I figure if I like this fixie thing, I can build flashy hot rod next time.  I decided to go all black.  Black tires, rims, tape, seat, cable housing, and brake levers.

I spent about 2 hours on Saturday stripping the frame down so I’d be ready.  Components come off a frame much faster than they go on - no adjusting I guess.  Derailers off, outter chain ring off, rusted chain off, old handle bar tape off, old brake housing and all of the cables off.  It was kind of fun.  Then came the brake levers.

They were “drilled” dura-ace levers with petrified “gum” hoods that shreaded as I pealed them off.  I found that instead of an alan nut holding the levers on there was an 8mm nut down in there.  I don’t have an 8mm socket, nor am I confident if I did that it would have been thin enough to fit in there.  Using a combination of a 8mm box wrench and a cresent wrench to turn the box wrench, I acutally got one of the nuts off.  Odd experience to find the dura-ace levers being held on by campy handlebar clamps.  I had to try to explain the campy/dura-ace thing to Kim.  Don’t know if I found a good analogy.

I tried the other leaver but the nut was not in a position I could turn it very far with my ’setup’ and it looked quite rusted in there, chrome flaking off the bolt, etc..  I tried some WD-40 and paitence but couldn’t get it to budge.  So, I decided to cut the clamp off.  Got the angle grinder and 5 seconds later it was off.  Then, since I had it out, I chopped the bars into bull horns.

The wheels, chain, and chain ring spacers came on Monday so after the girls were in bed I got to work.  First thing I did was mount the front wheel.  Like a charm, just not quite true.  Then to the rear wheel.  Need ~4mm to space it out correctly but for now it’s close enough.  Get it set in the dropouts and then fit the chain.  Oh, wait, the chain ring needs tightening.  Grab the lazer level and see if that helps the all important chain line.  Looks like I do need to space the chain ring in, glad I bought the spacers.  Now the chain.

Go slow here, measure twice, break once I tell myself.  I almost broke the chain at the wrong link and ended up with, ah, guess it would have been a male and a female when I needed two males for the chain connector to work.  Picked the right one, made sure the chain was on the rear cog and chain ring just right and broke the chain and put the connector on.  As easy as the two step instructions.  Only the chain was pretty lose.  Luckily I had positioned the wheels in the middle of the horizontal dropouts so I backed the set screws out and got the chain nice and tight.

I tried to ride it through the kitchen but wasn’t brave enough.  I wanted to swap out the pedals for platforms without toe-clips to start with, that meant cannibalizing the Mtn Bike.  And the tires needed air, and the seat was a bit too high.  All adjusted I walked it in the dark down the the clud-a-sac, took a deep breath, and started pedaling.  Slowly, with lots of control.  Remember when I cut the brake levers off?  Yeah, no breaks yet.  I didn’t want my first ride to result in me breaking something.  It came off without a hitch. I even rode back up the hill without incident.
The TT style break levers, housing and cables, and handlebar tape should come in Monday for me to finish off the look.  I’ll post pictures when I’m done.

My last ride was from North Bend to Issaquah to return fabric swatches to Lay-Z-boy (looking for a sectional for the family room).  It was a fun, but hot ride, basically the bike commute route with a little tacked on to get off of the plateau and down into town and then back.  ~38 miles.  It was hot since I usually ride in the morning but riding in the sun was quite nice.  Only problem was that I rode harder than I should have for my fitness level and was WIPED out for the rest of the night.  I actually went to bed feeling the workout and woke up feeling it still.  Guess I diserve to feel that way for not really having any regular miles in my legs but still trying to hold speed up climbs and on the flats.

I say that was my last ride but that’s not completely true.  Kim and the girls and I did the Tour de Peaks two weeks ago, in the rain.  We did the Family 4 mile route but tacked on ~3.5 miles x 2 on the ride to the start and back from the house.  Kim’s second ride on her bike and she did great.  I had both girls, V on the tag-a-long trek and S in the sidecar.  I was really impressed with my girls, nobody hesitated as we headed off in the drizzle.  V was navigator again this year reading the Dan Henrys and S happily wrote notes in her notebook all the way.

Then last weekend Kim ran the 10K at Snoqulamie Railroad days and the girls and I rode down to cheer her on.  But this time V rode her own bike.  Kim says she wouldn’t have done it and there were some times I questioned doing it myself.  I asked her to ride in front of me but she wanted to ride behind.  That lasted for 30 seconds until I ‘left her behind’ at the round-a-bout when I road through and she stopped to look for cars.  She then rode in front of me the whole way and I worked on the coaching and parenting.

Me:  “Ride on the right side of the white line.”

V: “Is this my right?”

Me: “Okay, no shoulder so ride close to the edge but not too close.”

V: “Where’s the shoulder?”

Me: “Shift to 1 to go over the bridge.”

V: “Ok, can I go to 3 down the other side?”

Me: “Don’t swerve out into the middle of the lane.”

V: “What’s a swerve?”

She did great but I was a bit more stressed than I imagined.  With Veronica on her own bike, Samantha was not content to ride in the sidecar but I didn’t have time to lower the seat on the tag-a-long so she didn’t have a choice.  She wasn’t too happy and when we stopped to cheer Kim on she didn’t want to get back in.  She ran along side us for a little while until V fell trying to go up a driveway.  She recovered well which was good since it would have been a long walk to the car if she didn’t get back on that horse and ride it.  That was ~5 miles of family fun.

I love to cheer Kim on with the girls and when we weren’t where we said we’d be Kim realized she loves it too.  Because it was an out and back we got to cheer twice which was fun for all.  It was another drizzling day but  in true Northwest fashion it didn’t slow us down.

It looked nice and clear the Sun was just about to peak around Mt. Si as I got ready to go.  I spent some time looking for a missing arm warmer (the pair got separated coming back from 7 Hills) but gave up and I decided I didn’t want to wake the dog that was sleeping in front of the drawer that had the other pair in it.  I figured I’d just head out in my summer attire - shoes (no covers), shorts (no leggings), jersey (short sleeve), gloves (standard, no fingers) and I’d “Warm up” quick enough.

I was so confident with this arrangement I didn’t even bother to check the thermometer.  When I was much younger I used to do this “warm up” for early morning rides so I figured it would still work.  He he he, jokes on me.

I live at the top of a hill that while only being 130ft high it’s a 10% average grade so I easily hit 35mph coasting out of my driveway.  As I descended this morning, I began to shiver pretty bad and actually believe I said something out loud about the cold (no children were around at 6 AM to hear this).  Since I was soooooo cold, I was up for a fast warm up so I was pushing it a little harder than normal.

This faster pace was a bit of a double edged sword - faster meant more wind chill.  I didn’t really take the time to debate or empirically figure out the optimum riding speed for the temperature.  I was just thinking about adjusting my route to include as much of the rising Sun as possible.  I was through town and heading out to Renig.  As I went, I noticed the morning fog.  A cold looking morning fog, was hanging out at the base of Mt. Si.  Right where I was heading.

I looked at my bare arms and noticed that even at 20 mph my arm hair was standing straight out from the goose bumps on my skin.  My fingers were trying to find a spot to hide behind the break leavers that would provide some shelter from the cold, and I decided I needed to turn around and get a jacket and my full finger gloves.  So I did.

I was back at the house a mere 23 minutes after leaving it and even the climb up hadn’t done anything meaningful to warm me up.  I stepped inside and changed gloves and put on a jacket and stepped back outside noticing I was having a bit of a hard time holding on to he door knob.

Back on the front porch (well more of an entry way/walk at our house) I looked out over the valley and it looked cold.  Very cold.  And the expected warmth from the jacket and gloves were not materializing.  I figured I’d be warmed up and would soon feel the heat from the jacket.  Granted I didn’t give it much more than 20 seconds but I decided to head back in and try to get warm in bed.

I crawled back in bed and got a “you’re freezing, don’t come near me” from my wife (which I don’t blame her one bit for) so I snuggled down and tried to think warm thoughts, half (well, maybe only 1/4 if I’m honest) thinking I’d get warm and then go back out since it was really nice (read not raining) and I wanted some miles.  I quickly fell back asleep and didn’t really wake up until 11 AM at which time I still didn’t quite feel warm yet still.

Next time I’ll check the temperature and dress better.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 05/31/2008
• Time: 06:09:00
• Total Time: 00:23:10.00
• Average Heart rate: 164
• Max Heart rate: 190
• Distance: 5.73 miles
• Average Speed: 14.84 mph
• Max Speed: 35.1 mph
• Average Cadence: 80

I saw a few folks I know before the start and chatted with them and realized Brad might be early as well so I sent him a text message.  He was in line at the coffee shop getting breakfast so I rode up to where he was parked.  It was nice and cool with clouds so I threw on my arm warmers but left the rain gear in the car figuring even if we got wet it was only going to be 39 miles.

Brad, of course brought his fixie which was good with me since I haven’t done much climbing this year and with gears he’d probably really kick my butt.  He didn’t learn his lesson after Chilly Hilly and still had the 14 tooth cog in the rear.  Turned out he only really had to work hard up Winery Hill and made me suffer his endless chatter up all the rest of the time.  (not really but it makes a better story).

I was feeling pretty good, no pressure to really plow up the hills but still passing folks and not getting passed going up.  With Brad on the fixie we’d get passed going down since he cannot go much over 22-23 mph.  Didn’t get passed going up until Winery where I got caught by surprise at the bottom and let up a little in the middle.

I left the house planning on just doing the 7 hills.  We left the start planning on just doing the 7 hills.  When we got to the century/metric century turn off Brad asked again and in true guy fashion I said “sure.”  I’ve not ridden further than 50 miles all year.  I’ve not ridden further than 36 miles on a ride since March.  I only rode 20 miles all last week and that was yesterday, but what the heck.  I knew I would finish and I had plenty of fuel so we headed off for the metric century loop.

I did fade in the last 10 miles and the metric century turned out to be about 5 miles short.  I wasn’t tempted to jump on any wheels but Brad was like a leashed dog at a cat show.  He got into a groove but it was hard for him to let others go by.

I did see “Dave the Carrot” out on the metric loop (he was probably doing the full century).  It’s hard to miss a 6′ 5″ guy on an orange bike.  I briefly though about jumping on his wheel but knew better than to blow myself up with 30 miles still to ride.

It was good to get out, a perfect day for a ride weather wise, good company and I really enjoyed it again this year.  I did really wipe myself out and was moving at about 30% for the rest of the day.  At one point Veronica wanted me to run a foot race with her and I had to tell her I had “jello legs”.  She did get Kim to run with her - in the outside lane that goes about 20 yards further around the course than the inside lane

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 05/26/2008
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 3:58:37.00
• Distance: 58.43 miles
• Average Speed: 14.69 mph
• Max Speed: 35 mph
• Average Cadence: 71
• Max Cadence: 130

I got all outfitted with my satchel and new mountain bike shoes for my new SPD peadals, rain pants and rain coat, and clothes for work (good thing t-shirt and jeans works, not really room for much more than that in the satchel) and headed out slightly later than I had hoped.

I was shooting to catch my normal bus which leaves the park and ride at 8:19.  If I left right at 7 I should have plenty of time given the time for my test ride a few weeks ago put the ride at about 1:05.  I didn’t get out right at 7.  Since it’s a bit like herding cats to get our girls up and ready for school in the morning I committed to getting all of my normal morning things done before I left - 2 lunches packed and in backpacks, two breakfasts on the tables, dogs fed, and girls up and down stairs.  By the time that was done and I headed out it was 7:15.  Well, the last bus is the 8:51 so I have some extra time.

Going down the hill from my house I realize the cleat on my right shoe is way off and my heal is pointing out at about 30 degrees.  That’ll really hurt if I leave it alone so I pull over at the stop sign and adjust that cleat.  5 minutes wasted, foot much better.  Now that the right one is not out of wack, I can tell the left one is so I pull over again to adjust it.  5 minutes wasted, pedal, pedal, pedal, still not quite right.  Pull over again and adjust.  Feels right now.  Hmmm. 7:30 and I’ve only gone 1.5 miles.  Not a good start.

Nice ride with pretty light traffic - much confidence is gained by having the mirror on my glasses.  I don’t have any cross traffic turns it’s just nice to know someone is coming up from behind.  As I get to the bottom of the climb I start to think how hot and sweaty I’ll be given the layers I have on so I pull over and take off the outer rain layer.  5 more minutes gone but much cooler.

The climb up Issaquah-Fall City Rd is uneventful but still hard.  Wishing I hadn’t taken that 26 tooth cog off, what was I thinking? Lots more out of the saddle climbing than I like to do but I made it without really struggling.  Getting across traffic at the main road was harder than expected - I’d never thought about it but it is a main drag and it is rush hour…

Some good defensive riding now, take the lane and get in line at the stop lights to avoid the “turn in front” and annoying drivers by riding up the line next to them.  The two dips between on the main road are sort but steep and I don’t quite have the strength to push through them yet.  The last climb up to the park and ride is interesting as well.  It’s a climb so I’m going kind of slow.  I need to cross 3 lanes of traffic to get to the left side of the one way road to pull into the park and ride, and it’s a sweeping right bend turn so my mirror doesn’t really help me see traffic behind to know when it’s safe.

As I approach the park and ride my worst nightmare is realized.  The bus is there and loading.  The temptation to try to catch it is huge.  I know I cannot lock up my bike, take off the lights and computer, and run to the bus before it leaves - yet there it is, tempting me.

I go slowly getting out the bike lock, taking off my gloves, and locking up the bike.  The bus finaly pulls away just as I turn the key and I can relax.  I now have to wait for 15 minutes for the next one but the stress of trying to make the bus is gone.

Pretty good ride for my first bike commute of the season.  Here’s to many more.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 05/12/2008
• Time: 07:10:00
• Total Time: 1:04:35.00
• Distance: 17.9 miles
• Average Speed: 16.63 mph

North Bend way is still under construction so I decided to go West and do Ernies Grove, around the top of the mill pond, climb up Snoqulamie Parkway and do the climb up to Snoqulamie Point park.  I guessed it would be about 30 miles.

Seems like I can consistently do about 2 miles per hour faster on the flats on the Trek than I can on the Fuso.  Not sure if it’s choice of gears - 10 vs 6 - which give me smaller steps or the 8 lbs of weight the Fuso has on the Trek.  It is nice to cruise along at a higher speed, at least as far as my ego is concerned.

Pretty uneventful ride as I remember it (now a week later).  Watching the elevation counter on the Edge 305 reminded me how flat the valley roads really are - not surprising for roads in a river valley really - I think I could do at least 20 miles with < 200 ft of elevation if I wanted to.  Good thing the roads go up either side of the valley so I can climb some hills.

It was “nice” that the last kick up to Snoqulamie Point Park now goes up about another 20-30 ft to the new parking lot at the park - it was such a bummer to have that part of the climb stop after only 220 ft.  On the other hand, the view at the top - now that it’s really the top - is really nice and that’s a good reward for going that last quarter of a mile or so.

I was kind of hoping that cutting it to only 30 miles I’d be back in time to snuggle a bit before Kim headed off for ez8s but I was greated by Veronica when I first came in the door and she wanted me to help her play a game on the computer.  Kim came down 5 minutes later so no dice.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 05/10/2008
• Time: 05:45:00
• Total Time: 2:13:32.00
• Distance: 32.8 miles
• Average Speed: 14.74 mph
• Max Speed: 35 mph
• Average Cadence: 85
• Max Cadence: 103

So that’s the commuting part.  It’s a nice ride, traffic is light and there are some side roads I can take if I want to avoid it further (though making the trip a bit longer) and it includes the final climb from the Flying Wheels Century up Issaquah-Fall City road.  I like this last climb because it comes at 80 miles in and lots of people are beat.  It’s good for my ego at that point in the ride (if I’ve got the training under my belt).  Only down side is there are only racks at the park and ride, no lockers.  If I really care about the lockers, I can add ~4 miles to the ride and get to a park and ride with lockers.  If I ride the Trek, that’s a consideration.  If I ride the Ciocc or Fuso, not so much.  I don’t think I mind locking up my vintage steel all day but I’m still not comfortable doing that with the Carbon Fiber frame.

Now, gears and ego.  Well, when Dad was here last week riding the Ciocc (on the brand new wheels after the car accident) we were adjusting the index shifting and couldn’t get into the smallest gear which is important since the house is at the top of a 10+% grade hill.  So we where examining the freewheel, or should I say cassette, and something didn’t seem right so we took it apart.  Dad cleaned it up and it turned out that a number of the cogs were backwards and the 2nd to last cog was not sitting on the grooves of the cassette and wasn’t threaded on the threads so it was pure friction that was keeping it in place.  I pulled out my small collection of cogs and we found a better fit and made sure all of the cogs were facing the right way and shifting up to the 23 tooth cog started working.  Excellent.

Since we had the chain whips out and were playing with cogs, I decided to look at the cassette hub on the Fuso.  See, it’s got a 6 speed cassette on it with 7 speed shifters.  That means I’m stuck with friction.  I hadn’t looked a the gearing so I took it apart and checked it out.  I assumed it was a 24 or 23 tooth low gear but it turned out to be 26.  Here’s where ego comes in a bit.  I decided I didn’t need a 26 and rebuilt it with a 23 tooth cog as the largest instead.

First some history.  My first racing bike was a 24″ Peugeot 12 speed.  I didn’t like the Sauc-huret freewheel so I bought campy hubs and re-laced the wheels with them.  I didn’t end up growing the extra 6 to 8 inches I needed to for the 24″ frame to really fit me so when I wanted to buy a proper Italian racing bike my senior year in high school I got a 23″ frame - my Ciocc.  (I now know I need a 53cm frame)  I built the Ciocc from the frame up.  Bought the new Ultegra groupo with 7 speed cassette and put it all together myself.  I laced the wheels but let the shop true them.  When I ordered the cassette I wanted a fast one so I chose a 21-12 gearing to go with the 42/53 chain rings.  All 18yr old ego.

You  see, I was living in Los Alamos, NM at the time.  6500 ft elevation at my house.  The favorite riding loop was 27 miles with ~2K of climbing.  Other routes took me into the Jamez mountains up to 9000+ feet in elevation with a few 10+% climbs.  I got around but I struggled more than I needed to.  A 23 or 24 tooth cog would have made the hills go faster for sure.

With that experience in mind, when I bought my Trek, I got the compact drive.  No need for an ego at this point I said, I wanted to be comfortable but couldn’t bring myself to a triple so I went CD.  The Trek goes all the way down to 36×27 which is nice when climbing hills in Kirkland with Brad.  Keeps me from getting tired out.

So, what do I do the 2nd ride after I take off the 26 tooth cog, I go climb Issaquah-Fall City and 202 up past Snoqulamie Falls.  Neither is particularly steep, just kind of long but with only a 23 I wasn’t spinning like Lance, more like grinding like Jan.  I’ve not put the 26 back on yet but I’m really thinking about it.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 04/13/2008
• Time: 16:03:00
• Total Time: 2:20:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 175
• Max Heart rate: 200
• Distance: 36 miles
• Average Speed: 15.43 mph
• Max Speed: 36 mph
• Average Cadence: 80
• Max Cadence: 103

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

The stealth dog from the bottom of the hill snuck up on me again and let out his “bow wow wow” right from my left rear hub.  I jumped up, out of the saddle and started sprinting.  I was clear after about six pedal strokes but decided to use the adreanaline that was coursing through my veins to help me over the climb and just kept sprinting.  I made it about 90% of the way and was entering the red zone so I backed off to finish the climb off.

I never had to deal with dogs in my early riding years.  The 27 mile loop we rode was 25ish miles of highway away from residential housing and there were no dogs “lose” on the other 2 miles of the route.  The first year I rode out here in the valley I spent most of the time on the highways here riding into the lower valley a lot.  Last year I encountered a few dogs but there have been more this year it seams.  And this year I seem to be encountering the same dog more than once.

I’ve decided to name this dog on Middle Fork road “Eddy” after the dog in “American Flyers” that Marcus uses for sprint training and steals David’s shoe.  If Eddy did steal my shoe, I couldn’t even begin to pick him out of a line-up, I’ve never gotten a good look at him.  He’s a master at sneaking up next to me without making a sound and then letting go with the barking.

I’ll keep you posted on future encounters with Eddy…

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 03/22/2008
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 2:10:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 150
• Max Heart rate: 200
• Distance: 33.1 miles
• Average Speed: 15.28 mph
• Max Speed: 30 mph
• Average Cadence: 87
• Max Cadence: 104

I had two cages on my Mtn. bike, both black which match the Fuso so I went out into the garage to take one of them off. I got one off with my fingers but couldn’t get the second one off. As I stood there in my stocking feet, my cold feet, I was once again reminded I wish I was more organized. Luckily I wasn’t as bad off as I thought. The alan wrenches were in my tool box where they’re supposed to be. Got the other nut off and headed back inside. The nuts on the Fuso were smaller than the ones on the Mtn. bike. Back out to get the pack of wrenches. Water bottle mounted, I remembered the frame pump doesn’t fit the Fuso, the spacer is a bit too big. Back out to the garge for the hack saw…

I was only half an hour later than expected getting out the door. Since I was over dressed last week I went lighter this week. Just shorts, long sleeve jersey, rain pants, rain jacket and full finger gloves. As I headed out the door I noticed it wasn’t exactly raining. It was snowing. That should have been a clue but I thought, “What would Jill do?” I just kept going. Turned out I should have at least grabbed my heavier gloves.

It was colder than last week but not bad. I just took it easy as I headed out for the 40 mile loop. Out North Bend Way to Maloney’s Grove, around past Wood River and up to the top of Edgwick Rd. It’s a bit of a different ride with Fuso than the Trek. Different gears. Nice to ride in the rain with the fenders though. I was on the look out for Elk and dogs this week after last week. None out Edgwick. Off to Middle Fork.

I stayed in the big ring back up to Middle Fork, not bad. Then I spaced out and rode right past Middle Fork. Never done that on a ride before. Looped back around and headed out Middle Fork wondering if I’d find the sneaky dog again. I went the easy around the loop (clock-wise) and kept an eye out for the dog - no sign of him this time. Coming back around I did spook a two dear. One bounded across the road an the other froze off to the side on the right. As I’ve said before, Elk make me nervous, not so much dear. I always consider it a good thing if I see dear on a ride. Even better if there are bunnies out too. No bunnies today, probably too cold.

I was feeling a little better today than last week for my first 50 mile ride. Part of it has to do with knowing I’m only doing 40 miles. I’m hoping I’m also doing better because of the 50 miles from last week. From here, back through Maloney’s Grove for an extra mile or two and off to Ernie’s Grove and then off to Snoqulamie to ride around the Mill Pond.

Definately feel the results of being on the bike for over 90 minutes. Shoulders, neck, seat. Nothing for that but more time on the bike. No other dogs this ride. And no Elk.

Snapped this one riding around towards Tokul.

It was lower stress with the Edge305 in the jersey pocket. I didn’t know what my HR was doing. I didn’t know my average speed. Just knew that I’d for sure do 40 miles in time to go with the girls to swimming lessons. I don’t know if I’ll get a century in this month like I planned but I’m going to try.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 03/15/2008
• Time: 06:31:00
• Total Time: 3:05:59.00
• Average Heart rate: 145
• Max Heart rate: 193
• Distance: 41.44 miles
• Average Speed: 13.37 mph
• Max Speed: 31.9 mph