John’s Ramblings

After doing hills on Sunday and Monday, I was ready for a lighter day on Tuesday. I could just as well have taken the day off. The weather is pretty spectacular at the moment however, so I didn’t want to pass up a sunny and warm day. Terri and I decided to do a short ride just to stay limber, and we ended up with around 13 miles in less than an hour’s riding.

On Monday and Wednesday nights Terri leads water aerobics at the Auburn YMCA. My plan was to go out Wednesday and do some more hill work on my own. At 3 o’clock my phone rang, and Julie the cycling dynamo was on the other end of the line, soliciting riding partners for a run out Green Valley to the Green River Gorge. Knowing this would give me plenty of pace work as well as a couple of good hills, I agreed to meet her and Linda at Green Valley in 90 minutes.

Julie led the way out toward Flaming Geyser Park, although that would not be our destination tonight. We took turns pulling at 19 to 21 mph out to 218th Ave. The flaw in this little exchange is that I ended up trying to draft Linda, who’s slight build displaces very little wind. What doesn’t kill me will make me stronger, right?

We made the left turn and climbed up 218th, rolled through Black Diamond, and headed out to the Green River Gorge. Although it was sunny at the start of the ride, the clouds were stacking up against the Cascade foothills causing the easternmost half of our ride to be in the shade. The temperature was a little cooler, but I was working pretty hard so it was actually quite comfortable. After the Gorge we zipped across the edge of the Enumclaw plateau, down Whitney Hill (where I hit a new high, 44.8 mph), and back through Green Valley. Julie taunted us by riding at the front, then kicking up the pace to 20, 21, 22, then 23 to see us drop off her wheel. She’d then slow back down and do it again. A nice ride, nice company, and an excellent workout!

32.47 miles for the day, 3,071 ytd.

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