John’s Ramblings

After a week of relatively light riding, I was overdue for a ride of some distance. There was a group of riding friends starting one from Redmond, but that seemed a bit far to drive. I could have just ridden out of the driveway and headed for our beautiful foothill roads through Ravensdale, Kanaskat, Cumberland, and Black Diamond, but the prospect of all that self-dialog for 66 miles wasn’t what I was looking for. Some days, it’s perfect to head out solo on a crisp morning, and spend the day with the sun on your face and the resistance under your feet. Last Saturday was not one of those days, however, so I sought out the company of a hundred or so cycling brethren by riding the Cascade Training Series ride.

The tour du jour was Two Points and a Levee. This is a ride I did last year, my first Cascade Training Series ride. Doing this ride again would accomplish a few things:

• I could compare the ride this year to last, in terms of my fitness and endurance,
• I could do my “community service” thing by assisting the riders on these large group rides, and
• I could get in my mileage and a good workout, as long as I didn’t get relegated to sweeping the slow group, as was the case last year.

After some brief negotiations with the ride organizers, I joined the “Green” group of 14-16 miles per hour. There were two other leaders already assigned to this group of 30+, so I could play “roving leader” for the first part of the ride. I would end up sweeping the group for a large portion in the middle of the ride, but while the pace wasn’t blazing, the sun was out and the two people I was riding with were very nice.

Last year, I ended up sweeping up a few riders in Puyallup, and dragged them up through Auburn and Kent to Tukwila into a 16mph headwind. These fellows were pretty well bonked, and we had to stop halfway up the valley for candy bars and Gatorade to get them home. This year, it was to be my turn to lead the group from Algona to Tukwila. About the time my “sweep” group made it to the park in Algona, the first riders in the larger group were already antsy to leave, and about a dozen of them took off, sans leader. After a brief “hi-how-are-ya” to the other two leaders, I clicked back into the pedals and took off in pursuit.

The winds were exactly the same as last year, but the fitness level is much improved for your author. I chased the group down, and assumed my leader-ly position at the head of the line. The group was clipping along at 18-19 mph into the headwind, but I was able to pull this little train at that speed for the last 17 miles. Quite a difference from the prior year’s valley crawl, and a nice affirmation that riding through the winter and the hard work of spring have paid dividends. We pulled in to the Tukwila Community Center a full two hours faster than last year’s grind. Way better.

We had an easy 30 miles on Sunday for our Newcomers ride. I also had some scattered mileage through the prior week, now giving me 1,813 miles year-to-date.

The Ride of Silence is tonight, 6:30 p.m. at Gas Works Park in Seattle. I’ll be at the corner of 1st and Union, pointing people North. Probably not P.C. to yell “Hey, Blog-Boy”, but a quiet wave would be nice.

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