John’s Ramblings

Three times I’ve tried this ride in various forms. Twice I was defeated by the cumulative effects of gravity and heat, the third time by three consecutive blowouts on Kevin’s rear tire. Determined not to let this ride go un-ridden, I set out on Sunday to do this modified loop, originally created by Sara Matoi for one of her Southend Saunters. From Kent, we go north via the usual route to Alki Beach, then around the point to head south through White Center, Burien, Normandy Park, Des Moines, Redondo, Dash Point, and Browns Point. I extended the route a bit by adding on the last 1/3 of “Two Points and a Levee” to pad the mileage a tad.

This route is pancake-flat at the beginning and the end. In the middle, however, is hill after hill, including a little section I like to call “the Redondo Cliffs of Doom”. This climb has clobbered me more than once, most recently on the Randonneur’s Le Paysage à Vélo, when the top was clearly visible as the place where some poor fellow was popping his nitro pill for his dancing ticker.

There were 4 of us on this day: STP partner Kevin, his neighbor Michael, and spin instructor Jim, a.k.a. “Huffy” (his old bike used to squeak a bit). We spent far too much time dawdling on this ride, 2.5 hours by my calculation, either eating, peeing, or getting water. It made for a very long day in the saddle, and it also put the sun directly over our heads when we got to the climbing bits, which of course served to make me slower yet.

The blips on this profile are, in order, West Seattle / Burien, Normandy Park, Des Moines, Redondo, Dash/Browns Points, and the final little spike is Fife/Milton.

Still, it was a fine day to ride with friends. The environment was a stark contrast to my ride a week earlier, however, where there was no traffic, no road debris, no noise. I miss you, Pendleton. I think I may have to head to the local foothills to escape the traffic next weekend.

Speaking of hills, Greg Moody has written a nice piece on climbing, and the internal dialogs you go through on the VeloNews site.

83.5 miles; 2,207 year-to-date.

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