Monday, February 21, 2005

Saturday, 2/19/2005 Snoqualmie Falls

I got up early today, with the plan of riding down to Leshi to meet up with a friend do around 3 hrs together, and then ride some more on my own. I got to Leshi just a tad late, it’s about 30 minutes by bike from where I live. I waited another 15 minutes and then road on, figuring we had just missed linking up again. Foiled, I turned the bike around and headed to crew chief Ben's place to see if he was still game to ride. Another 25 minutes later, I was at Ben's place.

About 45 minutes later, after waving farewell to Kerissa, Ben's sig other, we were back on the road. The new plan was to ride around the north end of the Lake, then head out over "Hollywood Hill", descend down into the valley, ride through Carnation, and up to Snoqualmie falls, and head back to Seattle via another major climb. The total distance is right around 100 miles.

The ride up the lake started off very easy, both of us road a nice tempo and about 15 or so miles later the ride really started at the base of Hollywood. This hill is not long, but it is quite steep. Ugh.. Shifting down and digging a little. Once over the "top", the road continues up at a slightly more gradual grade, before descending back down. Two more significant climbs followed; on the longer of the two I really pushed the pace up the climb. Once back on the valley floor, we raced up the valley to the falls making an effort to keep the tempo up.

After getting new water at the falls (50 miles), we descended back down, headed out through falls city, and back towards Seattle. Getting to the valley requires going over numerous "smaller" climbs, but the return route from falls city is basically one huge climb which never seems to end. One time last year while doing this climb, we passed some "street lugers” who were also heading back up the climb.

Once over the top, we were at a decision point, to head in or to ride more. Both feeling good we opted for the latter and headed back adding miles on the reverse May Valley route. At the southern tip of the lake the wind kicked up, and we worked on our two man pace line skills on the return to the city. Just as we finished the ride, we hit 100 miles on Ben’s computer, so that means I was in the 110 - 120 mile range. Not to shabby for February.

Note on the weather: The weathers been cold, wet, and overcast. Well today, if it hadn't been just a tad chilly I would have sworn it was summer time. Blue skies, not a hint of rain, perfect cycling weather.

Recovery: With the longer miles good recovery is more important. On getting in I ate two scoops of whey in milk, 4 TR, and 2 Super AO, and a large 17 inch veggie pizza. I felt a little guilty about the pizza but I some how ate the whole thing and really never felt full. Oh well. I guess I will just need to ride a little more tomorrow to work it off.

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