Today was the Headwaters Century. Last year, I rode the 66 mile variant, but this time I wanted to do the whole ride.

Alas, it was not to be. Whether it was being sick for a week, tailing off my training, or not staying hydrated, the first two hours was good, but the second were pretty miserable (even more miserable than riding in the rain during RSVP), so I skipped a 20 mile loop, totalling only 80 miles for the day. The 5th and part of the 6th hour weren’t much fun – I could only maintain about 15MPH on the parts where I could ride around 20MPH a year ago.

Well, there’s always next year.

Fred
n.
1) a person who spends a lot of money on his bike and clothing, but still can’t ride

I decided a while back that my trusty old LeMond Tourmalet (named after a famous cycling climb often featured in the Tour de France, as most of LeMond’s bikes are) was holding me back. Specifically, despite me dropping a number of well-placed hints, it still weighs as much as it always did, a portly 29 pounds. The lightest pro bikes are around 6.75 kg (33.5 hectares to you and me), which is roughly half of what the Tourmalet weighs, and there are a number of bikes that weigh less than 18 pounds (1.25 parsecs).

So, it was off to a LBS (local bike shop) to see what was out there. I had a few requirements:

1. It needed to have a compliant ride. My current bike has a steel frame (well, chrome – moly steel to be more precise), and such frames soak up bumps very well. Aluminum, on the other hand, does not, so it’s not really in the running. That leaves either steel, titanium, or the new star on the block, carbon fiber.
2. It needed to have a better drivetrain. I decided that Shimano Ultegra was my target. Despite the name, Ultegra is not “the ultimate” component group for Shimano – that niche is occupied by “Dura-Ace” – but it is light, strong, and well engineered.
3. It needed to come with a triple chainring up front. This is so that I have a “granny ring” to help get up those steep slopes. More talented riders would have only two chainrings, usually of something like 53 and 39 teeth. A triple might come with 52/42/30 teeth, which means that the lowest ratio is 30/39, or about 25% lower than the double option, giving 25% more torque.
4. It needs to look cool. If you’re going to spend good money on a bike, you should at least like the looks.

I headed out to Samamish Valley Cycles to start my search. After a bit of discussion, we settled on two likely bikes:

• A Litespeed Firenze, their entry-level titanium, coming in a bit under 18 pounds (13 KiloPascals).
• A Bianchi with a steel frame, whose name escapes me.

I rode the Firenze first. It’s very light with a low moment of inertial (ie light wheels), and rides wonderfully, though there is a certain springiness. I liked it a fair bit, but unfortunately, it only comes in a matte finish. I’m all for the artistry of nice welds and good machining, but silver is my least favorite color for vehicles, so this is a non-starter for me. Litespeed does make the Solano, which is a bit stiffer, and comes with a nice yellow paint job. I’m not sure if it’s available with a triple or not, however.

The Bianchi was pretty forgettable. It rode like a slightly different version of my current bike – better, but not really better. So it’s not on my list.

My next bike to try is the Trek 5200. Carbon fiber frame, just like the US Postal bike, blah, blah blah. It meets all my requirements, so I’ll be trying to ride one in the next couple of weeks.

I wimped out on my ride yesterday morning (it’s hot and hard to sleep), so this morning I decided to tackle the infamous “Zoo Hill”, which climbs up Cougar Mountain near Issaquah.

Probably the worst hill that I’ve normall rode is Juanita Drive, which gains about 400′ over 1.3 miles, for a 5.8% grade. I hadn’t looked at the Zoo stats in a while, which turns out to be a good thing.

The climb starts immediately when you turn off of Newport, and it pretty brutal. It’s more brutal if you ride for 10 minutes, look down, and then realize that you still have one gear back at the back.

I usually run out of leg strength before I run out of aerobic capacity, but I ran out of breath lots of time on the climb. Definitely a good test of my capacity.

Overall Stats:

Length:    2.63 miles
Elevation: 1200 feet
Gradient:   8.1 % average

The average gradient is misleading. There are a lot of sections that are around a 5% grade, and even a few that are flat, so that means that the steep sections are up in the 15% range.

Riding down, I had to brake most of the time, because if I didn’t, I easily would have been in the mid 40’s. Next time, I’ll probably come down the next way.

Groupthink

A few people have asked me what training I did for my century ride.

I’m currently riding 4 days a week (well, I took 10 days off at JavaOne and on vacation). Monday/Wednesday/Friday, I do a 15 mile ride which takes about an hour. It has some up and down hills, and a steady 2.5 mile hill in the middle. I try to ride that hill at a somewhat painful steady-state, where my legs are hurting but I don’t feel like I’m going to die.

On the weekend (usually Saturday), I’ll go on a long ride. I started at around 30 miles in March, progressed to 50 miles in May, and then peaked at 70 miles the week before the century. I aim for a pace that will leave me tired at the end but not so I couldn’t ride more if I had to, which obviously varies based upon the distance.

For the century, I found it to be hugely useful that I had ridden the bulk of the course before, so that I knew where all the hills were and how steep they were.

I’m planning on adding more mileage as the summer progresses, and perhaps a new bicycle.

Oh, and I haven’t yet gotten around to getting a heart rate monitor yet, though that would probably be a useful addition. I bought Chris Carmichael’s book a while back, and I’m planning on trying some of his training drills – I would really like to be able to bump my average speed up a few miles per hour.

Century

n.

1. 100 years
2. An elaborate ritual practiced by a secretive cult, in which members devote themselves to extended periods of self-flagellation on their elaborate instruments. The group has an elaborate caste system, where members advance by demonstrating their ability to absorb punishment on a daily basis and their willingness to devote time and money to their obsession.
3. The subjective amount of time that it takes to ride a bicycle 100 miles.

I was feeling good. After a short lunch break (3:28, 56 miles), I had hooked up with a few riders and made good time from Monroe back towards the mid-point food stop. On the way I decided to make a pit stop at one of the rest stops. Clipped out of my left pedal, pulled into the gravel, stopped.  Went to clip out of my right pedal, overbalanced, fell over into the gravel. Unclipped, laughed, and thanked the other riders who came over to see if I was all right.

So, I was a little more tired than I thought. But I’m getting ahead of myself now.

Late last summer, my wife and daughter and I rode in the Headwaters Century, put on by the Tacoma Wheelman’s club. I did the 66 mile route, while my wife pulled my daughter on her trailercycle for 45 miles (a bigger accomplishment than what I did, actually).

I had a lot of fun on that ride, and decided to set my sights higher. The traditional progression for riders in the Seattle area is to do some sort of century, then do the Seattle to Portland (STP) ride in two days, one of the biggest organized rides in the country (they may sell out at 8000 riders this year). Then, if you want a much harder challenge, you can do STP in one day, or RAMROD (154 miles, around 8500 feet of elevation gain), or even the RAPSody (150 miles, 9400 feet of gain). Or, if you’re more serious, you could do a 1000 KM Brevet (though to be fair, that’s over 3 days).

After consulting with a few experienced experts, I decided to make my goal for this year to ride RSVP (Ride Seattle to Vancouver and Party), a two-day ride from Seattle to Vancouver BC. This ride got started the year that Mount St. Helens erupted, and STP couldn’t be held.  It’s much smaller than STP (900 riders max), and purported to be much prettier. It’s also a bit shorter, at 183 miles to STPs 200 miles.

To ride that distance, I needed an intermediate goal, so I chose the “Flying Wheels Summer Century”(“Screaming Thighs” is perhaps a better name), one of the toughest centuries in this area, because of the hills.  I’ve been pre-riding parts of the course for a few weeks now, and was pretty confident that I could finish the ride.

The ride itself was great. The one section that I hadn’t ridden turned out to hillier than I expected, but all else was what I expected. Pre-riding it was a very good thing to do.

I rode most of the first two thirds of the ride by myself. I hooked up with groups for a while, but their pace was just a bit too high for me to be comfortable. After the 66 mile stop, I hooked up with a guy who was riding the same speed, and we rode the rest of the ride together (misery loves company). That makes the ride much more enjoyable, and you have the opportunity to draft on each other, which gets you any where from 10% to 30% less effort.

A few statistics:

Slowest speed: 6.5 MPH, riding up the first big hill (12% grade).

Fastest speed: 43 MPH, screaming down a hill at 90 miles into the ride. I got passed

Calories Expended:  3000-4000

Water: Around a gallon

Food:

            24 ounces of gatorade

            8 fig newtons

            2 Balance Gold bars (Chocolate Mint, yum yum)

            1 banana

            1 package beef jerky (about a gram of sodium, very important)

            2 Carb-boom gel packs (Apple Cinnamon). Pure glucose gel

            ½ bagel

            4 bunches of grapes

            2 handfulls of pretzels

Distance: 101.75 miles

Time: 6:49:22

Average Speed: 14.9 MPH

Elevation Gain: 2900 feet

My goal was to finish 100 miles in less than 7 hours, which requires an average of 14.3 MPH, and I’m very happy to have finished earlier than that. Though I could have ridden more, I definitely didn’t want to ride any more at that point.

My long-term readers know that I’m in training for a couple of bicycle rides later this summer (a century in June, and a two-day double century in August). The rest of you haven’t had the joy of reading endless descriptions of my cycling exploits, but I’m sure you’ll get  a chance to do this in the future.

Anyway, I’ve been slowly upping my mileage to about 90 miles/week, including a 45-ish mile trip around the top half of Lake Washington, including a ride across Lacey V. Murrow memorial floating bridge (otherwise known as the I-90 bridge). That in itself is a experience, riding across a lake 20 or 30 feet off the water, both for the view and for the risk, given that a big chunk of the bridge sunk in the early 1990s due to an impressive display of cooperative incompetence between the state and the renovation contractor. The route around the Lake is really nice on a sunny day, but involves a lot of starting and stopping north of the University of Washington on the Burke-Gilman trail.

Last Saturday, I decided to vary my route. After riding about 25 miles and feeling good, I decided to ride on the east side of Lake Sammamish (lots of lakes around Seattle), which I hadn’t done before. I had one of those rare moments when everything seems to be working currently, and I rode for about 15 minutes at 21-23 MPH (about 4-5 MPH faster than normal), and then another 15 minutes flying (for me) up a 2-5 mile hill.

Overall, I did 48.6 miles in just under 3 hours, averaging a little over 16.2 miles per hour.

Which makes me very slow compared to more serious cyclists, but much faster than I was before.

Today, I participated in the Tacoma Wheelmen’s Heritage Century,
a ride through the picturesque Enumclaw valley. Normally, I would have added “in the
shadow of Mt. Rainier”, but since it was overcast, the mountain was hidden.

I had hoped to do the whole century (100 miles), but because I got sick a couple of
times this summer and injured recently, it wasn’t going to happen. I settled for a
shorter version. Overall, a pretty good ride. It was much hillier than I had expected.
Luckily, I’ve been suffering on hills for weeks. At one point, I was following
a guy up a steep hill – so steep that I had to stand up even though I was in my lowest
gear, and during the highest part of the power stroke, my back wheel was spinning
up. I put that in the “not fun” category, because if it slips hard, I’m probably going
down.

When I got to the top, I realized I was following a guy with an artificial leg from
the knee down on the right side. I’m used to being passed, but usually the people
I’m passed by have all their parts. Pretty amazing.

After I finished that section, I caught up with my wife and daughter, who were doing
the 45 mile route with my daughter on her Burley Trailercycle.
I hooked her onto my bike for the next 9 miles, and then when we switched back, I
found a nice slight downhill and cranked it up to 20-23 MPH for a few miles, and then
cruised across the flats to the finish.

Overall, I’m pretty happy. My legs hurt but never got to the cramp stage, I had enough
energy for the whole ride, and my butt didn’t start hurting until I’d been riding
3.5 hours. Next year my target is RSVP.

Vital Stats:

Distance: 63.5 miles
Time: 4:36
Average speed: 13.9 MPH
Pedal Revolutions: 22,100
Horses: 155
Cows: N (where N >> 1000)
Food: 3 Power bar balance (600 calories), 3 fig newtons (165 calories), 2 energy gell
packets (200 calories), 1 1/2 bananas (150 calories), 32 oz gatorade (240 calories).
Total = 1355 calories
Calories used: Approximately 600 cal/hour ~~ 3000 calories used.

I’ve been riding my bicycle a fair bit in past months, and I’ve been having some comfort
problems. The first hour is fine, the second hour elbows hurt and my feet and hands
fall asleep (and my butt hurts). The third and fourth hours are more and the same.

I’m planning on doing a metric century (100 KM) in September, which will put me on
the bike for 6-7 hours, so I needed to address the comfort issue. I made an appointment
with Erik Moen, a physical therapist who works at Seattle’s Pro Sports Club (many
Microsoft people belong to the Bellevue Pro Sports
Club). He came highly recommended as “the great guy” by a friend I have who rides
seriously.

So, Tuesday morning I drove into Seattle, and wheeled my bike in for the fit. The
nice thing about going to a physical therapist for a bike fit is that he can consider
modifications to either the bike or to the body. My expectation was that I would be
shopping for a new bike when I was done, or at least some new components. Another
big advantage is that it’s considered a physical therapy visit, so I didn’t have to
pay for the session. Ka-Ching!

The session starts with the usual medical history questions, and then a questionaire
about my bike-riding tendencies. Except for marking “spinner” instead of “cruiser”,
I’m pretty much on the lightweight side of all the questions. My session with Erik
then began.

Erik is a really nice guy, and he started by doing an evaluation of my body mechanics
and flexibility. That took about 15 minutes. We then went to one of the studios
and put my bike on a trainer for measurements. This starts with static measurements
of the bike (seat highet, difference between bar and saddle height, reach to brake
hoods, stem length, seat setback, and crank length). While he did this I watched and
generally got in the way.

Next are the rider on bike measurements, which include the trunk angle (37 degrees),
distance between elbows and knee, knee angles, and a few others I’ve forgot). My seat
was too far tipped forward (moved it back one notch), and my bars were too low (raised
them 1cm and tilted them back). Saddle height was good, as we my cleat placement.

We then worked on position, to see if I could get the handlebar inline with the stem.
He adjusted me on the bike to the position he thought I should be in, and found that
overall, things were set up pretty well for me.

The problem was that I wasn’t actually in that position, due to some inflexibility
in my hamstrings and back (there’s a note about a “probable ham challenge” on my fit
sheet, but I don’t think that’s about lunch).

His prescription:

1) New shoes to replace my very old Shimano ones

2) Stick with SPD cleats, as they’re more practical for my use

3) Insoles (superfeet or biosoft inserts) to make my feet happier

4) A number of trunk and hamstring stretching exercises to stretch my legs and cure
me of the “software slouch”.

5) A recheck in October

Overall, a very worthwhile hour. Interesting that the bike setup is fine, it’s the
rider setup that needs some work. I knew I had crappy hamstring flexibility (too much
soccer, not enough stretching), but the back part is a new one. I’m going to ask my
group to tell me to “sit up straight” if they see me slouching.

I was going to ride this morning but felt to sick, but I’m hoping to get in a few
miles tonight. I’ll post again with my impressions of the adjustments.