decidedlyodd

Joe texted this morning around 8:30 or so asking if I was interested in going on a bike ride from Gasworks today at 10. At first, I thought there was no way I would make it since I was still tired from last night. However, by 9:15 I had changed my mind. I was tired and a little bit hungover, but I knew if I went riding I’d feel better.

I was just filling my tires with air right before Ben and I had planned to leave for Gasworks, when I heard the dreaded hissing sound of a flat tire Fortunately, I had an extra tube right there and proceeded to change the tire. I’d never changed a tire on this bike. In fact, up until this morning both tubes were the ones that came with the bike when I bought it. Upon inspecting the tube, a small fissure had formed near the stem so it appeared to be the result of material failure as opposed to some sort of sharp object. Changing the tire proved to be very difficult actually. I had a really hard time pulling the tire back onto the frame. I’m still not exactly sure what I was doing wrong, but after lots of grunting and swearing, I got it all squared away in about a half hour.

From Gasworks, we rode over to Mercer Island, went around the island on Mercer Way and grabbed lunch at Pert’s on the way back. From there, I parted ways with everybody else since I was heading home and they were heading back to Gasworks where they’d parked. I let my bike computer route me home from Leschi. At first, it directed me to turn on Fullerton but even from Lake Washington Blvd I could see it was a serious vertical climb. Instead, I passed by the turn and got rerouted onto Madrona which was still a decent climb but not as insane looking as the previous street. I not only made it all the way up the hill, but made it to Denny and MLK without walking. Unfortunately, one block past MLK, I started walking because it was just too vertical. There doesn’t seem to be any easy way of getting out of Madison Valley. Just walking up the hill, my heart rate got up to 190 which is about the maximum for somebody my age. From the top of the hill, it was mostly downhill all the way home though.

Definitely a good ride!

The Garmin Connect site for the ride is here.