Things that might be decidedly odd…

Golden Gardens

A friend of mine had a BBQ picnic out in Ballard at Golden Gardens Park this afternoon. After grabbing brunch with Sarah and Jason at Charley’s (middling food, but it’s close and they’ll seat you right away), I dropped by the farmer’s market to pick up some cherries to bring (it’s the end of the season apparently). I decided to ride my bike the approx. 10 miles over there since I need the exercise and because I promised myself I wouldn’t stop riding my bike for the season now that STP is over. Unfortunately, the Garmin connect site doesn’t like the TCX file from the ride so I can’t post a cool little map of where I went with spiffy graphs this time.

On the way over, I took the Burke-Gilman trail until its end at the Fred Meyer in Ballard (11th Ave NW and 45th St), along Shilshole to 24th to Market to 28th. I didn’t realize it beforehand, but 28th is a long uphill slog. I turned right onto Loyal (yeah for diagonal streets) and onto 32nd on my way into the park. Soon I was confronted with a giant road closed sign. Bummer. I’d never gotten to the park any other way, so I was a bix flummoxed about what to do. I tried to call Ken, but no answer. Just at that time, I saw some people on bikes walking around the barricades on their way out of the road and asked if the road was really closed. Apparently, it’s definitely closed but you can walk around the place where the road crumbled during a landslide by foot or bike. I’m sure it’s highly illegal, but I didn’t feel like going the 30 or so blocks out of my way to find the southern entrance. Anyways, I walked my bike around the disintegrated road and everything was fine. On the second road closed sign (right before the damaged part of the road), somebody had written with a marker, “only stupid people go past here” (or something like that). Hmmm, I guess I was stupid.

The BBQ was really nice, although it was fairly hot and even a bit muggy there. I chatted with everybody and nibbled on various fruit and veggie snacks people had brought. I even went and got a Choco Taco which was tasty. After an hour and half or so, I rode back, this time going out the southern entrance which was much prettier, flatter and shorter. Oh well, I guess that hill was good for my health at least.

Whew

I’ve been off the wagon with blogging lately, what with STP, San Francisco, Guerneville and starting a new job!

Anyhow, things are well. In summary:

1. STP was great. Even though I was sore and tired afterwards, I was definitely less sore and probably less exhausted than last year. I was sort of dreading riding it again this year, but I’m glad I went through with it afterall.

2. The trip to California was a lot of fun. It was nice to get away from Seattle, work and all of that for a week and a half. The drive back took about 15 hours. That sucked, but overall a good trip.

3. I started the new job on Friday (right before doing STP). Because I was on vacation Monday (to get back from Portland without rushing), today was only my third day at work. I’ve unpacked my moving boxes and gotten all my computers set up. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and just trying to wrap my brain around the new project, but generally things have been going swimmingly.

STP Tomorrow

Well, I guess I’m about as ready as I’m going to be!

The plan is to get up at 4am tomorrow morning and meet the team in Leschi at 5am. I need to get to bed…

STP, Take Two

The Seattle to Portland bike ride is this weekend. I guess I’m ready. Well, at least as ready as (if not more than) last year.

Last year, I was pretty nervous by this point. This year, because I know what to expect I’m not nervous but rather resigned to the tiredness and pain that will result. And of course the sense of accomplishment.

Anyhow, I’m riding again with a fundraising purpose, but haven’t really gotten around to soliciting money yet. I know, how last minute, right? Those who know me, also know that I hate asking for money. However, Gay City Health Project is a good cause that even I’m willing to suck it up and beg for money on their behalf. Specifically, they provide STD and HIV testing for free and just generally promote a healthy gay community in Seattle by doing things like making free condoms available at bars/clubs, running smoking cessation workshops, and various social activities.

If you’d like to donate, click this link and enter my name (i.e., “Jeff Schoner”) in the rider field.

Riding to Maple Valley

Whew, I just got back from my longest bike ride of the season yet. I rode from my apartment to University Village (where I met the rest of the group) down Lake Washington through Renton, then onto the Cedar River Trail out to Maple Valley. On the way back, we stopped in downtown Renton for lunch before heading straight back home (no detour to University Village). Unfortunately, my bike computer froze up just after leaving Maple Valley resulting in the loss of about 9 miles and 45 minutes of riding. Adding in those estimates to what was actually recorded yields 63 miles over 4.5 hours. As you might imagine, I’m pretty exhausted!

I went to the doctor on Friday since my wrist is still hurting after 3 weeks. They took x-rays and said it was probably just tendinitis. It’s definitely good news that it’s not broken or anything. The doctor put me on a high dose of naproxyn to counteract the inflammation, so I’m sure that’s numbing the pain of the long ride today somewhat already. I’ll have to see how I feel later tonight once the dose starts to wear off.

Weekend of Bike Rides

I rode my bike both on Saturday and Sunday this weekend.

On Saturday, I was going to ride the Green River Trail with Ben, Jeff and the guys from Gay City. I went about 10 miles before my saddle would no longer stay in place. I had to ride back 10 miles with my saddle pushed way far forward (at least it would stay in place that way). It was a short ride but I did get in about 18 miles total still which was better than nothing. The problem was that the threads on the top of my seatpost were stripped. Upon getting back home, I went over to Velo to buy a new seatpost. $20 for the seatpost plus a few bucks for a tube of grease and I was back in business.

On Sunday, I attempted the same ride with Robert and Joe. We got all the way to the Auburn Supermall, but while we were eating lunch out on the grass in front of Quizno’s, there was a loud burst of air. Apparently, the patch on Joe’s tire just blew out while we were sitting there. He took the bus over to downtown Federal Way because there was a Bicycles West on 320th & Pacific according to Google Maps. Because we couldn’t fit 3 bikes on the bus, Robert and I rode the 4 miles from the Supermall to Federal Way. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize there was a ~400ft climb over those 4 miles. We made it, but it was quite the workout getting up the hill out of the valley. Sadly, when we arrived at the intersection Joe was there waiting. The bike store had gone out of business some time ago. Frustrated, we walked over to the Federal Way transit center and took busses back home. Robert and Joe took the 174 to Tukwila where there cars were parked while I took the 194 back to the Convention Center and then rode the remaining half mile back to my apartment. Robert and I did about 28 miles, Joe somewhat less.

Over the two days, I did 48 miles total which wasn’t too bad considering all the bike troubles we had. Also, these were the first two rides I did with my new saddle. My butt didn’t hurt at all afterwards, so hopefully I’ve found a keeper in this new saddle!

On Bike Saddles

I didn’t go riding today because last weekend I somehow hurt my wrist while riding. I’d not sure what I did (didn’t get whacked, didn’t fall on it or anything like that), but it hurt relatively bad for a few days and my wrist was making a sort of grinding/popping noise. It’s doing much better now than it was a week ago, but I didn’t feel like pushing my luck today by doing a long ride.

Instead, I drove up to Gregg’s Greenlake to look at bike saddles. The saddle that came with my bike when I bought it was very low quality (literally a $20 Bianchi seat), so I bought a nicer one at Sammamish Valley Cycle. While they had a policy there that would have allowed me to exchange the seat I bought within 30 days (or some period of time like that), when I fell on my bike last year the saddle got damaged such that it couldn’t be resold and I was stuck with the saddle I bought. That saddle (some sort of Terry Fly) is actually ok, but has too much gel padding which becomes extremely painful on longer rides. On the STP last year, I was in such sheer pain on the beginning of the second day that I considered giving up on the ride. Fortunately, I took some ibuprofen and pushed through the pain, but I wanted to avoid that this year by getting a better long distance saddle.

I don’t particularly care for Gregg’s since it’s almost always a busy zoo and can be difficult to find a salesperson, but I’d heard they had a good selection of saddles so I went anyways. After some waiting and wrangling for advice about saddles, I finally got a guy to help me. I spent a bit more than I wanted to, but got what seems like a pretty nice one (the Specialized ‘Toupe’). I’ll have to give it a spin sometime this week.

I came across this webpage today on the causes of common forms of bike pain. The section on wrists and shoulders (my right shoulder has also bothered me periodically on long rides for a while) mentions that pain in those is usually caused by incorrect posture. I’m probably pushing too much of my weight forward. Hopefully, a better saddle will help with that by allowing me to put a little more weight on my butt instead.

Marymoor Park

Today, Ben, Jeff, Joe and I rode out to Marymoor Park–more specifically to the entrance of the Cirque du Soleil tent. I started from home, but met the guys at University Village on the way. All told, it was a pretty long ride. The recorded distance was 54.58 miles, but I forgot to start my bike computer after stopping between (roughly) Ooba Tooba’s and Leary Way. That probably adds an additional mile to the ride, making it one of the longest rides I’ve done outside of the STP.

In fact, last year the weekend before STP, I did this same ride from my apartment to Marymoor and back. My apartment was two blocks closer then and I took a different route around the ship canal (Montlake Bride -> Montlake playfield -> Delmar St this time vs. University Bridge -> Fuhrman Ave -> Shelby St -> 11th).

The weather was fairly cruddy today (overcast and in the 50s). Not every weekend in Seattle can be beautiful or we’ll stop appreciating or something. Still, it was a good ride and I’m tired.

Green River and Interurban Trails

Saturday turned out to be such a nice day that Ben, Jeff and I went on a bike ride on the Green River Trail and Interurban Trail south of Seattle. We started out at Tukwila Park and Ride, went south on the Green River Trail until it ended, took the Interurban trail back north to the Park & Ride, continued on to the end of the Green River trail, then returned back to the Park & Ride. Both trails were nice, but the Green River was certainly more scenic. I was also impressed by how few other people were on the trail. Burke-Gilman can get quite crowded with cyclists and especially pedestrians on a nice day.

Mercer Island

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.