Things that might be decidedly odd…

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.

Commuting under my own power

Today I decided I was going to ride my bike home from work. The weather this weekend is forecast to be cold and rainy (there may even be snow Friday night!), so I figured today was my best bet weather-wise. It actually turned out to be fine–50s and overcast the whole way, but no rain. Nothing spectacular of course, but perfectly comfortable.

I drove in this morning with my bike and my gear, changed at work this afternoon and left my car with my non-bike clothes on the Eastside for pickup tomorrow or later in the week. The path I took was 40th St down to the 520 bike trail, north to the Sammamish River Trail, followed until it becomes Burke-Gilman, exit onto the University Bridge in Seattle, Eastlake across to Franklin across to Lakeview, through that little park to Melrose to Mercer to Bellevue Ave and then home.

All told, it took about 2 hours and 15 minutes end-to-end. I think the route is a little less than 30 miles, so it was a decent work out too!

Riding to Woodinville

Today, as part of our training schedule for STP, we rode most of the Burke-Gilman Trail going from Wallingford to the Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville and then back. All told it was about 40 miles. My butt and legs are killing me, but I’m fairly worn out too. The last long bike ride I did was from Saarbrücken, Germany to Saarguemines, France (I think that is about 30km round trip) in 2003.

Whew, I need to take a nap!