Finally got to test cycle commute to the office yesterday! Was certainly one of those ‘challenge’ days, though. Spent a miserable few hours in a telephone argument with a family member which delayed my departure by quite a bit, upon walking outside with the bike found not only dodgy weather but that the battery on my Garmin had 0 hours left when I walked outside with the bike and tried to fire it up leaving me without heart rate, speed, distance or any form of measurement (I’ve lost my indoor HRM so use lunky old Garmin for everything). Drama - _whatever_ !!
I should note here that I expected this ride to take about an hour. Set out and tried to time things in chunks - climb up Holmes Point (in the long, slow climb direction rather than the shorter much steeper) took about 20mins, the climb from Holmes Point & Juanita junction 1 to junction 2 (Holmes Point loops around and meets Juanita Drive twice - about a mile apart, I think), only took about 10 minutes. Descended Juanita Drive down into Bothell and jumped on the Sammammish River trail which I followed to Woodinville (about an hour at this point) then through nearly to Marymoor park. Jumped off the trail at the intersection of 520 so I could climb up to 51st street (about a mile of climb - steep at the beginning) to my interim (workday) destination - the ProClub. My commute plan is to ride to the club, lift, stretch, and shower and then continue on to the office in my work clothes as it’s all flat or downhill between the two so I shoudn’t get too icky. All in all it took me two hours to get from my house to the club. Zoinks! I was wiped by the time I got to the club, too. I skipped the lifting portion of my test and rode down to my building, had a snack, some painkillers, and a nice rest.
By the time I set off again it was 5pm, and I knew I had about another two hours ahead of me. I was totally daunted - especially with the knowledge that while most of the trail is flat back to Bothell, once I got off the trail there was a long-ish climb ahead of me to get up to the top of Juanita Drive before cruising down Holmes Point to get to my house. Oh, and the short but seriously steep climb off Holmes Point drive into my driveway. I get short of breath each morning just walking the dog up the hill to my driveway no matter how fit I am. Soooo, I set off.
I’ll be interested to hear how Brad’s century ride went this weekend and to hear if he thought it was windy. I’m not an experienced cyclist so it felt moderately windy to me - just how I imagine it when we replicate ‘riding into a headwind’ in spinning. I was working pretty hard just on the flat - but maybe it’s because I’m not strong enough yet.
Anyway, I powered my way back up to Bothell and it felt a little less long and and hard than it did on the way down. Hopped off the trail and headed up for the climb - my last obstacle. It had taken me about an hour to get from Redmond to Bothell. The iPod shuffle gods were with me as I began the climb (yes, I know. I had my music on low-ish so I could hear cars. I’m sure it’s both illegal and unsafe but I’ll deal with that another day) and blessed me with Foo Fighters, Gwen (Wind it up) and Mika. Somewhere around Wind it up my mental state finally shifted from feeling like it was all too hard, too long, and I was too tired…to the much more productive and fun “I’m WORKING this hill”. It was a wonderful shift and I did, indeed, work that hill (which, once tackled wasn’t nearly as steep as I thought. one part is a little tough and the rest is a really reasonable climb). Finally my positive mind broke through! I was joyful, powerful, and strong for the rest of the climb and when it came to the descent down Holmes Point I was positively jubilant. So if you happened to hear someone singing completely tuneless Gwen Stefani covers or shrieking yesterday afternoon on Juanita or Holmes Point drive - that was me.
All in all it was a great ride - the return leg took about 1 hour and 40mins proving that coming the ’shorter’ way on Holmes Point saves a ton of time. I live much closer to the N junction of it but the climb out that direction is really steep so I rode out from my house South to climb out then back North to climb Juanita drive - doubling back about two miles. Adds a lot of time but is a much better climb for me at my current fitness level. Scott says I’d be better off if I walked my bike halfway up the steeper side but if I can spare the time I think I’ll keep hammering away at the long route until it doesn’t feel challenging then I’ll reverse. I’m hoping that with experience I’ll be able to shave off time - it’s possible that I wasn’t exactly primed for the effort having spent the last week being very sick and staggeringly busy with three days of work off-sites, dinners, etc. Pretty sure I wasn’t properly hydrated the day prior or today, my nutrition was off, and so on and so on. Sub-optimal conditions all around. I’m going to tackle it again this week with the Garmin so I can get a sense of how hard I’m working, speed, and distance.
Ok, now questions for the experienced cyclists (this was exactly my second bike ride in ten years!) so outside of the last 18months or so of weekly indoor cycling I really have no idea what I’m doing. I lived in the country as a kid and bikes weren’t really much of an option.
So, for the foreseeable future I’ll be riding my ten year old ‘was a cheap-ass hunk of junk at the time I bought it’ mountian bike. I do have semi-smooth tires on it - they’re pretty smooth in the middle but have some poky bits on the edges. They’re inflated to the level the tires indicate and all of my gears, etc. were checked and adjusted before I set off. Currently I have old-style pedals - would a small investment in cages make a big difference so I could more easily ‘pull’ the pedals rather than just pushing? I was pretty focused on smooth circles and keeping my heels dropped for a lot of the ride trying to keep decent form with what I have but I imagine the cage thingies would help a bit.
Also should I be riding in my hardest gear pretty much all the time on the flat? I was nearly always in my top gear front and back for all the flat though once in while I would drop just one in the back for a little rest. Should I be dropping it more every so often to ’spin out’ my legs - or is that just an ‘indoor cycling’ thing? Generally I’d characterize my effort as about a 6 RPE on the flats - strong sustained effort. The climbs varied like crazy depending on the grade - sometimes a 7, 8, or even a 9 and for a moment on the climb up to 51st a 10! Oh, and no standing climbs. I did everything seated since I have old-fashioned pedals I can’t really do a standing climb without just grinding out and I’m not really sure when or if I’m supposed to use the standing outdoors.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 06/02/2007
- Time: 02:00:00
- Total Time: 3:41:00.00
(next day update) not much soreness at all! yay! can’t wait to attack it again!
Digg! this story.
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