A new month

I'm ready to step away from January, where I set a new record for the fewest miles in a month, and move into February. The last month has been marked by sickness, ....and my email got hacked.  I even noticed that one of the emails surreptitiously sent was to this blog, hopefully nobody clicked on the link.

Today was the Seattle Edition of my birthday ride.  I have always ridden my years in miles, and the only change this year is that I will do it once in Seattle, and next weekend I'll ride another version in the Portland area. Today we planned to ride this route:

6 of us met at the end of the Fremont Bridge in Seattle late this morning.  It was supposed to be sunny, at least it was dry.

L to R.. Julie, Brad, Mike, Johnny, and Geoff

Eric ran late and would join us a few miles into the ride today. We rode west toward Discovery Park then turned south and rode to Lincoln Park via Alki.  The ride over Magnolia Blvd was very scenic, but the camera was buried and I didn't want to stop the train to mess with it.

Just before we got to Lincoln Park Eric wanted to stop at Bakery Nuveau.  He said it was right on the route.  Well, not exactly as it turned out.  We climbed a significant bonus hill, and spent longer than I had allotted for a mid point stop.

Geoff and Johnny

Mike

Julie

After a bit of time we dropped back down the hill to Lincoln Park, only to climb back up again.

Geoff, Johnny, and Brad waiting at the top

My friends, Seattle natives all, knew exactly where we were, me not so much.  But I had the gps with the route loaded on it!  We continued south past the ferry landings, then turned east.
We climbed a bit to get over to Renton.   With some waiting for regroups, a bit slower pace than expected, and a longer mid point rest stop, we were running late.I had planned the ride based on a 10 mph clock time average, and we weren't holding even close to that.  There was some discussion as we waited again for a regroup resulted in a modified plan to stay on the west side of Lake Washington. It would cut a few miles off, but with my commute to and from the ride would still result in at least 58 miles, the goal for the day.  Everyone else rode to the ride too, so it was all okay.

Riders started peeling off to ride home, with Geoff first as we got near I-90, with him making his way back to Bellvue.  Johnny left us near the arboretum, as did Eric. Mike left us before we crossed over the Montlake Bridge. We followed the STP route in reverse to get back to UW, where Brad took his leave.  Julie and I finished back up at the Nickerson Saloon, with lights on, where we had fish and chips and an adult beverage before riding back up Queen Anne hill. Before the ride up Queen Anne, we had a 6.5 mph clock time average. Unbelievable really.

We never saw the sun as was predicted, and it never got as warm as expected but it didn't rain.  All in all, it was nice to be back on a bike.

I was on my carbon bike today, the first time on it since January 1st, when I rode around Mission Bay in San Diego.  No rain either day!


    ...........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today.............63..............0.............0..........0..............63
Jan..................93..............0..............0.........0.............93
Feb.................63..............0..............0.........0.............63
Total..............156.............0..............0.........0.............156