It was foggy this morning but was predicted to clear up. The girls decided they'd rather do a flat ride out to Blazing Bagels near Marymoor Park. I had considered riding the Lake Loop on my own, but decided a better thing to do would be to ride with them, and take my fixie.
We took off from Queen Ann in thick fog with our lights on.
We rode just under 5 miles to get to the meeting point at Gasworks Park. Despite assurances of intent to do better on nutrition, I was surprised to hear Merry say she hadn't had breakfast and hoped to stop soon for food. Well, stopping for food if you haven't had breakfast is a good fallback plan.
Julie and I waited on the trail while Merry grabbed a coffee and a couple of muffins.
The fog was patchy, as fog often is. We'd go from thick fog to thinner fog. The pace was slow. Sometimes I'd get ahead and wait a bit. Sometimes both Julie and I would get ahead and wait a bit. It was going to be a long day.
The fog did make for some interesting scenes. During one of my waits I took off my gloves, opened my pack, removed the camera, and took this photo.
We continued on our way, in fits and starts. The fog had pretty much cleared by now. By the time we got to Blazing Bagels, I was ahead a bit, as Julie had waited for Merry. I placed my order and was seated by the time Julie rode in. Julie came in solo as she and Merry had gotten separated when Merry missed a turn,
The girls were having a bit of a disagreement over riding style it seems.
Julie and I finished lunch and Merry still had not arrived, or contacted us. Julie and I hopped back on the bikes and figured we had a chance to catch Merry as she was pedaling back. Despite the "personal" problems, it had turned out to be a very nice day.
Julie and I traded off being in the front. The trail was busy today. We finally caught Merry with about 3 miles left to go (for her, 8 for us) She was standing next to the trail with her bike. As we rode up she said to continue on, saying she'd catch up with us. I thought to myself, "uh huh, if you could catch up with us you would have kept up with us".
We never saw her again.
I got to the base of Queen Ann before Julie, I had kept a consistent 13-14 mph and that was a bit fast for Julie. I was concerned with getting that fixie up Queen Ann. At the last minute I turned to go up 4th Ave rather than the circuitous "normal" route.. 4th Ave reaches 26%, but is only 0.3 miles long. If I was going to walk anyway, I just as well walk a short distance.
The fact that the Queen Ann climb came after 58 miles was not lost on me. On STP, the biggest climb comes just after mile 50. Hopefully I'll be in better bike shape by then.
I arrived to the top 30 minutes before Julie. She did have a good climb though, riding it nonstop. I think this is the second time ever that she's been able to do it without stopping to rest.
As she arrived she got a message from Merry. Merry had just arrived back at her vehicle. 51 miles for her, and about 45 minutes after Julie was there.
..............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total
Today..............61...........0................0............0.............61 Jan.................645..............0...............0.........0.............645 Total.............645.............0...............0..........0..............645
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.