sweetpeas in trout lake

sweetpeas in trout lake
Originally uploaded by tangobiker

This picture cracks me up! Thanks for taking it, Bill!

Bingen Bikenfest 2010

The Kramer's annual fall 200km romp on the dry side of the Cascades (mostly). This year's route was similar to the 2007 route, except, rather than taking SR 14 east to Hwy 97, and then north into Goldendale, we cut off SR 14 at Lyle, and went to Goldendale via Centerville. Longer climb, but probably not quite as steep.

High Points:
I finished before sunset! (she says, jumping up and down)
Riding average of 13.7mph
Total ride time of 10:49. I'm making these sub 11hr 200km rides a habit :-)
Did NOT, repeat did NOT finish last. Far from it, even.

The ride details here.

Susan O and I thought we'd ride it together.  She even offered to drive (yay!), and arrived at my house at 5:30am.  Loaded up the bike, and we were off.  I had gotten all my food and spare clothes and such ready the night before.

Finally found some coffee for Susan in Hood River, then headed across the bridge to find the start point.  Lots of checking in, milling around, and then we were off at 7:30am.

The first 6 miles on SR 14 went quite quickly, then off the highway for 3.3 miles on Old Highway 8.  Pretty.  Nice views of the Columbia River; maybe 500 feet of climbing.



Back down to the river at Lyle, and immediately back up, for the major climb of the day. 2000 vertical feet over 8-10 miles.  Mostly 4-6% grade.  I had ditched my jacket on the previous climb.  It wasn't even 60 degrees yet, and I was very very hot - sweat running down my face!  Pulled over to lose the armwarmers and find a bandanna for my head.  This was one of those climbs where you THINK the top might be JUST around the corner, and you get to that corner and....no.  I decided it was time to eat something, and started working on my TJ's Sesame Crepe while riding along.  Ate almost the entire thing (half of one.  500 calories).  That was really yummy.  More climbing.  We were on the dry side of the Cascades, so rounded golden hill after rounded golden hill, inching upward...  Susan was long out of sight by now.  I thought I might be at the tail end of the ride.



Finally, came up and around a corner and saw... a valley.  Thank you Lord! (those were the exact thoughts in my head).  Down....  found Susan and the Hughart brothers, Holden and David.  We headed off through the valley to Centerville (the grain silo was visible long before we actually arrived).  Nice views of Mt Adams to the north, cattle grazing, ...

Admired Holden's new International Orange Bike Friday.  He admired my new Sweetpea.  When we last rode together at the Birkie 200km, we were both getting new bikes, but didn't have them yet.  Susan and David were up ahead a bit.





Eventually found ourselves in Centerville (population -5, or something like that) at our turn, where Susan and David were having a snack.  So we joined them.  Someone was walking down the road...turned out to be John, and did we need more water; his car was just up the road.  We relocated and topped off our water bottles.

Off again - I could see signs of greater population up ahead, and eventually found myself in the outskirts of Goldendale.  We were directed to the combination DQ/Subway/Gas station/Convenience Store as the control (44.6 mi).  Long lines for the food, but I didn't want any of that - bought a Gatorade and a Starbucks Mocha Doubleshot (the darkside claims Lynne), and went outside to eat my sandwich.



Many other riders showed up as we were eating.  Guess we weren't at the end after all :-)  Topped off my Gatorade and water, and left the extra Gatorade for the following riders.  (On a rando ride, if one arrives at a control, there will often be a partial gallon of water or other beverage left for the next group of riders.  This is a nice convention.)

Passed through Goldendale, and very soon, Susan and I were back out on range land.  Cattle could conceivably be roaming around unfenced...  We didn't see any.  Lots of great views of Mt Adams and Mt Hood and lots of wide open space.





After 10 miles of this, we turned onto the Glenwood Highway.  I was anticipating the drop into the Klickitat River canyon, but we had a few more miles to ride, and about 500 more feet of climbing before that happened.

The Klickitat River canyon is, for me, the major highlight of this ride.  Riding along, stair-step climbing up, and then, the sign... Truck on a Triangle.  The scenery is breathtaking.  I told Susan I was planning to stop at the scenic overlook.  We started the descent, and maybe a mile into it, pulled over for pictures.  A group of motorcyclists was also out enjoying the day, and one volunteered to get pictures of us.





Pictures accomplished, we continued on down.  It goes on for seemingly MILES and is just gorgeous scenery - oak trees, a bit of fall color, sunshine, the canyon walls...  Then we did a hard turn right, descended a bit more, crossed the river, and it was time to ride back up.  The first mile is a bit special, but then it turns into a gentle stair-step climb.  Brief stop for clothing adjustment (my Carradice bag started out the day with lots of empty space, was now filled with windbreaker, long finger gloves, armwarmers, kneewarmers and toecovers).



Eventually it leveled off (in reality, we were still climbing) outside of Glenwood, past the pond, the great view of Mt Adams, and finally, the Glenwood General Store (80 miles).



A few cyclists were there, more showed up as we were sitting and eating (sandwich and banana).  Even Bill A, who I did not know was on this ride! (He got to the start shortly after we all had departed).  Susan, Scott P, Bill A and I started out, moving at a very brisk pace.  After about 6 or 7 miles, I couldn't hold on, and they slowly pulled away.  Especially since we were starting the last climbing stretch (700 ft) over the hills to get to Trout Lake.  Several false summits, and then the very nice descent.  The view of the valley is wonderful, but I couldn't bring myself to stop and take a picture - flat, green, farms...



Working my way west to the Trout Lake control, I could sometimes see Scott P up ahead.  I found them at the intersection with Mt Adams road, but I kept on going to the control at the RV park.  A very quick pause to answer the question, and back to the Trout Lake store.  No doubleshots, so I had to console myself with a frappucino and bag of Fritos.  Susan offered to help if I thought the bag was too big.  Which it was, but that was the smallest bag they had.



Bill and Scott left a bit before we did.  We were hoping there would be no headwind back down to the start (24 miles, 2000 ft total drop with an annoying 400 ft uptick a few miles before the end), so we could enjoy it.  No headwind.  We were riding between 18-25mph all the way to Husum (the uptick).  One brief stop to turn on the rear blinkies.  Scott got a flat outside Husum - there was a fair amount of broken glass on the shoulders.

Our goal was to finish before 6:30, which would make an 11 hr ride.  A secondary goal was to finish before dark - the last time I finished this ride, it was downright scary dropping through White Salmon and Bingen with the lighting I had at the time.  I think I bought my SON28 and IQ Fly right after that!  Turned on the headlight just outside White Salmon, just to alert oncoming vehicles.



Racing the sun to the finish, but I did stop to take a picture of Mt Hood.  The stretch from Husum to White Salmon seemed WAY too long, but eventually I found the drop through town (yes, at or exceeding the 35 mph speed limit, and then reefing on the brakes to get down to 25 mph).  Last info control in Bingen (I didn't write it down), then west on SR 14 for just over a mile to get to the finish.  In daylight.  Not at the tail end of the group.



Changed out of the cycling gear, enjoyed snacks, and then Susan and I got a recommendation for a place to get some dinner in Hood River.  Off to Ixtapa.  Yum.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnefitz/sets/72157624962567337/with/5047801515/

Sweetpea headbadge

Sweetpea headbadge
Originally uploaded by Lynne Fitz

I never did share this one...

Sweetpea gets a page in The Book

After 626 miles of completely enjoying riding Sweetpea, I did notice that the chain might need cleaning.  That accomplished (also the Brooks saddle relaced with something a bit more durable), I then added Sweetpea to The Book.



After I built up Bleriot, I realized I'd have to start really keeping track of when I cleaned chains, replaced parts, did major maintenance, etc.  And, with two (at the time) bikes, I'd better write it down somewhere!





Hence, The Book.  Each bike has a section, and, other than date and odometer reading, it is pretty free-form.  I like to know how long my wheels have lasted, how many miles are on a tire, when did I last change a chain (or for that matter, clean one :-) ).  I'd be even better if I noted when I swapped out the batteries in the blinkies.  (note to self...)

There are 4 bikes in the book - Bleriot, Lemond, Sweetpea, and Gitane, with Bleriot having the distinction of two full pages.



I've got to wonder how the folks I know with, um, many (15, 50) bikes keep up with it all...

On Training

By now, some of you have noticed that I might ride my bikes a bit, now and then, and sometimes go for a run.  Organized training?  Not so much.

There is a half marathon with my name on it in 5 weeks.  I am not running intervals.  I am not following the "4 runs a week" plan.  I am trying to get out 3 times a week, 2 medium kinds of run (intervals?  what, are you kidding?), and one really long one (10 miles last week!) with a friend who really does train.  I figure, at this rate, I will be able to finish.  Not so worried about time.  I run to, well, run.  Plonk plonk plonk plonk plonk...

And that bicycling stuff?  Again, I don't train.  No intervals.  No plans.  I commute to work 4 days a week (10 miles RT, with a hill).  I try to do something on weekends, but it usually a club ride or something with Cecil (something with Cecil is always longer and harder than the club ride.  But definitely fun).  Or I might think I should be working on the climbing, and go ride up some hills - we've got some nice ones within easy riding distance of my house.

I have been averaging about 400 miles a month, except for August.  Somehow I found myself, at the end of the last week, with only 3.5 miles to go to hit 700 miles.  One bike commute later, and there I was.

Last week, I wondered if Cecil wanted to ride somewhere.  Her weekend schedule was such that "if you wanted to do hill repeats for a couple of hours on Mt Tabor early Saturday..."

As I still think I should be working on my climbing, we arranged to meet up at Kettleman's at 6am for bagel and hot beverage of choice, then head over to Mt Tabor at 6:30.  Left my house at 5am on Sweetpea (very dark!  good test of the Supernova E3!), up over Sylvan, and arrived at 5:55am.  A minute or two later, another bright bike headlight appeared.

Then over to Mt Tabor.  I have never ridden loops around it.  We ride over a lower part of it on our way out to the Gorge, and that's it.  Two loops so I'd know where I was going (I have no illusions about keeping up with Cecil on a climb.  Few people do.)  She only lapped me once over the two hours.  I got in 10.5 repeats.

Then, of course, I had to ride home, again, up over Sylvan.

Being the number crunching sort, I now know that the loop is 2.24 miles, and I averaged 11:11 around it.  (If you don't do a baseline, you'll never really know if you are getting better).



For me it was a 49+ mile ride, with almost 4300 vertical feet.  That's a lot of climbing.

Next time I do this (when?  good question?), I can see if I got any faster.

Some Real Pics of the New Sweetpea

Cleaned off the Gatorade drips, and such.  The bike has been ridden almost 600 miles already, and the chain needs cleaning...











The bottom bracket was swapped out for a Phil Wood, which gave a better Q factor, and much smoother shifting.

Bike Lemming: September is National Wave and/or Say Hi to Another Cyclist Month

Bike Lemming: September is National Wave and/or Say Hi to Another Cyclist Month

I wave.  And this morning while heading in, I was passed (the usual state of affairs, even if I'm going 17mph!) by no fewer than 4 cyclists heading west on Park Way.  But first, the five of us were stopped at the red, waiting to cross Cedar Hills.  Could be a fun month!