First 100K after 9 weeks of idleness

So I broke my collarbone 9 weeks ago on Father's day the the very end of a 200k ride.  That ride was my R-4 -- which is to say, it was the 4th 200k ride out of 12 leading to the coveted R12 award, given by RUSA to any rider to completes one 200k (or longer) ride in 12 consecutive months.  Now, because my string was broken, if I want the R-12 I'll have to start over again, likely in September.

But RUSA also has a P-12 award, given to people who ride a Populaire, a 100k ride -- once a month for 12 consecutive months.  I have my P-1 ride in the bag as of today.  100k is 62 miles for you Americans.

I was a little leery of making my first ride after 9 weeks a 100k ride, but the route was so configured that I could bail a little early if I had a mind to.  But the heart and soul of Randonneuring is "overcome all obstacles and finish the ride in the time limit", so that wasn't too likely.  And in fact, it wasn't necessary at all.

I had a flight today leaving at 2:25 so I figured if I rode for 5 hours, and allowed time to get to get home, shower, drive to the airport, take the parking lot shuttle, etc.,  I'd have to get up at 6:00 and be on the road by 6:30 to pull it off.

I went to bed at 10:30.  However, I was so excited with the prospect of riding that I kept waking up -- look at the clock -- 12:45?!! No way!  Back to sleep.  Up again -- 4:00?? Yikes, not again!  Finally beep-beep-beep and perhaps the first time ever I was happy to hear the alarm clock.

Throw on bike clothes, grab some breakfast, and drive over to the Mercer Island QFC where I was going to start the ride.  I got there, and pulled out my wallet to buy something to document my start time.  No wallet.  Somehow I didn't bring it.  Fortunately I had some "emergency money" and bought a banana for 25 cents and got the receipt.  On the road by 6:40, just 10 minutes past my "stated start time" of 6:30, not too bad.

Now, the concept of "matches" is that when you put out an extra effort, you burn a match.  This is my matchbook the day I crashed in June:

And after 9 weeks of no riding, this is my matchbook:

I can still ride, but there's nothing extra in the tank for any special efforts.  At least not now. I'll have to work back up to that over the next few months.

The route I was following crosses the bridge over to Bellevue and goes north to Old Bellevue skirting Lake Washington.  It's the hilliest - as in steepest - part of the ride.  None of the hills are long but they are stiff grades, one 12% even.  I discovered early on that although I felt OK riding the bike at a normal pace, I didn't have anything extra to get up the hills.  I was just going to have to drop it into low-low gear and spin up the hills as best I could.  This would not be a record setting run of this course.

Once I got past downtown Bellevue, the legs started remembering what cycling was about, and quit complaining. I still didn't have any extra power but I was able to keep moving at an acceptable pace, 13-15 mph.  The course is just rollers until you get north to Kirkland, and pick up the 7 Hills of Kirkland route heading up Finn Hill and Seminary Hill.  Even that wasn't too bad, just put it in low and spin it out.  Happily that hill has some flats to get a little rest between the lifts.

Coming down the north side of Seminary hill is usually a blast, with speeds of 45 mph not uncommon.  However, not today.  The road is under construction, and there were areas of new asphalt, gravel, ground down pavement, and general nastiness so I had to keep the speed down and take the lane.  Traffic was light so few cars were inconvenienced but I still managed 35 mph in spots.

Once in Kenmore, the route picks up the Burke Gilman Trail, and then becomes the Sammamish River Trail.  Flat flat flat for 10 miles all the way to Marymoor park, where I hit the halfway point.  Ride through the park, and onto East Lake Sammamish Parkway.   That has a few small rollers, and one little hill near the end.  By this time I was shifting into "I feel pretty good but I'm just going to be happy to get to the end so there's no big hurry".  I was getting a few 'on your left's' from faster riders all day.  I had no urge or ability to chase any of them.

Stopped at Starbucks in Issaquah for a control receipt and a snack.  They had chocolate croissants, my favorite!  I recommend when you get one that you specify "cold" or "don't warm it please" because although it might make it tastier, that chocolate will squirt out the other end and make chocolate blobs and stains on your nice clothes.  Don't ask me how I know this.

OK, on to Newport way.  Last long hill, about 4 miles long topping out at 418 feet.  This isn't a steep grade, and has some flats between the lifts, but it seems to go on forever.  Zip down the other side, through Factoria, and over to do a half-lap of Mercer Island.  Sadly, I'm going clockwise.  Sadly because the Northwest side of Mercer Island has some fantastic switchbacks, and they tend to go downhill when you're going counterclockwise, so you can really pick up some speed.  Going the other way, it's mostly uphill and takes the edge off the fun.

One final hill and then coast into downtown Mercer Island, and finish up at the same QFC -- and again, buy a banana to get a receipt.

The weather was good for a ride -- mostly overcast but the sun poked out here and there which was nice. 74 degrees at the end of the ride.  My shoulder was giving me a little twinge now and then but it seemed to be more of a muscle than the bone.  9 weeks into healing from the break and I have long times now where I don't even think of it.  I get reminded if I lift a heavy weight away from my body - like a gallon of milk -- but overall it's fantastic that it's healed this far so fast.

Randoneurring explained

Here's a good article; listen or read - to explain what the PBP is all about:

NPR explains Randonneuring

Seeds of the journey

My road to PBP 2015 – Prologue

What is the PBP?  It is the Paris-Brest-Paris 1200k "randonee" which happens every 4 years.  1200k is 745 miles, and to succeed, you ride it on a bicycle in no more than 90 hours.  And that 90 hours is start to finish including riding, eating, sleeping, and everything else.   In 2011 6000 people registered and they are aiming this year to raise that to 6500 riders in 2015.

How it all started:

Back in 2001, I was working in downtown Seattle and living 10 miles east in Bellevue.  I was taking the bus to and from downtown.  One of my co-workers, Zach, who lived north of downtown, started commuting by bicycle.  Well, I had ridden my bike all OVER Eugene Oregon when I went to school there in the 70's, and had put the bike away when I moved to Seattle in '82.  I heard there was a bike trail between Bellevue and Seattle, so one summer day I got the bike out, pumped up the tires, left a little early, found the trail and rode to Seattle.  Except for a couple of hills, it was a great ride, and I decided to do this more often. 

At first I rode to Seattle and took the bus home, or took the bus in and rode home – I wasn't really in shape to ride 10 miles each way on the same day. In fact, I was only doing this three days a week.  But over time, as I got more used to the ride, I added days, added trips home, until after a few months, I was commuting full time by bike both ways.  I traded my old Eugene bike for a more modern Schwinn from the Goodwill that I passed every day, and eventually traded that one for a better 12 speed from Goodwill.  Those all lasted me until I bought a new Fuji Touring bike with 27 speeds, steel frame and rear rack in the fall of 2002.  I have that bike to this day, and expect to ride in on the PBP.

So now that I'm riding a bike, I start reading about bikes, and discover the Bicycling.com forums where people discuss all kinds of different things related to bikes.  One of these things is Long Distance Cycling, and I read about people riding 1000k and 1200k rides which is just a fantastic thing.  I rode my first century ride (100 miles) in September 2002, and the stories these folks would tell got right into my soul.

One story in particular was by a fellow who went by the moniker "Dr. Codfish".  He was actually from the Pacific Northwest, living just a bit south of Seattle. He related the harrowing PBP he rode in 2007. That year it rained – and rained – and rained.  It was quite discouraging to the riders, of course, to be wet all the time.   And I found the most inspiring part (believe it or not) of his story was where they were on the last part of the trip, everyone down in the dumps, and he told his riding companions "Hey, buck up guys!  Think of this as just another crappy rainy ride, and believe me, it will be epic in the telling later on."  Why would I think that riding 745 miles in the rain was a great idea? Yeah, I don't know, perhaps because it WOULD be epic in the retelling.

I read that in 2007, and it germinated for 6 years, until I started thinking about it again in early 2014.  I looked up PBP online and discovered that the next one was in August 2015.  I also discovered that registration priority was given to people according to the longest ride they did the year before – so 2014 was going to be my "warm up year", and the beginning of my Road to Paris-Brest-Paris 2015.