Recovery 100k: Dry, fast and fun

So after my DNF 300k last weekend, I'm hoping to redeem myself with a 100k ride this Saturday. In order not to burn up the entire day, the plan is to start at 6:15 AM and try to get home by noon or at least before 1:00.   The forecast earlier in the week was showers, but it's changed to dry!  Temps in the mid-40s.

I partnered up with a new Randonneur, Pete Peterson, who offered to join RUSA so he could ride with me.  (Rules are, anyone on a RUSA ride must be a member - insurance rules, apparently).  Pete has lots of miles under him, and was riding his newly built old-frame LeMond on its inaugural ride.  And this was Pete's first Rando ride, so lots of firsts today.

We were doing Perm 757; Redmond-Issaquah-UVillage.  I've been on this route, and written about it before.  Start at Peet's in Redmond, down the east side of Lake Sammamish to McDonalds, back the way you came, on to the Sammamish River Trail (SRT) which becomes the Burke Gilman Trail (BGT) and ride to University Village - then turn around and ride back the way you came to Redmond.  100k (or a bit over, actually -- 65 miles).

We left Peets at 6:15 sharp, our control start time, and headed south in total darkness. We each had decent lights. There was little traffic.  Pete is faster than me, by 10-15% easily, but I had plenty of glycogen in my legs to burn after not riding all week, and was able to keep up with him at 18 MPH as we zipped down the dark road.

McDonalds, our first control,  was just 40 minutes away, and we stopped for Apple Juice - one of the cheapest things on the menu, and at 70 calories, a bit of a boost and some fluid.

 It's starting to become daylight now.  Back on the bikes, head north, and now with a little tailwind, 20 MPH is possible  We are flying!  At Marymoor park, we slide over to the SRT and continue our ride north.

2nd control 18 miles later is the ARCO in Woodinville, just north of Wilmot Gateway park.  We each get a V-8, chat, use the "facilities" and back on the trail again.  I'm starting to have some trouble keeping up, but managing, for the most part.  Fortunately there are NO hills on this part of the route.

3rd control would be the U-village QFC but Pete says he knows a good coffee shop, so we stop there. Zoka Coffee.  I'm all caffeined up after my double shot mocha at Peets, so I have a hot chocolate and pumpkin bread.  Pete gets the Zoka bar which is made, apparently of 50% sugar, 20% chocolate and 30% flour. Yowzers, it is sweet!

Outside Zoka is some public art. I don't know the significance of the animals - I thought perhaps they were the Chinese Zodiac animals, but they're not.  No rat, snake or rooster did I see.  You take a look (click to enlarge):

Now all the glycogen is gone, and I'm running on just what I can make as far as energy.  Pete's going strong, still leading out at 15-16 mph and I'm doing what I can to hang on.  I keep dropping back and catching up.  I'm not discouraged - just not that fast, right?  It was good to have someone to chase.

We swing past Wilmot Gateway again in Woodinville, for a bathroom break and a couple of Tums to ward off the cramps that are threatening, and then it's just 9.6 miles to the finish.  Headwind on the SRT heading south, so we're a little slower - 14.5 - 15.5 mph but holding steady.  I latch onto Pete's wheel and just keep pushing.

Wind up at Peet's at 11:42, 5:27 after we left. The line of people is practically out the door, so we head over to Teriyaki to get something to take home for lunch, and the final control receipt.

Yesterday, it had rained off and on all day, but we only had one brief, half-hearted shower in Issaquah. The rain held off, and even the wind wasn't all that strong.  I was happy that I could hang with the fast group, at least for a couple of hours, and now I have my P-4 ride.   (4 consecutive months with a 100k ride).  It was encouraging to me to find out after last week that I haven't lost all ability to move a bike faster than 11 MPH.  The extra 15 degrees in temps helped a ton.

Frosty 300k - a Treehouse and a DNF

Time for another 200k ride to keep the R-12 string going.  I had Nov. 15 locked in for a 200k.  One of my friends who missed out on a 300k last weekend was lamenting he'd have to ride alone, so I offered to accompany him.  I'd done 300k before, even 360k, so figured a 300k was well within reach.   We published our intentions, and two more intrepid Randonneurs decided to join us.

We set on a route from Bremerton, south through Elma, Yelm, then east through Rainier, curve north to Puyallup and then back home to Seattle.  Overall, a fairly flat route.  Not fabulously scenic. Advertised as a "good winter 300k ride".

We met up at the Seattle ferry terminal at 5:45 AM for the 6:00 ferry to Bremerton.  It was pitch dark.
I wondered if it was going to become daylight by our 7:15 start time, and magically, the sky started to brighten, and finally it was nearly light. It's a great picture, click on it to enlarge.

We got to Bremerton, hit the Starbucks for a snack and coffee, and rolled out at 7:30, 15 minutes past our "official" start time.

It was probably around 25 degrees, and we started right off with a few hills, mostly short, some steep, to avoid riding on busy SR 3.  I was working a bit to keep up with the others, and although I lagged behind the others, I was able to catch up.

After a short while, we were on flat ground again, riding along the south side of Hood Canal on route 106.  This reminded me of the waterfront section of the Chilly Hilly, right after coming off Baker Hill, except that only lasts a mile or two, and this went on for 15 miles.  With the water on our right, and a hill on our left (south), this area doesn't get much sun in the winter.  We saw some fantastic arrays of icicles that had been growing for a while: (Thanks Keith for the picture!)

We stopped as a group at the next control, doing well.

Then I started lagging behind the group, and soon I couldn't see them any more.  I nearly missed a turn, but Bill was there to holler at me; he had stopped to take off a layer.  We rode together for a bit,and then I had to stop for an urgent Call of Nature.  I met up with the group again in Elma, and we all left together.   I noted the time and distance:  70 miles down,  (122k), just 8 over 1/3 of the ride.  And we had used up 6 hours, including stops to get here.  It's now 1:30 PM.  If you were to just say "OK, double up what we did, that's 12 hours and that puts us into Seattle at  1:30 AM.  Hmm.. we had been shooting for a 17 hour ride -- after all, another group had burned up the same course in under 12 hours the week before, how hard could 17 hours be?  Harder than we imagined.

Left Elma, and the road is flat for some distance - a long way, actually - and still I am lagging behind the group.   After 30 miles, I meet up with them at an Info Control, and say "Look guys, I appreciate you waiting for me but don't bother -- I am not going to get any faster, and it's just holding you back" They protested, but I  said "You can wait if you want, but I'm giving you the OK to go ahead without me, I'll get home OK on my own. (This was especially relevant to Keith, who had driven me to the start line in Seattle.  I would have to ride home another 10 miles from Seattle on my own.)

I was fine with this because the pressure of keeping up was killing the fun of riding.  Once I knew they weren't waiting for me, I could do what's recommended for such situations "Ride within yourself".  I think just trying to keep up for the first 6 hours had burned what little reserves I had, so I was happy to get up to 13 mph, and actually satisfied with 11 mph, although that was barely fast enough to finish in the allotted 20 hours.

And that finish was starting to worry me.  I had obligations the next day - teaching Sunday school, and helping with Fran's new space in the Antique mall/Flea market in Burien. I was beginning to think I might be getting in very late. But I was far from home, so all there was to do was keep riding to the next control.

I did have some nice views of Mt. Rainier again from an angle I rarely see it:

Once the sun went down, darkness wasn't far behind.  And as I'm riding, thinking about needing water, I look to the right and there is this fantastic tree house WAY UP in the air.  I stop to take a picture:

And the guy sees me.  I say "Hey great treehouse."  "Thanks, you wanna come up and take a tour?"  Well, I WOULD, but I'm on this ride, see, and I have this time limit and ... what the heck, this is a once in a lifetime chance, you BET I wanna come and see."  So I wheel the bike over and climb up.  The first stairway is steep, 2x6's let into solid stringers, with little makeshift handrails scavenged from bunk beds.  Get to a landing, curve around, and then there's a ladder with 2x4 rails nailed onto two long 5" thick TREES.  Use the steps as handholds until the end where there's a handrail.  And now I'm up on the front deck/porch.  "How high is this?" I ask. "We are 50 feet up."  He said he built it originally to watch the races at the racetrack just across the road.  We go in (watch your head) and it's really cozy.  A little table, with two benches, an easy chair, a tiny 14" flatscreen TV, and he's got a mini-fridge too.  He's still working on the bedroom and the bathroom.  It's all put together with scraps and pieces, but feels right solid.  We chatted for a bit, he offered to split a Rolling Rock with me - I said no, I have to ride more yet - and then I went down.  I asked if I could use his water and filled up my bottles, got all my night riding gear on - vest, reflective ankle bands, extra headlight - and I was off.  What a wonderful respite!

My host:

Panorama shot of the interior.  Looks a little bigger than real life.

As I rode away, I thought that if they were waiting for me in Rainier, they were gonna be waiting a long time.  And if I did find them there, I would have to keep this a secret.  Being a tourist when you're doing a rando ride is fine -- if you have time -- but I didn't have much to spare.  Actually I don't think I spent more than 15-20 minutes there, but as slow as I was, it would have put me way way way behind.

I'm now riding down Old Highway 99, with traffic, and it's starting to get actually dark.  I can see the sky turning the same colors behind me as it did in the morning, not too long ago.  I turn on my primary not-too-bright-but-lasts-a-long-time light.  Wind through Grand Mound and get on the Yelm/Tenino rails-to-trails bike trail.  This is a nice respite from the shoulder, but it's DARK.  I flip on my super-bright-but-won't-last-all-night light and punch out the miles to the next control in Rainier, 8 miles ahead.

You know, 8 miles doesn't sound very far when you're doing 186 miles, but when you're only going 11 mph, it's nearly 40 minutes.  And if you're wanting to be there NOW, that 40 minutes can take a while.  Fortunately, the trail was mostly dead flat, with a few 2% grades here and there. What it took, it gave back.  It was actually fine.  One benefit of night riding is that since you can't see much, you don't get a sense of time - it "compresses" the distances in your memory.  However, it doesn't compress the actual distance.  I was considering abandoning at this point but decided to see what was what when I got to Rainier.  It wouldn't be long now, and 15 minutes either way woudn't affect anything.

The only things I saw on the trail were occasional rabbits darting across ahead of me, and some pretty good views of the stars.  Sadly, some ground fog came up and turned off the views.

Finally!  Rainier control.  It's 6:30 PM.  I have 72 miles to go.  I'm lucky to do 11 MPH.  Rounding up that's 7 hours of pedaling, and a good rule of thumb is add 20% for controls and whatever. So 8 1/2 hrs to go.  That puts me into Seattle at 3:00 AM, if my speed holds.  And gets me home at 4:00 AM.  And I have to get up at 7:30 AM.  And I only got 5 hrs of sleep LAST night.

I consider the consequences of quitting:  No R-12 ride this month, the string of 2 is broken.  Fran has to drive all the way down here.  But the benefits:  I'm tired, it's cold, I'm slow, and I could really use a nap.  In the end, it wasn't a hard decision.  I made the call.  I was at Sonja's restaurant, a warm, friendly little place specializing in Asaian food.  I could have something to eat while I waited the hour or so for her to get down here - I was 70 miles away from Bellevue, too.  And so that's what I did.

I texted Keith and told him I had abandoned, so he'd know and could inform the others, then had a bowl of spicy cabbage soup, some Kung Pow pork and rice, and some ice cream for dessert.  Then I rested and listened to the owner socialize with everyone who came in.  Rainier is a small town and apparently lots of people know lots of people.

Fran arrived around 8:15, we put the bike in the car, and drove home.  I got to bed by 10:30 and was asleep by 10:33.

I have a rule: no decision about future rides can be considered final or binding if made ON a ride, or within 72 hrs AFTER a ride.  One thing I am thinking about is giving up on the R-12 series though.  It takes so much time, a whole entire day - to do one 200k ride, and there are only so many weekends in a month.  For now I'll put the R-12 on the shelf and focus on my P-12 series.  I can do 100k on a Saturday morning if I start early and get home by noon.   What about P-B-P?  I make no decisions on that at this point.  If you had asked me yesterday I'd say it would be stupid to even try.  But the PBP isn't ridden in 25 degree weather, with only 8 hrs of daylight.   And Randonesia is a wonderful thing.

PS: P-12 and R-12 are awards given by the RUSA organization to riders who complete either a 200k every month for 12 consecutive months (R-12) or a 100k in 12 consecutive months (P-12).  200k=124 miles, 100k=62 miles.  You must finish in the allowed time, 6:50 for 100k, 13:30 for 200k and 20 hrs for 300k.  It works out to an overall speed of about 10 MPH.

PPS: I had a leg cramp issue that wouldn't let me spin up, which cropped up time and again.  If I tried to push the pedals too hard or too fast, the muscles on the tops of my legs would cramp, painfully, and I'd have to slow down and pedal softer for a bit to get it to calm down.  That certainly didn't help my performance either.