Zen and the art of Bicycle Maintenance - on a chilly 400k

If you've ever read "Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance" you have to recall the part about shims.  Two guys talking about a bike one of them owns that has a loose part.   The other says "you need a thin shim to firm that up.  A piece of a beer can would be perfect."  The other one refuses, saying "I will not have a beer can as part of my bike, I want the factory shim installed."  Never mind there may not even BE a factory shim, the cost in time and money is ridiculous.

Any way, that will come up later in this ride report.

So, we are riding the Baker Lake 400k brevet on May 2, 2015, the third of the 4 qualifying rides for PBP.  This is a challenging route, with hills at the beginning, middle, and end of the ride, and longer flat sections in between.

We start from Mark Thomas's house up high in the hills of Woodinville:

Over 90 people were registered - some had pre-ridden the course, and there were some no-shows and late-comers, so it was closer to 80 people that actually attempted the ride.
Fearing nowhere to park, I chose a wide gravel patch at the bottom of the hill and rode up, arriving about 15 minutes prior to the 6:00 start.  A bit of socializing, pick up the brevet card, a bite to eat, and time for a pre-ride selfie with my loaded bike:

6:00 AM sharp and we are rolling!  And there are hills right off the bat.  The pack stays together in groups of 4-5 until we get to a spot where a road ends, connecting to the road on the other side only for bikes and people via a gap in the barrier - one bike wide.  This really stretches out the group.

I'm not riding "with" anyone at this point, just keeping up a pace I think I can tolerate.  My heart-rate monitor is in the 150 range, which I was able to do for a 100k last week (about 5 hours).  We'll see how long that can keep up.

82 km and about 4 hours later, I hit the first real control, the Shell station in Granite falls.  I'm on a pace for a 5 hour 100k, which is pretty good for ME.   I ran into a number of people filling up water bottles including Narayan Krishnamoorthy, who I rode a 300k and Fleche ride last year:

He knows everyone who rides, and practically every turn of every course, and also who rode what courses when.  A rando encyclopedia!

In fact, riding on the highway after Arlington, we met up and rode together for a while.  Sadly, there was too much traffic to ride side-by-side and talk much.  But at one point, all of a sudden some bug (a bee?) flew into my lip at high speed, and at first I was worried I had been stung, because although that isn't life threatening, the area around the sting WILL swell and look bad.  It felt sore but not horrible and I think whatever part of a bee is "sharp" had just scratched me.  Aggh!  So many little unforseen things can derail a good plan, right?

There was plenty see on the way to Concrete, including a bucolic farm with a great view:

Also, some roadside geology.  Look at all the layers of loose rock and sandstone on this exposed hillside:

And finally, they pulled some really big timber out of here years ago, including this chunk of wood:

I finally made it to Concrete, just shy of halfway.  This wasn't a control but there was a convenience store, and I needed water.  Fortunately I found the jug left by randos who had been there before me:

Water by the gallon is only a little over a dollar, vs. single bottles 1/4 the size for the same price.  I took advantage of a number of these along the route and had the ability to buy and leave one as well.

Oh, and also in Concrete, something rando's know how to look for:

When you gotta go, you gotta go, and these are a welcome sight!

I had been having dreams of a 10 hour 200k but what I didn't realize that Burpee Hill road came around kilometer 193.  This is a 2 mile long hill that is so steep sometimes you're inclined to just get off and walk, or zig zag back and forth to cut the grade a bit.  And speed that might have been 20-25 kph slows to 6-7 kph (24 kph = 15 mph and 5 kph = 3 mph).  The 10 hour 200k is not happening.

See if you can spot Burpee Hill Road on this elevation profile (hint: the scale is in miles):

Also, note that even once you get up to the "top" there are a LOT of lumps before you get down again. These aren't even what you could call "rollers" where your momentum from one hill gets you over the next.  No, these are climbs 1/2 to 1 km long at 5-8% (obnoxious to challenging).

About half way, I noticed a pull out and figured there was a scenic view.  A short walk down a trail did not disappoint:

And to make it even worse, the route is an "out and back" and there's a food stop along the way - but the control is down the road another 6 miles (with hills) and you need to ride down there, count the number of zip ties on the message board, report back at the food stop to get your card signed and get some food.  Here are a couple of the guys I rode with for a while, enjoying their food:

I was getting tired, hungry and had a feeling like I wanted to cry. No particular reason why, just feeling really challenged by all the hills.  But I slugged it out, missed the campground, rode an extra 2km to the end of the road, and then turned around, still could not find the zip ties, so took a selfie in front of the campground sign as proof and made it back to the food stop.
The ride was not without its rewards, including some great views: (photo credit: William B Willaford)

Most everyone else had already eaten and departed, I was at the end of the pack, but that didn't stop me from having a ham and cheese wrap, some chips, a Starbucks frappacino and a few peanut M&Ms.  I also took advantage of the restroom, and put on all my cold weather gear: tights, arm warmers, and fuzzy gloves, as it was nearly 8 PM and it had been getting colder and would be dark soon.  Little did I know how under-prepared I was.

I got over the hills on the way out and finally, FINALLY hit the 7 mile descent to Highway 20.  The moon was rising over the hills to the east, Venus was shining in the western sky, and I could NOT get a decent picture.  Sorry, it was really sublime.

The route flattened out a bit going through farmlands to get to the Haggen's market in Mount Vernon. Mt. Vernon itself is not farmland, and after a pleasurable ride, we started getting into more hills again.  I had to be at Haggens by 1:48 AM, and arrived about 11:15.  As I was getting organized, two riders, Fatima and Dick showed up.  We decided to ride together, and time was spent using the bathroom ("Could you please unlock the bathrooms?", buying food, getting cards signed and then I proposed a 20 minute "Power nap".  Research has shown the best nap times are either 20 or 90 minutes.  Everyone else agreed, so we gathered in the now-deserted Cafe in the store and laid down on the floor by the fireplace for a 20 min nap.  And that worked pretty well, too.

After that, a few more housekeeping tasks, another bathroom visit, and we rolled out of the Haggens and on our way to the flat Centennial trail, 15 miles away.  These 15 miles had some hills but we finally got some rollers as we went past Big Lake and Lake McMurray.  The fact is, roads adjacent to lakes are hardly ever flat and most alway "rolling".  They can't go too high because this is the road people who live at lake-level use, but they have to adapt to the terrain, too.

It was getting colder as we rode, and when we hit the Centennial trail, it was really chilly - around 40 degrees, and then we had the wind chill of riding, too.  What I wish I had had was my fleece vest and ear warmers, and even my balaclava (read: ski mask commonly used by people robbing banks).  My face was freezing.  My Garmin later reported it had gotten down to 35 degrees, and that's without the wind chill.

Halfway down the trail we stopped at a 7-11 for some coffee, tea and hot-water.  My stomach was not a happy camper.  I had been drinking my Perpetuem long-distance drink mix, but somehow I was feeling like I was going to toss my cookies if I ate anything else.  I had heard of this phenomenon on long rides and this was the first time it had happened to me - just can't eat or keep anything down.  It can be a ride ender, depending on when it hits.  I think the Perpetuem was keeping me going but I wondered if I'd have any other symptoms,  Every time I drank some (or even water) I'd get a burp, my stomach would shrink.   I chewed up a Tums as we left.  We were about half way down the trail to Snohomish.

Now the ride was getting really hard for me.  I was very cold, and started desiring to take a break but there was no way that was happening. If I broke off from my co-riders, I took a big risk of not finishing, and that wasn't acceptable.  I'd have to do ANOTHER 400k to get to Paris, and I couldn't imagine that.  Plus here is where "A never say die" attitude comes into play.  So I kept going.

We were going through one set of bollards after another, and at one point, a couple of times I "hallucinated" them into something else and at the last second realized what they were.  I needed a break  We saw a trailside restroom but the doors were locked.  We were not far from Snohomish, so we powered ahead, hoping to find a coffee shop to sit down in.

Sadly, nothing in Snohomish is open at 5:45 AM on a Sunday!  No restaurants, bakeries or coffee shops.  We round block after block (including one 8% climb) and finally find what is open: 7-11! I say "OK, I want a 10 minute nap and then we gotta get going."  And my ride buddies agreed, so that's what we did, rolling out of there just after 6 AM.  It's still nearly 20 miles to the end, we have just under 3 hours and there are lots of hills between here and there.  Refer back to the route profile above, or see this expanded view:

Yeah, hills after hills including a three stage climb with a dip that went right into another two stage climb.   I was feeling more normal by this point and we just kept plugging away, hill after hill.  We could smell the barn and there was no stopping us.

We rolled into the garage at the end point right at 8:00 AM, a full hour to spare!  I declined to eat, and needed to get home, so I turned in my card and rode down - DOWN!! to the van, loaded up and got going.

And when I got home, my stomach finally decided to get rid of what ever was bothering it.  And a few "sessions" later, I got rid of some small amounts of sweet-ish fluid -- all I could think of was the tums!  And then I felt better, more normal.

I showered, and then climbed into bed, still freezing and shivering, a full hour after getting off the bike.  I didn't take my temperature, but I suspect some degree of hypothermia.

But hey, it's all about persevering and solving problems, right?  And I did manage to finish, thanks to the support and help of the people of SIR and the various people I rode with along the way.  The three of us finished in 26 hrs, and were in fact "lantern rouge" or the last ones to finish.  I had finished the 300k a month before with 3 hrs to spare, so in my planning for this ride, I thought 22 hrs was a great time, 23 hrs a good time, 24 hrs an OK time, 25 hrs an acceptable time, 26 hrs was unthinkable.  (27 hrs was the max time allowed).  Actually finishing in 26 hrs was fine with me, especially after all we had dealt with through the night.  And reviewing the results a week later showed that although we were the last that finished, there were 7 riders "DNF" (did not finish) for any variety of reasons: health, fitness, mechanical, weather.  Compared to that, finishing in 26 hrs is wonderful!

Next ride: Tahuya Hills, in 4 weeks - 600km with an overnight in Elma.  Over 15,000 feet of climbing, compared with 10,000 feet on this ride, so about the same level of torture.  I have 4 weeks to train for it.  And train I must, if I expect to get any sleep at all on the P-B-P.

Oh, wait: What about the Maintenance part?  Well, my bike has fenders and the front fenders have a "quick release" mechanism so that anything that gets sucked up by the wheel will knock the fender supports out of their holders, so the front tire won't lock up.  They are bent wire that fits into a little plastic support - snap in, in fact, and they have been rattling a lot, especially on chip-seal roads.  Well, I had had enough of this, so I pulled off, found an empty aluminum Dr. Pepper can (that didn't take long, there are cans everywhere) and cut two small strips to fit around the supports to fill the gaps.  Shoved them back in and presto!  No more rattles.  I probably should have thought a little more about using my valuable brevet time this way, but it was very satisfying to get that rattle fixed, and it took less than 10 minutes.  Aluminum can shims rock!