Normally, I start a ride report with a description of the ride, how much I like it, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
In this case, I’ve done 7 hills so often that it hardly seems worth the effort. If you want that information, there are plenty of examples here…
I *will* note that this is the 12th time that I’ve done 7 hills, if you ignore the fact that I skipped a year or two when it was wet.
My typical approach for a ride like 7 hills is what I can the “make sure I finish” approach; start slowly and ride conservatively, and you can be confident that you are going to make it back for your serving of finish line strawberry shortcake, delta any mechanical issues with the bike or the rider.
This year I said, “the hell with that!”
I’ve been playing around with my training this year; I’ve been riding more hills earlier in the season than I have in the past and I’ve been feeling pretty good both aerobically and on climbs. So, the plan is to push a lot harder than I have in the past and see what happens.
That should provide more opportunity for humor and perhaps some pathos as well.
My big preparation for the ride was doing a one-hour recovery ride two days earlier that turned into a 25 minute recovery ride when it started 5% chance of precipationing on me and I headed for home.
Woke up at 5:30 due to my old dude internal clock, got my stuff together, and had a couple servings of SuperStarch. I’m put BioSteel hydration mix in my water bottle (no need for 2 on this ride), and headed for Kirkland about 6:50.
You may ask yourself why I drive to this ride when the route passes within about 3 miles of my house. I’ve ridden to the route and done the ride that way, riding the last few miles at the start of my day and skipping it later. I found it messed with my aesthetic appreciation of the route, so now I drive.
Parked on the waterfront, got out the bike, stuffed my pockets with stuff, and headed to the start. Joyously absent was any thought at all about what I would wear; it was already about 60 degrees and was forecast to get into the low 70s, so no arm warmers, no leg warmers, no jacket, no hat; just the usual minimal stuff.
Market street is the first hill; I climbed it in a little over 4 minutes at 211 watts. It’s just a warmup, as is hill 2, Juanita drive. Hit the light, turned down Holmes point, headed towards Seminary hill.
Seminary is one of the two hardest hills; Winery is steeper but gives you chances to rest, while Seminary is more of a constant annoyance. I rode easy on the first little blip, and then rode hard. The top came 8:42 later, more than a minute faster than last year’s effort and 16 seconds slower than my PR from 2016. But… averaging a fairly significant 270 watts for that time, which is pretty decent for me.
The usual descent and trip over to Norway hill, a nice 426’ hill that I’ve ridden up a lot and I backed off a little at climbed at 234 watts, which was pretty much my target.
Which brings us to Winery. I like to have some rabbits to chase up winery so I was okay when I got passed on the flat part before the climb, I was less okay when the blocked the whole lane on the little bump over the railroad track. I got around them and took off up the steepest first pitch, riding at about 420 watts. It’s a short pitch and I kept that power over it, and then slowed down to recover for the upcoming pitches. 5:26 later I was turning off at the top of the climb and listening to bagpipe music, a heartbreaking 4 seconds from my PR. I’m going to call this one a “virtual PR” because I lost more than that getting by the group at the bottom. 287 watts average was a great effort, but when I went back and looked at last year’s data, I did it in 5:22 but only averaged 250 watts. Not sure what is going on there, though I am in need of some drivetrain maintenance, and it would be good to do that on the bike as well.
We then headed east and climbed a few more hills, then we came to Novelty Hill.
It would be fair to say that it’s not my favorite part of the ride; too much traffic and not really a very fun hill. This is compounded by the use of the lower part of the climb as an “out and back” route; as you are climbing up the hill there are riders who are ahead of you descending back down at a high rate of speed, not really the most motivating thing to see. Strava somewhat strangely didn’t match the whole climb for me, but I got PRs on various sections so I’m going to call a PR on that section.
After some flat roads, you end up coming back back over to Novelty for the descent, completing the circle of life. We learned about the circle of life from Disney’s “The Lion King” during the scene where Simba and Nala protected themselves from roving hyenas by building a impregnable perimeter from family-sized boxes of cereal.
Anyway, a couple climbs after that I hit the last rest stop and after a thoroughly pedestrian sandwich (turkey/cheese/green pepper slices on pita bread), headed out for the last climb. My intention was to spin up old redmond road at take it easy, but there was a guy right in front of me so I ended up pushing a bit and coming within my PR by about 10%. Then a couple of fun descents and a mostly-flat trip back to the starting line in which I missed every single traffic light.
Overall, a pretty good effort; I felt strong the whole day which has been an issue for me this spring; I’m not sure if it was the BioSteel or the SuperStarch or my smoked almonds or maybe that small oatmeal gluten free cookie I ate at the first food stop (it was *not* the cookie; that was a mistake).
I was about 15 minutes faster than 2018, averaging 14.7 mph rather than last year’s 14.1, finishing in 4:04:28 and burning 2538 calories for the effort.
So, what do you think ?