Flying Wheels Training, Part the First

So Richard and I decided to try the small Flying Wheels loop, to see how we would handle the hills (Dieter eat your heart out).  Turns out, pretty well, at least after the first monster hill.  The mileage for this ride isn't entirely accurate as we took a couple of wrong turns and got lost in Suburbia.  We probably need to tack on a few extra hundred feet of climbing, too.  In terms of nutrition, the Hammer Perpetuum is working very well for me.  Same goes for the Powerbar protein bars.  I didn't feel any burning from lean muscle cannibalization at all this ride.  I think next time we'll try the 65 mi loop.  Anyway, here are the details:

Distance: 42.35 mi

Total Ascent: 1434 ft

Max Ascent: 574 ft

where a helmet kiddies...

Dieter, check out this awesomeness

Even though the sun didn't come out today, Alex and I got a good Lake Washington ride in today.

Unlike the last loop we rode, we didn't get lost this time around. We decided to take our trip counter clockwise this time because of a single hill, which didn't seem all that bad today when going down it.

Here is the ride info:

54 miles

Elevation:

minimum: -3 feet

maximum: 505 feet

Ascent: 2080 feet

Descent: -2060 feet

Somewhere around Kirkland there was a massive hill (see: mile 36). I went up most of the hill, found a gas station at what I thought was the top and waited for Alex. We refilled on water and started back on our way just to find that we weren't at the top. Sweet. Heres a picture of Alex right before the water stop.

Oh yeah, this is from my way through Red Square today. What's going on at UW? Bling Blang.

this new fangled techmolongy

lets see how alex's fancy thing works in rochesters...



So usually i just go down about 12 or so miles, cut over and up to scottsville, and get back to the apartment around 19.38 miles (approximately), but yesterday turned effin' glorious so i did something i wanted to do for a while... bike to avon.

before i continue, i'll say that i'm biking in the hilliest part of rochester i can find, and that being said, rochester has no hills at all.



Short run down on conditions, it was 60ish and sunny, i was wearing my bike shorts, manpris, long green socks (to simulate when i shave my legs for flying wheels and stp?), t-shirt and sweat shirt. within the first 3 miles i had to pull my sweatshirt sleeves up, and i was comfortable for the rest of the ride.

there was some really really nice green fields, a barilla plant(?) on one side of the river, and then death on the other side (metaphorically and visually). i got the wind on the way back, the crops were dead from... crop rotation? and worst of all by the time i got to scottsville this happened:



old dude wearing full leg lycra and a windbreaker passed me. this is the first time something like this has happened on a training ride. add this to the fact that about 5 miles earlier my ipod popped out of my pocket and now has some pretty narly scratches on it, this killed me. dude had an awesome cadence, and i managed to keep up with him the entire time afterwards, but it kind of made the case for being more of a spinner than i am (i'm still a pretty horrible masher).

of course there was something nice here, most of the time when i'm on a ride it's pretty damn lonely. even though this guy humiliated me and then shamed me for another 7-8 miles, it was nice because it felt like i was biking with somebody.

i want to go home

<3

Lake Washington loop - oops (61.6 mi)

So, it's probably a good idea to bike with a map.  Richard and I planned on biking around Lake Washington but overshot the north end a bit when we met up with a trio of riders riding in a pace line.  They were probably pushing 19-20 mph but we hung with them for about 7 or 8 mi.  Oh well, at least now we can say we've got a metric century under our belts.  We both rode with two water bottles.  One with water and one with Gator-Ade.  I think we stayed hydrated pretty well.  We were eating shot blocks and Lara Bars to manage our sugar levels.  They did not work so well.  After about 40-50 mi, our legs were in pain - not so much from exertion, but more from ammonia build-up due to our muscles running out of glycogen.  I've read that taking whey protein helps with this problem.  I definitely want to try that next time.  Hammer makes a product called Perpetuem that incorporates protein and electrolytes.  I will be picking some up from REI soon.  Other than the ammonia problem the ride went pretty well.  I didn't ever feel like I wasn't taking in enough calories.  Also, the hill at the end to get back up on Capitol Hill was murder.  I probably should have gone back to Montlake and attacked it from that side - it's a little more gradual - but no, I had to go up Madison.  Insanely steep.  Even with fresh legs it would have been hard.