Conquered: 51st Street in Redmond

My new favorite web site is bicycleclimbs.com.

A week ago, Sarah and I were eating lunch and she told me she had climbed 51st in Redmond on her bike. When I told her I'd never done it, she said, "I did something that you haven't!" So, okay, she did it first - but today, I joined her ranks and did it too.

So here's the setup: Sarah and I swim about a half-mile. She tried out my full wetsuit to see what swimming in one would be like; I wore my shortie (not the cheap Costco one, but a real shortie). The swim was nice - I swam more powerfully than I have been. I really like having my arms free, but I really miss the body of the full wetsuit. Next year I'm definitely getting a Farmer John.

So then Sarah leaves and I eat a packet of Jelly Belly Sport Beans and head out on the bike. I went south on West Lake Sammamish to my first hill: Northup Way. I know from running it that it's about 1.2 miles of climbing, and it pretty much sucks to run it. But I've wanted to ride it for a while.

Well, honestly, it was fairly easy; I did drop to my lowest gear, but only to keep my legs at a high cadence and going around 8-9 mph. I kept waiting for the "steep part" to kick in, and it never did. So that was good.

It was largely downhill from there, winding my way through a neighborhood back down to West Lake Sammamish. I had two lovely flying downhill sections, then turned north. All the while, I'm dreading the hill. I'm picturing my odometer, and how it starts out at 9 mph...then 8...then 7...then 6...then 5...then 4...then 3, and my bike starts wobbling and I can no longer keep it upright, and I nearly fall but then catch myself and stop, and have to walk. I tried to banish this daydream, but it kept recurring.

So I see the light at the bottom of the hill. It's green for going straight, red for turning left. However, there's no oncoming traffic, so I keep my momentum and just start. The hill begins right away, and I think the steepest part is the part closest to the light. (A lot of streets in Redmond and Bellevue are like this: it's like the people who created and paved the streets thought they had more runway when they were determining the angle of the road, but made a mistake and had to make up for it at the bottom by making the bottom part the very steepest.)

Sure enough, I went from 9 mph to 8 mph to 7 mph...to..6.7? My speed sort of stabilized there and never dropped below it. I looked at my watch. My HR was 173. Not bad at all. Looked back at the odometer. 6.7. Okay. My breathing was heavy and loud, but my legs were turning over (I wish I had checked the cadence, but I didn't. I'd guess it was in the 60s to 70s). I passed another cyclist walking his bike and said good morning. He grunted at me. And suddenly, the hill was over. That was it. I was done.

According to my new favorite web site, 51st is .6 of a mile, 261 feet of elevation gain, average grade of 8.3, max grade of 11. So I got to make a new check mark on the web site. Yay!

Unfortunately, I'm only at 14 out of 118 Seattle-area climbs. A lot of the roads I consider climbs aren't actually listed there. But that's okay - I'm using it as a checklist. I'm going to try working those hills into my regular routines - many of them are fairly close by, and I need variety to keep me entertained.

So, today's data:

Pre-workout: Banana and milk in coffee, 110 cals
Workout fuel: Jelly Bellys, 100 cals
Breakfast: Bagel with egg, ham, cheese: 450 cals
Lunch: Qdoba burrito - more calories than I thought! - 830 cals

Exercise:
Swim 1/2 mile
Bike 1 hour
Calories burned: 800