Monday Morning Madness

This is how to start a Monday: With a brisk bike ride, three major hill climbs, and an endorphin-filled morning.
The details:
Danielle is back! She had been away for two weeks. She picked me up and we went to our meeting place in Redmond. Sarah and Regan were already there.

The route was about 25 miles, around Lake Sammamish, but the "special" way - leaving the lake periodically to climb nearby hills, then returning to the general route. The route was a little convoluted, but super-fun.

I'd never even driven the three climbs, but I felt fairly confident that the roads were good enough, so I wasn't worried.

So first we hit Thompson Hill. I'd done a parallel hill to Thompson before; I expected it to be hard and long. It was - but not too bad. The part that I was somewhat worried about was what would happen at the top - I figured rollers at worst, though, and fortunately I was right. I had some trouble choosing the right gears, though - I needed to be in my big ring to go down the rollers, but at the top of each, I needed my small - and my fear of dropping my chain prevented me from shifting, so I just mashed in my big ring. (However, for most of this ride I did watch cadence, not speed, and kept it above 90.)

We went down 212th - this was probably the scariest part of the trip. Very steep, no shoulder, but few cars - so it was okay. 212th going up is on the list (bicycleclimbs.com), so I might have to do it - but it's definitely a 6 a.m. type of climb, so no cars will come up behind me. The road was bumpy, too, so I really had to ride my brakes to feel safe enough. Gravel plus broken pavement = fear.

At the bottom of 212th, Danielle and Regan were just passing by! They stayed close to the lake while Sarah and I climbed the hill. So we hooked back up with them and stayed closer together through Issaquah. We split off again to take different routes up into east Bellevue - Sarah and I went north on West Lake Sammamish Parkway.

This part of W. Lake Samm. has something resembling a shoulder, but now that I've attempted to ride it, not enough of one - I will not be doing this road in this direction again (southbound there is a decent bike lane). But we did it so we could get to SE 26th - I had heard this was steep, but short. Oh yeah, it sure was...steep! It wasn't that short. It was a tough climb - harder than Thompson Hill. My speed up Thompson hung out around 7 mph; up SE 26th it was around 6 mph.

So once up SE 26th, we still had some additional hills to climb, but not super-steep - then we had fabulous fun downhills back to W. Lake Sammamish. This was where Sarah decided to split off - she had to get back home to get ready for work. I wasn't quite ready to be done...so I decided to hit another hill. I headed back south to NE 24th.

NE 24th starts out steep - I was going 8 mph - and then goes...downhill? I didn't know it was going to do that. But as I rode downhill, I looked up ahead. There was a wall of street in front of me. It reached the sky. The cars must have been glued on - after all, cars can't be at a 90 degree angle to the ground I was on.

I knew it couldn't be 90 degrees, that's impossible. But it still looked just...horrifying. The steepest thing I'd ever ever seen. I believed then that I likely would have to walk.

But I started up the hill. As I got about a fifth of the way up, the wall did become a hill...but I still didn't have confidence that I could make it. My speed dropped to 6...to 5...to 4.2. Yes, 4.2. I didn't know before today I could keep my bicycle upright at 4.2 mph. I thought to myself, "I could walk at this pace!" - but truly, I couldn't walk up that hill at that pace, so I guess that riding is still faster. Anyway, my breath started coming in wheezes, and I wasn't watching cadence, but it had to be in the 40s at the most...every push of the pedals was pain. Towards the top, there was a flat road off to the right - I pedaled a few yards down that road to catch my breath before finishing the hill. Then I continued up - still on the bike. No walking, no unclipping, but yeah, 4.2 miles per hour.

When I reached the top, I saw Regan and Danielle! So I caught up to them (they were headed downhill now, but I still had to push my speed to 25 mph to catch them - it felt nice to pick up speed again) and finished the route with them. I was completely bubbling over with words about NE 24th. And immediately I felt HIGH. Like nothing else - no drug could give that to me. It was better than the very first runner's high I got the first time I ran. And it stayed with me...I still feel amazing, even though work is doing what it can to bring me back down to reality.

That was the steepest, hardest climb I've ever done - and now I think I've got a good Monday morning tradition to continue: long fun rides before work. How else should I start the week?

So here are today's data:

Pre-workout: Milk in coffee, RF banana bread: 370 cals
Workout fuel: 1 GU, 100 cals
Breakfast: English muffin, ham, cheese, cottage cheese, peach: 410 cals
Lunch: Chicken, broccoli, rice: 400 cals
Candy: Dark chocolate, 50 cals
Snack: Yogurt, string cheese: 170 cals
Dinner: Chicken breast, veggies, cookie: 650 cals
total: 2150 calories

Exercise:
Ride 2 hours, 1000 calories