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I just got back from biking my first century, the Flying
Wheels, which is a
preparation for the 2009
STP we’ll ride later this
summer. The STP can be done either in a day or two; we’ll do the
latter, which will involve two 80-odd mile days. People should be
training for it now, and the Flying Wheels is billed as a milestone in
one’s regimen. The FW century in particular is supposed to be your
prep ride if you’re doing the STP in one day.
The day began inauspiciously with us getting to the start line
later than planned and Knox leaning heavily towards doing the 65-mile
course rather than the century. The real bummer came as we approached
the start line: Knox noticed that one of his rear spokes was broken. That
was it; no ride for him! He came back home and dropped the bike off at
a repair shop.
Sad as I was to not be biking with Knox, this gave me the opportunity
to go for the century and to bike it at my own pace. It was a lot of
fun and so strikingly beautiful! I was annoyed by biking with hordes
of people at first: it was hard to pass and hard to find my
groove. As the ride wore on, however, the rider density decreased and
the fellow participants inspired me to keep biking harder. In the
Duvall-Snohomish-Duvall loop, which is part of only the century ride,
there were some long stretches where I was biking by
myself–exhilarating and contemplative, just as I like it.
The difficulty? It was challenging but doable. The first hill was the
worst; whether that was the hill itself or my taking it on too fast
because of feeling competitive at the start of the race, I couldn’t
say. Everything after was manageable and not out of the
ordinary—until the approach to Issaquah. The hills there were
killing me: though not extremely steep, they were long and my strength
was quite obviously ebbing. Based on this ride, I would say I was in
good shape for about 80-odd miles, and then exhaustion started to kick
in.
Now it’s time for a shower and a rub-down, and anticipation of next
weekend’s Tour de Blast.