Yesterday I took a look at the weather report and my calendar and decided that today would be a good day to work on (aka bike) one of our Tour de Cure routes. I asked Jeff along and he readily took some vacation time to join me. We decided to meet at Marymoor at 8:00 a.m. because I had a 3:00 meeting I wanted to get back for. Weeelllll...it was cold. Damn cold. Well below freezing and nobody should be on a bike cold. And Jeff had battled worse traffic than I did (2 hours worth) to meet. And he felt like crap and did not look very enthusiastic upon arrival. Normal people would've made a bee line to Starbucks and bagged, but we went for tough guy points and took off about 8:30 toward Snohomish. We didn't talk much for 2 hours. We both hit potholes (is dexterity loss and impaired vision a symptom of hypothermia?) and it's surprising that iced appendages did not fall off when we hit them. After less than 30 miles, a coffee stop was more than required and when my fingers regained feeling, it was not a feeling they liked. We rallied again, shivered on out, and thankfully, the sun, the mercury, and we climbed and the day turned out GREAT. Although we broke no speed records, we were successful on our fact finding mission, ascertaining that the "70ish" mile route is actually 71, 72, or 75 miles (depending on which gadget you trust) and includes about 3,300 ft. of elevation gain. And we've pegged mostly where we want the rest stops.
We were way slower than I thought we'd be (hello...off season...3rd ride of the year...duh) and I got to my car about 2:50 p.m. Phoned it in for the meeting whereupon I heard almost nothing but static on the call, ate my beef jerky, and drove directly home to shower and finish working there...avoided the office entirely today.
We met another chilly cyclist in Monroe who told us there had been accidents on Paradise Lake Rd. and High Bridge, due to ice...guess who rode on those roads a few hours before those accidents occurred? Tough guy points for Jeff and me!!
72 mile ride
5:17
3,227 ft. gain
Avg. speed: 13.7
Avg. HR = 111
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