SIR Solstice Populaire

What fun a winter 100K around the Lakes.  This was based on the RUSA 1004 with a small reroute across Mercer Island.

And  would a winter solstice ride be complete without snow?  Of course not.  In all fairness the snow didn't start until I turned on to SE Newport way, but it snowed intermittently from there until we got over to Sandpoint NAS (Magnusson Park to you more recent immigrants.).  I've done most of this ride at various times with the exception of the Mercer Island section.  Overall, Type 2 fun as one of my compatriots said when we hit Mercer Island, then again I had told him I was "all funned out" when we crossed S. Frink Pl.. 

No pictures from the actual ride from me.  I was on a mission: Get done as fast as I can.  To make up for that I have a picture of a location I passed by.  Here is the Marymoor Windmill from the Marymoor cutoff bridge.  As a side note, the snow was actually starting to stick here and I was getting nervous.

I'm either stupid or a masochist.

 On Thursday of this week I went out and did the Green Gold and Red SIR permanent, so 101K of riding.  In miserable heat.  I started early enough that the first part of the ride was fine.  The Burke Gillman trail was pretty quiet when I was headed down to the U-District so the average there was pretty good.  I did tolerably well going up Ravenna and Latona.  Then it was time for stop, start and twist.  

The section in Ballard always drops my average down when I stick to the trail and this was no exception. Shilshole hill, well it's a hill.  Last time I tried to do this I got a pinch flat on 32nd, it turns out that "potholes" are a lot harder to spot on concrete surfaces.  Other wise the only thing worth commenting on is the heat.  Sammamish River trail has long stretches of open pavement, they get hot.  So, a slow ride 4:19 moving time, 4:49 elapsed official time for RUSA.

Today I decided I wanted to get my next 25 miles in and do a hike with Donna.  The hike was fine if hot.  The ride was a "base" workout ride, but I struggled holding a decent pace.  Once again. HOT!

What about the Seattle International Randonneurs Summer 200K?

 Yes I did that ride.  It was pretty good, slower than I'd hoped frankly.  9:34 because the clock doesn't stop.  

If you're curious this was the route.

I grabbed a couple shots of the controls and the beer garden afterwards.  I should have stayed around with the other riders.  I need to work on my social skills.  

Flying Wheels 2022

Flying Wheels went well, the new shoes worked well.  I’m working on getting my courage up to do the Seattle International Randonneurs this weekend for their Summer 200k.  The support situation with a Randonneuring event doesn’t bother me.  I barely use the stops and the Cascade events anyhow so that shouldn’t be a problem.  I’m sure I can do the distance so why am I being a wimp?

I don’t really have a good answer for that.  I guess the truth is that I’m afraid of having to call my wife to come pick me up if I need to bail out at any time.

Anyhow here’s the planned route.  Oddly enough I’ve ridden virtually all of it at various times.  Just not as one big ride.

SIR Summer 200K

Test ride success.

 So still overcast, and occasional sprinkles.  I did get sprinkled on, but I took my Rodriguez out.  Swapped the pedals, and did an "aerobic ride."  Which on my usual course means nothing, it's true the average power is in the aerobic zone, but that's because the tempo and threshold offset the active recover.  Oh well.

On to the shoes.

The thing I expected the most did happen.  The better fit pulled the pedal center off set from the 10mm I was averaging on the century to a much closer to the center line of the pedal.

I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that my foot rests inside the footbed closer to the instep instead of being forced to the outside of the shoe.  Not sure it means much, but it should help with power delivery.

The power phase isn't changed much which is actually kind of comforting.  I produce the peanut where I always did.  I do seem to be favoring my left leg still though.  I've had some discomfort over the appliance for the last couple weeks.  Not sure what that is all about.

Test ride fail.

 

I got all dressed up to go and ride outside this morning.  Even decided to skip the finale of todays stage of the Giro.  Checked the radar, weather was coming in but still showing clear out to the Kitsap Peninsula,  Still cool and overcast this morning so little more time to get arm and leg warmers on.  Pump up the tires, put on the shoes open the garage door and the sky opens up.

The only plus was getting to watch the finale of the Giro Stage.  Jai Hindley.  I discounted him in the first week.  Guess I'm a moron.  As I understand it he'll be the first Aussie to win a Grand Tour not named Cadel Evens.  So good for him.

Meanwhile the weather tomorrow looks like March will be here for a few more days at least.

New Shoes!

 I bought new cycling shoes on Wednesday.  I'm just getting around to writing about it now, but I am pumped.  I know some people are going to go, "That's nice John move on," others will make comparisons to women getting excited about shoes.  Truth is I have always hated buying shoes.  I have pretty narrow feet, when you're a man with narrow feet you just give up on choice, you'll get what they have or can order and you'll be happy.  If you're lucky.

So here you go.  Pretty normal looking aren't they.

Don't be fooled.

As hard as it may be for you to believe, I still have a little pooch at the right toe box, but these shoes actually fit (ok mostly, but I can reef the toe box down.  I used to buy Sidi 46 narrows and they fit pretty well, I can't recall now if it was better or as good at this point, but I haven't been able to get them since my last pair broke the arch strap.  I thought, "OK, I can get by with a 46 regular.  They were OK, and I can use them in the winter with thicker socks, but had foot cramps pretty regularly.  When you looked at those the pooch on both shoes was pretty  pronounced, and I could always spot the void at the instep of the right shoe.  It meant I could never really get my foot properly placed and probably added to some power loss.

So, I like the shoes.  Oddly reviews have said the footbed is wider, the toe box is spoon shaped and it fits people with high arches best.   None of those scenarios would fit my foot, so maybe the reviewer has even narrower feet.

I've only ridden these 42 miles on the trainer so far.  It doesn't have quite the analytics that the Vector pedals do so tomorrow I'll take them on the road and see if the pedals change the Platform Center Offset.  No one seems to be able to say what it means, but mine has been asymmetric possibly due to my broken ankle.  Still it will be interesting to see if they alter the cycling dynamics overall.

The Power phase has moved, but that could be due to the difference in the measuring device (trainer as opposed to pedals.) 

This is from a metric century on Tuesday.

And this is from a tempo ride on the trainer today.

I'm suspicious because the trainer never has me getting past the TDC or BDC on the overall power.

So stand by.  I'll probably only do about 20 miles on my same old route, and that's only a 1/3 of the metric century, but it should tell me more about how the shoe/pedal/John system works IRL.

Don't over extend yourself John.

 So goof off for a couple months and what do you get.   Actually I've been riding pretty regularly.  I'm been thinking about getting the P-12 Award for the RUSA.  That would automatically mean that I get the RUSA 1000K award.  The distance isn't the issue, it's kind of the routes.  I ride alone, and even though this is always unsupported, I don't really want to go off into the distance by my lonesome.  So I've been sticking to routes were I'm on trails, or I know the bus routes.

I was reading some of their guidance for randonneuring, they talk about bringing a first aid kit, that apparently everyone forgets.  I've always done that so good for me, but I suggest a bus pass as well.

I've been fiddling around with this route too.  I want to do it, but again not by myself, don't know the bus routes around Port Townsend.

North Sound 200K

Supporting Ukraine and Zwift.

 Zwift remains an unusual place.  I'm not joining in on the racing scene, just not fast enough in my opinion.  One thing that has come up several times though is changing your flag to the Ukrainian flag.  I get the intent, but I have some qualms about that.  I'm not Ukrainian, I support their desire to remain independent and think this naked aggression by Putin is a profound escalation of global instability.  That said how do I support Ukraine?

Putin is clamping down on internal communications inside Russia, making coordinating demonstrations harder for Russians.  We could encourage Russian users to leverage the message feature inside Zwift to communicate.  I suspect this would end as soon as the users account hits the sanctions walls, or Putin decides to stop all traffic outside Russia.

So in a very real sense I don't know how to support Ukraine on the only social media platforms I actively use.

To any Ukrainians who read this; Allez, Allez, Allez!