| 2005 S2 Cycling Blog (web-log)Last updated Saturday, July 30, 2005 Click to skip to the complete RAMROD story  This season we decided to make RAMROD (July 28) our major goal. Being a month later than STP, it allows us to start training later in the season with possibly better weather. Given the 155 mile, 10,000 foot elevation gain, it requires training one long, hilly ride per weekend, freeing more time for friends during the riding season. Click the image to the left to see the elevation profile.
We got an early start to our riding as the winter was unbelievably dry and mild. We kicked into training mode in April. The plan was to do lots of hills and some long rides. Our winter spinning classes have us feeling strong going into the season.
One of the hill routes we mapped out included the Queen Anne Counterbalance (13% grade) and the climb up Dravus to Magnolia (the sign says 19%, but our topo program shows one block as 20%). Two other climbs start with 13 and 15% grades, but even out to a mere 9% by the tops. Whew! That’s climbing!
Saturday, May 21, 2005: We rode our first century since 2003! We made it up ourselves. We started at 9 a.m. in Mt. Vernon, looped around a bit to get onto Hwy 20, then headed for the hills. Burlington, Sedro Wooley, Lyman, Concrete, and Rockport. The first 35 miles had the old horizontal hill working against us, but we still clipped along at a 17.3 pace. Saw a mess of motorcyclists in Rockport, then turned onto the Concrete-Sauk Valley Road, 23 miles of chip seal. Oh boy!
Still, we made excellent time. After our last major stop for the day in Concrete, we pushed through the last 33 miles. Our goal was to keep our average above 17.3. We pushed. We were spending a lot of time at 20 mph. We started feeling drops of rain around mile 85. That spurred us onward even more.
The last bit into Mt. V was uphill (naturally) so we lost some of our hard-won average. But we still finished at 17.4 (my computer) or 17.6 (hers). Did 103.3 miles in just over 7 hours of total time, 6 hours on the saddle. And we beat the rain.
We changed clothes, put up the bike and were greeted by rain as we got to I-5. It poured all the way home, which took 2 hours for no apparent reason. It only took us one to go up. The trip home was waaaay harder than the last 30 miles of the century.  Friday, May 27, 2005: We did our own Tour d’Blast riding from I-5 to Coldwater Ridge, 43 miles of unrelenting climbing to incredible views of Mount St. Helens. (Well, the first 20 or so are flat or rollers, but the last half is hilly!) Click the photo to the right to see it larger. Do the same for the sidebar image on the left to see the difference 5 years makes!
We took Sheila's nieces, who are visiting from Rhode Island, with us. They watched the Omnidome movie about the blast while we started up the hill. An hour later, they passed us at the 17 mile mark. We played tag for the next couple of hours. They'd wait at rest stops and visit. Then take off again. We lost them after Hoffstadt Bluffs. Tooooo much hill following that one.
AND it was HOT!!! 88 degrees at the Forestry Center. 90 at the top. We just kept pedaling and drinking. Sloshed down 11 bottles of fluids between the two of us during our 3.5 hour ride. (4.5 elapsed time). It was something else. I hope RAMROD’s climbs aren’t any more difficult. It was pretty tough in the record-setting heat.
Monday, May 30, 2005: On Memorial Day we rode the 7 Hills of Kirkland, a benefit for Kirkland Interfaith Transitional Housing. It was a wonderful ride, but VERY hilly. I guess that's not surprising. We did the 102 mile route which actually had more like 13 hills and 7200' of elevation gain.
The day started nicely as we rode "with" our neighbor, Dave the Randonneur, for the first 4 hills. Actually, he pretty much left us behind on the third, but rejoined us for the fourth. Then he went away at his own, much faster, pace. After that we got caught up with a big bunch of singles that we played leapfrog with all day long.
The course was VERY well marked. They even had marks to stop you if you missed a turn! Saw a good number of people during the first half, although we were pretty lonely on the 30 mile loop up Stillwater Hill to Tualco and back. One of the singles we'd been chasing pace-lined with us for a bit on West Snoqualmie Valley Road and took a long pull in front at 21 mph. We needed that boost! He was strong. He stopped to wait for friends and we never saw him again.
The last 10 miles were getting pretty tough. Most of it was uphill again. But we finished in exactly 8 hours on the road (6.5 in the saddle) with a 15.6 average. Felt strong throughout. RAMROD is looking within reach. June 4-5, 2005: RCC’s Mazama Ride, said to be a trial balloon for RAMROD preparedness! After not-quite-completing it, we feel ready. This is a long story. The short version is Beautiful Saturday. Horrible Sunday. Had to be sagged off the course. If you’re a real cycling geek and want to see the Mazama ride profile for the first day click here to see a PDF of it.
We drove up Friday night and stayed in a lodge near Marblemount. Had a (fairly) leisurely morning because they wanted us to start riding between 8-9. the skies were threatening rain as we left, but we just had on our arm and leg warmers and our windjackets. Our panniers were stuffed, though. 17 miles of rolling uphills led to the real climbing near Diablo Dam. The day was gorgeous by then.
Denise, who was terrified of being the last one in, had left an hour early to get a head start. We rode with Steve quite a bit as we climbed up and up in the rapidly clearing weather. Didn't catch Denise until we were most of the way up Rainy Pass. That’s us at the top of Rainy at 4855’ (click to see photo enlarged). That’s the elevation size in the distance. The run down from Rainy was far too short, leading to a 4 mile climb up to Washington Pass. That was pretty steep and hard. But it was 65 degrees out so we weren't complaining.
At the top of Washington, we took pictures and then went flying down the back side. It was about 18 miles of downhill. Couldn't go all out because of the twistiness of the road, but held 35 quite a bit of the time. Got into Mazama by 3:30.
While we were sitting on the grass with other riders someone noticed our captain-side chainring was missing two bolts! They were completely gone! I'm glad that didn't cause problems. Turns out there is a bike shop next door tothe ladge, so I was able to get replacements. But then I found our front tire was going flat, so I had to fix it too.
We had a HUGE dinner at the lodge and after we tried walking it off, we retired for the night.
It was raining when we got up the next morning. And cold. We were the last ones to leave the lodge (at 8:50). We had all our raingear on and thought we were ready for anything. We were wrong.
The 18 mile downhill was now a steady uphill ending with 7 miles at 7%. We were doing ok, passing some singles, then getting passed back. But our gloves were literally wringing wet. Sheila had borrowed a pair of long-fingered gloves, thank goodness. When we finally got to the top, it was snowing. Didn't stop long, though there was a sag car there. Steve and Denise had just made it up, and we all headed down together. It was too dangerous to speed even though we could have really ripped on a nice day. Plus our faces were freezing, the snow was making it hard to see and our fingers were going numb. Hooray!
At the bottom between the passes was a pit toilet with a shelter. We stopped there and tried to warm up. Ate M&Ms, put on rubber examination gloves under my thermal gloves, etc. It was only raining there, but by the time we got back up to Rainy Pass, it was really snowing. Big flakes. The SAG wagons (2) were filled with bikers getting off the road. We were ready to get off too. But they didn't have room nor did they have a tandem rack. So we wrapped up again. I put a scarf across my face. Sheila put plastic bags over her hands.
Within two miles we were out of the snow, but the rain was still pounding down and the windchill (we were going about 30) was devastating. I could not use the hand brakes because my fingers were so cold, but I could adjust the drag brake. So we pedaled and rolled down, down, down.
A couple miles off the top we passed Steve and Denise getting a SAG. From then on, we were the only idiots on the road. It was 26 miles to the next rest stop, virtually all downhill. We got into warmer air, but neither of us could hold anything so we didn't eat or drink for most of an hour. Had to stop and pull off the baggies to have any hope of eating. A SAG stopped near us there and we were able to get them to unwrap a power bar. Then we rode the last 5 miles to the lunch stop. The winds were so strong in the last bit that it almost stopped us while we were gong DOWNhill in our highest gear.
Greg Sneed (bless his heart) was there with his tandem topper and we chucked it in. We'd done 49 miserable miles. It took quite a while in the warm car for us to stop shaking.
We were happy to have gone so far. We'd at least finished both passes. Some folks hadn't even started the second day. And about half were sagged off the course. As it turns out only 12 of the 55 riders completed the ride! Saturday, June 11, we joined our tandem buddies Eric and Arden for a loop around Whidbey Island. It was a grey and wet day. I'm afraid they'll think that's the only kind of riding we do! But the course was pleasant, lots of up, lots of down in true island-style. The rain held off for most of the 50-mile ride. Afterwards, Sheila and I visited with friends on the island to conclude an enjoyable day.  Sunday, June 12, three tandem teams did the loop around Camano Island. This was an ETC club ride. We started in Stanwood and were blessed with rapidly improving weather. The first layers began peeling off after only one hill. We climbed, descended, climbed, descended, and climbed some more. We all broke 49 mph on the big downhill near Camano State Park and none of us were trying to set speed records. We blasted through the rollers on the east side of the island. Nothing like a tandem for cruising trough rollers! We all wore happy smiles as we returned to Heritage Park at the end. A fourth team, Eric and Arden, was running late, so they did the loop with our cue sheet, but about 45 minutes behind the peleton. Extra points for them as the lantern rouge!
Saturday, June 18, we did a quick tour of Vashon Island in keeping with our recent island theme. We got up early and were riding by 9. Encountered an organized ride circling the island in the reverse direction. That was fun. Also met some residents who we practicing for their next cross-country bike trip tootling around the island with full camping gear. Afterwards we stopped at niece Jenna's and visited with family, including my mom, for a few hours. The sun was out all day. It was gorgeous.
 Sunday, June 19: We awoke needing to do a hard ride, a century perhaps. The weather was beautiful, so we decided to do a practice run up to Paradise instead. Billed as "Sara's Saunter" on the CBC pages, this ride starts at Ashford, climbs to Paradise, careens down Box Canyon, humps up Rattlesnake Ridge, then down to Packwood before returning to Ashford along picturesque Skate Creek Road.
It was beautiful as we started. Sleeveless top beautiful. The trip up to Paradise was just a long, steady climb. Nothing terribly steep, just endless. About 22 miles of gentle up to the 5400' level. Started at 9:30 and topped out at 12:30. Snapped some shots at the top, then started down the back side.
It was fairly steep so imagine my surprise when the drag brake went KA-PHLOOOIE when I pulled it on. Pieces must have flown everywhere. The cable frayed, the restraining nuts disappeared, it was a mess. The brake itself was fine, but no longer functional. Fortunately, it didn't impede our rolling. So we continued down with me gently tapping the brakes to navigate the hairpin turns.
Got down to Box Canyon overlook and stopped to refill water and stretch. Oooops. A rear flat appeared when it was time to leave. Argghhhh! Two mechanicals in an hour! This was not our day! Again, fortune smiled on us. A hiker saw me changing the tire and said, "Would you like to use my floor pump?" Now that was a welcome, though stupid, question! A little while later we were cruising again.
From Rattlesnake Ridge to Packwood was nearly all down hill. Our average speed jumped from 10.1 at the top of Paradise to 13.7 in Packwood. This was followed by 13 miles of gentle climbing up Skate Creek and 8 screaming miles down to the finish. We wrapped up at 4:30 with an average of 14.8. Nothing like long downhills to perk up your stats!
Thursday, June 23: Our first 200k ride of the year. We've got a wedding this weekend in Oregon, so had to take our ride where we could get it.
Starting on May Valley Road in Issaquah, we headed north to Cougar Mountain. We crawled up the mountain on 51st, then blasted down the backside to Coal Creek Parkway. A quick trip down May Valley brought us to the end of our first loop. Then we headed for Enumclaw. We passed through Cedar Grove, Hobart, Ravensdale, Kangley, until we got to the fairgrounds. Then we turned left and rode up 410 past Mud Mt. Dam. The weather was finally settling on sunny and warm, so it was pleasant enough. We returned to Enumclaw on Mud Mt Dam road. By the time we got to the High School we were 70 miles into it and feeling cranky.
It's funny. This ride just was feeling like a drudgery. Ride, ride, ride, ride, ride, ride, ride, just because we have to. We weren't getting our usual enjoyment out of being on the saddle. Then, at Flaming Geyser, we got a rear flat! Worse, since I'd blown out the drum brake the week before, I didn't have the quick release cable on the temporary fix. I had to practically take the wheel apart to get it off. What a pain! I hope we are through with the mechanicals for a while.
On Green River Valley Road we chased a single for 8 miles. He was almost exactly our speed, even when we kicked it up. We were going 20-24 the entire time. We couldn't catch him until he turned around. But it was fun trying.
Back to Ravensdale, back to Hobart, and then up Tiger Mountain Road. We climbed ever so long. It was good practice to have a long climb at 112 miles, I thought. Then we got a long, screaming downhill as a reward. Back at the car at 118, just shy of our planned 200k, but close enough. We figure we had over 6000 feet of elevation gain, so we called it good. We averaged 16.5 for the trip and completed it in 9.5 clock hours. Given the lengthy mechanical stop, we felt pretty good about our times. We're thinking we are just about ready for the big ride!
Northwest Tandem Rally 2005 in Bend, Oregon, Fourth of July weekend
Saturday of the Northwest Tandem Rally (NWTR) began with a club photo of Evergreen Tandem Club members in attendance. Then 450 bikes departed Summit High School in Bend, Oregon. What a sight! We cruised with the crowd for quite a while. Rode with various friends from ETC through the rolling hills.
We opted to take the long route to Smith Rocks and an excellent choice it was. The roads were fast and the view at the rest stop was fantastic. Visited with friends from around the country before heading back for Bend.
On the way back we caught up to Steve and Denise. They’ve been working hard all season on speed and man, it shows! We used to be able to drop them fairly easily. Not today. They kicked it up when we caught them, and we could barely hang with them for 20 miles.
Ended the day with 71 miles at a 17.6 average. It felt like the roads were all downhill. How’d they do that?
 Sunday we rode day two of NWTR with Jim and Jeannie and Mike and Carol from ETC. Jay and Sara rode with us until the first rest stop. Again, it was a fast-paced group for the first section of riding. We relaxed a bit on the second portion during which time Mike and Carol had 2 flats and Jim’s saddle needed adjustment once. The mountains were all out, though. You could see Broken Top, the Three Sisters, Jefferson, and even Mt. Hood! The smell of the high desert sage was wonderful.
Spent quite a bit of time at the rest stop just lazing around and visiting. Sheila and I stretched out our legs on the homeward stretch ending with 61 miles at 17+ mph again.
 Monday we did the optional ride for hardcore climbers. We called it RAMBOD (Ride Around Mount Bachelor in One Day). They called it the Cascade Lakes Loop. We went up Century Drive 20 miles to Bachelor Ski area. Then we looped down through some of the prettiest territory in the state. There were lots of little lakes and mountain pastures framed by the bulk of South Sister. We’d brought lots of extra water in our pannier, but had run out by the time we got to Devils Lake. A friendly couple from Wisconsin headed to Crater Lake refilled our bottles from their supply.
We continued cruising along at 25-35 mph through a long descent through the forest. It was grand. We eventually turned toward Sunriver, our next water stop.
From there it was another 11 mile climb up to Century Drive. A butterfly paced us for about 3 miles of the climb, apparently attracted by the bright colors of our jerseys. Or maybe she was just making fun of our speed. The climb took us another hour and a half in the hot, afternoon sun. We were more than ready for the payback – 18 miles down, down, down to Bend. We completed our 100 miles in almost exactly 8 hours clock time! We averaged 15.3, a very respectable rate for a ride with 6,000 feet of elevation gain.
Thursday, July 14: Today was our last big training ride before RAMROD. We followed the cue sheet for a 120 mile ride from Marymoor Park to Snoqualmie Pass and back with about 5525’ of elevation gain. As it turned out it was only 116 miles. We managed to complete the ride with a 16 mph average, about 9 hours clock time, with 7:15 saddle time. We’re feeling strong and ready for RAMROD. We’re hoping that taking this next week completely off (sitting a meditation retreat) won’t be an issue. We do plan to do at least one easy 50 mile ride between when we return and RAMROD, two weeks from today. The switchbacks up to Denny Creek were awesome. The road was smooth with little traffic and lots of shade. Too bad we had such strong headwinds pedaling back down the pass. RAMROD – July 28, 2005
Executive Summary:
 On Thursday, July 28, we completed the Redmond Cycling Club’s annual event “Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day” (RAMROD). It is 155 miles. That’s about the same distance as from Portland to Seattle on the freeway. It has 10,000 feet of elevation gain, which is almost 2 miles! It was a fantastic ride, largely because we’d put in more than 2,000 miles of training since February. We were strong. The weather was beautiful, crisp in the morning, yielding to sunny skies and moderate temperatures, around 80. We had no mechanical problems. We saw deer and heard Canada geese. The wildflowers were gorgeous. We finished in exactly 13 hours (10:25 saddle time) with an average speed of 14.5 mph. It was fabulous and feels like quite an accomplishment.
 The full RAMROD report:
We drove the hour down to Enumclaw the night before the ride to pick up our ride packets and prepare. We spent the night getting last minute tips from our friends Steve and Denise, and got to bed early in our hotel.
We rose at 3:50 am, drank our protein shakes, then drove to the start line. It was still pretty dark as the 200 cyclists lined up at the banner. Tiny red blinky lights flashed everywhere. Each rider had been given one for added visibility. It made quite a sight. At 5:00 we were released onto the course. We were probably in the front half of the expedition as we wheeled south toward Orting.
The first section of the trip was ideal for tandems. It was generally downhill with the few up hill sections gentle enough for our momentum to carry us over. We rapidly passed many riders, who would immediately latch on to our wheel to take advantage of our draft. We were pulling a train of about 20 bikes at 25 mph most of the way to Orting. Then we backed off and the real speedsters left us behind. It was just as well because they’d have lost us on the climbs anyway.
As the sun rose, so did the mist from the farmlands. The land was steaming. The mountain rose to our left catching the early rays of sunshine. It was quite striking. As we toured past Lake Kapowsin, fog was rising off the lake’s surface. It made the early morning kind of surreal. After an hour we found a sanican for a break. This was to be our pattern. We have bladders that last about one hour. I can’t believe the number of riders that never seemed to stop to pee. Oh well. Probably TMI. Feeling refreshed we continued along.
At the Eatonville rest stop we began peeling layers of clothes, and I broke my prescription sunglasses. I’d been keeping them in my back pocket because they were getting just as foggy as the farmland. When I took off my jacket they flipped to the pavement. It’s a good thing I can see well enough to ride without them!
As we approached Ashford, we rode with a man who’d come over from the UK just to do the ride. He said he had to go to Scotland to find enough hills to train on. Amazingly he said the countryside reminded him of South Africa.
At 8:30 we’d arrived at the entrance to the national park at Ashford. This was where the serious climbing started. We were facing 3400 feet of climbing over the next 20 miles. It was fairly gentle, but unrelenting. We were able to hold a decent pace (7-9 mph) up much of it. We dropped to 5 at the very top when the switchbacks came fast and furious.
We were right on the mountain’s flanks now. It seemed to rise from our feet as we pedaled along. It is a stunning sight on a clear summer’s day. Our moods were good. We’d pedaled about 70+ miles and felt like it was all doable. We even passed a few singles on the way up. The most unusual single we passed was a man running up the mountain carrying a croquet mallet. He said he was doing the CAMROD - Croquet Around Mount Rainier. About a mile up we found his partner waiting by the side of the road. A ball was sitting in front of a wicket waiting for the striker to arrive. Later we saw the same guy setting up a few more miles up the road. He said his buddy would likely run between 15 and 30 miles that day, hitting the ball through the wicket whenever the opportunity presented itself. And you think WE are crazy!
For those of you who don’t know, tandems are strong on flat ground (particularly into headwinds), scary fast on downhills, but generally fairly slow on ups. Most of the riders on singles told us they couldn’t imagine doing RAMROD on a tandem. We always felt that the tandem’s perceived climbing disadvantage is mostly an engine problem. We enjoy tackling hills. That being said, it is tougher to climb on a tandem than a single.
We made it to Paradise by 11:30. We beat our arbitrary “Paradise by noon” deadline! There wasn’t any food at the rest stop there, so we just balanced our fluids and headed down.
The run from Paradise to Box Canyon was 11 miles long and took us 20 minutes. Long sweeping curves were filled with vistas of meadows teeming with wildflowers, crystalline lakes, rugged canyons, and, of course, the mountain. We topped out at 44 mph, cruising by any number of singles. We were honking our horn constantly to alert them to our impending presence. However, our horn sounded too goose-like for one rider. Instead of moving to the right, he kept looking to the sky to see where the birds were. Geez!
We were overly hungry when we got to Box Canyon and we departed from our eating routine. We’d packed 4 PB&J sandwiches, quartered. We’d been eating a quarter each time we stopped. Where food was available we’d grab some fruit to augment it. I’d also had a couple of energy gels. Box Canyon had chocolate-filled croissants which were too tempting. We ended up grazing on too much food. It settled like a rock in our guts. It took a few miles to ride it out.
From Box Canyon to the Stevens Canyon entrance to the park was mostly downhill, interrupted with a short 3-mile climb over Backbone Ridge. So we flew through most of that. That just got us to the start of the day’s toughest challenge, Cayuse Pass.
Cayuse is 8 miles long and about 2500 feet of elevation gain. That’s similar in distance and grade to the Tour de France’s Tourmalet. Of course we can’t go up it at even 1/3 their speed! It starts at mile 100. We were not feeling fresh, but we still felt strong. Cayuse did its best to knock us down. The sun was now pretty hot. We’d been told to expect no shade so were pleasantly surprised to find some patches of cool, refreshing shadows. We weren’t happy to find the road construction. It meant that we were trailed by an enormous dump truck for a mile up the hill at 5 mph because we couldn’t go faster and he couldn’t go around us.
Halfway up there was a water stop. Volunteers with spray bottles cooled weary cyclists. We refilled our bottles, stretched and headed up to finish the climb. We summited at 2:45. Now we were looking at 40 miles of mostly downhill, a welcome prospect.
Again we flew down at 40+ mph until we were forced to slow for a tour bus. Still we were off the pass in less than 30 minutes. They were serving made-to-order deli sandwiches at the last rest stop. But we got bit by barn fever. That combined with the fact that there was no vegan food convinced us to make the stop short. We took off. As we moved down the hill we realized we had an outside shot at getting in by 6 PM. Suddenly, a 13 hour RAMROD was a goal. We pushed ourselves against relentless headwinds for the last hour and a half to try to make it. Several singles caught our tail as we streaked toward the finish. One pair of guys even took turns pulling us for a brief time. On the outskirts of Enumclaw, we passed a driveway filled with a family in deck chairs. They applauded loudly as we sailed by. They must have felt like they were watching their own personal Tour de France.
The clock was ticking down. The finish was 1 minute, 2 blocks and a traffic signal away. We caught the signal perfectly, charged up the street to where the police officer was waving us through the last stop sign. We’d made it! Cheering crowds of riders, already in, greeted us. We collected our finisher patches, changed clothes and sprawled out on the grass sipping cold water and waiting for Steve and Denise to come in.
They arrived 40 minutes later, setting a personal best on their third trip around the mountain. As for us, it was probably our only trip around the mountain. For now we’re ready to ease off on any major cycling goals.
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