Bicycle 500 miles in June

Well, I ended up moving in June. So biking this much was very difficult.

Went out with a bang today. We had 47 folks show up for our Cascade Newcomers ride, including 18 Bike Friday owners, and one representative of the National Little People of America conference, being held this week in Seattle. An amazing turnout for our little ride around the valley.

Just 25 miles left to go…I should be able to meet this goal riding back from work tomorrow.

I know, the suspense is killing you..

Will he make it???

130 miles yesterday on an STP prep-ride. Because my riding partner lives in, and will be starting from Seattle I headed North from home in Auburn (instead of South on the STP route). We met as planned just north of the Renton Airport on Rainier Avenue. We went as far as the Quizno’s in Yelm, and then headed back north.

I lost 10 of my planned miles due to another broken spoke incident. Same wheel, on the drive-side again. I’m not sure when the new wheels are coming, but it can’t be soon enough.

I have several activities next week that are going to limit my biking options next week, so I’ve done the longer loops around Lake Sammamish to catch up with my mile commitment.

Best ride to work this week: Tuesday. The 48°F in the morning was the perfect opportunity to try my new short sleeve wool jersey and zip around the traffic inbound to Big Black.

Best ride home: Thursday. Met up with Claire near work, went up Kamber, and enjoyed a tour of Bellevue neighborhoods I’ve not seen before.

Another 29 last night with the group from the Gym. One poor fellow had his rear derailleur get caught in his wheel resulting in a catastrophic failure of his hanger, and possible frame damage.

We untangled the scrap metal and broke down the chain in order to get the bike to roll, then one of the other riders pushed the fellow on the broken bike 3.5 miles by riding along side and putting his hand on his back.

I’ll need to get the big miles on Saturday if I’m going to make this goal.

Some commuting miles, then today, did a 50 mile loop up to Cathcart and back. The weather was a stark contrast to Friday. Beautiful sunshine, riding along in my tank…there was a view to the north of Mt. Baker, a perfect white volcanic cone, with a red barn in front, and cows scattered in the field below. And lots of views of Rainier on the way back.

Can I pull off the remaining 68 miles of this goal with commuting? I think so!

I rode with some old and new friends last night. A few of these folks I had trained with as we all prepared for our first big ride, the Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party (RSVP) in 2005. We’ve diverged since due to riding and weather preferences, but we had a lovely ride last night in the greater Kent valley. I was able to show them a couple of variations on the usual valley loop, and they gave me an incentive to work a little harder than I likely would on my own. It was a nice late-afternoon in the saddle. 29.5 miles on the day.

I’m going to need big miles this weekend to get this done. Hopefully my bad luck with spokes is passed.

Two broken spokes during my long ride on Saturday magically transformed it from 120 to 78 miles. I was able to save 64 of it by repairing the first broken spoke with a Fiber Fix Spoke (great invention!). The second spoke broke at mile 75, and we limped to a mini-mart for 3.

Today was a somewhat chilly and overcast ride to Flaming Geyser, the first “road-ride” for many of our Newcomer’s riders. 24 miles out-and-back.