Tailwinds and Sunshine

(Sorry about the photos. I touched the lens with a schmutzy finger and didn't notice until after the ride.)

Pine Canyon Rd. a.k.a "the Orondo Grade"

Yesterday was a good day. Not only did I complete a 200k brevet--my first solo brevet since FOOSHing myself two months ago--but I did it under warm sunny skies, with friends, and with the wind at our backs for much of the last half of the ride. It doesn't get any better than that.

The ride started and ended in Wenatchee as part of SIR's "brevet week" a.k.a Northwest Crank. NW Crank is a several days long cycling orgy with a full Super Randonneur Series worth of brevets and as well as a bunch of other "normal" rides. Sarah, Adam and I just went over for the 200k. Actually, I went for the 200k while Sarah and Adam went for the mini golf in Leavenworth.

It looked like there were about 25 of us at the start of the 200k. Several of the other riders had already ridden a 600k and a 300k earlier in the week. There was a lot of talk about the wind on the earlier rides. Apparently both rides had become horrendous slogs into cold headwinds. I heard stories of riding at 10kph on flat ground for hours at a time. Sounds like fun.

But Saturday's forecast was for calm winds and clear skies. It was chilly as we rolled out at 7:00am, but nothing that couldn't be overcome by pedaling harder.

Bread Pudding 200k

The ride headed up highway 2/97 to Orondo, about 15 miles up the Columbia river. I led the pack for most of this stretch since I was feeling strong and having aerobars on my bike makes it much easier to lead than to follow. At Orondo the route turned east on highway 2 and started climbing up Pine Canyon. Highway 2 climbs 2,000 ft here in about 6 miles, so I knew this would be a good test of how much fitness I had lost in the previous two months. I started the climb with Robin, Bill and Michael. Robin and Bill are on the Charly Miller team, and Michael is someone I've ridden with on previous rides. These guys are all strong riders, but I've never had a problem staying with any of them before. I was dropped like a brides panties on her wedding night. Either these guys were doping or I had taken a big step backward in my fitness.

About an hour later I caught up to Robin and Bill at the first control in Waterville. Thankfully they decided to sit down at the coffee shop for some bread pudding and a cup of coffee. (This 200k is named the "Bread Pudding 200k" in honor of this coffee shop's bread pudding.) I joined them and we had a nice civilized little break, far better than the usual chocolate milk outside a convenience store.

Bill and Robin pulling away as we start up the Orondo Grade

At this point the ride entered a new world of rolling wheat fields. I was reminded of riding through this same stretch last year with Kelly on the Cascade 1200 and how amazed we were by the vastness of it (it's still vast, Kelly). On the rolling hills it was a little hard for me to ride smoothly with Bill and Robin since they were faster on the ups, and the aerobars made it difficult for me to draft them on the flats and downhills. But they rejected my suggestions to leave me behind and were committed to staying with me for the full ride.

Bill and Robin pulling away again. This time Sagebrush Flats.

After a screaming descent into Moses Coulee we headed south toward Ephrata on a beautiful quiet road. There was a bit of a rolling climb before heading down into Ephrata and again Robin and Bill left me in their dust. But again, they were waiting for me at a the control in Ephrata, this time the more typical chocolate-milk-on-the-sidewalk situation.

From Ephrata the ride was mostly flat and uneventful, through farmland, and on roads as straight as an arrow. I was really starting to poop out at this point so I did more than my share of wheel sucking. Robin and Bill slowed down so I could stay with them and happily dragged my unfit butt along. Through this section we had some tailwinds so even though I was dragging, we were often moving at better than 20 mph.

Straight as an arrow

As we approached the Columbia River we were treated to a nice 40mph descent which was a little scary since I'm still getting used to the whole aerobar thing. Once down to the river we had a few more easy miles back to the start at the Inn at the River in East Wenatchee. We rolled in a few minutes before 3:00 making for a sub 8 hour 200k. Not bad for being out of shape (never mind that without Robin and Bill's help I would have finished about an hour later).

Robin and Bill dragging me home

With this 200k in the bag I'm back on track to qualifying for PBP. I obviously have some work to do to get back in shape if I want to make a time at PBP, but at this point my wrist isn't holding me back as much as my general fitness. I'm hoping to ween myself off the aerobars after the 400k in two weeks.

Risk of Cycling: Broken Arm

After six weeks of feeling pretty pessimistic or at least anxious about my hopes for riding PBP this summer, things are looking decidedly up. My cast came off last Wednesday. Initially I was pretty concerned about the soreness and lack of mobility in my wrist, but day-by-day it's getting better. It's far from back to normal, but it's improving enough that it seems conceivable that it could be 100% by the time PBP rolls around.

I asked my Dr. when he thought I might be able to get back on a bike, and he tilted his head in a doctorly way and said, "let's see how it feels in a couple of weeks." Then I told him that I rode 300k last Saturday. I got the tilted head look again, plus a doctorly furrowed brow. Then I said, "Look... I'm going to start riding right away. So what are the risks?" We talked about risks for a while and basically it came down to this: The greatest risk is that I'll crash and re-break my arm. I pointed out that every time I go for a ride there's a risk that I'll crash and break something. My good Dr. didn't really have an argument for that, and more or less agreed that I might as well start riding right away.

I felt good enough on Friday to ride to work as a little test. The test went well so I decided to push it a little harder and went for a ride around Lake Washington this morning. My wrist definitely felt every bump in the road, but I finished the 50 mile ride feeling like I could keep going. A good sign. I was careful to take it easy on the ride and never really put a lot of stress on my wrist. Actually I sort of had no choice other than to take it easy since I seem to have lost some fitness over the past month and a half (anybody seen it?). Luckily PBP is still over four months away. That should be plenty of time to get back in shape assuming I don't crash and break something (which, as my doctor pointed out, is a risk faced when riding a bike).

One of the things I've done to make it easier to get back on the road is, I installed some clip-on aerobars on my bike. The aerobars allow me to take weight off my wrist and put it all on my forearms. I never really thought of myself as an aerobar bar person before. I usually think of colorful lycra and funny helmets when I think of aerobars, you know? But I have to admit that they work quite well once you get used to them. I doubt if I could have done the 50 mile ride this morning without them. So, I guess I'll just try to ignore the cognitive dissonance of aerobars on a 1982 Trek with a Brooks saddle and fenders, and keep using them until my wrist is back in shape.

Community and Synergy

It's been ten days since I FOOSHed and my arm is still quite broken. As a matter of fact, I'm really just beginning the real healing process today. I had surgery this afternoon to reduce (aka "set") the fracture and install a metal plate and some screws that will hold it all together as it heals. It had been set a few days ago but it was still a bit misaligned and unstable so surgery seemed like the best option to get me rolling again as soon as possible.

While this experience has been a bit of a downer overall, I'm also impressed with how an injury like this can turn your life sideways and help you to see and think about things in new ways. For instance, I've been riding with the Seattle International Randonneurs for two years now. In that time I've met a lot of great people and I've made some friends. But I mostly saw SIR as a group of folks to go riding with. But after the FOOSH SIR people came out of the woodwork offering sympathy, stationary trainers, suggestions on how to get moving quickly, encouragement, and the stoker position on a tandem. I realized that it's not just a cycling club that I belong to. I belong to a community. I can't begin to express the gratitude I feel for those who have reached out to me. Thank you all so much! It feels good to be part of something bigger than yourself.

I guess some of the other things I've learned over the past few days are not quite as profound, but still somewhat interesting. Like this:

• Two useful hands have a lot of synergy. A good example is typing. One handed typing is not even close to half the speed of two handed typing. Maybe that's obvious but it had never occurred to me before.
• Starting a coat zipper with one hand is nearly impossible.
• Same with tying shoes.

(Hmm, maybe those last two are just extensions of the synergy thing)

• One can ride a stationary trainer with one arm. And while it's not nearly as much fun as flying down High Bridge Road in the Snoqualmie Vally, it's still better than not riding at all.

Back to the two handed synergy thing, I haven't been blogging because my typing is ridiculously slow and frustrating. But I should be receiving a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking in the next day or, so stay tuned for some Kerouac style rambling stream of consciousness blog posts in the coming days.

In the meantime, play safe and by all means don't FOOSH.

P.S. By the way, this coming Saturday is the first SIR brevet of the season. I'm going to have to stay off the bike for this one but I'm looking forward to cheering on my rando friends from the safety of one of the controls. See you out there!