When Taking It Easy Goes Wrong, Sort Of.

Today is my "Sunday" and what better way to spend a "Sunday" than a nice long bike ride... With sort of a late start (8am) I figured I'd do the Lake Washington loop clockwise (~55mi.) at a leisurely pace, since I don't have any riding friends yet. As soon as I found myself at the Northern tip of Lake Wa, it seemed like a good idea to stay East and loop around Lake Sammamish.


L to R: Lake Washington, Lake Sammamish

Just as I got to the waterfront of Sammamish, I noticed a USC Trojans Team rider out in front of me (just far enough away so that I could barely read the "USC" on his team kit). It took me a few minutes to catch up to him, which became a priority because I'm so sick of riding by myself, but once I did he was very friendly and also stoked to be able to ride with someone. His name is Marcus, and he has a very pretty red Eddy Merckx 20-speed. After some initial bullshitting and occasional pulls we discovered that we were both trying to end up in Downtown Seattle.

Apparently Marcus does this loop often so when I asked him if there were any good climbs on our way around, he just laughed and said "Yeah, just follow me when we get to the stoplight at the bottom of this hill"... I had no fucking idea what I was about to get myself into. After the said stoplight we proceeded to climb, what I discovered is known as, the Issaquah Alps. There are so many trees and switchback turns the entire climb that I really didn't know when it was going to end or where the hell we were.

About a mile into it I dropped Marcus and just figured I'd wait for him at the top. Almost 45 minutes later I was still climbing and there was no sign of it letting up so I rolled in circles at the first flat area I found and waited. When he caught up, we road together another 20 minutes until we reach what I thought was the top...he directed us up a side road labeled "Dead End" but he assured me that it would be well worth the climb, since we came this far and all. I didn't think I was gonna make it, since my HeartRate had plateaued long ago and my legs wanted to explode, but we put the hammer down and road to the peak of what I learned is East Tiger Mountain. A pleasant old man named Bob lives on the summit and complimented our efforts while we soaked up this amazing scenery.


East Tiger Mountain Summit 3,004 feet! w00f!
(see flickr for larger scale)

Although, I wanted to die, Marcus was right... well worth the extra climb. Since I've never done anything like this before it was really inspiring. Just looking down and seeing the water and knowing that we climbed from Sea Level up to 3000 feet was fun. No, what was fun was bombing all the way down to Mercer Island, a true reward - new top speed! Just before we parted ways, close to Martin Luther King Blvd, he informed me of 3-4 fast paced group rides that I apparently could hang with. Thanks buddy, no more lonely rides for me :)

Thanks for reading.

4/20/2010
Time: 3:43.56
Avg. HR: 144bpm
Max HR: 176bpm
KCAL burned: 3025
Distance: 59.7 miles
Avg. Speed: 16mph
Max Speed: 42.4mph