SIR Training Ride #1

Did my first training ride with the Seattle International Randonneurs. Officially this was the second ride since the first one got canceled due to a snow storm. The weather was good with temps in the 30's and no rain. We met in a parking lot in Tukwila and after signing in I realized I'd forgotten a critical piece of kit: my helmet! Fortunately, REI was right across the street so I dashed over and picked up the cheapest Bell I could find. Peter Beeson gave a rundown of basic safety and a welcome speech. There was a pretty good crowd, probably 40-50 riders.

I hadn't bothered to make a map of the route beforehand and since this was a training ride in January I naturally assumed it would be what most people do for a January training ride: flat and in a low gear with no loads on the knees. Little did I know the SIR definition of a January training ride is "Let's cram in as many knee shattering climbs as we can!" There was one climb that had several riders - myself included - getting off and walking. Doing this sort of climbing so early in the season when termperatures are in the 30's borders on stupidity. Of coruse for every climb there is also a descent and some of these descents were pretty twisty and proved to be a great testing ground for my new Paul Racer brakes. About halfway up the climb on Northpoint road I came to my senses and eased off trying to put as little strain as possible on my knees. I wound up riding the rest of the ride solo though apparently a few other riders crawled in after I finished. The route itself was scenic and challenging and would be a great ride to do later in the season but as a January training ride it was a bit too much.

From here on out I plan to map out all the training rides in Topo to avoid any such surprises. At the end Peter did put my fears to rest by pointing out that there is nothing on PBP as tough as the climbs we did on this ride.