Random observations

Presidents Day

I rode to Snoqualmie Falls today, which turned out to be an 85-mile ride, which was farther than I thought it was going to be. This was my second big-miles weekend of the winter; it's gone like this:

• Thursday: 30 miles
• Friday: 81 miles
• Saturday: 62 miles
• Sunday: 97 miles (tandem)
• Monday: 85 miles

If all I do for the next 2 days is commute to work on my bike, that'll be a 375-mile week with 10K indoor time trials on either end. Then it's just taper to the start of the race season, then it's weekly building of the racing miles: first race weekend = one race, second race weekend = two races, third race weekend = three races. This is my chance to see if some sort of periodization other than chance (although that's all this is) is more effective than randomly riding my bike.

Okay, the observations.

Many times have I ridden to Snoqualmie Falls, complete with the little detour on Fish Hatchery Road on the way up. Never before have I seen the airport on that road. I almost drove my bike into the ditch when I saw the plane and the runway.

The ride up to the falls is still the same nice gentle climb with gobs of winter grit on the shoulder. But the traffic on the way down 202 back to Fall City just plain sucks. This ride will not become part of my regular ride pattern; I think the only way to do this climb is to go on up Snoqualmie Ridge and out to North Bend. I had thought about going on to Issaquah, but that's lots more ugly-traffic miles; I opted for the quiet roads of Beaver Lake, with only a few on East Lake Samm before getting back on bike trail.

I saw a triple on the Sammamish River Trail. Not a tandem with a tag-along attachment, but a genuine triple bike with three adults on board. Cool. I also saw a ton of people without helmets. About the hundredth such underequipped person was a young woman with two kids in a trailer without a helmet between them. As I went by, I could not help but say, "You all need some helmets!" The response was not quite what I expected. She said, "Wha??" Maybe this is evolution in action.

A lot of new team kits out and about this weekend, too. They signal what I already know: the race season is here. One of my teammates won the cat 4 women's race at Cherry Pie yesterday. She was so eager to get her first race over with that she drove all the way to Corvallis for the thrill. Nice work, Daisy!