Multivariable Living

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2010-10-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

Catch us at www.multivariableliving.wordpress.com to follow our German shenanigans and more...

The Escape

2010-02-24T13:54:00.000-08:00

A week and a half ago, it was Valentine's Day. Standard procedure is a card and maybe a specifically planned dinner (in). We've never bought into the whole "eat out with everyone else in the city" plan, nor given in to the pressure to buy big showy gifts (sorry, De Beers). Maybe we're just not romantic, or maybe we were doomed from the start, as Chad first asked me to dinner on Valentine's Day (2003) and I declined (raincheck! I had a midterm! And was flying home that afternoon!).

Regardless, this year we took advantage of the three day weekend and the crappy ski season to escape to somewhere that had fresh snow. Mission Ridge near Wenatchee fit the bill, and as a double bonus I finally got to visit (and stay in) the ridiculousness that is Bavarian themed Wenatchee.

After a quick meal at Gustav's (with the Olympics playing in the background) we passed out early, which made it pretty easy to head for the mountain at 8am the next morning. The parking lot was tiny compared to Snoqualmie and aside from some issues with the lift, there were no lines, great groomers and plenty of fresh snow in the trees. We even managed to meet a local who toured us all over the place, showing us runs we never would have found on our own (which would prove helpful on Sunday, with fog so thick you couldn't tell which way was down). By 330, my legs were shot & I'd definitely hit plenty of runs outside my comfort zone (looking good while doing it is a future challenge).

Wash, rinse & repeat for Sunday (add a few inches of powder!) and it was looking good until we got on the lift and couldn't even see the chair in front of us. Nothing like realizing what the terrain is after you've skied over it. We managed to survive though, and hit tons of fresh snow off Chair Three (what's up with Mission skiers staying on the trails? Not that we minded having the powder to ourselves). The last two hours were a struggle, with the sunshine + remaining powder our motivation for skiing the chewed up crap at the bottom.

If I have the chance, I'll hit Mission again in an instant. Provided there's no fog, the terrain + lack of lines (especially the lack of lines) made for a helluva fun weekend.

STP (Part 2)

2009-07-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

Centralia to Kelso/Longview: (Miles 100-150)
Heading back out, the Ibuprofen did start to help tremendously and I was feeling fresh. After about 7 miles we reached a mini stop at Chehalis where I took another quick break. So far I was still managing about 15MPH through Winlock until Vader. The road leaving Vader led up a good size hill which gave me trouble. The combination of cramping and the sore knee meant I couldn't get out of the saddle anymore to climb. Stuck in the saddle, I used every gear I had and just pushed. Midway up the hill I tried to produce a smile and a wave for the two girls cheering and holding a sign saying "May the force be with you." After a quick descent we started up another hill and I was soon to find that this was the start of a long section of rollers which were on and off all the way to the food stop. The rest stops were very consistently 15 miles apart but, 5 miles out of Vader I was ready for another break. This would soon become the trend and those last 10 miles were getting slower and slower. At Castle Rock I decided I would take a bit of a longer break since I really had limited my break time to this point. As soon as I dismounted my left quad cramped really hard. I tried to rub it out but I ended up just standing there immobilized for about 5 minutes until I could move without cramping again. I pounded all the water I had, refilled and drank a full bottle on the spot. Made another Gatorade, but mistakenly didn't think to take the Tums I had. After Castle Rock, I felt good for about 5 miles and then once again I had to fight for the last 10 to Lexington. This food stop was mile 135 (STP's 147) and the last food stop until Portland. With my earlier pace I had expected to leave Lexington at around 3PM, but I didn't even arrive until after 3PM. My pace over that last section was getting pretty low, I was down to 8-10 MPH on the hills and 13-14 on the flats. The rollers were kicking my butt and I was hoping some food other than PowerBars would get me back on track. I ate two more PB&Js, some fruit and had a bottle their sports drink and some water. I was trying to be optimistic, with 55 miles left I was hoping I could finish it in a little over 4 hours which would have me arriving around 7:30PM, at that point much later than what I would have predicted in Centralia, but at that point just finishing at all was good enough for me.

No Sleep 'Til Portland:
After Lexington, I thought the only big challenge remaining would be the Lewis and Clark bridge crossing into Oregon. On the Oregon side I expected to follow the river and have flats the whole way back since I've driven the route on the US30 several times when headed to Hillsboro and didn't remember any hills, of course it's easy to forget hills in a car, unlike riding a bike.

After the 8 miles to the bridge at Keslo/Longview I was still feeling ok. Once the bridge was in sight, I noticed it didn't ascend nearly as steeply as I had pictured in my mind. Feeling better about it I made for the bridge without taking a rest as I was planning. I made my way up towards the bridge and suddenly I got this sharp pain on the inside of my knee. Unfortunately I was now in the "NO STOP" zone that was the Lewis & Clark Bridge. So feeling obligated for the riders behind me I just kept going. The sharp pain started to freak me out, I immediately thought of Anna's knee and this felt very similar to what she was describing. At this point I was pot committed and pretty determined to finish with exactly 50 miles to go. I knew my knee had the means to get my attention and it could have made me stop if it wanted. Thus far it was complaining since mile 40 but it hadn't asked me to stop, and until it did I would just continue on. By this point I had already been using my hill gears to try and ease off some of the pressure from my knee and I would continue to do so. On the way down the bridge there were giant steel plates covering the expansion joints. By the second steel plate I was cruising around 35 MPH and figured it was a "toin coss" whether i'd have both wheels still attached, fortunately I did.

Riding that first part of Oregon was dark dark times. A head wind had picked up and what I was hoping to be flat turned out to be the hilliest section of all (at least it felt that way). I'll pretty much skip this part because there was nothing fun about it. I rode solo in the wind through the hills and had more or less decided that I would get there when I got there and not worry about time. I stopped twice at mini stops before I made it to St. Helen's High School.

With 30 miles left, I think Anna could tell from the tone of my texts that I was ready to be done. Her texts back helped a lot, enticing me with food, beers, and whatever else she had to offer. And it did work, I decided I didn't want to leave her waiting there all day and that it would be nice to just get this done with. To this point I had been rationing the amount of music I listened to save battery. I knew my phone couldn't do the whole day of music and texts + photos. But I needed every bit of boost so I decided to pump the tunes and just power through. I set off from St. Helens and miraculously was able to keep up a good pace. I was down in the drops and was pacing about 18 MPH on flats still against the wind. After a few miles I noticed I had a rider who was sitting behind me following. After about 5 miles my pace was starting to dip around 15MPH and he pulled out in front slowly enough as to offer a ride. He pulled for a few miles and we got to talking a bit. His knee was hurting too and he seemed to be in a worse spot than me. So we took turns pulling and together we were able to average about 16 MPH. After the very last stop in Scappoose we got separated and I ended up catching on the back of a group that was doing pretty well. I followed them at around 17-18 MPH. At this point it had become a Free For All. No one was talking, everyone was just pushing for all they had. People weren't taking turns pulling they just got stuck with it because everyone else had pulled off too tired. The group got larger and larger as we got closer to town, each mile ticking down ever so slowly. Eventually we came past my buddy and I gave him a heads up to jump on back. He tried but I think it was too much and he got dropped off.

Once in town we had one final hill and then the longest finish I could have imagined. It literaly ended up being 2 more miles than I had expected through the city. At one stop light I once again met up with my paceline buddy and he ended at the same time. At the finish I pulled towards the back of the pack and tried to keep an eye for Anna. Well there she was in a prime spot and snapped some nice photos as I finished. And just like that it was over. I rolled in just after 8PM and happy to be done. Although not really that hungry I convinced Anna to take me to Kenny & Zukes anyways. It was about as awesome as Andy had described it, and with half my Rueben and half my beer I was ready to head out.

The drive was something else altogether. We left Kenny and Zukes at 9:45 and didn't get home until about 1:30 thanks to lane closures in Portland and around Lacey. Anna was a trooper to stay awake and deal with stop and go traffic as I was in and out of power naps and asking her to stop at every rest stop.

So in conclusion, I did it. STP 1-day, would I do it again? Solo... never and I'd give the same advice my coworker Dan gave me, I wouldn't recommend it. But with a team/group, yeah probably I'd do it again.

STP (Part 1)

2009-07-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

Well before you read too long and any suspense builds, I'll start by saying I attempted the STP 1-day ride and I made it. It took me just over 12 hours in the saddle and just under 15 hours total to ride the 192 miles from my house to the finish line at Halladay Park in Portland. Okay so maybe it wasn't the official stp, (more like the RTP which is 12 miles shorter)

Unfortunately I was riding alone since Anna's knee still hadn't recovered. We were on mile 85 of our 120 mile training ride when her right knee started to give shooting pains. We ended the ride right there in hope it would recover quickly but that didn't end up being the case. Her knee was still sore after icing and couldn't handle much walking as we found out during one House Hunting trip on a regular Monday night. Unfortunately, after all of the regimented training since March, which we stuck too relatively well, she had to miss the race. Fortunately, not without accomplishment, we did complete the Flying Wheels Summer Century (100 mile) in a very good time with average speed of 15.5 MPH. We were quite pleased with this result, especially when you consider the 3 giant hills they hit you with in the first 15 miles, the continuous rolling hills and then climbs 4 and 5 at the end.

When faced with the decision to ride or not, Anna urged me on to still do it. (I think mostly in fear that if I missed it this year, I might try to get her to do it again next year) So I decided to go for it seeing it as my chance to try and achieve a life goal of completing the STP in 1 day. Overall I felt ready from the training and I thought it was worth a shot.

Hitting the Road:
Around 4:30AM I realized it wasn't yet going to be light enough to ride. Fortunately, Anna was up to send me off so I asked her to install the lights on my bike. Around 4:50AM I was ready to rock and just stepped foot outside the door when I noticed my cyclocomputer was bugging out. It was ticking miles up at around 18 MPH and I was of course stationary. So as two engineers we started debugging and spent about 10 minutes still stumped. The unit kept ticking even with the wireless magnetic sensor un-powered but would stop when out of the room. Fortunately Anna was also ticking that morning and realized it was the blinking light that was interfering. We removed the light and I was off for about an 1/8th of a mile before I realized the computer still wasn't working and turned back. We had also forgotten to reinstall the sensor's battery and with that fixed at around 5:10AM, the 'third time's a charm' and I was out the door again and off for good.

Blaze of Glory: (Miles 0-50)
When I met up with the STP route at the Renton airport, traffic was quite thin. Anyone there by that point had definitely left before the first gun at 4:45AM. After a few miles I was passed by a friendly cycling team which had likely been in the first wave and offered "Free rides at the back". I jumped on and they pulled me for about 15 miles at no less than 20MPH until I got dropped off the back. Within a few minutes of riding solo the Boeing guys flew by with a few stragglers and I jumped on the back again. They were nice enough to let us draft behind despite the multitude of 787 jokes, but nevertheless I boarded the dreamliner and they pulled us all the way to "the hill" at a pace of about 19 MPH. We approached the hill with a green light so we didn't have to stop. "Welcome to the Jungle" had just started playing and with fresh legs it was a climb I could handle. The Boeing group thinned out across the hill and three or four of them dismounted and hurriedly snapped photos as the others went by. At the top, were the teams and groups waiting for the stragglers but as a solo riders I just headed on to the first food stop at Spanaway HS. This food stop was by far the largest on the ride. They offered predominately PB&J and fruits as well as Nature Valley granola bars. I filled my waters, ate a sandwich or two, some fruit, mixed in some Gatorade and headed back out.

Spanaway to Centralia: (Miles 50-100)
Once back in the saddle I noticed my knee was quite sore. I was really only able to put about 70% force on it without pain so I started trying to overcompensate with my right leg. As the Boeing team came by again I jumped back on, but realized immediately the pace was too fast and maintaining that would put my knee in much worse shape so I dropped off and decided I was better off riding "slow but steady." I still managed quite well on this next 50 miles riding alone. The road to Yelm was an ok shoulder, but speed on the road was quite high. After Yelm we caught a bike trail that took us all the way to the Tenino mini-stop. At this point I was stopping at the mini-stops primarily for water and bathrooms but didn't stay longer than 10 minutes. I was trying to keep a pace of about 15-16 MPH and at times could get higher. After Tenino it was about 10 easy miles to Centralia. I rolled into Centralia around 11:15AM way ahead of my anticipated pace. Things were just firing up in Centralia, the Beer garden was pronounced open and the food stop line grew immensely between my arrival and my departure. I at two more sandwiches, ham and cheese this time, more fruit and had a chocolate milk. (Couldn't resist, but in hindsight "milk was a bad choice") The first aid table was predominately a sunblock spray station which I wandered into to get Ibuprofen for my knee. As I'm waiting, one of the ladies just started sprayinng me down with sunblock without any mention of it. I needed it anyways so I can't complain, but I guess they assumed if you were willing to approach that area, you were ready to be sunblocked.

I had clocked 86 miles on the odo, which was mile 98 of the STP route, and my average speed was 17.2 MPH. Overall I was pretty pleased with how was I doing, a little concerned about the knee but still feeling good. I talked to Anna on the phone and told her where I had reached. She seemed impressed and driving south but hadn't reach Centralia yet. I was starting to think I could make it into Portland by 5 or 6PM assuming I would probably slow down a little in the second half.

We've started a Blog!

2009-07-01T15:47:00.001-07:00

Here's the first post on this blog. Right now I'm including some text here in order to test and modify the design. More is to come in the future, including pictures and other interesting tid bits about us.