STP 2006: Seattle to Portland in One Day

2006 STP

Warning: long article ahead!

Somehow even with a garage-building project going on and with a 7-month-old baby at home, I've managed to get in a lot of long bike rides and get in the best shape I've seen in several years. "Somehow" means via the immense generosity of my wonderful wife Carol. Even though she works her full-time job as a mom all week long (a job for which I have tremendous respect) she's still willing to let me take off for a six-hour bike ride every couple of weekends.

I've commuted to work by bike almost every day since Christmas. That has also helped my conditioning, even though it's a short ride (6 miles to work, about 10 coming home if I go the "long" way). The ride home has a steep hill no matter which way I go, so that has helped my strength.

Given the good form I've been able to achieve this year, I was ready to repeat last year's longest ride by completing the Seattle to Portland (STP) 200-mile ride in one day. This year I even knew what I was getting in to. Everyone has a different range of experiences during a ride this long. Steve W says everybody suffers at some point on the ride. So this story only relates my own personal experience. Your mileage may vary.

The "team" I rode with was composed of people who come from the loose "club" I ride with often on Saturdays. Several are former racers. This year the crew included Steve Schock, Steve Wyands, and Darby Lippincott all of whom I did the ride with last year. We were joined this year by Peter Kellogg-Smith, Steve Clark and friend of friend Anna Jurgens. Anna is a former racer, but it took a brave woman to jump into a group of strangers at the last minute before a 200-mile ride.

Anyway, on to the ride. We left the start line at 5:40am. We managed to survive the 24 miles of carnage to the first food stop. It's amazing how many people one passes at the start of this ride who seem to have spontaneously fallen off their bicycles. In the first 100 miles we saw about half dozen people laid out on their backs on the road side waiting for an ambulance. Perhaps they try riding in a paceline for the first time but they don't know the primary rule of paceline riding: never let your front tire overlap the rear wheel of the rider in front of you. You will crash. The second rule is never hit your brakes.

Once past the first food stop the route enters the Kent Valley and transitions from urban to a mix of farms and industrial parks. It opens up enough that we could start getting a paceline going. We were able to cruise along at 23-25mph. I took a couple of good strong pulls at the front of the paceline, feeling a lot stronger than last year.

I pulled into the first few food stops with a very full bladder, which meant I was adequately hydrated. Steve W and I decided to stop at the bottom of the only big hill of the ride (at 43 miles) because we didn't want to climb the hill having to pee that badly. Then we chased back, managing to catch the group just as they reached the second food stop at 54 miles.

The next 20 miles cruise down the "back" (east) side of Fort Lewis. This year the route was changed a little and miles 72 to 86 were on a relatively new bike path from Yelm to Tenino. This was an immensely enjoyable part of the ride. The bike path was shaded by trees and passed by a lake and we were flying along so smoothly. Near the end of it, one member of our group forgot the aforementioned primary rule of paceline riding. Anna was leading, the unnamed rider was second and I was third. He touched her wheel and hit his brakes and veered right. His braking brought his wheel back, overlapping mine, and his veer to the right almost took my wheel out from under me. Somehow, purely by instinct, I got my left foot unclipped and skidded it along the asphalt like an outrigger and pushed down on my handlebars which stabilized my front wheel and next thing you know I was still rolling along instead of sprawled on the trail with a broken collarbone and a bunch of road rash. That would have had a negative effect my mood.

I expected a big adrenaline rush, but I didn't feel one immediately. Although when we rolled into the Tenino food stop at mile 86 I noticed my legs were shaking a little. That was close.

The Tenino food stop, by the way, is where I was seriously bonked last year. This year, the adrenaline rush notwithstanding, I was feeling fantastic.

As we were leaving that stop, Darby noticed that a tandem crew she knew had left just ahead of us. I didn't realize it, but we were on a mission to catch them. Next thing you know we were sustaining 27mph on flat ground - that's very fast. We pretty much maintained a pace above 25mph for the remaining 14 miles to the halfway point at Centralia at 100 miles. Our time was 4:53 (fastest century I've ever done) and our average speed was at about 20.2.

In Tenino we ran into friends of Peter named Chris and Adam. They were a couple of strong young bucks who stayed with us the rest of the ride and did a huge amount of pulling.

Anna decided in Centralia that she had had enough of a 25mph pace in the flats. She told us she would separate from the group if she needed to. Steve Clark bonked at the same place I did last year, and like I did last year, caught up to us in Centralia and departed with the group.

Once the route leaves the city streets of Centralia and Chehalis it turns back into rural roads through farms. Just before Napavine, at mile 112 is the second hardest hill of the ride but it isn't too bad; only 1/2 mile long. At mile 122 is a food stop at Winlock. To my teammates' amazement, I ate a hot dog and a Mountain Dew. Most sports foods (Power Bars, etc.) focus on carbohydrates. My body doesn't tolerate a pure carb diet very well during long events. I have to have some significant protein occasionally. Hot dogs seem to work just fine.

Then back in the saddle and powering on. Various members were now starting to suffer a little. When we pulled into the Lexington food stop at mile 145 we all sprawled out on the grass. Then we tried to choke down the ham & cheese sandwiches, nectarines, grapes, fig newtons and oreos provided at the stop. Anna was still with us at this point, but she left the stop before us with the intention of keeping her own comfortable pace the rest of the way.

When we left the stop everybody was feeling a little sluggish. I was in the front and felt like I couldn't go faster than 17. But fairly soon my legs were spinning more freely and soon I was leading out at about 21-22mph. Not too fast for tired riders, but keeping our average above 20 as we'd hoped. Soon I was feeling quite good again and I led for most of the 6 miles into Kelso.

Kelso and Longview feel pretty urban, but traffic was pretty light. At mile 153 the route crosses the Lewis and Clark Bridge over the Columbia River and enters Oregon. The bridge is a fairly significant hill, both up and down. Steve W hit his high speed of the ride at 47mph going down the other side. I didn't check my max speed but I don't think I went that fast. The friendly locals in their oversized pickup trucks threatened to run me down as I was passing slower riders.

The group got split up approaching the bridge because there was a lot of rider traffic. On the other side we each kept our own pace for a while. Peter bonked a little at the bridge and Steve W and myself shortly thereafter. My bonkage was relatively minor. I slowed down to about 16 for a few minutes but soon I was back up at 21. Steve W found a tandem to tag onto and caught back up to me. Steve S and Darby had left us in the dust by now. At mile 166 we pulled into a convenience store for drinks. As we were coming out, Peter pulled in. The three of us felt better after that and we were able to get up a good pace again into the last food stop at mile 175 in the town of St. Helens.

Since Steve W and Peter and I had just stopped recently and the others had been at the St. Helens stop longer, we took off soon. We were all feeling pretty good again at this point. Then, at mile 190, a fast tandem passed us. Whoever was leading our group (I was at the back at the time) decided to chase the tandem and get a free ride into Portland. I got gapped by about 50 yards by the acceleration. I hammered as hard as I could and just about caught up to the group when I blew up and had to back off. I was doing 29mph, which is a record-setting speed for me. The group was riding away from me at 30mph. Amazing. I watched them disappear into the distance knowing I wouldn't see them again until the finish line.

I took a few minutes to recover at about 17mph and then got back up to 21 pretty comfortably. I was starting to get tired, though. I ate a banana I had been carrying, but my body was done eating and moving at the same time. Then at mile 199 the route turns hard right and goes up a steep little hill for a block or two. I bonked completely at that point, climbing the hill at 6mph. Fortunately I was well into Portland now with only a couple of miles to go to the finish. I plodded along and came rolling into the finish about 15 minutes behind the group. I found them all lying on the grass relaxing.

Ironically, Anna had beat us all to Portland. She had already met up with her friend and left the finish area by the time I got there. I guess slow and steady (well, actually just '“not-so-damn-fast" and steady' Anna was by no means slow) wins the race.

My ride time was 10:04 with an average speed of 20.2mph on my computer. The rest of the team did 20.4mph

Overall I was pretty happy with my ride and how I felt during it. The very most important aspect of long endurance events like this is good management of food and liquid. I did really well for the first 140 miles. I think I got overconfident about my hydration and subconsciously started drinking less. That caused me to bonk after the effort of the Longview bridge. I'll have to focus even more on that next year. I was very pleased that I felt quite good until about mile 155. I also had a little breakthrough in that I felt confident enough to eat and drink on the bike while traveling at high speed in a paceline. I used to find that pretty terrifying so I wouldn't eat or drink enough between stops. When the stops are 30 miles apart, one must eat on the bike. Of course, the main thing that contributed to my ability to do that this year was the confidence I had in my teammates and their paceline skills.

Hopefully I'll get enough miles in next spring to do it again next year. Especially with this great group.

Garage Framing Complete

Garage Framing 2

My hugely generous family - brother-in-law Frank, sister Tricia and father Douglas - gave up another day of their lives to come over July 7 and finish the framing of the garage. We had to build the overhangs on the gables, install the barge boards, sheath the remaining walls and then sheath the roof. I should say that Frank did the bulk of the work and we helped him and tried not frustrate him too much.

I now have only a few small tasks to do before we can call for the framing inspection (one of about seven inspections total - we've already done pre-construction, foundation and setback inspections). Once we pass the framing inspection, we can install the roofing and siding and get the garage "dried in". Hopefully I'll get to where I can request the inspection this week.

Last week I had crushed rock delivered and we re-surfaced the alley and blended in the "ramp" to the garage slab. At that point we could park the cars in the garage. Our street is a little busy and we no longer have to load the kids in the car with rude drivers passing going too fast.

By the way, Frank prepared the lumber list for me from the drawing. When the garage was all framed we had about four studs, six 2x4s and six sheets of plywood left. That's a pretty damn good estimate!

Summer Arrives (2006)

Summer Arrives (2006)

We've had very pleasant weather this late spring and early summer. We even had a heat wave (into the 90s) at the very end of Spring.

Charlotte is now seven months old, and Audrey is closing in on officially being two and a half. Audrey is definitely acting "two", throwing tantrums about every little thing. But that's entirely appropriate for her age. Charlotte is really taking to "solid" food and is starting to show signs of wanting to scoot on the floor. Audrey was never one to put everything in her mouth, but Charlotte is making up for that. They are both completely adorable. Carol and I stare at them when they are sleeping and look at each other and acknowledge how very lucky we are.

We took a little 2-day midweek vacation to attend our friends' Jeremy and Jill's wedding in beautiful Mazama (eastern side of the Cascade Mountains). Audrey stayed with Grandma and Grandpa and Charlotte came with us. It was a nice road trip. I rode my bike back over the North Cascades Highway the day after the wedding; Carol left Mazama three hours after me and picked me up where she caught up to me (at Diablo). So I got in about 55 miles with a couple of mountain passes. There are no trucks allowed on that road and wide shoulders, so it is a really enjoyable bike ride. I had several times when there were no cars in sight or earshot and all I could hear were the birds and waterfalls and the hum of my tires.

Not sure what we'll do for the 4th (today). Maybe we'll put the girls in the stroller and walk a mile or so to the overlook where we could see the big fireworks over the Seattle waterfront.

Garage Framing Mostly Complete

Garage: Framing 1

After all the digging and other prep for the garage slab, I was feeling kind of lazy and I wasn't moving too quickly to finish the garage. But Frank and Tricia prodded me indirectly by ordering the trusses for me and Frank prepared the lumber list. So I got quotes and ordered the lumber and everything was delivered late last week. That meant it was time to actually build the thing. We set July 1-2 as the dates for framing, hoping we could do the whole shebang in one weekend.

One of the construction lessons I learned: don't let concrete cure on the anchor bolts that are in the foundation. I thought I would just be able to wire brush the concrete slag off the threads, since the bolts were greased when installed. But when I went to do that Friday night it wasn't so easy; I spent about two hours just cleaning bolts. I guess I should have done that immediately after the concrete was poured.

Tricia, Frank, Adam (Frank's son) and Paulo arrived at 7am sharp Saturday morning and we got started. Frank is a very experienced builder and framer so he was in charge. My dad helped out a bunch, and my mom took Audrey for 24 hours so we didn't have to worry about keeping her out of danger. Jason, the architect, came by for a few hours with his son Alexander. Jason noticed a couple of things that could have been problems for the inspection, but we were able to resolve them. Carol kept us all fed and supplied with drinks. Charlotte supplied all the cuteness we needed.

By 6pm Saturday we had all of the exterior walls up, although some were still missing their sheathing. The sheathing provides the shear strength for the walls, so it's pretty important in keeping the building from falling down. There was a blazing sun all day and by the end we were all pretty baked. Tricia brought spray-on sunscreen and kept us all protected all day.

The crew decided that on Sunday they would not set an alarm and they would come whenever they woke up (they live an hour away in Puyallup). They arrived at 9am and we started cranking again. We still had to sheath those exterior walls and build the lone interior wall, which had to be built such that it could be installed over the plumbing service that sticks up out of the slab. Then we were finally ready to start raising the roof.

Normally you have the trusses delivered after the walls are framed, and the truss company uses a crane to deliver the trusses on top of the walls in bundles. Then you just flip them and place them. We couldn't do it that way because there are utility wires in the alley that are too low. So we had to lift all of the trusses up by hand.

We started with the smaller trusses over the future art studio. Those trusses are relatively light and they went up pretty easily. Plus they were good practice. Also, the westernmost truss of the studio provides the beam on which the main garage trusses hang.

Then it was time to move on to the larger main trusses. It's pretty precarious raising the first one - the gable truss on the end. It has OSB (plywood) nailed to it already when it is raised, so it's heavy. And you have to lift it to vertical but not let it fall over and off the side of the building. We managed to do it successfully. The rest of the trusses take some time, but the process is pretty straightforward. We finally got the last truss up and braced at about 6pm. Everybody was tired and sun-baked again, so we called it a day.

We probably still have about a day's worth of work to do before the framing work is complete. We need to build the edge features for the roof (barge boards and overhangs and other trim), then we can install all of the roof sheathing. At that point, I can call for the framing inspection. Once we pass that, I can start installing roofing and siding and get the building dried in.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with what we able to accomplish in two days!