Rapha Festive 500 results

Here are some words about my go at Rapha's Festive 500. Ride 500km from December 23-December 31. No indoor riding. These are entries I wrote each day and before you get your hopes up too high, I did not ride all 310 miles. But I'm not bummed about it. This challenge got me on my bike when I probably wouldn't have otherwise. And it got me enough miles to make December my biggest bike mileage month of the year. Who'da thought?!

December 24th - 28 miles
Hopped on the bikes Christmas Eve morning with my man friend to do some last minute shopping. We felt how quiet the roads were and took advantage. Did 2 loops of Magnolia and then to the U District and back. This is the farthest I've ridden my CX bike and I could tell how much harder it was than riding my road bike. Burned more calories though so I ate a couple more date pinwheel cookies my Mom made that evening.

December 26th - 31.5
Started out my daily mileage with my commute to work. It was chilly, but not "oh my gawd it's freakin' cold out" cold. I had a headwind for 3 of the 5 mile ride, which made for a slower than expected ride, but it was dry, no rain. All those holiday goodies are making me so sluggish! Such a bittersweet relationship with those goodies.

At lunch, I went for a ride by myself out around Mercer Island, which came to 21.5 miles. It was hard to get myself dressed and out the door, but once I did, I felt good. The rain held off for most of the ride, just a few sprinkles. I saw about a half dozen other riders on the island and all of them gave me a nod. I wondered if any of them were doing the Festive 500 and then secretly decided that yes, they were.

I felt good this ride. Better than the morning's commute, that's for sure. It was one of those rides that I could have kept going for another 20 if work didn't await me back in Seattle. Sometimes, rides by myself are mentally tough because I want that other person to push me harder and to be there to chat with, but today was nice. It was just me and the poor, dirty Masi. Girl needs a bath.

My ride home from work was uneventful except realizing that I had a flat as I walked my bike out of the office. At least I got one then rather than in the middle of my ride in the dark...

December 27th - 41 miles
Didn't realize it was raining out until I got on my bike to ride to work. Got wet enough to feel it on the skin. I could've sworn the weather man said no rain today...

Another lunch time ride, but this time with company! We set out for 30 miles around Mercer Island and around Seward Park. 31 miles, a little over 2 hours. Stoked to have averaged over 15mph and it didn't even feel as if we were riding that fast. 

Ride home was a breeze as I had friends to ride with.

2 flats for the week

December 28th - 46 miles
I'm now at 147 miles and know there is no way that I can get 163 more miles in the next 3 days. Well, I could if all I did was ride my bike, but believe it or not, I do have a life, so that high of mileage just isn't going to happen. But all these miles aren't going without notice. After today's miles, I am 64 miles away from beating my bike mileage in 2011. If I exceed 2,089 miles this year, I'll call that a big success.

Did the normal bike commute this morning...stellar sunrise over Rainier, but too lazy to stop and snap a photo. Mental image, noted. Lunch time called for another longer ride. We did 36 miles in 2:20 and it was glorious, but tiring. After 3 days of riding longer than I'm used to, my legs are feeling freakin' tired. I definitely felt it the last 10 miles of this ride. I couldn't complain though, it was sunny in Seattle, the Cascades were clear and snow-capped, and I learned a new route to add to my book. Bonus!

 

Although it was 43 degrees, at least it was sunny

December 29th - 30.5 miles
I had hoped to get in 50 miles today, but I was beat by weather. I started out my ride with a loop around Lake Samammish (22 miles) and all was well. It was raining a bit, but bearable and my legs were tired, but I was still able to keep a decent speed. The coldness didn't start to bother me until I met up with a friend for a second loop. The minute I got back on my bike for the 2nd time, I felt frozen. I had put on another layer, but my fingers were so numb! They hurt they were so cold. So cold that I couldn't feel when I shifted and I couldn't grasp the brake well enough to brake. After 4 long miles of battling the cold, we decided that it wasn't safe to keep going, so we headed back. I sat in my car on the verge of tears trying to warm my hands back up. I've never felt the pain of cold before like that. Awful!

post ride beers. a staple of life

December 30 - 11 miles
I didn't plan to get any miles in today because we went up to Alpental for some snowboarding, but we made a nighttime ride to the Big Time Brewery for a beer, which added on a couple miles for the day.

December 31st - 50 miles
Rode into work this morning, as usual. My body overall was feeling tired from logging in so many miles and snowboarding yesterday, but I peddled on.

Lunch ride ended up being longer than expected. Since we did the South Lake Washington Loop on Friday, we decided to do the North loop today. Weather was cool, but no rain. This ride was the hilliest of all the rides we've done in the past week and boy did my legs feel it! A few good climbs wiped me out and I was happy to be done after 40 miles.

And for the last ride of 2013, I rode my bike home from work.

Total mileage from December 23-31 = 238

Thanks to Rapha and the Festive 500 challenge! Thanks to them, good riding friends, and decent weather, I logged 238 miles when I probably would have rode closer to 50.