I decided to try to ride around Lake Washington, much as I've done before, but this time I wanted to do the full loop--continue on South to Renton where the south part of the lake ends and then head back north on the west side to Seattle.
Prior to leaving I pumped my tires up to 80PSI--turned out the pressure was at about 40. I started out fast and was going at about 19.5mph for most of the the time on the flat parts of the Burke-Gilman Trail. The weather was nice--sunny and 48 at 3pm. I was feeling good but decided to stop at a park in Kirkland on the NW side of Lake Washington to eat a cereal bar and get some water. The water was shut-off for the winter unfortunately. I stayed about 5 minutes. About 28 miles in around the I-90 junction where I usually turn west to Seattle I was feeling a bit tired. By the time I got to Renton it was getting slightly dark and very chilly and so I decided to stop at a gas station on the SW corner of the lake by Renton Airport. I ate a corn dog and a doughnut, and drank a hot tea :-). Great combination I know, but it worked. It was probably only in the upper 30s when I left and completely dark but I brought a front and back light so no problem there. The cold was getting to me, but I enjoyed it in the sense that it was a challenge to make it back, and I had a beautiful view of the lake with a full moon north of Seward Park about 10 miles from home. The road (Lake Washington Blvd.) at that point has no lights, so the view was spectacular. Next time I'll wear something warmer. I knew it would get cold later, but it was too hot to start out in tights. What I should have done is bring leg warmers (which I have to buy first) and stuck them in the back of my long-sleeve shirt. Toe-warmers and full-length gloves would have helped too...
So, a great ride! I'm looking forward to doing it again in the near future. The total time on my Forunner was 3:31:49, but it took me about 50-55 minutes longer because of stops (I have the device set to auto-stop when the speed is less than 4mph).
BTW, this is another Google map created by GPSVisualizer.com. I've tried to make the map interactive, just like you can on Google, but have been enable to get the code to work. I think that's because you can't use certain scripts on Blogger. But, here is a link to an interactive map of the area without the track of today's bike ride.
Total: 54.1mi Bike Ride; 1999 cal.
Prior to leaving I pumped my tires up to 80PSI--turned out the pressure was at about 40. I started out fast and was going at about 19.5mph for most of the the time on the flat parts of the Burke-Gilman Trail. The weather was nice--sunny and 48 at 3pm. I was feeling good but decided to stop at a park in Kirkland on the NW side of Lake Washington to eat a cereal bar and get some water. The water was shut-off for the winter unfortunately. I stayed about 5 minutes. About 28 miles in around the I-90 junction where I usually turn west to Seattle I was feeling a bit tired. By the time I got to Renton it was getting slightly dark and very chilly and so I decided to stop at a gas station on the SW corner of the lake by Renton Airport. I ate a corn dog and a doughnut, and drank a hot tea :-). Great combination I know, but it worked. It was probably only in the upper 30s when I left and completely dark but I brought a front and back light so no problem there. The cold was getting to me, but I enjoyed it in the sense that it was a challenge to make it back, and I had a beautiful view of the lake with a full moon north of Seward Park about 10 miles from home. The road (Lake Washington Blvd.) at that point has no lights, so the view was spectacular. Next time I'll wear something warmer. I knew it would get cold later, but it was too hot to start out in tights. What I should have done is bring leg warmers (which I have to buy first) and stuck them in the back of my long-sleeve shirt. Toe-warmers and full-length gloves would have helped too...
So, a great ride! I'm looking forward to doing it again in the near future. The total time on my Forunner was 3:31:49, but it took me about 50-55 minutes longer because of stops (I have the device set to auto-stop when the speed is less than 4mph).
BTW, this is another Google map created by GPSVisualizer.com. I've tried to make the map interactive, just like you can on Google, but have been enable to get the code to work. I think that's because you can't use certain scripts on Blogger. But, here is a link to an interactive map of the area without the track of today's bike ride.
Total: 54.1mi Bike Ride; 1999 cal.
posted by Severe Training at 9:05 PM
1 Comments:
Sandy,
I posted a close-up of the south end of the loop here: http://severetraining.blogspot.com/2006/03/this-is-close-up-of-south-end-of-lake.html
Yes, part of it is on Rainier Ave S. and it sucks...
-ST
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