"Spinner" John below Cougar Mountain...
I have a bevy of friends and colleagues named John. When speaking with Hottie it is easy for us to get confused, so we refer to them with nicknames. There is 2020 John, Crash John (from a photo, sorry), Bacon John, an assortment of John’s I work with, and finally Spinner John who teaches a spin class Hottie and I attend.
Spinner John is the one who invited me to go and do the Davis Double Century next month. Our schedules aligned and we went for a long ride this weekend. It was wet, but mild, so being a little wet was not a problem. We took a winding route out toward Snohomish and then turned south southeast and made our way to Carnation.
Between Snohomish and Carnation..
Then to Issaquah via a Tolt Hill detour and then with well over fifty miles behind us, we ascended Zoo Hill (a.k.a. L’ Alp d’ Issaquah). When you are on a steep hill it is all about your power to weight ratio and the second part of that equation is where it all falls apart for me. I moved my chain as far left as it would go and spun until I had climbed just over one thousand feet in less than two miles (yes, that means an AVERAGE of over 9% grade, max grade 20%). At the top I stretched and emptied a water bottle and then we made our way to Mercer Island and the familiar route home.
We ended up with just over ninty miles on the day and 5,600’ of climbing. A quick shower and on to a productive day with the help of the compression tights Hottie got me for Valentine’s Day. I wore those babies the rest of the day and slept in them. The next morning as I was dashing up and down the stairs in the morning encouraging Tux to mark his territory outside I realized my legs were feeling fine with almost no soreness. Good ride and post ride nutrition, stretching, and those tights made a difference.
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