Seattle

My last training ride was quite different because it was around Seattle, Washington. A few weeks ago, I bought a new bicycle — a Ritchey Breakaway. The unique thing about this bicycle is that the frame comes apart into two pieces, and it comes with a suitcase that all the parts fit into. The suitcase is the size of normal large luggage, so it can be checked in at the airline without incurring an oversize baggage penalty.

Vaishali had a work conference in Seattle, and I decided to join her. The week before we went, I practiced packing and unpacking the bicycle. It takes me about an hour to do each. With more practice, I expect to do it faster. After packing the bike for the trip, I was able to also stuff clothes, shoes, and other small things into the suitcase. The weight limit was 50 pounds, and I easily slid underneath that at 45 pounds.

The bicycle going from assembled, to disassembled, to packed. Click on any image to see the larger image in detail.

My fear was that if I did not pack things correctly, the bicycle could be damaged if the bag was handled roughly, but it reached Seattle intact. I assembled it and found that everything was in working order. We spent Saturday and Sunday with our friends Prabha and Unmesh. Unmesh and I went for a pleasant 26 mile ride on the Burke Gilman Trail on Sunday.

Vaishali started her conference on Monday, and I had that whole day open for riding. I did some research before the trip to find the best place to ride. I decided on a route called the "Seven Hills of Kirkland". This is a 35 mile loop containing seven hills, starting in the city of Kirkland, which is about 15 miles from downtown Seattle. The biggest wildcard was the weather. Rain is the norm for Seattle, but I had been lucky that the forecast for Monday was no precipitation.

Click for interactive map.

I left the hotel room at 9:00am, crossed Lake Washington on the I-90 bridge (which has a wide separated pathway for pedestrians and cyclists), and pedaled across Mercer Island on a nice bike path. I then crossed another bridge and reached Bellevue. From here, I followed a route on city streets (most with bike lanes) north to Kirkland. Once I reached the "Seven Hills" route, I could see the route markings on the road. This was very convenient because I never needed to consult my map, as there were clear markings at all the relevant intersections.

Here is an example of the road markings. This one indicates "continue straight at the intersection".

I had not eaten breakfast, so I became quite hungry by midday. After completing four of the seven hills, I stopped around 1:00pm to eat lunch at a Subway. The hills were challenging, but not excessively steep. The inclines I usually train on are steeper and longer. I was keeping a slower pace that normal because I was on an unfamiliar route plus I had to watch to stay on my planned route.

Re-energized after lunch, I continued and finished the loop. The day was relatively cool (60's) but that was great riding weather because I never got too hot. I needed my jacket in the morning when I started and after lunch because I had cooled down, but the rest of the time I did not wear it.

After the loop, I retraced my morning route — back to Bellevue, then Mercer Island, then downtown Seattle. I returned to the hotel room at 4:30pm, and Vaishali was still in her meeting. After she was finished, I joined her and her coworkers for dinner. We walked to a nearby restaurant, and I ate a huge meal. I was pretty hungry after my 75 mile ride.

After dinner, I disassembled and packed the bicycle. I had to get up early (3:45am) the next day for my flight back home. I specifically chose a Tuesday flight so that I would have no restrictions on my ride Monday. The first trip with my bicycle was a complete success. Hopefully there will be many more to come.

Double Century Energy Intake/Output

My report on the Davis Double Century was pretty long, so I left out some details on what I ate. I still wanted to document it, so I am writing this as a supplemental report.

This event was clearly the largest/longest single output of energy I have done, most likely in my entire life. I have no objective measure of exactly how much energy I burned on that day. Some cyclists use a power meter to get an exact measure, but I do not have one.

Instead, I will estimate it based on the total amount of time I cycled and the average rate of energy usage for strenuous cycling. This is not very precise, but it gives a good estimate. I have read from various sources (like this one) that strenuous cycling for someone my weight (currently 158 pounds) burns roughly 600 to 800 calories per hour. I think 700 calories per hour is a reasonable estimate for my activity. I was coasting downhill part of the time, but was also putting out extra effort uphill part of the time.

If I use my full time-on-bike measure of 13 hours, I come up with a total of 9100 calories. This is in the same range as what other people reported, so this estimate should be close to the actual value.

Now to calculate the energy intake. I really ate a lot of food that day. Almost all of it is normally considered "junk" food, but on a day of extraordinary exertion, it really was "essential" food. I ate before I started, and I ate at each of the 10 stops I made on the route (although at the last stop I ate only one cookie).

The second rest stop and the wonderful food on display.
Cookies, crackers, fig newtons, bagels, cakes, packaged energy bars,
peanut butter / jelly, bread, and then fruit on the last far table.

I chose food based on how much energy it contained, how quickly it would digest, and sometimes if it had necessary minerals. This meant I ate large amounts of cookies, cakes, and potato chips. All three of these contain dense energy, and the chips has large amounts of sodium. At the lunch stop, I also ate a cheese sandwich and some oily pasta salad. I had started the day with a large donut. I ate pieces of orange and banana at regular intervals.

I made an estimate of how many calories I consumed:

1 apple fritter        800
12 oreo cookies        600
10 chocolate chip      600
4 pieces pound cake    600
handfuls potato chips  500
pasta salad            400
cheese sandwich        500
5 cans cola            750
2 oranges              150
2 bananas              200
--------------------------
Total                 5100

Even though this is a large intake of food, it only accounts for just over half the energy that was burned. The rest needed to come from my body's energy stores.

I weighed myself Friday morning before work (I drove to Davis straight from the office) and I was 158 pounds. I weighed myself after returning on Sunday morning and I was 148. I had to stare at the scale for a while to be sure I was reading it properly. But, of course, most of the difference was due to water loss, not tissue loss. I was thirsty and hungry most of Sunday, and immediately got a few pounds back from eating and hydration.

One thing I did differently is that I did not drink just water, like I usually do. My boss, Joel, (himself a triathlete) recommended some electrolyte replacement tablets called Nuun. Since I had problems with dehydration on my last century, I decided to give it a try.

I carried two water bottles with me. I kept one as just pure water, and the other I filled with water and added a Nuun tablet. The Nuun has no calories (no carbohydrates). It is supposed to have a lime flavor, but to me it tasted more like tender coconut (which is actually an excellent natural source of electrolytes). I cannot say for sure that it made a difference, but I had no dehydration problems the whole day. Plus I had no cramping. I may continue to use it for rides that are long and hot.