The Standard

Today is the day! Today Jason and I have embarked on our journey to travel 10,000 miles in one year. Last night Jason received his bike in the mail which he then assembled this morning. After fighting horrible downtown traffic I arrived at his place this morning and we installed out new odometers. In the photo mine is the Cateye on the left, his is the Bell.


Jason took a little bit of last minute prep at his house before we took off. We then went to get gas and found Jason forgot his wallet in his backpack back at home. Shortly thereafter we were on the road to success. We stopped in at Performance Bike in the University District and bought some spare tubes, patch kits and some energy gels. then we drove to our real destination.

We parked at the Lake Washington Boulevard Park and prepared. This is the spot where we had our first ride roughly a year ago. We've set it up as our 'Standard" ride. We know the trip, the challenges, the distance and our spot to take a break near the Boeing plant.

It is not a very long route, the southern loop we take is only about 23 miles. But it has its share of hills and at least one direction of good headwind against us. We felt coming here would be the best place to kick off our miles of adventure. Plus we would be able to compare this trip on our new bikes compared to the ones we've gone on before.

The morning was beautiful. It was sunny and crisp. We could see all of the Cascades and their snow covered peaks in the distance. Mt. Rainer towered in the south east. We reset our trip odometers, and I started up the "My Tracks" app on my Droid phone and we were off. It was a little chilly at the start. I'm normally a warm bodied rider, so I only had my bike jersey shirt and shorts. Jason wore his jacket. I felt the sting of the air as we crossed the I-90 bridge. Jason's first bike issue was his stat height. We fixed it and moved on. I could tell a difference from not riding as much through the winter, plus the three months of no bike. But soon I had warmed up and felt my pace return. Around 13 miles in we took a pit stop to compare notes on our three computers. They all were very close to one another. The difference was there, but not to a large degree. But mathematically that will add up. But the differences may counter each other to get a good enough aggregate number.

The ride overall was amazing, but the fact that we have begun felt even better. I'm glad we started on such a great note today Because there will be difficulties ahead. For now though, let this be our standard.

-Ry