7/01/97
Well, it's Tuesday, and I have some free time so I think I'll make another entry.
The regular ride on Saturday was kind of interesting. Matt, Dave, Ken, and Don showed up at the IMA, like normal. Ken had to go to the clinic, and Matt had to go home fairly soon, so we went northwards. When we got to Logboom Park, there were a lot of people there. It looked like STP or something. Many, many teams. Ken had to go to work from there, but the rest of us joined the huge group. They were going north from the park. It was quite hilly, but no too fast because of the sheer number of people in the pack.
Just as we were leaving the park, Dave hit my rear tire and he went down. Or I cut him off and made him go down. He was unhurt. His bike wasn't any worse either, because it was already scratched up when he and Don (the other one) were driving to the STP start, his bike flew off the rack on the highway.
After some tame climbs, the group stopped at a church. Matt left at that time, as did about half the huge pack. Don, Dave, and I kept with the others, but me and Dave were starting to fall off the back, with a couple other people. But I dropped a chain on a long descent and Dave and Don waited for me, so that was that for following the pack.
Luckily, Don knew his way around, so we went up towards Edmonds. It was close to his workplace. On the way south, we went on this long, uncrowded bike trail that follows the I-5. It was kind of interesting. Good surface, very few pedestrians.
On Sunday, it looked kind of rainy, so I didn't go to the Sunday ride. Me and Lan went to lab. But we got off early enough so that we could try mountain biking for the first time. We went to St. Edwards Park, recommended to me by Jessica (a fellow graduate student). After some wrong turns, we made it to the parking area. There were a few other mtb'ers around. The park is a converted seminary school as far as I can tell. There's quite a bit of woods surrounding it, and there are a bunch of trails snaking through the area. About half are hiking only, and the other half hiking and biking. We went on all the trails. Most were flat, with some steep parts. There was one pretty tricky trail with lots of obstacles. And there was one long gradual descent down to the lake. It was pretty nice, except fot the hundreds of large black slugs that were on the ground. Lan held up much better than I thought she would. I wonder if we're ready for a more challenging mountain bike ride?
This week, I think I'll skip the Seward Thursday race. There's the Joe Matava Crit on Friday (July 4th) followed by the Freemont Crit on Saturday. I think I'll try to save myself for those races. I think they won't be hilly as Seward, so I may do better there.