Seven Hills of Kirkland - ah, just throw in a few more!

Today was one of those crucial training milestones. Yep, pretty much every weekend until the big ride is a milestone ride. I did the Seven Hills of Kirkland ride - and chose the metric century route. They also have 40 miles which is the traditional 7 hills and also a century ride which is 14 hills. All of the routes hone in on the major hills of the east side of suburban King county and the metric route is no slouch with 4,600 feet of climbing in 59 miles.

Here is the official hill list:

• Market
• Juanita
• Seminary
• Norway
• Kingsgate
• Winery
• Rose
• Education - outbound
• Novelty
• McWhirter
• Education - return

I rode this ride about four years ago and was caught a bit off guard. It kind of kicked my butt. Today was MUCH better. I decided to start out slow on the hills and use my triple chain ring. The ride immediately starts off on a hill and you're slammed, dead to rights, right into reality. I held back on the first half of the ride and this definitely felt like it helped my energy later on. Could it be... to go faster, one only needs to go slower?

Here is my route:

The weather was a bit challenging as well. It was a cool, cloudy day with 2-3 steady downpours that you made you wish you had put the fenders on the bike and wore some shoe booties.

I even had a few guys asking me about if I felt bad taking the Seven out in the rain and getting it all dirty. I thought, geeze, maybe I should treat dah 7 wit' more respect.

The best parts of the day:
1. Feeling strong and as if all the freakin' time/miles/energy I have been putting in is paying off
2. The bag piper at the top of Winery Hill (a bitch of a short, steep hill)
3. Coming across a guy stopped right on the road taking a pee without getting off the bike. Mad bladder. Mad skills.

The worse pats of the day:
1. The weather.
2. Two unfortunate guys, both at the same place, at the same time, while trying to start out on a hill - succumbed to the 'oh shit, I can't get clipped in on this freakin' steep hill and I just realized I can't move and I am going down!'
3. Road construction on NE Novelty Hill Road that gave no room for bikes. Very dodgy. Nice if public works projects considered all who may use the roadway during construction.

This is a great ride and proceeds go to end homelessness within the Eastside communities. One word of caution... you better like hills.

Scott

The piper:

Norway Hill sign and an ominous warning: