June STP training diary

June has been a blur, full of long bike rides as I enter the final stretch of training for STP. I really feel like biking is the only thing I’ve done this month. It’s basically a part-time job. 😂 I thought I’d journal about a few of my rides and share the photos. Follow along my “training diaries.”

June 28

Yesterday, I did my longest bike ride ever: 124 miles! It was also the hilliest bike ride I’ve ever done, clocking just over 7,000 feet. I rode with the group I’ll be riding STP with. 

STP (Seattle to Portland) is the annual big ride in the PNW. It has something like 7,000 people participate each year–it’s a huge event. In total, it is 206 miles and you can do it in one day or two. This year I am attempting to do it in one day with a goal of averaging 18 mph. If all goes well, that is “only” 12 hours of moving time. (That’s still a looooooong time.)

Our route yesterday was much more climby than what STP will be, so it wasn’t a 1:1 comparison. STP is notably “flat” with only 5,000 feet of elevation over 200 miles. Yesterday, we did something like 6200 feet in only 92 miles. Even with all of that elevation, I still averaged 15.3 miles per hour (!), which is crazy to me. In our group, I was the slowest person on the climbs, which is always a tough position to be in. (I feel like I’m the slowest person on climbs in every group ride, which is also crazy to me because I’ve gotten so much faster than I used to be! There’s always a faster fish, I guess.) Even though we regroup at the top of hills, I found myself pushing a little too hard on the climbs so that I didn’t drop too far behind. On the flats, it was easy to hang onto a wheel and cruise along at 18-20mph–it’s the climbs that get me. Hopefully, STP will feel like a breeze compared to all the climbing we did yesterday! According to my power meter, I burned something like 3,500 calories on the ride. Ouch.

I wore the same outfit I plan to wear during STP and also brought my Camelbak along to test. While I’d love to not wear something on my back,  I think it’s the best choice for me to stay hydrated. We’ll probably only be making 4 stops (about every 50 miles), so I want to make sure I have plenty of water for when it gets hot. Plus, it’s hard for me to eat and drink while holding a draft, so I’m trying to make it as easy as possible to take sips constantly. My plan: Two bottles full of drink mix (carbs!) and the hydration bladder on my back, and then some extra snackies in my top tube bag. That should easily get me through 50 miles and then some. During STP we’re hoping to make quick stops and move constantly. Yesterday was good practice–during my eight hour ride, I only had one hour of stopped time. At each stop, I would rush to use the bathroom, refill bottles, re-apply sunscreen, eat a sandwich, then go.    

During the final hour my knees were hurting a little bit and my neck and shoulders were hurting too. I was tired and just wanted to close my eyes. Otherwise, I felt okay, but as soon as I finished my ride, I felt an immense wave of tiredness wash over me and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. I honestly can’t imagine riding for another four hours! I got home and laid down on the floor and forced myself to eat some dinner.

My heart rate was a little high all night, and I didn’t get deep sleep. Pretty typical for me after a lot of exertion–recovery doesn’t seem to come that easily to me. I don’t know how ultra endurance folks do it! Today I feel tired and groggy and am forcing myself to eat and hydrate and be “recovery minded,” as my coach says.

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June 20

I’m 3 weeks out from doing Seattle to Portland in one day–206 miles! I’m feeling okay about it, but I’m nervous about the heat. Three years ago when I did it (over two days, not one) it was 95F+ in the afternoon. The heat is really the one thing I can’t control for, and in the past, my body hasn’t done well with it. Just a few weekends ago, we went and biked Sunrise road at Mt. Rainier. It was only in the 80s, and I had such a hard time. Despite all the training I’ve been doing, I was slower on the climb than I was last year, which didn’t make me feel that confident about STP.

I think I’ll finish the ride. I’ve been doing long rides, and my endurance is there. The main question is: how much suffering will I endure? Mentally, I’m bracing to get dropped by the group sometime after mile 100. I hope that doesn’t happen, but I’d rather be (mentally) prepared for soloing the end.

Another challenge will be eating and hydrating while drafting a group, and keeping my heart rate low enough in the heat so that I don’t blow up. We’ll start at 4:45 a.m. to try to get as much riding as we can done before the heat sets in. But even with that early of a start and trying to average 18 mph, we’ll still have to bike through the hottest hours of the day (at least until 5pm, and that’s without stops). 

Still, it’s been 3 years since I last rode STP. While I struggled last time with the heat, I hadn’t even trained for STP…and I still finished it averaging almost 15mph. Considering all the riding and training I’ve done since then, I should be much better conditioned to do this ride, and even if it is super hot, hopefully I’ll handle the heat better than I did in the past. 

This weekend, I have another long ride (8 hours) on my training plan, and it’s one of my last ones before the big day. I plan to wear the same clothes & bike set up that I’ll be using for STP to make sure everything works. It’ll be a good test to see how I’m feeling, and if I can fuel correctly. As “nervous” as I am about the event, I’m also starting to get excited for it. It’s not a race, so it’s really more about personal bests and endurance, for me. 

And actually, you know what I’m most afraid of? Getting stung by a bee or wasp on the ride! The number of buzzy things that fly into me while biking is a lot! On my last long ride, I got stung by a honey bee that landed on my arm. It wasn’t trapped, but decided to sting me anyways. Not cool! (Ironically, I’m really enjoying Olivia Rodrigo’s new song Honeybee.) Last September I got stung on the leg while biking around the Olympic Peninsula, and the year before that I got stung in my helmet. And a friend got stung on the belly while riding together. So, yeah, honestly, that’s what I’m most worried about, lol. 

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June 14

Besides doing a lot of long rides lately, I’ve been trying to climb a lot every week. (After all, I have Austria to train for, too!). We just rode Sunrise road at Mt. Rainier National Park. We did this last year and it was one of my favorite rides of the year — no cars, pretty smooth road! 

We heard through the grapevine that the road was clear of snow, so we decided to drive there in hopes that we could bike it. For some reason, there is really terrible communication between the park and construction workers and cyclists. They won’t post anywhere whether or not it’s open to cyclists, so you just have to drive there and hope for the best. (Unlike the North Cascades Highway, where they regularly post updates on IG about whether or not cyclists can ride the road or not.)

Usually, this time of year, Sunrise is open to cyclists on the weekends. But when we got there, the ranger told us it was closed because one construction worker decided to work on Sunday morning but “maybe” it would be open by 1 p.m. We decided to bike to Crystal Mountain ski resort while we waited. There’s a restaurant at the ski resort, so we ate some food, enjoyed the views, then biked back to the park a little after 1 p.m. 

As I biked through the gate, the ranger told us again, “Just so you know, it’s still closed.” I was so disappointed! Then some cyclists arrived in the parking lot, who had just returned from descending. They said it had been open for them. Very conflicting reports. Some other cyclists said: “The construction workers waved us through.” and “They keep flipping the sign.” 

We decided to bike the five miles uphill to see the road closure for ourselves. Sure enough, when we got there, the gate said it was open to cyclists! From what we gathered, it sounded like it had been open all along. (Note to self: Always check for yourself.) 

I was so glad that we got to do the climb after all. Unfortunately, it was now the hottest part of the day. I had gone into the climb thinking I would easily PR my time from last year. After all, I’ve biked and climbed more than I ever have and should be more fit than I was last year. I’ve only done the climb once before, so it’s not like I have a lot of PRs to beat. But I really struggled on the climb. A combination of heat and period cramps, I think. It’s a bit of a mental game seeing everyone else fly past you and be one of the slowest ones in the group, even with all the riding I do. I guess I just know a lot of fast cyclists. 

Eventually, I made it to the top, felt like throwing up and crying at the same time, took a few photos, felt extremely gross and sweaty, then started the descent. Approximately 15 bugs flew into me on the descent (very buggy, very buzzy). Fortunately, nothing stung. One fun thing was passing the e-bikes on the descent. I did PR the descent….but even though I averaged 26.3 mph, I was still the slowest in our group descending, lol! 

In total we rode 53 miles with 6,023 feet of vert! While I’m in Austria, I have a few rides I’m hoping to do that will also be 5,000-7000 feet of climbing, so it’s good practice. Interestingly, I notice that as soon as I’m over 5,000 feet of elevation, the altitude starts to impact me. Kaelan seems unaffected, but he grew up at altitude. A few of the rides I’m planning in Austria will top out around 6,000 feet (and one will top out at 8,500), so it will be interesting how my body will handle that.

June 11

Bday century. For my long ride this week, I decided to do a birthday century. It’s now the third year in a row that I have biked a century in honor of my birthday — a fun tradition. I started the day super early by joining a women’s group ride in the AM and convinced my friend, Louise, to come out and join, even though she was already doing another bike ride in the evening. We had gorgeous views of downtown Seattle and Rainier, and ended at a cafe where we enjoyed coffee and pastries and chatting with other ladies. After the group ride (which took around 1.5 hours), I needed to ride for another 6.5. I was so tired after not getting good sleep the night before and really didn’t want to do the rest of my ride, but I decided to keep going.

Although it was a beautiful day, it was perhaps the most I’ve struggled mentally with a ride. I really wanted to quit and just be done. I took a long lunch break at home and laid down with my legs up the wall. I also was frustrated with my BRAND NEW Wahoo bike computer because the battery has been incredibly unreliable. I had started at 70% and it had already dropped to 36% after only 2.5 hours of riding (it is advertised as having a 25 hour battery). I took three long stops during my ride and charged it each time because it kept getting down to 20-30%, and I was worried it was going to die on me.

Finally, after my long lunch break, I decided that I would keep going and try to finish the century. I was finally feeling better and in the home stretch, cruising around one of my favorite bike loops in Seattle at mile 87 when…I honeybee flew into me and landed on my arm. I told myself not to panic, as I was going downhill quite fast and couldn’t immediately do anything about the bee. I also thought honeybees aren’t that aggressive and hoped it would fly away. I tried to lightly blow on it, thinking that would make it fly away…

Unfortunately, shortly after doing that, I felt a sting. I pulled off the side of the rode, and brushed the bee off of me. Sure enough, my arm had a little red circle forming. Since the honeybee flew away, I think it only gave me a partial sting (apparently they can do that). I was so upset!

Somehow, I managed to eke out the final 15 miles to finish my century ride, but it’s probably one of the hardest rides I’ve ever done. I’ve never wanted to quit so many times.