The Year 2020 in Review: COVID-19, Cycling and Positive Memories

Author:  Mike Hassur

Aah, 2020… what a year it’s been… lots of unpleasant memories (COVID-19, isolation, social distancing, wearing a mask, social unrest, etc.).  Nothing good about 2020… right?  WRONG… there were, at least, a few 2020 bright spots in our lives this year, and I would like to share some of mine. 

One of my biggest disappointments of the year was having to cancel all of our planned Puyallup Cyclopath (PC) Rides for 2020 because of Coronavirus concerns.  As usual, we had met in February to decide on our official PC ride schedule.  We’d come up with a schedule of rides (some old standards and some new) that looked to be both challenging and fun (2020 PuyallupCyclopath Ride Schedule); and, then, the Coronavirus came.  I touched bases with a few of my physician friends, and the consensus was that cycling in a fairly large group was probably not wise.  Having to cancel our rides was disappointing to me on a number of levels.  I like the physical nature of those rides, I like the locales in which we ride (i.e. the mountains), and – most importantly – I like the people with whom I share those rides.

Well, that sucked!!  So, what to do now?  I decided that I would have a summer of solo rides located primarily on the Foothills Trail starting at the Puyallup Trail Head (with the occasional “social distanced” ride with one or two other riders sprinkled in as well).  I had been doing spinning class at the YMCA over the winter on a regular basis and riding my rollers some, so I was in decent shape.  I began to get outside for a couple of rides in late February; and on February 22^nd, I did a 23-mile ride and averaged 18.0 mph.  I was pretty pleased with that average speed, and it made me think “since I can’t ride with my buddies and visit (visiting being one of my favorite things to do on a ride), maybe I’ll focus on my average speed during these solo rides and see how it goes”.  By March 1^st, I’d done a few more rides including a 25-miler at 18.2 mph.  On March 3^rd, a 40-mile ride to Buckley and Wilkeson at 17.6 mph.  On the following day, the same 40-mile ride resulted in 17.8 mph; and now I’m starting to think now, “hey, this could be fun”!!  After a couple of more rides, March 9^th produced a 31-mile ride (just past South Prairie and back at 18.9 mph (tantalizing close to 19 mph).  The next day (March 10^th): 34 miles at 19.7 mph (“what the heck – this is really fun and sort of close to 20 mph”).  March 11^th was sort of like throwing cold water on my enthusiasm - literally.  I did a 30 mile ride to South Prairie and back.  It was cold and starting to rain as I approached South Prairie which meant that I was wet and really cold all the way back to Puyallup – so much so that I couldn’t stop shaking when I arrived at my van, and my peripheral vision was “strobing”.  A March 16^th 49-mile ride with Les Becker down into the Nisqually area rekindled my enthusiasm.  Late March had quite a bit of rain, so my riding was mostly some hill repeats in our neighborhood in case I had to abandon quickly.  April brought better weather; and on April 1^st, I did my 34-mile ride past South Prairie at 19.5 mph (still sort of close to 20 mph, but no cigar).  April 9^th brought a 51-mile ride (including Wilkeson, Carbonado, The Fairfax Bridge, Buckley and back to Puyallup) at 18.2 mph.  I was encouraged.  The average speed was down a little, but this route was longer and had considerably more climbing.  April 11^th brought a ride entitled (on Strava) “Whew, that was fun!!”  It was my normal 34-mile ride just past South Prairie, but I managed to average 19.9 mph (I’m thinking “darn it, I almost got to 20 mph”) – enthusiasm skyrocketing!!

4/14/2020:  Mike at Fairfax Bridge just past Carbonado...
52 miles/18.0 mph

After a couple of more 19.0 mph rides in the 30-34 mile range, April 21^st brought a 51-mile ride at 18.7 mph (pretty much the same ride that I’d done on April 9^th except that this one was 0.5 mph faster…).  April 24^th saw a 52-mile ride at 18.6 mph, and April 26^th was a 58-mile ride at 18.1 mph (I’m thinking “take THAT Coronavirus – you’re not going to ruin my summer”). 

           

  

4/26/20 Calfee and Mike at Fairfax Bridge 

For the sake of brevity, I will simply list some of the rides that built up to probably my best ride of the summer which occurred in June:

April 29^th… 35-mile ride at 19.8 mph. 

May 5^th… 58-mile ride at 19.2 mph

May 7^th… 34-mile ride at 19.1 mph

Finally, on Sunday May 10^th on a ride that was purposely short (only 20 miles, because it was Mother’s Day); I managed to average 20.2 mph!!  Mother’s Day with Kathy and the boys and that ride (even though it was short)... COOL!!

May 13^th… 68-mile ride (almost 2,000’ of climbing) at 18.6 mph

May 15^th… 34-mile ride at 18.7 mph

May 17^th… 35-mile ride at 19.2 mph

May 19^th… 56-mile ride (1,200’ of climbing) at 19.0 mph

May 24^th… 75-mile ride (2,300’ of climbing) at 18.1 mph (a little visiting on this ride as I rode from Orting to South Prairie with a friend from spinning class)

May 26^th… 32-mile ride at 20.1 mph

May 28^th… 44-mile ride at 19.0 mph

May 31^st… 30-mile ride at 19.4 mph

June 2^nd… 39-mile ride at 18.3 mph (stopped at various points along the trail to pick up trash… it’s a nice trail, and I figure that we all should contribute to keep it that way)

June 3^rd… 51-mile ride (~1,300’ of climbing) at 19.4 mph (getting a little faster on those longer rides)

June 8^th… 66-mile ride (1,900’ of climbing) at 18.8 mph

June 12^th… 34-mile ride at 20.4 mph (fastest ride of the summer so far)

** Note:  For all of May and June, I had the feeling that I just couldn’t wait to see what the next ride had in store… **

June 14^th… 65-mile ride at 15.0 mph (last ride with Leon… this ride was about visiting and enjoying the ride together – which we did… it was not about going fast)

June 16^th… 34-mile ride at 19.6 mph

June 19^th… 54-mile ride at 20.2 mph with 1,000’ of climbing (I considered this my best ride of the summer when both distance and average speed were taken into account.  I got a LOT of satisfaction from this ride.)

June 28^th… 37-mile ride at 20.2 mph 

 Mike & Belching Beaver post-ride hydration 6/28/2020 

At this point of the summer, I was wondering “how much faster can I go on rides of 50-60 miles, or how much further can I go with avg. speeds in the 20 mph range”.  The answer was “you are pretty much at your limit (at least, when riding solo)”.   Although I had quite a few more rides of 19 mph or above (and some at more than 20 mph), I never quite matched that June 19^th ride in the latter part of Summer and into the Fall (I did have one ride on July 12^th that averaged 20.7 mph, but it was only 26 miles long).

Though my performance plateaued after than June 19^th ride, my enjoyment did not.  My largest group ride of the summer was on July 3^rd with Scott W, Kyle D and Martin K.  We did repeats on the climb up to the Sunrise Visitor Center on Mt. Rainier.  We went early, so there wasn’t much traffic (i.e. it was easy to “social distance”).  Click on the link below to see video of our descents:

7/03/2020 Descent from Sunrise Visitor Center (Video)

 I had the opportunity to enjoy The Climb with Les Becker on a couple of occasions with lots of visiting both times; and Dwaine T., Adam A. and I had a great ride out to the Carbon River Entrance to Mt. Rainier and back with lots of visiting and me trying to keep up.

Adam and Dwaine and the Carbon River...

Finally, I’ve had the opportunity in the past couple of months to do more “two man rides” with a number of different Cyclopaths (in addition, Martin K. and I have done a number of enjoyable rides together recently).

A special “shout out” to Dwaine T. who has gone out of his way to travel from University Place by bike (and, more recently, in his new “1980’s vintage VW Vanagon”) to Puyallup in order to meet me for numerous rides).

 

Dwaine's pride and joy AND make-shift coffee shop... if you knew the amount of
work he has put into it, you would understand why he's so proud of it...

So, whether it was the performance gains that I enjoyed in the spring and early part of summer, or the opportunity to do more “2-3 person rides" with my friends in the latter part of summer and into autumn, or BOTH; my “outdoor cycling season of 2020” was special.  It was very different, very challenging, very satisfying, very memorable and very interesting in terms of how I had to approach it as compared to any other year that I can remember.  Thank you to everyone who played a part in it.

If any of the rest of you had positive cycling experiences this year and want to share them on our blog, let me know.

FINGERS CROSSED FOR 2021...👍👍