Kyle’s just nuts

I’ve been starting to look this upcoming summer and trying to decide which century and double century rides I’ll be participating in this summer.  There a a few that I always ride in, like the Monster Cookie at the start of the year which is just a metric century and a good stretch of the legs, one’s that I want to make an annual ride like the STP (Seattle to Portland) and others that I rotate.  This year, I’m considering doing the Torture 10,000 again in Portland, a one day century that’s fairly hilly — but Kyle, he’s been trying to talk me into some fairly crazy stuff this year — and as much as it pains me now (and I’m sure later) to say it — I’ll probably do a few of them.  So far, Kyle’s been trying to talk me into doing The Ultimate Road Ride and the Death Ride.  Both look interesting — but they fall between the STP so I’ll likely only get to do one if either. 

The one that Kyle has been suggesting that I’m quickly warming up to is Everest Challenge.  This is a two day, 29,000 ft climb that I I know I couldn’t finish if I did it today, to be honest.  Day one is a 15,000 ft day — piece of cake (rriiighttt).  Pretty much like doing the Torture + one extra hill.  Day 2 — I shudder to think, but I have images of homer simpson, and a very sad, “doh” doing what would seem like 85 miles of straight climbing — oh, and I’m sure a few — “ah, cramp, cramp” would be sprinkled in as well.  I’m pretty sure I couldn’t finish the whole ride — but I’m definitely thinking I’d like to try.  The problem is — I’ve got to decide to do it now — if I want to ride it.  I don’t get much hill riding living in the valley — and I’ll have to adjust my training over May – Sept. to get ready.  Plus — I’ve got to get out of the weight room and drop down to about 165 lbs (I ride at 175) to lighten my climb (yuck).  We’ll see.  I’m actually tenatively starting to train like I want to do it — changing my work out routine and calorie intake to start a gradule slimming down process.  This is something I usually start in around May, since my winter riding weight runs around 180, but I really need to start sooner than later if I want to do this ride.  I guess if all is looking good around May — I’ll start hitting Mary’s Peak and see if I really want to spend two days cycling, and hurting and probably throwing up. 🙂  I’ve always said part of the fun of cycling is the willingness to hurt just a bit — so we’ll see

–TR