7 Hills of Kirkland
Memorial day is a big ride day on the east side of the lake since it marks the annual 7 Hills of Kirkland. I rode the metric century Monday to continue training up to 100 miles on June 20th. The ride starts and ends at Kirkland’s Marina Park and it was a bitter day to be out on the bike.
I started the morning at 5 am when the alarm prodded me out of bed to go eat some breakfast, pull on some spandex and gather my cycling gear. It was raining when I woke up but for some reason I didn’t just go back to bed, instead I grabbed my rain jacket. When I got to the park to register I spent about 10 minutes deciding what to wear – I had 4 different glove options, long and short sleeves, jacket or not. I went with a short sleeve jersey and my rain shell but I put the arm warmers in my pocket just in case. The rain kept the registration line short – there wasn’t one.
The route is actually quite hard and includes around 4,657 feet of climbing in just short of 60 miles. For reference on the 20th we’ll be climbing 3,930 in 100 miles so the 7 Hills is quite hilly. Oh and by the way the 7 is only for the 38 mile route. There are 11 significant hills in the metric century. I completed the ride averaging 15 mph with a max of 41 and an average cadence of 88 rpm. That means it was pretty hilly since I normally average around 95 rpm. Apart from a flat tire at mile 33 it was a clean ride and my body performed well enough to make me feel better about attempting 100 miles.
