Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Report: Shiggy's Big Comeback Ride

 Shiggy’s Virtual Turkey Burn Rides

My riding has been spotty, at best, since May. Stalled by physical and mental challenges. The vast majority of my “riding” has been my 3 mile round trip commute on my Bike Friday Tikit folder. Gets me moving. Does little for my fitness. GT’s Virtual Turkey Burn Ride gave me some motivation to break the inertia. The metric century over several days option made the goal possible. 

 The weather was reasonable. High clouds, a few degrees above freezing and dry. The heavy wet snow we received last week was gone except for the mounds from plowing streets and driveways. After work Friday afternoon I chose a neglected bike that is also my most ridden. Elmar, my randonneuring/all road, self built from scratch. Nearly 30,000 miles in eight years. My neglected cold weather gear went onto my neglected body and I rolled out to ride a neglected route.

 

The Apple Capital Recreational Loop Trail is a gem of the Wenatchee WA infrastructure. The original ten mile loop has been enhanced with out-and-back sections on each end, making it possible to ride 25 miles completely off-street. I ride the two miles down the hill to get on the south extension. Wenatchee is on the Columbia River almost dead center in the state. The Cascade Mountains rise to the west. The Columbia Plateau to the east. Downstream is Rock Island Dam, the first completed on the river. I head north and cross on the first bridge built over the river, opened in 1908. Now the key part of the Loop Trail and Mile Post 0. Most of the west side is developed park land. Parks and trail are highly used. Mostly developed and maintained by the Chelan County Public Utility District, “A Benefit of Public Power”. The PUD operates the Rock Island dam and the Rocky Reach Dam to the north.

My body is protesting. My arthritic knee has loosened some, but still stiff. I forgot how to dress for the cold, and it’s not even that cold. Feeling the lack of saddle time since May. My balance is not the best. 

 In May I suffered a significant concussion. Still not sure why I crashed, but I went down quick and hard on my commute home. At near zero speed I tipped over in a turn. No time to react. Hard onto my side. My helmeted head slammed hard on the pavement and bounced. Twice. I didn’t pass out but definitely dazed. I walked the last few blocks home. This was far from my first, or even tenth concussion. It was one of the worst. I knew the protocols and followed them. Mostly. 

The effects were physical and mental. I took time off work, and off the bike. Six weeks later I was still not “right” and saw a doctor, who confirmed I did everything as I should have. Well, everything that we knew at the time. That had changed. In September Rebecca Rusch went public with her three year struggle with concussion recovery in a four part Brain Storm podcast with Selene Yeager, at https://livefeisty.com/category/podcasts/feisty-womens-performance-podcast/#allepisodes 

 https://livefeisty.com/podcasts/132-brain-storm-episode-1-the-crash/ 

 I wish I had Rebecca’s story and information earlier. And her resources. All in all, it has helped and I’m doing what I can to recover. Never neglect a head hit.

 Day One: Back to the Turkey Burn. I kept Day One simple. Get a good start. Ride easy. Ride about half of the 100K. Three of four was not bad. I rode too hard. Basically my problem all summer. Doing more than I should and then lose motivation to go out again. Well, I finished the ride, intentionally using lower gears to keep me from pushing. And I looked around more. Crossed the Columbia again, on the highway bridge that makes The Loop possible. The east side is more natural. I head north on the Rocky Reach Trail. I keep the pace easy. Chat with a guy on roller skis as I pass. Enjoy the views along the river. Cliffs on the other side. I cannot see the tops because of the low clouds. The snow level is 500-600 feet above. Numerous Canada geese are overwintering. Spot my first Bald Eagle of the season. They come for the winter as the Osprey fly south. Hundreds of quail scoot across the trail. Several deer watch my passage. 

The turnaround is at Lincoln Rock State Park, on the reservoir just above Rocky Reach Dam. It’s one of two State Parks with camping, boat launches and services on the route. Now I’m tired and cold, and it’s getting dark. And I’m at about halfway. The ride down the east side was uneventful. Traffic low for the climb back home, and that climb was slow. Elmar has dynamo lights front and rear plus a radar taillight.

  Day Two, Saturday: I had big plans. Ride to Cashmere, 20-ish miles. Have lunch. Warm up. Do a scenic loop in the town where I grew up. Ride home. VTB done! My body questioned that. The day’s ride on Day One exposed muscle atrophy and imbalances I knew were there and were magnified as I became tired. I prepared for the longer ride while planning to assess my condition once on the bike. Weather had not changed. I dressed warmer. Back on Elmar and down the hill. The knee is stiff (limited flexion) and relaxes slightly within a mile. I’m tired. Back across the old bridge and north on The Loop. My pace is much more relaxed than yesterday. It needed to be. I’m happy about that. It quickly became apparent that Cashmere was out. I could have, but at what price? I had tried similar rides this summer. Rides I could complete but were really beyond my fitness. Rather than getting me out more regularly they prevented it as I needed to recover. So, it was just the basic Loop for me.

Wenatchee and the surrounding communities and in valleys. If you ride here, you learn to climb. Even the “flat” rides can have significant slopes. The Loop is a river grade trail but hardly flat. Climbs are short and in the 5-8% range. Friday’s ride had 1150 feet of climbing. 850 feet of that was on the river grade. Does keep it interesting and does the meandering routing. 

I covered the same route as before, without the northern out and back. But slower and easier. Enjoyable. Still missed on dress. Now I’m hot. And cold. How did I forget how to dress? Has my body changed? (spoiler: it has) I spend time figuring out how far I need to ride on Sunday, and where I could go. 

Day Three - Sunday: It’s still just above freezing. Still high clouds. I can’t see the tops of the foothills across the river, let alone the peaks. Mission Peak is 6600 feet tall and only ~10 miles from the river which is at 600 feet. I live less than 2 miles from the river on the East Wenatchee Bench, last ripple of the Missoula Floods, at 1000 feet.

 

I dress better. A thicker wool jersey. Wind vest instead of a shell jacket. I could breathe rather than overheat. Switched to my New Albion Drake for lower gearing and a slightly more upright position. It is the bike I have ridden most this year, other than the commuter. About half way down the hill I turn onto the irrigation canal path. The old bridge included an irrigation pipeline to make the orchards and East Wenatchee itself possible, bringing water from the Cascades many miles away. The flat unpaved path along the ditch winds its way through the neighborhoods, becoming a well-used de facto recreation trail, though it is officially off limits. There is a lone golfer on the course today as I pass. The ditch path is a good warm up and I feel better than I did yesterday. Turn down the street—steep hill—and back onto the east side of The Loop.

 

Seeing a trend here? The Loop makes rides here possible, safer, accessible. Especially if the ride crosses the Columbia River, and often when it doesn’t. It was an essential part of my commute for ten years at a different job. This time I headed south and continued south past the old bridge to another PUD park, with ball fields, boat launch and picnic areas, to complete all of the river trails during the VTB.

Return on the trail to 3rd St to climb back towards home. This is my normal route even though it is longer. It is also the least steep way home with the maximum grade “only” 7%. I still needed 5-6 miles to get my 100K. Halfway home I turned the other direction on the ditch path. This section has thick gravel for a mile or so and is much tougher to ride. Gong south and east the views open and I can see Rock Island Dam in the distance. I will not be going that far today. The canal bridges a ravine and a steep drop as the hillside steepens and houses lower. Here is where I needed the lower gearing. One residential street is more than 15% and the drop on the ditch 20%. Turned around and on home.

104km over three days, not counting Friday’s commute. Needed to  take a day off as my knee was very stiff and sore on Monday. Now to address my muscle imbalances, general strength and regular rides. 

Oh, we had our usual lime juice rosemary marinaded grilled leg of lamb. SO good!