Seattle to Portland
One of the rites of passage in cycling is completing a "century," which is a ride over 100 miles. Every year, the Cascade Cycling Club organizes a ride from Seattle to Portland, which, at about 205 miles, would be a double century.
I first heard of Seattle to Portland when I was an undergraduate in college, before I even got into cycling, when some of my friends from the MIT cycling team completed the ride during their summer internships in Seattle. The idea of riding 200 miles in a day sounded insane at first, but I knew it was a ride I wanted to do at some point.
I did the ride with my friends Wade and Ying-Yu. For this summer, we were considering riding either the Death Ride in the California Sierras, or Seattle to Portland, as both happen the same weekend. We ended up deciding to do STP this year, and maybe I'll try to ride Death Ride another year.
Training
For STP, my main goal was to test how my body would do in the long tail of endurance rides. The longest ride I had done prior to STP was 135 miles, so I wanted to do some longer rides to build endurance. In addition, I was mostly skiing this winter until early June, so I started at a shorter distance for my endurance build up.
The terrain profile of STP is fairly flat, with the "main" 400ft climb happening around mile 45, so building distance was the focus of the training. As SF offers a cooler riding climate in the summer, building heat tolerance was also important.
My training in the weeks leading up to STP consisted of the following rides:
- Week 1: 62 mile ride around China Camp
- Week 2: 78 mile ride to Stanford and back
- Week 3: 83 mile ride to Mt. Hamilton. I originally intended this ride to be a century, however the Mt. Ham backside climb in the heat took me out, and we bailed by taking the bart back at Milpitas instead of Union City. Including the commute miles to and from the BART station in SF, this ended up being a 90 mile day.
- Week 4: nothing, as I was traveling on the east coast
- Week 5: 140 mile ride to Santa Rosa. I definitely started feeling the heat biking back to SF through wine country, and needed to slow down after 105 miles; however this ride felt decent overall and gave me confidence in completing STP.
- Week 6: 59 mile ride to Half Moon Bay. I began to taper as I felt good enough from the Santa Rosa ride not to need further mileage
In addition, we also rode the 88 mile McKenzie Pass loop in central oregon a few days before STP on our drive up to Portland. This ride went over two mountain passes with amazing scenery. While the climbing training was not as relevant for STP, we rode this during a heat wave, so it helped out bodies acclimate more to the high temperatures.
The Ride
Logistics are a bit more complicated for STP if you don't live in Seattle or Portland. We ended up making this a road trip up to the PNW, as we drove from SF to Portland and did other adventures along the way. I took an Amtrak up to Seattle with my bike a few days prior and spent time with friends in Seattle. I then biked from Seattle to Portland, and STP provides baggage transport during the ride day. After STP, we continued our road trip back to San Francisco. The amtrak was quite comfortable to ride on.
We also considered flying to Seattle / Portland, but packing / unpacking a bike is kind of annoying. If you have more time, I'd recommend making a road trip out of the event (as we also did a trail run around Mt. Hood and biked McKenzie pass), but otherwise getting to / from STP isn't the easiest.
Nutrition is extremely important for long endurance rides. In general, an athlete should consume 1.2 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram per hour of exercise. When the temperature is higher, one will sweat more, which will deplete the body of salt and electrolytes, so refueling electrolytes is also very important. Caffiene is also good to take, as it is a mild nervous system stimulant that helps delay fatigue and enhances performance.
Being an organized ride, STP also offered rest stops every 20 miles to provide food and water.
As such, I brought / consumed the following for nutrition:
- caffine: I brought 100mg caffiene pills, that I would take when I began to feel fatigued
- electrolytes: I am a fan of SIS caffiene gels as I can eat them without needing to consume water. I also brought some costco liquid IV drink mix.
- salts: pickles and pickle juice were provided at the rest stops
- food: I tested one packet of the tailwind endurance fuel drink mix which dissolves carbs into your water, making consumption of carbs easier during the ride. In addition to the food offered at the rest stops, I also brought an assortment of energy bars.
Gear being such a long ride, I was also testing the limits of some of my gear. While I loaded my Garmin Edge 530 with the STP route, I disabled turn by turn navigation to save battery --I ended the ride with 20% battery left. I also swapped my cassette and chain prior to the ride (thank you for your help Ying-Yu!) but as my chainring was also worn down, I bought an emergency chainring replacement at mile 12 with Mend Bicycles.
Route The STP ride starts at 5am from the University of Washington stadium parking lot. It goes through mostly rural roads down south. Along the way, there are views of all the cascade volcanoes in between Seattle and Portland --seeing Rainier, Adams, Helens, and Hood were all spectacular sights. You can also see my Strava Activity and the official route for the route details.
Rest stops were spaced about every 20 miles apart. The Cascade Cycling Club does a great job coordinating with local volunteering organizations to set up great food and water availability. For example, we stopped at Spanaway Middle school at mile 55. Volunteers from the local community provided cut fruits, watermelons, sandwiches, and were all very friendly. The Cascade Cycling Club works with these organizations and donates money to support the local schools, so it definitely feels good to know your registration fee is going to a good cause.
There were also volunteer organizations that set up additional rest stops along the way, and you could donate money to support them. The Tenino, WA Baseball team provided a rest stop with watermelon that was amazing.
The three of us mostly stuck together during the ride; some larger pacelines formed in the earlier half but otherwise the three of us kept our same pace. Huge kudos to Wade & Ying-Yu for pulling most of the way! I had a ~20 mile stretch where I skipped a rest stop and rode by myself for a bit. Unfortunately during that stretch, I kept my jersey open to vent and a bee flew in and stung me, but it didn't end up affecting the ride. Most of the ride had a tailwind which was also quite favorable.
The communal aspect of STP was very nice, feeling good vibes all around with the big cycling event. I saw Kim, Sam, Sarah, and Anna along the way, and it was nice to catch up with them.
Below is our obligatory finish photo, lying tired but happy on the grass at Holladay Park at the finish line in Portland.
If there are any questions I can answer about the ride and planning for it, feel free to shoot me a message :)