Find the hills – and avoid them.
Obviously, Seattle is built on hills. The grades on some streets are daunting even in a car. The steepest of the streets are pretty obviously not to be tackled by a biker at my level (fat and out of shape, although hopefully moving a bike around Seattle will begin to change that). There are other streets, however, which don’t appear so bad in comparison, but are still too much for my beginning fitness.
I know this, and I knew this before I started my first trip across town to the University of Washington. I started at a higher elevation north of campus, so in theory I could find a route which minimized elevation gain. On paper, I thought I’d found one. And then I felt so good going downhill, I missed a turn somewhere and ended up funnelled to the wrong corner of campus. I started to make my way up a hill without an escape route; the only sidewalk was across three lanes of traffic. Halfway up, though, the realities of my body won out, and I managed to squeeze out of the way of most of the traffic until I could make a break across traffic to the sidewalk, where I walked the bike up the rest of the way without shame.
Lesson learned. No matter how good I feel going down, I am not yet going to win in a face-off between me on a bike and a Seattle hill. When I map a route for my own well being, stick with it. Although the goal is to be able to make it up at least the mid-range hills after a few more weeks on the bike.
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