Heavy day of climbs with some wind (uh!) en route from Lewiston to Walla Walla, WA. In total, the elevation gain was nearly 5k feet over 107 miles and clocked almost 8 hours of riding. I haven’t been a statistics freak, but this day was a gasser. Thankfully, I enjoy climbing, call me crazy. I liken it to dancing, another activity I take pleasure in. OK, hear me out. I pride myself on busting a few moves on the dance floor (cue the eye rolls). Biking and dancing both keep you young, creates endorphins and are social. To achieve a good climb, don’t get out of your seat ie. stay low, compress your core, loosen your hips, breathe in and out of your nose, let your quads do the work, and no flailing around with your arms and upper body. In other words, “keep it tight” and, in the case of dancing, no overbite please (you know who you are). When I’ve done big climbs on this trip, I safely insert one AirPod and crank the tunes. If you’ve followed my blog, the presumption is I’m jamming to “Born to Run”, “The Rising” and other obvious Springsteen hits. Nope. Capital Cities’ album “In a Tidal Wave of Mystery” is my jam. It has a dance vibe that just gets me going and pulled me through all the challenging climbs.
I grew up attending numerous friends’ bar and bat mitzvahs, where the party promoter coaxed everyone out on the floor in that awkward, middle school age. In high school, one of my closest friends Kendall had skills. He was our GK in soccer, threw the javelin in track, played the drums, and “threw it down” on the dance floor. We graduated in 1984 at the height of Kevin Bacon’s “Footloose” so I was definitely the clumsy buddy Willard to his Wren. We will have some good laughs about this together as I’ll be staying with Kendall in Portland. He’s worked 25+ years for Nike, so I have a pro leading my “SAG” team to Astoria on Saturday. It’s also important to note that with Max and Ben, my two beautiful sons, I’ve parented the really important stuff like “you have to be good dancers to survive in this world!” Thankfully, the younger bro Ben is a natural. The older bro Max was a bit of a work-in-progress, but I’m pleased to report he’s come into his own at recent family weddings. Remember the cardinal rule boys, “Keep it tight!”
