I’ve always wanted to get into biking for a while since I started college; however, I only started actually biking semi-recently, getting into the sport summer 2023 during my SWE internship, when I actually had both money and time.
I list some interesting rides below, and then there are some more useless rants in separate articles below. If there are no articles, that’s because I haven’t gotten to finishing them yet.
Some Memorable Rides
Basically every nontrivial ride I’ve done.
Summer 2023
Where it all began. I was planning to use a bike for commuting from time to time; clearly, I did that and much more.
| Map | Ride Description |
|---|---|
| 404 - No Strava | Starting with the SRT - 4 June 2023: ride that started it all - a short 12 mile spin on some nearby trails. |
 | Bellevue - 11 June 2023: round trip from Redmond to Bellevue/Lincoln Square. I got mega coolered by the SR-520 hill, learning about it the hard way. Also, I forgot my lights and it was nearly dark by the time I started heading back, so that was exciting. |
 | Lake Sammamish Loop - 14 June 2023: mickey mouse clubhouse lake loop around Lake Sammamish, and probably the ride that led to the rabbit hole of increasingly difficult and (somewhat) dangerous rides after this. ‘Twas a dark time that even matches couldn’t fix. |
| 404 - GPS Bugged | First Seattle Round Trip - 17 June 2023: first round trip from Redmond to UW Seattle. Another dreary week where I got myself out of bed at 8am to rush to a cat yoga appointment 15 miles away at 10:30am. Cat yoga and meeting friends was a real game changer. On the way back, my friends took the bus and I biked back, and at some point they spotted me waiting for the crosswalk as they passed by on the bus. Absolutely generational. |
 | Canonical AMC Woodinville Commute - 20 June 2023: slowest sprint ever from Redmond to AMC Woodinville. For the first time in over 2 weeks, I felt like I had escaped from the trench that I had been stuck in for the first part of summer, only to be destroyed by debugging pain the next day. |
 | Bellevue 3 - now 10% faster! - 9 July 2023: round trip from Redmond to Meydenbauer Bay Park. PSA to wear sunscreen and eat food. |
 | Seattle Half-Century- 12 July 2023: Made the decision to sign up for STP just a week before the ride, so I only had the time do one ride between signing up and actually going on STP. This brings us to the ½ century training ride: Redmond, Bellevue, Mercer Island, Lake Washington Loop, Seattle, Burke-Gilman Trail. Missed baking social for this because I’m slow, but gave me confidence that I could complete STP. |
 | STP Day 1- 15 July 2023: Made it through my first century through STP Day 1. Got a flat early on and got called an obstruction on the road even though I couldn’t control my bike. I cooked on the “climb” in Puyallup and finally climbed around 100m without stopping for the sake of not being bested by a 7-year old, then proceeded to get cooked on the Yelm trail for the next 30 miles. |
 | STP Day 2- 16 July 2023: Finished STP, though the second day was a lot more rocky than the first. |
 | Mickey Mouse Pre-Intern Game Ride - 28 July 2023: Had to get in some miles before a weekend intern event, so I did this round trip from Redmond to Seattle - SR-520 on the way there, Burke-Gilman on the way back. It’s crazy how much stronger I felt on the SR-520 trail compared to my first Seattle round trip just over a month ago. |
 | Seattle Last Supper - 8 August 2023: final ride in Seattle - a few climbs in Sammamish and one final ramp up the SR-520. I’ll miss the nice trails. |
Academic Year 2023-2024
I became a Zwift enjoyer in the fall, and a sleep enjoyer in the spring.
| Map | Ride Description |
|---|---|
 | Grizzly Peak - 27 August 2023: First ride through Grizzly Peak. Definitely not a nice one but we’ll make it work. |
 | Berkeley-SF - 4 September 2023: First ride to SF from Berkeley, better known as collecting Bay Area road trip inspo. Struggled a bit from Seattle trail withdrawal. |
 | Berkeley-SF II - 16 September 2023: Second ride to SF from Berkeley. This time I fell a serious number of times as a consequence of clipless pedals, and we also explored Golden Gate Park. |
 | Grizzly Rematch ft. BicyCal - 9 November 2023: Being a Zwift enjoyer and seeing my wattage go up in a virtual environment did not prepare me for the crippling realization that my all-out efforts are everyone else’s cruising efforts. This also marked the start of “surely I’ll train :clueless:” to laying in bed arcs. |
 | Sonoma Coast Century - 11 November 2023: First unsupported century - having to bring more food and supplies for the ride was a stark contrast from STP, which had all sorts of ride support along the way. I would’ve rather died than not finished that ride, and it was also the ride that let me know that I could take down RSVP 2024. |
 | A fine alternative: Stevens Canyon Classic - 22 December 2023: a Cupertino classic (I don’t even live there) and a fine alternative to the other agenda I had hoped to have. This was the ride where I learned that I absolutely enjoy the commute - the main portion of the ride was probably 15 miles, but the commute there and back was another 15 each way. Nothing brings me as much serenity as these going from point A to point B through piss poor bike infrastructure. |
 | Didn’t make it up Mt. Um - 30 December 2023: Increasingly common case of getting my overly inflated ego from Zwift severely boomed by failing Mt. Um. It’s not the first peak I’ll go on to fail. It was sorely disappointing to come home to chicken, broccoli, and rice after not having eaten anything that day, on top of the failure that was being far too weak for Mt. Um. |
 | Singapore Exploration - 10 January 2024: Random bike ride in Singapore - rented a bike with a friend and just went around the local trails. The bike infrastructure there is great; the weather not so much - it was muggy for the first half, then started downpouring on the way back. My CS70 sweater has still not recovered after that incident. After that, we bankrupted an all-you-can-eat dim sum place. |
 | n Bears, 0 < n < 3 - 30 January 2024: gateway into 3 Bears, and the second time I didn’t quite finish a ride. Cue the “surely I’ll train :clueless:” to sleeping arc. |
 | Trolled by Tam - 25 February 2024: third ride to SF from Berkeley, and second time I failed to summit one of the infamous Bay Area peaks - this time Mt. Tam, where I got a devious leg cramp which stopped me from making it up less than a mile from the summit. They don’t call the vastus medialis the teardrop muscle for no reason - that cramp got me moved to tears. Some slight wins though: managed to cruise at around 110W for ~25mi, and set a power record grinding up part of Tam. |
 | Hamilton Summit - 21 May 2024: third time’s the charm - I set the record straight on the hill climbing game by making it up Mt. Hamilton. We’re 1 for 3 now. Technically this happened after the school year ended, but Spring 2024 and Summer 2024 feel too far apart to call this ride part of summer. |
Summer 2024
I had higher hopes for what transpired of this summer, but life had other plans. Insert generic sentence on blaming sicknesses, injuries, and mental health issues for a lack of memorable rides.
| Map | Ride Description |
|---|---|
 | Seattle Grand Return - 29 June 2024: rematching my Redmond - UW Seattle ride last year, and I delivered with a crazy SR-520 hill PR and a Marymoor Park - UW split in under an hour, nearly halving the time it took last year. For any Freds interested in the numbers, I also brought my FTP up by 20 watts. |
 | Seattle Grand Return Pt. 2 - 29 June 2024: On the way back home, I demolished the Burke-Gilman/SRT times I had last year. The highlight was definitely the last few miles, where I ended up by an e-biker. He first passed me, but then I realized I could probably ride fast enough just to keep up, and somehow I got close enough that passing him was feasible. With half a mile left on the trail, I passed him and left him in shock. |
 | Mercer Island Loop - 4 July 2024: Mercer Island loop and I-90/ELST. Very scenic ride that made the most of a (metaphorically) rainy day. Also saw some fireworks being set off mere feet away from my bike on the way back home. |
 | Middle Fork Century - 13 July 2024: A year since doing STP, my first century, I made the jump to a solo century. An incredibly life-changing ride - I had a great time managing the logistics of a solo long ride, met a lot of chill people on the stops along the way, and had a blast riding the smooth and scenic Middle Fork road. Looking back, this has to be one of my favorite long rides to date, and if I get the chance to be back in the area, I would definitely go back. |
 | Bellingham Double Century - 27 July 2024: This ride marked a new milestone - my first double century, and becoming one of 4 current Cal students to do a double century. Fortunately and unfortunately, it also created an injury that would end up being instrumental to improving my mental health. Though if I knew I would get injured, I probably wouldn’t have done this route since I’ve essentially done the first day of the RSVP route in its entirety. |
 | Getting hit by an e-biker - 16 August 2024: ELST ride, but on the way home some e-biker ended up going in the wrong direction on the bike lane and I had to swerve last-minute and crashed, causing a concussion. The injury arc lives on. |
 | RSVP Day 1 - 24 August 2024: Whereas STP was blistering hot (90-100F on both days), RSVP was cold and rainy - the first 50-70 miles were accompanied with heavy rain. Forgetting my fender back in Berkeley was a poor choice. |
 | RSVP Day 2 - 25 August 2024: I’ve a knack for catching the most strange weather and getting a flat on these Cascade Bicycle Club group centuries; the first day was the crazy cold and rain, and the second day I got a flat. |
Academic Year 2024-2025
Started the year off strong, no longer injured, and highly motivated to ride, but eventually stopped riding as often. I blame gravel rides.
| Map | Ride Description |
|---|---|
 | Berkeley-SF Round 3 - 2 September 2024: third time’s (not) the charm - a rematch of SF from Berkeley, complete with being dropped by Cal Cycling every other mile and trying to make it back to Berkeley for a meeting (which none of the profs showed up for). Someone has to make this route more enjoyable, because I have yet to have a good time. The silver lining was that I saw improvements similar to how I did with the SR-520 and Burke-Gilman/SRT rides - I netted PR after PR on the segments along the way. |
 | Point Pinole-Crockett - 15 September 2024: a scenic ride with BicyCal and some exploration of the Bay Trail (and some accidental exploration of San Pablo Avenue). |
 | 3 Bears Revenge - 22 September 2024: This time I was able to complete the ride. As a bonus, there were some Freds who passed me on the way up the Bear Creek downwards escalator climb, but they all ended up slowing to a crawl or stopping and I was fortunate enough to slowly pass by them. |
 | Tam no Revenge - 29 September 2024: Was hoping to summit Tam and crush my first gravel ride, but ended up pushing my bike up and walking my bike down, just trying to survive. |
 | Gravel Diablo - 27 October 2024: Made it up Diablo and survived just a bit better on the gravel, at least until we hit the 20% grade hike-and-bike segment with just a handful of miles left before we reached Berkeley. |
 | SF-PCH-Tunitas - 10 November 2024: Went on a ride with a friend and unintentionally stumbled upon Tunitas midway through the ride (it was in the route, but I didn’t know that the climb midway ended up being such a well-known climb); I hope to be back someday so I can report a sub-1 hour time. Otherwise, the PCH was scenic and provided me the most fun I had on a ride all semester. I also had a Week 4 squat to hit a few days after, but I also delivered on that as well. |