People in the Pacific Northwest LOVE their Bikes. Bikes are environmentally friendly, great for your thighs, and generally super hip. Whether you ride an obnoxiously tall bicycle with disproportionate wheels, or you ride the same bike that you’ve had since your birthday in 8th grade bicycles can take you place beyond your wildest dreams, or at least beyond where you can walk.
The Gigantic Bicycle festival is place where anyone and everyone can celebrate bike cultures from all different places, for all different people. The festival has an assortment of films, activities, and Northwestern music.
The Festival Starts on Friday August 22nd with music and a film in various places around Seattle and Snoqualmie. The movie is “Gigantic Bicycle Film Screening” at the North Bend Theatre in Seattle. This film will include bicycle inspired short films from the PNW. This is a wonderful tradition and for anyone who likes bikes I am sure it will be a great time.
Saturday August 23rd is the day of the Trek. Hundreds of riders will tough through either a 77 mile or 100 mile ride from Seattle to Snoqualmie. This ride will be a scenic and hilly one. There will be many pit stops along the way for me to cry out my pains before conquering the next leg of the course.
The training regimen that I have had for the past few years has mainly consisted of me sitting down thinking that somehow I would be getting fitter by tilting my body upward to see my computer. This has needed to change after I committed to doing the 77 Mile bicycle ride from Seattle to Snoqualmie.
I have done one long bike ride before in my life and it was a 500 mile 6 day long ride through the rocky mountains, called Ride the Rockies. Though this was a much longer ride than the Gigantic Bicycle Festival I also had my 50+ year old father to embarrass me by beating me up hills with his fake knees balding head. This year I do not have my father to push me or tell me how to train. It will just be me, my Bicycle, and a pair of shorts that are so tight it’s ridiculous.
Here is my training regimen starting July 1st:
July 1st – July 15th
- During these weeks I will be working on getting up to 30 mile bike rides, focusing on hill climbs. This will hopefully allow my legs to become stronger and help me not cry as I try to cycle up non flat areas.
July 16th – August 1st
- During these weeks I will focus on distance. I will focus on getting my grundel ready for the ride. This will most likely be the least comfortable weeks of my training.
- Because I live in Seattle I plan on doing a lot of laps and repeating shorter rides to get long rides in.
August 1st – August 15th
- This will be a mixture of rides. Hills, distance, pain, discomfort. I will hopefully at some point in these weeks be able to get a 60 mile ride in.
August 15th – Day of ride
- I should be physically ready by now. This week I will be emotionally preparing for 8 hours of sitting on a tiny leather seat while moving my legs in hopes to travel from one place to another.
This is not a very specific training regimen and it is also not put together by a professional. I am hoping that it works out for me, but if it does not you will definitely read about it, as I ice my grundel and watch Flavor of Love trying to sooth my pains.
The ride will be interesting but, it will all be worth it when I arrive at Snoqualmie where there is a full music festival and bike culture extravaganza happening. If you like bikes, own a bike, have seen a bike, or have just learned about a crazy two wheeled vehicle that doesn’t require a motor, you should probably check out the Gigantic Bicycle festival. Tickets for the music festival are much cheaper than most music festivals ang the Gigantic Bicycle festival gives you oh so much more. With speeches about bikes, bike vendors, and a plethora of people who have built their own bikes, this festival is a Washington must.
We will be covering every little aspect of this festival. Stay tuned for band previews of Hey Marseilles Menomena, Telekenisis and many more. The bands will all play on Saturday after the ride and Sunday. The music lineup is indiwonderful and I better bike fast so I can see all of them!.
Marcus Shriver / Shoes are and Shoes do / KSUB Community Outreach and Social Media Director