Gearing up for the STP

Note: This post about STP training and prep tips for the Seattle to Portland bike ride originally appeared on another blog, PNW & Beyond, but I’m moving content to this one. Some references about getting excited about adding events may be a bit old, though I’m leaving them in. I am excited about re-adding some of the older events that didn’t get transferred over to this site!

This Tuesday, member registration starts for the annual Seattle to Portland bike ride. I’ll be — tentatively — putting in my registration for this year’s ride.

I’m looking forward to the cycling season with both excitement and apprehension. I’m so excited that I listed a bunch of cycling events on our events calendar here so I can keep track of them all myself. There are so many rides to choose from! The Tour de Lavender seems appealing. Wine ride? Yes, please! But the big one of them all—at least for me—has always been the STP.

I look forward to the season with excitement because I’ve been having a great time getting back on a road-style bike lately and going for rides. Apprehension, because when I was at the top of my cycling game several years ago sudden hip pain made me withdraw my STP registration, and I’m now older and with shoulder issues, but finding (so far) I can ride again. So, there’s still a chance I will not meet this particular goal, but I will try. If not, I’ll still have a great time doing shorter rides.

Is the STP Difficult?

While the STP is a 200-mile bike ride, I’ve interviewed various people I know who have done it and who tell me I could do it “without much training.” I doubt this. You can choose to do the ride in one to two days. I chose two days. A family member did it in one day, and he described it as heads-down, fast-riding, non-stop. It’s not my thing anymore!

But the ride? Not really that hilly! I previously did two metric century rides back to back- not as long of a distance, but MUCH more hilly than this ride. Here’s the course via Ride With GPS:

It’s not too intimidating if you’ve done more hilly rides. I remind myself that kids as young as 8 have done this ride, and I recall once hearing about a group who did the ride on beach cruisers. If they can do it, I can do it! especially with stealth ebike power as my secret weapon!

STP Training & Prep Tips

If you don’t have group riding experience and want more, Cascade Bicycle Club offers its annual Cascade Training Series, with groups according to how intense you want to ride—it’s not all intense riding; you can join a slower-paced group if you want.

However, the groups are all Seattle and Eastside. If you’re like me and 1) that’s not close enough, 2) you enjoy going it solo, and 3) you are a planner who likes an organized training plan, they also offer a spreadsheet with a suggested training plan for a two-day ride. They also often offer a couple of Zoom seminars on getting ready.

I doubt it’s necessary to be too strict with their training regimen. But I’d advise anyone to do a number of long rides to make sure both they and their saddle are ready, get some serious Chamois Butt’r (yes, that’s an affiliate link, but I seriously recommend the stuff for long rides!), and have some experience riding with other people.

Logistics

The Night Before the Ride

If you’re not showing up bright and early on Saturday morning, you can stay overnight close to the start of the route. The dorms at the UW offer lodging for STP participants. If you book very early, you might find a nearby hotel if a dorm stay is not your thing. They also offer parking and gear drop off (for an extra fee) starting Friday night.

Where am I going to stay at the STP Halfway Point?

The halfway point of the STP is appropriately named Centralia. Many two-day riders sleep at Centralia College, which can be arranged on the registration website. Lodging is camping in the college (Cascade will port your sleeping bag and other gear there for you), or there’s an outdoor area where you can pay a premium price, and they’ll set up a tent, bedroll, and sheets for you. There are also some camping options south of there. The STP website also lists some other spots in the area, some in Chehalis, where riders can lodge.

A family member who did this reports that it was comfortable enough for him and assuaged my concerns about the safety of my bike after being a victim of bike theft (partly due to my own stupidity). He said they had a bike area with guards. He didn’t feel worried about his bike.

However, I’ve arranged a hotel so I can get my spouse to ride with me on this ride. If he doesn’t, I might cancel and sleep at the college.

If you want to arrange a hotel, you need to book far in advance.

How Can I Get Back?

You have a couple of options, besides riding your bike back (no, thank you!) or having your own driver drive you and your bike back. I’ve not yet determined what I will do.

An STP veteran family member tells me to take the train back, which seems like the fastest and most fun option. However, that means getting our bikes back to the starting point by UW. Amtrak has certain restrictions on which bikes can ride on trains, so there are two strikes against my spouse’s e-bike or my big cargo e-bike, which weighs more than 50 lbs and has thick tires. But a standard bike or my lightweight e-bike would work.

We’ll likely arrange for bus transport back on Monday. Cascade Bicycle Club offers the option of purchasing bus and bike tickets back to the start point. Of course, your bike will be packed in with a bunch of other bikes, and no insurance is offered—but if you’re used to taking your bike on public transport, they also don’t guarantee your bike will be in pristine shape! If you’re concerned, you can always purchase coverage for your bike.

STP Via E-bike?

This is a later addendum to this post. Earlier in it, I mentioned my “stealth e-bike,” a lightweight road-style bike that I NEVER thought I would buy. Stealth, because it does not obviously scream “E-bike!” But, sadly, it didn’t work out. I found that drop bars are, for me, a thing of the past, and I ended up with a bike that I love that screams “e-bike.”

But this delayed my preparation for this year’s STP, and I had to cancel (NEXT YEAR!). I needed to verify that this bike, with its two batteries, could travel at least 100 miles, and I was unable to do so entirely before the cancellation cutoff.

So, can one do the STP on an e-bike? This might be the topic of another post after I’ve actually done it, but the answer is “yes.”

Cascade allows class one and two e-bikes, but I’ve seen reports of people doing it on a Specialized Creo, a Class 3 bike in every version. Still, you’re taking the gamble that they won’t enforce it if you try to do that. My husband says, “Nobody knows which bike is which class!” Hmmm. I do because I spend undue time perusing bikes, so I can only assume that I have company in that.

Certainly, you need to know what kind of mileage your bike can get, bring extra batteries if necessary, and know you have a place to plug in.

Also, remember that if you, like I do now, have a very heavy e-bike, you won’t be able to get it back on the train.

Cascade reassured me via various emails that they are fully prepared to handle any e-bike that comes their way if you purchase their transport back to Seattle. They also said that despite their website cautioning about the number of outlets at Centralia, I should have no trouble finding an outlet.

Sadly, I won’t be able to report on this to you this year…

Probably not this year, either. I started training in February of last year and sustained an elbow fracture in an accident. I’m back on the bike now, but it took time to ride more extended distances without pain again.