Mike's Bike Blog

Here's a different twist on my lunch ride as I was heading over to Limecreek Road for a 40 minute SST interval when I'm on Anderson Mill warming up. I started to ratchet up my speed a bit. I shift up to the 53T and start to pick up speed. I'm going about 21 mph when I hear someone shouting at me. I look to my left and there's a big truck with the passenger window rolled down and the driver leaning over to yell at me. My first thought was one of despair as I thought for sure this could escalate into a confrontation. However what he says next leaves me stunned. He says "I'm impressed, you're going over 20 mph, Good Job!"

I gave a little chuckle and tell him thanks as he speeds off. So was this a cyclist in a Bubba truck or a real Bubba who's turning over a new leaf?

A couple months back while at the RunFar Time Trial  the Bike Noob asked me why I shaved my legs. I gave the standard roadie reasons about it being easier to clean up after a ride, this is especially so when I ride during lunch in wet weather. I can wipe down and not have dirt and grit encrusted in my leg hair. Getting compression socks on and off is a little easier, no hair pulling. And until recently my best answer was because it's tradition.

That is until recently, a couple months ago while shaving for a race I noticed a lump in my leg. I wasn't too worried about it but would bring it up at my yearly physical with my family Doctor. That appointment was last week, he ordered up an ultrasound of my legs to see what it was.

The ultrasound went down this Friday morning and I'm happy to say that "it's not a tumor", say it again but with a Schwarzenegger accent "it's not a tumor". It turned out to be a blood clot. It wasn't a fresh clot however, it's been in my leg for a little while, not sure if they'll be able to determine how long I've had it. At first my Doctor wasn't too worried about it, he told me to set up an appointment with my Hematologist next week and he ordered a prescription of blood thinners. At this point I was still set to race the next day in the Tour of Austin.

Of course Jennifer wanted to be sure that I was cleared to race, the Doc and me didn't talk whether or not I could race or should be racing so Jennifer wanted the peace of mind knowing that I wouldn't combust out on the road. His Friday office hours ended at 2 so by 2:10 when I called he was gone. Around 4 after much deliberation I called the after hours line and got ahold of him. We talked a bit about it and he said it would be best that I didn't go at race pace, he didn't have a problem with me riding just not at  a threshold heart rate for at least 48 hours while the blood thinners kick in.

I was quite bummed that I wasn't going to race, I had high hopes for it. At least a pack finish anyway. I think the course suited me quite well and I like riding out in the Manda area and have ridden and raced out there before. I was contemplating going out to the race anyway and riding it but taking it easy. That way I would still get credit for the race in my pursuit to upgrading to cat 4. A couple things would happen if I did that, more than likely I would not be able to hold back and would go to hard. The second possibility would be that I would get in the way. In the end I just moped around the house in compression socks.

This week I'll get in to see my Hematologist and see what is going on. I've waited the 48 hours and I've been on a couple harder effort rides, not all out race pace, but enough to not be consider recovery or easy rides.

So without shaving my legs I would have probably never noticed the lump that led to further investigation. Who knows what it could have led to. Now I have a new reason to shave my legs and best of all I've won over Jennifer and she does not have a problem with the shaving tradition any more.

Sorry to those that have noticed the comment spam here the past few days. Hopefully I have nipped it in the bud without limiting legitimate comments.

Last week, the day after my crash my route took me by where I wiped out. I did a little investigating and I am certain it was not water that caused my tires to lose contact with the pavement but a foreign substance. This slick substance could be transmission fluid, brake fluid, oil or some other form of lubricant. I'll know more when the lab results are returned.

The above photos shows the corner where it all transpired and the dashed lines show my path the best as I can recall. Note the dark oily spot in the bottom of the picture, that portion was not there when I went down. At least it wasn't as dark and noticeable. All I recall seeing was the smaller spot where the arrow is that indicates the oil slick that caused me to crash.

Upon hitting the spot indicated by the arrow I instantly went down and proceeded to skid on my right hip and forearm coming to a stop at the double yellow line. The road rash is not a problem, my arm is still tender and if I knock it just right it'll hurt and bleed. The hip is a little swollen and has turned to a nice bruise. The bruise runs from just below my waist down to about 3 inches above my knee. It is by far the biggest bruise I've ever had and I've had some doozies from hockey.

Close up of the spot that caused the mishap. The other tire tracks were not there when I rolled through the day before. I must have rolled through it shortly after it was leaked onto the road. In conclusion, it does not appear to be water that caused the crash like I initially thought. Upon further inspection of the crash site it is apparent that the crash was caused by a lubrication agent put down on the roadway from a car. Further investigation and analysis is in order to rule out foul play. For now I'm just gonna keep riding my bike.

During my workout yesterday (Hill sprints. On 3-5% hill do 5-7 x 8-12 second) I took a nasty fall. I was out on Sprinkle Road, the intersection of Ferguson & Sprinkle has a short hill that averages 2.5%, perfect for the  days intervals. After the 1st interval I went back down and turned left onto Ferguson Lane and then turned around and made my approach back up to ready for the next interval. As I made the hard right turn off of Ferguson Lane onto Sprinkle Road I hit a small patch of water and my tires went right out from under me. In a blink of an eye I hit the pavement with my right elbow and hip. I proceeded to skid a few feet. I quickly jumped up to get out of the middle of the road. The cars there were on Ferguson turning left onto Sprinkle rolled down their window and asked if I was ok, same with a group of cyclists coming down Sprinkle that turned onto Ferguson. So I had quite a large audience to witness my Sprinkle Spectacular.

We're in the middle of a drought here in Central Texas, so how and why was there water on the road? There is road construction going on, it looks like they are extending Sprinkle road so there are construction crews in the field. At the time I started my workout there were 2 vehicles parked in the median at the Sprinkle/Ferguson intersection. When I came down Sprinkle after my first interval one of the foreman in the median had a big jug of water. I speculate that for whatever reason he spit or poured out water onto the road. Thus on my next time through causing my tires to slip when I made the 90 degree turn.

My hip and arm took the worst of the crash, the bike came away unscathed (some minor scratches to the right pedal).  My hip swelled up with a softball sized hip pointer with a little road rash on it for good measure. The worst road rash is from my elbow to the middle of my forearm. It burned a hole in my long sleeve base layer. Surprisingly my Sugoi bib shorts didn't sustain any damage, not sure how that happened.  The entire right side of my leg is sore and I pulled some tendons in my foot in the process as well. Again, nothing major, just some minor hobbling around. In fact I finished the other 6 hill sprints. 

Act fast! Today (8/13/2009) only donate $5 or more to my LiveStrong Challenge page and get a 1 year Deluxe membership to the CertifiateCreator.com web site for free. That's a $45 value! Offer is good on new memberships or renewals for existing members. Like I stated above this is for today only and the offer ends at midnight (MST).

Want to get a membership for you and each of your son or daughter's teachers? Donate $100 or more and I'll set up deluxe memberships for you and each of their teachers. When the school year starts send me their name and email addresses and I'll set them up. Fine print: I'm thinking a 5 pack, please don't try to outfit the entire school with free memberships, as much as I'd like to give it away my family still has to eat. Donate now LiveStrong Challenge.

Tuesday was a recovery day on the bike so I was the navigator for Jennifer while she ran 5.75 miles. While at Mike's Bikes Mike said a local must do ride was the Olympic Discovery Trail. The trail is a bike/hike and horse trail and goes from Port Angeles through Squim down to the casinos in Blyn. The Discovery Trail will be extended out for 150 miles of paved trail from Port Angeles all the way to the Pacific Ocean in La Push. Further development will continue the trail from Blyn to Port Townsend.

I started out early in the morning to ride from Sequim to Port Angeles on the Discovery Bay Trail with Mark's Motobecane road bike. As soon as I made my way down from my mom's place to the trail it started to drizzle. About 5 miles into the ride it turned into a cold rain. I didn't let it dampen my spirits. It did make me chuckle that I had just taken off the fenders. The trail meanders through the woods and crosses many roads and for the most part was great. The only downside was the roads that it crossed as I was attempting to keep up a long effort (8 min) it would break up my workout as I'd have to slow to watch for cross traffic. Plus at these cross sections the trail was not marked so there were times I'd go the wrong way looking to see what direction I had to go. There were times I wasn't sure if it was the trail or a driveway.

There are beautiful bridges and trussels that cross over the Dungeness River that more than make up for any shortcomings. I would suggest if you are out for a workout find another route the Discovery Trail is better for site seeing and a leasurily ride. As the trail approaches Port Angeles it takes your right along the coast line offering seascapes. Once the trail starts to head in from the coast the pavement ends and it turns to rock and gravel. I rode a little bit on this but the rain had made the trail muddy, I opted to turn around and not inflict too much abuse to my brothers bike.

On the way back to Sequim, along the coast a deer was walking the trail, it looked back at me and gave me the look as it started to speed up. I knew exactly what this meant, but unlike Jan, I took the challenge and sped up. He sped up into a full sprint, I was shifting and accellerating as well. He dashed to the left and off the pavement onto a hill. I was gaining on him as I looked up to see him. He thought he would run down the hill he was on and cut me off but I had made up the ground and he looked surprised to see me right there with him. In defeat he applied the breaks and and ran back the other way.

I didn't ride the entire trail back, instead I got back on one of the surface roads that would take me back. Riding Old 101 Highway was much faster as I could maintain 20+ mph and not have to stop at all the cross sections.

Stats:
Duration:      2:53:02 (3:10:23)
Distance:      43.106 mi
Elevation Gain:        3610 ft
Elevation Loss:       3499 ft
Grade:         0.0 %  (111 ft)
        Min    Max    Avg
Heart Rate:      30    62    37     bpm
Speed:           0    41    14.9     mph
Pace             1:28    0:00    4:01     min/mi
Altitude:        22    406    184     ft

On Monday (07/06/2009) we drove the 65 miles from my brother's house up to my parent's place in Sequim, WA. For Monday's ride I didn't venture out too far. I mainly used the hill outside of my parent's retirement community to do 9 intervals of 3 minutes up with 2 minute recoveries between each. I only had my Doug's mountain bike so I had to do the intervals by feel. I think I was able to hit my power levels, I know on the last few it was slipping as I was having trouble getting back to the same end spot on the hill that I was reaching in the earlier sets. I did have several spectators looking on in the form of deer. There were 6 or 7 deer in a few of the yards the lined the hill. After the intervals I rode up to Happy Valley Road over to River Road (runs along the Dungeness River) and down River road to almost Highway 101 and turned around.

What's really surprising was the amount of climbing on this ride. The intervals added up along with the hill on Happy Valley on the return, 4343 feet of climbing!

Stats:
Duration:      1:18:30 (1:20:26)
Distance:      16.03 mi
Elevation Gain:        4343 ft
Elevation Loss:       4294 ft

If you follow me on twitter than you probably already know where I was last week. If not I was up around the Olympic Penninsula area of Washington state visiting my family. The whole gang from Austin hopped on a plane to Seattle. I debated taking my bike but the day before we left I opted to forgo bringing the whole bike. I was going to rent a bike box from Spin City Cycling but I was leary of any additional baggage fees plus what if my bike was lost or damaged. Instead I planned on borrowing bikes from my brothers. My brother Doug had a mountain bike he said I could use and my other brother Mark said he had a road bike I could borrow as well. Instead of bringing my whole bike I brought my mountain bike pedals and a set of road pedals, Garmin Edge 705, helmet and my powertap wheel. I found a shop online in Sequim where my parents live that rented road bikes. The plan with the powertap wheel was to use it with Mark's road bike and rent a decent road bike for a day to ride up Hurricane Ridge. Riding up Hurricane Ridge has been a goal of mine for the past 2 years since I was last up visiting family and seeing others riding up it. During that trip I was not able to get out for any rides, a mistake I vowed not to make this time around.


Doug and his wife Janet live outside of Silverdale/Bremerton in an area that offers some really good cycling.  Janet is preparing for her first triathlon next month so she took me out our first morning on a 10 mile route around their lake. The route offered long climbs with an average grade of 4%. When I say long they were in the 3 mile range, a lot longer than the 1 mile climbs we have around Austin. When Janet and me got back Jennifer was ready for a run so I took her out for another 5 miles. She ran and I rode infront leading the way.

Worthwhile Stats:
Distance:      15.452 mi
Elevation Gain:        1775 ft
Elevation Loss:       1771 ft

Later in the day before dinner I got out for a 16 mile ride around Doug's place, this time going down by the bay. When we drove through Seabeck earlier enroute into Bremerton the tide was out and the bald eagles were out clamming. Just outside of Seabeck a roadie passes me on the start of a hill. When he goes by he is out of the saddle really working it. I don't accelerate after him but I keep it consistent knowing that by the looks of him that it had taken all his energy to pass me in the first place. As I suspected a minute later I had totally eliminated any gap between us that he had. I didn't want to suck his wheel so I sat back a bike and a half length. As we reached the top he looked back to check traffic as he was going to turn left and he was shocked to see me back there and did a double take. I can only imagine the surprise to see a guy on a mountain bike that he previously passed that close behind him. I know I would have been if it was me in his situation. After this warmup hill  the road starts to climb again with a 4 mile ascent. This was the highlight of riding around my brother's place. I completed the 16 miles in 1 hour, surprising everyone that I returned back to the house so soon.

Ride Stats:
Duration:      1:01:42 (1:01:51)
Distance:      16.231 mi
Elevation Gain:        1724 ft
Elevation Loss:       1719 ft

The change of terrain was great. Every place I rode offered long climbs, most that I could stay in the large ring and just power up. Another welcome change from Texas was the weather. There was only 1 day of rain, the rest were beautiful with the temperature in the 70-80's.

Memorial Day is about remembering loved ones that have passed on. For me it holds a different meaning as 9 years ago I came pretty close to dyeing. For the longest time I bewildered and amazed my doctors as to why I was still alive and how I got through what I went through unscathed. I'm hear on borrowed time I guess. I usually don't dwell on it, but it does amaze me to think that my son Jack would have been born without knowing me. Not only that but Ethan and Zeb wouldn't have been born at all. There's been a lot of great memories I was able to take part in these past 9 years so I'm grateful to be alive and kicking.

Cycling Tips posted a bucket list of the cycling related things they'd like to do, a wish list of things to do before you kick the bucket. Here's mine in no particular order:

1. Ride up Alp D'Huez
2. Ride in a race with my sons (real race not just an event ride) and get dropped by them
3. Go for a ride with Saul Raisin
4. Ride the Alpine Loop with Elden Nelson
5. Ride across the country
6. Have my own soigneur
7. Tour Switzerland, Italy, France Belgium and Spain
8. Ride in all 50 states

Everyone have a safe Memorial day holiday, I'll be riding 100 miles on Saturday for the Fat Cyclist's 100 Miles of No Where race. Sunday I might try to make the 4pm Parmer ride with the Austin Road Riders. As for Monday I'm not sure, it's suppose to be my rest day so I probably end up riding with the boys.