Mike's Bike Blog

Here's the rides that are happening this weekend, I'm not sure what I'll be doing this weekend yet. I can ride 75 miles on Saturday with the Cyclopaths of Texas training for the Hotter than Hell 100. On Sunday the Austin Flyers have the "Le Burrito" ride starting at 8 am. "Le Burrito" powered the Chipotle professional bicycling team while they trained for this year's Tour de France. Now you can have a free one after the Austin Flyers Cycling Club Sunday ride at Bicycle Sport Shop Central.

8am - Ride with the Austin Flyers and special guests, the Super Squadra road race team (the mountain bike group will ride the greenbelt at 9am)
11am - Free lunch catered by Chipotle featuring the Le Burrito and beer provided by Real Ale
11am - Watch the 15th stage of the Tour de France with Bicycle Sport Shop Central

Please RSVP to ensure we have enough food for everyone. See you there!

Austing Cycling Association Rides:

July 19 -- Dripping Springs Favorites -- 8:00 am
A new revision of an old route. Meet at Dripping Springs ISD Administration building, on the north side of Hwy 290, about 3/10 of a mile west of the traffic light at Hwy 12. (The admin building is on Loop 64). The 17-, 30-, 45- and 58-mile rides follow Onion Creek and then climb across the Great Divide into the Blanco River Basin, offering one of the most spectacular cycling views anywhere. Plenty of hills, open vistas and fire-ant mounds. Ira 512/402-0492

July 19 -- Cedar Park Fever -- 8:00 am
Meet at CC Mason Elementary on the NORTH side of the school in Cedar Park. From Hwy 183 north, turn left on FM 1431. Take FM 1431 to the third light (Lakeline Blvd) and turn right. The school is 0.5 a mile north of the FM 1431/Lakeline intersection, on the left. These are easy to intermediate rides of 13, 28, 48 and 63 miles in the Hill Country. There are some moderate hills on the longer routes. Mark 512/260-9989

July 20 -- Liberty Hill Loops -- 8:00 am
Meet at the Liberty Hill Elementary School on Loop 332, just west of downtown Liberty Hill. These 25- and 50-mile intermediate level rides follow quiet back roads over the picturesque Jollyville Plateau with a few moderate hills. Pedal through places like Joppa, Andice, Oatmeal and Mahomet, but don't blink or you'll miss them. Bertram is the water stop on this ride. Frank 512/246-7482

July 20 -- Sprinkle Sprint -- 8:00 am
NEW START LOCATION: Meet near the intersection of Centre Park and Centre Creek in NE Austin. Take Cameron Rd. north off Hwy 183, and turn right on Rutherford Ln. The second left is Centre Park. Park on Centre Park. Riders meeting near the intersection of Centre Park and Centre Creek. The 29- and 43-mile routes cover rolling farmland. These rides leave from very close in and put you and your bike in rural countryside before you know it. Kevin 512/989-9457

Since I just did the Liberty Hill Loops not too long ago that ones out. The Dripping Springs route would be fun, but I'm not a big fan of driving that far to ride this weekend. I guess for me on Saturday it's a toss up between riding with the Cyclopaths and the Cedar Park Fever. On Sunday it would be fun to ride with the Austin Flyers again and eat a free burrito, I better RSVP ASAP if I plan on doing that one.

Anybody have other suggestions or want to join in?

Friday morning when I woke up and went out to the garage I found I had a flat. Which was odd because my workout from Thursday was an hour on the trainer. I couldn't find a puncture so I just changed it. Then that nights ride out on Parmer I had a flat.

Today's workout called for another set of intervals and a 2 1/2 hour ride. I wanted to see how far Parmer went as my ride the other day piqued my curiosity. I headed out again on Parmer, which I get on at Brushy Creek Road. Just like on my Parmer ride on Friday there was a strong wind out of the South. There's some nice long hills out past 2243, which was where the extension road construction was previously, thus I never ventured past it till Friday's ride. I past Hwy 29 and kept pushing on. Right after the intersection of 3405 on the other side there was a lot of rock debris, I tried to navigate through it all and then there was the sound... psssst... Another flat!

I need a support wagon with wheels and I guy to run out, change my flat and then to give me a push to get back up to speed. In today's stage (8) of the Tour they were commenting on the rain and grit and how many flats were going on. They showed George Hincapie getting a change and a push. With a support vehicle they can change a tire in less than a minute. It takes me about 10 to 15 minutes or more like what happened during the Armadillo Hill Country Classic.

Once I got the tube changed I kept on going. At CR 289 I gauged that I needed to turn around so I could get back home before it got dark, plus I was only scheduled for a 2 1/2 hour ride. Parmer seems to keep going, I couldn't see any sign of it stopping. It will have to be conquered another day. CR 289 where I turned around was 16.6 miles from Brushy Creek. Looking at the map I suspect it connects with CR 247 and ends at 2238 (Andice Rd). If that's the case then once on 2238 I could head over to Andice and take the back roads back to Liberty Hill and back home on CR 239. Looks like there could be some other good routes by heading east on CR 285 to Lake Georgetown.

Turning back and heading South on Parmer the wind didn't disappoint and let me know I wasn't going to get a free pass on the way home. I ran out of water right at 1431 so I pulled into the gas station to refuel. I filled up both bottles just in case.

I went over by 10 minutes on my riding time, due mainly to the wind coming back. I had a set power level as a ceiling so I tried to maintain that level and not push too much over the hills. In the end it took 2:40:09 and a total of 45.63 miles. Average speed was 17.09; Max speed 41.62. Cadence average 77, Max: 128.

On Sunday morning we played the 481 Smurfs from Houston for the Artic Wolf 4th of July championship. I got a good night of sleep, which I was worried about with my ribs, but I slept well and woke up refreshed. The ribs were sore, but I was able to take deep breaths with low pain and moving around wasn't a problem.

On the ice during warm ups I felt good but still couldn't shoot without pain. We jumped out to 2-0 lead. The smurfs closed the gap with a goal of their own, but it was our day. We ended up winning 3-1. It was a fun weekend, but it's good to be home. Now back to the bike content for another year.

I picked up my bike on Sunday night from the bike shop. I dropped it off to get it's yearly check up. They also took the bottom bracket apart and lubed it back up. So far there is no knocking from the cranks! This morning I went out for a ride before work. I felt good, but I won't be able to push it for a few days with my ribs. Whenever I would get out of the saddle to sprint it would hurt a bit.

Game 2

On my second shift of game 2 I was scrambling for the puck in front of our net with another player from the other team. He was slightly ahead of me. I lifted my left arm up over him as I went past him when he butt-ended right in the ribs. For those here for a bike blog a butt-end is when a player uses the shaft of the stick above the upper hand to jab an opponent. I don't think the other player meant to hit me, but I went down like a ton of bricks with the wind knocked out of me. I'm not sure if my rib is cracked or just bruised, no way of knowing without an X-ray. From past rib injuries this is by far the worse I've had, no sense in going to the doctor, even with broken ribs they don't do anything for you.

I continued to play, not well. I did have a break away and as I was coming in on the goal the other defense man slid from behind me as I slowed to put a move on the goalie. The defense man took me legs out from under me sending me into the air only to return on my back and head. The impact of course was on my left side which I took the stick into the ribs. Needless to say I had the wind knocked out of me again and the impact with my head didn't feel too good either, but that's why I wear a mouth piece. But hey I scored. I guess when the defense man took me out they also took the goalie into the back of the net. I think the final score was 7-4 for the win.

Game 3

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to play this game the way my ribs were feeling, but I figured if I couldn't get my skates tied that would be the sign. I got them tied albeit a little loose. I had a few good shifts, but for the most part it hurt a bit, luckily nobody ran into me or took me out. I did have 1 chance where I was off to the right side of the net, I was too far behind the goal to have an angle so I tried to bounce it off the goalie, but it scooted across the crease. Nobody from my team could knock it home for an easy goal. We won the game 7-3, so that puts us in the championship game on Sunday. We'll be playing the team we played in Game 3. Once again if I can get my skates tied I'll play.

I'm in College Station this weekend playing hockey, I'm playing with weremonkeys, a team from Houston. Last night we had our first game, it was against the home town College Station team. I'm a bit rusty, I guess that's what happens when you play a couple times a year for the past 10 years.  The line I centered got 1 goal.

The goal came in the 2nd period, I got the puck in the corner. I had a College Station defenseman on me as I took the puck behind the net. I did one of my favorite moves, as we are going behind the net I pull the puck behind my back and dump it back out front. The beauty of this move is it typically gets the goalie to move to the other side of the net as he expects me to try a wrap around. With the goalie moving to his right the goal was wide open and my right winger had a wide open shot. He didn't dissapoint and bearied the puck home!

I didn't have too many of my own attempts at scoring, my best possibility was in the 1st period. I got the puck at center ice and as I brought it into the zone I put a move on the defense. I beat the defense with a move and had a clear breakaway. As I was going around the Texas A&M player tripped me. I was surprised there wasn't a penalty called as it seemed pretty clear. In the end we won the game 4 - 1.