Mike's Bike Blog

Back in January when I was setting my 2008 cycling goals I didn't set any mileage goals, but so far in 2008 I've ridden a total of 3002.23 miles and climbed 122,183.7 feet. In the past 6 months I've lost 23 pounds! First on my list was completing a century ride. I thought it would come later in the year at the Outlaw Trail 100, but instead I rode the 106 miles at the Armadillo Hill Country Classic. Now that I've joined the century club, now it's time to put a completion time to one. One other goal was to improve my climbing, that is coming along, cutting my time in 1/2 on the Limecreek Hill might be a bit far fetched. I'll keep plugging away at it though. My best time in 2008 so far is 4:05 which is obviously better than the 4:52 time I posted in December 2007. I might have been too aggressive with that goal, but I'll keep riding up it.

Updated 2008 Goals

• Ride at least 10,000 feet of climbing in 1 day
• Weight 175 -180
• Ride the Outlaw 100 century ride October 18, 2008 in 5 1/2 hours
  
• Compete in at least 1 race and gain a Cat 5 status
• Volente/Limecreek 10 mile time trial averaging 22 mph (27 minutes)
  
• Increase threshold power by 12% (Not sure what a realistic number is as I'm just starting to train with a power meter)
  

 So far the first 6 months of 2008 have been great, I've had a lot of good rides with some great people.

As we all know as a cyclist we spend a lot of time on our bikes. I'm typically riding at least 6 days a week, my off day is  on Sunday. A typical Saturday ride is anywhere from 3 to 5 hours depending upon where I'm riding and at what distance. That doesn't factor in event riding where I might have travel time to and from the event as well. I guess where I'm going with this post is there 's a lot of time I'm not at home and my wife is very supportive of my cycling habit, as long as it doesn't get any more expensive and take up too much of my time. She not only lets me get out on Saturday morning for a ride but while I'm out with my bike she mows the lawn! Yes you read right, Jennifer will mow and edge while I'm out. She's a keeper!

We do have a trade of sorts, she swims in the evenings, so I watch the boys while she goes to the pool for her workout. Her workouts aren't anywhere as long as my 3 to 6 hour Saturday long rides. I do try to at least clean up from dinner or pick up a bit. I'm thankful she understands the pursuit of an athlete as she herself held state (Wyoming) records in track and swimming and grew up in an athletic family. She has her own athletic pursuits mainly for keeping her fit.

Her support doesn't stop with cycling, she doesn't bat an eye when Sunday evenings I hit the ice for some hockey. In fact she's supportive and encoraging when I'll be gone next weekend over the 4th of July holiday in College Station playing in a hockey tournament. Of course she knew long ago in high school my crazy devotion to training when we would "run" into each other  in the mornings before school at the Rec center, she and her dad lifting weights and me on the ice.

Jenn, thank you for the support and encouragement for not only allowing me to ride and train so much, but to also put up with the other oddities that goes along with a roadie like the weird food requirements and the expenses of keeping a roadie on the road.

On Saturday I rode the 15 miles from my house to Liberty Hill for the Austin Cycling Association's Liberty Hill Loop ride. This was my first time riding with the ACA. My riding buddy, Skipper, from Keller Williams Realty joined me. He hasn't been riding that much, he did compete in the Urban Assault last weekend, so we decided to go for the 28 mile route. Since I was going to put in an extra 30 getting to and from Liberty Hill that was fine with me. 

There were about 30 riders in 3 different routes (62, 48, 28 miles). In the 28 mile route there were only about 10 to 15 riders. I've ridden the roads around Liberty Hill quite a bit over this last year, but this was my first time up to Andice. The pace wasn't all that tough, we were going between 15 and 18, just outside of Andice I joked with Skipper we needed to pick up the pace to 20 mph. So we briefly did, but I knew we had the wind at our back and as soon as we turned and started to make our way back we had the wind to contend with.

 

Once we got out of Andice, which seems to be composed of the country store and a fruit stand across the street, the wind started to push back. We had to consult the route map several times to make sure we were on track.

 

Here's skipper giving the thumbs up that we are on track. We hit a few hills on the way back into Liberty Hill, nothing too big, I didn't think, but Skipper might have a different opinion on that. We did the 28 miles in 1:48:39. The route is 1019.2 feet of climbing, the steepest point had a grade of 22.1%, we averaged 15.17 mph, my max speed was 27.84 mph.

 

This is a keeper route for me, when I need a good 60 mile ride this is one I'll keep in my arsenal of rides. The back roads are low traffic and peaceful. However, there are a few places that warrant some caution, there is a short section on Hwy 183 and there are 2 crossings of Hwy 29, but I don't think it should distract anybody from this route. I had a good time riding with ACA, I'll definetly try to catch more rides with them.

Liberty Hill Loops route and more photos

On Friday I had my bike fit with Alexis Sheehy at Bicycle Sport Shop. We started with a basic fit and if we needed to do a 3D fit we would cross that bridge when we came to it. She started off by getting my bike background and the type of riding I'm doing.

After plopping my bike on the trainer and spinning along she broke out the plumb. There wasn't any glaring problems with my fit. She did lower my seat a little bit and moved my seat back a little as well. Nothing too drastic. Her biggest recommendation was different pedals as well as working on my flexibility. I should work on the flexibility in my hamstrings and hip flexor.

I've been riding basic SPD pedals. The SPD pedals don't have much of a platform for your foot and with the lack of a platform my foot was not being supported properly. The thinking is the smaller pedals are forcing me to use more of an effort to stabilize my foot and thus putting stress on my knees. She put on Shimano 105 pedals and had me try them. On the trainer they felt decent. She suggested I give them a try over the weekend.

Friday evening I did a short 10 miles to test my knee and the pedals. Both were great. My knee didn't hurt at all and the pedals felt great. I could definitely feel the power transfer difference. When I kicked through or pulled through on my stroke it felt like I had more response.My next test ride was Saturday morning. I did 40 miles in Cedar Park on Parmer and 620. My goal for this ride was not speed, but to keep my cadence at 95+. For the entire ride I didn't shift to my big ring. I did average 96 rpms for the 2:21:55 ride. The pedals were great, I just might keep them. I'll poke around and compare the 105's to others. It seems the top of the line Dura Ace pedals are about the same, just lighter, not sure if it warrants the extra bucks.

Now for the bad news, my knee didn't hurt outright, I think I stopped before it went over the threshold of a minor annoyance to pain. As I was riding down 620 I could feel it fatiguing and knew if I kept it up that it would start to hurt. It's kind of hard to explain, it didn't hurt, but I could feel it. It was the prepain feeling and if I would have pushed more power it would have started to hurt.

Monday June 16 famed cycling director of US Postal, Discovery Team and currently Astana Johan Bruyneel will be at Mellow Johnny's to share his story and philosophy in his new book "We Might as Well Win".  Space and inventory is limited so get to the shop early. Book signing is from 5pm to 7pm.

I went in to see my doctor this afternoon to look at my knee. She wants me to take the rest of the week off the bike and see how it feels next week. If I have pain next week than she thinks seeing a Physical Therapist (PT) is in order. I laid out my plan for working my knee out, with resuming weights and she thought that was a good idea starting next week. She didn't object to me skating though.

I went out for a skate tonight, 4.77 miles worth of skating. It's not bike speeds, but I averaged 10.29 mph, my max speed was 21.74 mph.  I know some of you might be wondering how I got those numbers. I took an extra Delphi cycling computer I had laying around and hooked the speedometer magnet to the spokes of the wheels and the sensor on the chassis. Knowing my skate wheels are 72mm I was able to compute the wheel size and enter that into the computer. Now I need to figure out a way to measure my stride strokes which would be akin to cadence. 

Just kidding, I have a Garmin Forerunnuner which straps to my wrist, so it gets data from GPS. 

I was talking with Lauri an accomplished adventure racer/cyclist, telling her of my knee problems. When I mentioned the pain walking up the stairs after a ride of 2000+ feet of climbing she thought she knew what it might be. She has gone through something similar during the Texas 500 relays. She sent me a link on Cyclists Knee Injuries and it does describe what I'm going through.

There are many causes that can lead to this, poor quadriceps function, vastus-medialis insufficiency, subtalar-joint pronation, poor muscle flexibility, abnormal lower-limb biomechanics, incorrect bicycle and equipment settings (saddle height, cleat position, cleat type and shoe type), abnormal fore-foot and rear-foot alignment, leg-length discrepancies, and varus or valgus knee malalignments. Out of that list there's only a few that I know what they mean and can pronounce.In my case I'm not sure exactly what the exact culprit is, it could be any combination of the causes. One thing I do need to do is get to the bottom of it and fix the underlying cause as best I can as no matter how much I rehab it and get it better if the cause is still there it will never go away it will only postpone the pain.My gut feeling is that it's a combination of the quadriceps muscle weakness, flexibility, bike/cleat fit. Since spring I've tapered off my weight training from 3 days down to 2 days. Truth be told I've missed more weight training sessions than I've probably made. Since bulking up isn't my focus I haven't felt bad about missing a weight training workout. I had been doing more on the bike muscular workouts like single leg pull thrus. However, my knee strength is not balanced, I think without doing leg press, leg curls and squats (I do sumo squats, I don't have a squat rack or a spotter) I've started to lose muscle and could be causing some side to side movement.Besides lifting weights I also plan to do some cross training. I think it's time I break out the slide board and inline skates. I'll also hit the ice for some ice hockey. This will also help as I've been asked to play in a hockey tournament July 4th in College Station, TX.

I'm also going to get a bike fit to make sure everything is fitting properly from saddle height to cleat positioning. I'm not sure what direction to go on this one. Given the nature of my past sports injuries, how messed up my feet are I'm not sure if a traditional bike fit would cover everything. Or if I need the new fancy 3D fitting. My thought is that having the computer data that can show any abnormalities in my pedal stroke or wiggle and wobble in my joints would be detected and hopefully corrected or compensated. However, since I've never had a traditional bike fit by a trained professional maybe they can offer the same level of service at half the cost. Locally, Bicycle Sport Shop offers a 3D fitting.

We're heading up to Marble Falls on Saturday morning to pick strawberries at Sweet Berry Farm with the family. I'm going to bring my bike and ride back home. The route looks to be about 60 miles. From the farm I'll be going up near Burnet, near Bertrum and near Liberty Hill back down to Cedar Park. These will be a few of the roads the Armadillo Hill Country Classic will take.

If anybody wants to partake in the ride let me know and we can meet at my house load the bikes up and head out. You can even pick strawberries and hopefully my kids don't eat them all on the ride back and will be waiting for you when we get back.

 

Last Monday I woke up a little on the sore side, and as the day progressed I tightened up. So for the entire day I was looking forward to the ride to work out all the kinks, but I was busy with work so sitting at the computer for 14 hours didn't help. At about 10:30pm I got on the bike and did a 14 miler.

So what put me in this sore state? Another epic hill climb? A 12 hour ride? None of the above. I went and played ice hockey. The last time I put on skates was almost a year ago. The time before that was a year before that. In fact in the last 8 years I've played hockey under 10 times, so not enough to be in any playing shape. However, the bike training did help out.

I typically come out of my hockey hibernation once a year to play in a tournament. Since moving to Texas 3 years ago that tournament has been the 4th of July tourney in College Station put on by my buddy Buzz Elder. When I started working out in 2007 it was to get back in shape and go to Wyoming to play in the Rock Springs Drop-In Tournament. I didn't get up to the tourney this year, which I think happened this weekend. Maybe I'll get up there for the Fall tourney.

When I was out at Reimers Ranch riding with Jared I was noticing as I was slowing for a turn and then sprinting out of it it made me think of the flow of a hockey game. There is constant stopping and starting. Last Sunday I decided to forgo any riding and head over to Chaparral Ice on I-35 for some hockey. I figured it would be a good change of pace.

Aerobically my conditioning was excellent, I wasn't winded and I wasn't gasping for air. Unlike 2 years ago when I first played with Buzz where I thought I was going to die my first time on the ice. Last year wasn't that bad either, I'd been working out and was riding. This time out was a world of difference. I haven't felt this good skating from a condition standpoint since I was in high school/Juniors.

Beyond the recovery ride it was a low mileage week, kind of a recovery week I suppose. I'd spent the last 4 weeks prior hitting the hills fairly hard, in total I climbed 22,127.6 feet over the 4 week period. I had hoped to top it off with another 100K of hills ride, but it wasn't in the cards with as much stuff I have going on. I'm not sure what I'll focus on next. I'll probably try to get out on the ice for a few workouts till the hockey tournament in July, as well as through in some slide board workouts as well. 

Last week I was in San Antonio for business, on Monday I brought my bike in the hopes of riding that evening. I got out for a 15 mile ride along the Mission Trail. Last summer we took the family to the Alamo, but we didn't make it to the other Spanish Missions. These missions were part of the colonization system stretching across the Spanish Southwest of the 17th 18th and 18th centuries. The entire San Antonio Missions National Historical Park consists of Missions Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan and Espada. I only had a couple hours before dark so I only got to Missions Concepcion and San Jose.

The ride was great, I was expecting to hit downtown rush hour traffic as I started around 6pm. Durango Rd was the busiest on the route, but it wasn't bad at all, it's a 2 lane road and the cars got over. The rest of the route was peacful and on Mission Road there was a bike lane. I wish I had more time to get to the other 2 missions. I ended up only staying the night on Monday, we ended up driving back and forth between Austin and San Antonio the rest of the week.

See the route along with more photos on roadbikerides.com.