For the past year I've been on the lookout for a road bike for the boys. The options for an entry level road bike for the 9-11 year old group is slim pickings. Redline, Felt and Fuji are the only current manufacturers that produce a 24" road bike. Trek discontinued their offering in 2008. Fuji a larger bike with 650 wheels as well. The other option was to purchase an extra small road bike, but the geometry is just a bit off for a kid, it really stretches him out when in the drops. I really didn't want to buy new so I'd been scouring craiglist and other boards.
Last week a used Felt F24 showed up for sale on Txbra.org classified at a great price. I quickly jumped on it and the next day the steed was in our stable of bikes! Jack was quite excited about the purchase as he's been hounding me for a road bike the past year. Jack was extra excited to learn the pedals were clipless platform pedals. He's been wanting to go clipless for the last year as well.
When we were in Southwest Cycle Sport getting extra tubes for his bike he found a pair of road shoes on the clearance table that fit. I really wasn't too keen on him going clipless at age 9 and was surprised to find that they actually fit him. He was willing to put down all the money he had on them along with me being a softy when it comes to sports equipment for the boys, he walked out of the shop with new road shoes. I took the SPD cleats off of an old pair of my shoes and installed them on his.
Earlier in the morning I set up the bike on the trainer so he could do a dry run of clipping in and out in a controlled environment. In the afternoon we headed over to Georgetown to ride the flat country roads departing Berry Springs Park. I had mapped out a 13 mile route for us. In the parking lot he was practicing getting a foot clipped in while I was airing up my tires. He had a couple crashes in the few minutes waiting for me. But he was undeterred from riding clipless and did not want to ride with his regular shoes.
Once we got out on the road he was fine, he did have trouble getting clipped in. The pedals are not double sided, so he has to flip it over and that did prove to be a bit difficult for the maiden voyage. We practiced stopping and starting along the desolate back roads. There were only a few stop signs on the route, but I'd give him ample warning about them so he could unclip well before them.
When we were about 4 miles away from the finish we could see 2 riders a mile or two ahead of us on the small rollers. I said we should go catch them. He thought they were too far ahead, I said "nonsense, if we catch them I'll get you a milkshake". With the reward of a milkshake as an incentive we picked up the pace and started attacking the hills. For the next 1.61 miles he averaged 13.5 mph over the next 4 rollers. We were cutting their lead, but he still didn't think we would catch them. I said if we kept pushing this pace we would catch them on the final hill, I pointed up to it and pointed to a couple big telephone poles near the top. I said that's where we'd catch them. On the final hill the 2 were starting to separate, the rider in the back was struggling up the hill. We caught him 1/2 way up the hill shortly after he dismounted and started pushing his bike up the hill. The other rider we caught at the exact point I pointed to.
At the base of the hill I let Jack get in the lead and I told him as we approach them to say "On your left" as we pass, it's the right thing to do. The look on their faces to see a 9 year old kid on a road bike go effortlessly up the hill was funny. We crested the hill, the big grin on my face was obviously causing a severe drag effect. Jack was so happy with himself as well. He's definitely hooked!
After his brother's were in bed I made him a small milkshake for his reward.
Ride enough with Roadies and you'll soon find out that there is a certain distain for triathletes on the road. I've heard it several times on this topic the tri-guys are terrible in a group and how they can't climb. I've seen it both ways where there's been climbers and guys that can handle themselves in a pack.
You'd think with as much stereotyping that triathletes get I would be apprehensive about this latest news, but my son Jack (9), is signed up for his first triathlon. The race consists of a 100 meter swim, 2.8 mile bike and .6 mile run. He has the swimming and biking in the bag as this summer he really concentrated on his swimming and joined the Nitro swim team last month. Actually the run probably won't be too bad for him either, but Jennifer is out of commission with an ITB injury, so that leaves me to go out on runs with him. I'm not overly excited to be hoofing around the neighborhood so I'll probably either ride my bike or wear inline skates and skate while he runs.
I foresee many more of these in our future not just for Jack but also Ethan and Zeb. Triathlons for kids at this age are a great way to get into competition and training instead of just focusing on one sport. Also it gives the younger kids an opportunity to compete. USA Cycling races don't start an age classification until the age of 10. Plus finding races that offer a 10-14 year old category is fairly sparse. The triathlons seem to start the kids around age 5 or 6 and here in the Austin area there are plenty to sign up for. Be on the lookout for race reports from Jack and his brothers. Now I have to figure out how these triathlons work and what to expect in the transition area.
Jack at the Driveway Race Series from July
Jack and Ethan showing off their medals from the Driveway Race Series. All I need to do is write Cutters on their shirts and they are set, and no that wasn't planned, it's the shirts they like to ride their bikes in.
Growing up on the Eastern side of Washington State in rural Chattaroy, outside of Spokane, we had many hills to ride bikes on growing up. The rural area we lived in provided a vast playground of roads that my friends and myself would ride on for hours on end. I recently mapped a few of my known routes that we rode to see how far we rode in any particular day and the average was about 6-8 miles with some 15-20 mile adventures thrown in as I got older. When I was 10 - 12 years old these all day rides seemed long and epic, it gave me a little chuckle to see how low the mileage actually was.
There was one hill in particular that us neighborhood kids would test ourselves on. It was sort of a right of passage to try and get up the hill without having to stop or walk up. I'm not sure what the grade of the hill on Buck Brush was, in the winter after a snow it was typically undrivable and would be closed for sledding. We also called it the Water Tower Hill, you can probably image why. Looking back I have several fond memories of riding up that hill. It was the quickest route to Owens Pond where I'd frequently go to fish. Imagine riding up this hill with my fishing pole. A lot of my friends would go around the hill to avoid it and meet me at the top. One other memory is when my Uncle Kenny came to visit and I talked him into going to Owens Museum with me one evening. I rode my bike while he walked. From then on he always talked about how he almost died walking up the Water Tower hill and how far this little jaunt was (actually only 2 miles).
Last night Jack and me went over to the Twin Creeks circuit and did 1 lap to warm up and then we went down the Twin Creeks hill. His eyes were wide as we descended the hill. At the bottom we discussed his strategy of getting back up, he was worried about getting to the top. I let him know that it was ok to stop and catch his breath. I've seen a lot of adults need to stop on the hill and I've seen grown adults walk their bikes up it as well so if he had to stop there was no shame in it. Off he went. After his first stop I told him to pick out a marker up the hill and ride to that spot. It took him 4 rest stops to get to the top and I might be a proud father but I must say his form looked a lot better than a lot of people I see on it. A lot of people are weasing and out of breath as they fight their way to the top. He on the other hand paced himself and didn't seem to burn any matches.
He was quite proud of himself to get to the top and he set a goal to ride to the top without stopping by the end of the summer. I'm pretty sure the Twin Creeks hill is steeper than my Water Tower hill and it is a bit longer .5 compared to .22 miles. Be on the look out for updates on his progress!
The family ride was slated for a 10am start time, but before we could leave Ethan had an 8:30 am soccer game. I had the bikes all packed up early that morning so all we had to do was swing by the house to pick up the cooler and head up to Bertram. I had expected to be a little late. By the time we got to Bertram and got the bikes all unloaded it was 10:35 and I wasn't sure where exactly we were suppose to go. We rolled over to the park where the start was to happen and I asked the volunteers at the rest stop where we were suppose to go. I got some lip about missing it and some guy in full kit and no kids started spouting off about him being done in 40 minutes. I didn't see any kids with him so he must have hammered it for 40 minutes, I wasn't impressed. So I restated that I just needed to know which way we were suppose to go, we didn't need to do it with everybody else and we were quite content to tackle it on our own.
With the basic directions we headed out. I hooked the trail-a-bike up to the old Fuji and pulled Zeb along. Jack rode up front with me while Ethan and Jennifer brought up the rear. We would regroup every once in a while to let Jennifer and Ethan catch back on and to eat our snack bars. There was a downhill in particular I could hear screaming coming from the back. On the uphill opposite of the decent we stopped to look back and see what carnage lay behind us. It turns out Ethan was having a blast on the decent and was yelling approval and not screams of bloody murder, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. Once we got going up the hill Jack said let's race. He accelerated up the hill, Zeb and me really had to work to catch him. I got a kick out of his move and was impressed at the speed he was holding up the hill.
With one mile left I heard the pssst of air being violently released from my rear tire. There was one slight problem, I had forgot to move my saddle bag from the Orbea to the Fuji in my haste to get going, so I had no way to repair my tire. Like a good teammate Jennifer said for me to take her bike and ride back to Bertram and get the car while they waited. We cut the ride a mile short but nobody seemed to mind too much. Ethan was happy he was tired from his soccer game to begin with so he didn't have any objections. The only one that grumbled about cutting the ride short was Zeb.
After I got the bikes packed up I got the Orbea out. The family took off in the car while I headed back to Bertram to catch the Dillo route back to Liberty Hill. For the next hour I pushed hard and hammered up the hills. I caught up with a guy in Velossimo kit and we rode together. There was a group of 10 riders working together that we were trying to catch. We were somewhat disorganized, neither of us drafting off of each other. On one uphill I got caught behind a pack of slower riders and he put a 7-9 second gap on me . After me pushing a high power threshold for an hour I eased up a bit and was content to let him keep the gap.
As we were getting closer to Liberty Hill I was slowly catching him again. He looked back, I wasn't sure if it was "the look" or what. I was expecting him to take off as I approached, but he said he sure could use a pull. So I let him catch on and pulled him. My plan was to turn right on 179 and head back to Cedar Park instead of going left into Liberty Hill. I didn't want to leave the guy out there, he would have been ok as the way into Liberty Hill had a tailwind. I did pull him 1/2 way to Liberty Hill before turning around and heading home.
The family had a great time and I really like how the family ride is handled with registration. Registration is $15 for the adult and kids ride free. I wasn't expecting a tshirt for Jennifer and me, but only the kids. As it turns out at packet pick up they said the parents got tshirts too! The registration model is great for an entire family to particate in the event.
Sunday morning started with meeting Joe to head out on a small group ride for a 2 - 2 1/2 hour "recovery" ride. After meeting up with everybody on Shoal Creek we meandered through neighborhoods and made our way to MoPac. We cruised all the way down to Slaughter. I did run into a slight problem, I hit a pot hole that launched me straight up into the air and when I landed it made the nose of my saddle point up into the air. I tried to get it back to my comfy position but any little bump in the road and it was back up in the air. I was told a couple times to slow down, well it was a recovery ride.
On the way back there were a couple of spirited sprints that I was able to reach quadruple digits (1018 watts) on the power meter. The ride was 37.33 miles, I rode around warming up while enroute to the start. Total ride time was 2'22:09. After the ride I headed over to Nelo's to get the seat fixed. Two problems, the first being that Nelo's is not open on Sundays. Even if they were open the second problem is they've moved. I'm not sure where exactly, Joe mentioned that they were going to move, but I didn't see a note on the door as to where. A quick look at their website doesn't mention where they went either.
After my failed attempt with Nelo's the weather was looking really good. It was suppose to rain and be a miserable day. I was going to do the Dam Loop, but with it looking so good I called home to see if we should head up to Marble Falls to pick Strawberries.
Since we were leaving so late in the day my plan of the 100 mile route wasn't in the cards. I only had time to do the original 60 mile route, but the beauty of it would be with a few extra miles I could still come up with 100 miles for the day. This wasn't going to be a regular century, there was going to be 4-5 hours from when I got off the bike till when I started for round two. When I got on the bike and headed out my legs were rebelling. They were stiff and heavy, felt like about mile 80 on a 100 mile ride already. I thought I was going to be in store for a rough 63 mile haul back home. Luckily my legs woke up about 10 miles into it and offered no objections the rest of the ride. Last year I hit a stiff headwind on 281 up to Burnet and this year was more of the same. The wind pattern followed the same as last year, maybe not as intense, but there were times I felt the crosswind as well.
On the backroads outside of Bertram once again my saddle pointed up again when I bounced on the saddle. I pulled over and tried to get it back to my setting. While I was stopped I answered the call of nature, but mother nature had the last laugh when I got tangled up with a vine with thorns. It tore a few scratches into my leg.
How about some stats? I have last years ride info from the 1st Annual Strawberry Classic.
Looks like I cut almost 40 minutes off my active and duration times. One stat that looks very promising is the speed buckets. The time I was above 20 miles per hour
20-22: 29:27 for 14.7%
22-24: 28:14 for 14.1%
24-26: 18:45 for 9.4%
26-28: 9:33 for 4.8%
My legs felt great once I got going and felt like I had another 40 miles in them while I was cruising around to get the 3 extra miles. It is an unorthodox way to to do a century, but I have a feeling this is good preparation for doing team endurance events (24 to 48 hour type events) where a rider would do a set number of laps or mileage and then rest and wait while a team member does their laps before going out again.
A few weekends ago I finally talked Zeb into taking the training wheels off his bike and to give it a try. We did a few attempts on the street and in the front yard. Over the next few days after work he wanted to go back out and keep trying. We had better luck at the park where he wasn't confined to a small space. He has been determened to master the 2 wheels so he can ride like his brothers. Last weekend it finally clicked for him. He's getting it down, right now he's in Time Trial mode. Meaning I have to hold onto his seat and starts to pedal.
It's only a matter of time till there's no stopping him on his bike! Next step is getting all 3 into a paceline.
Jack at the Driveway Race Series from July
Jack and Ethan showing off their medals from the Driveway Race Series. All I need to do is write Cutters on their shirts and they are set, and no that wasn't planned, it's the shirts they like to ride their bikes in.
