Mike's Bike Blog

For my Sunday ride I drove over to Dripping Springs to throw me wheels into the Austin Cycling Association's (ACA) Perdernales Pedal. I opted for the 63 mile route. I was hoping for a fast group ride that would push me 20+ mph. Historically, whenever I've done an ACA ride there have been some guys there who bring the hurt. Being the last to sign the sign-in sheet I was disappointed to see that all that had signed up for the 63 mile route had put there anticipated speed at 15 mph.

I wasn't going to let the speed issue get me down so I decided to be a workhorse and moved to the front to do my share of the pulling. The problem is Dripping Springs is the gateway to the hill country and my comrades just didn't have the juice to get up the rollers. I was finding it difficult to get up the hills at their pace, so I'd go around and soft pedal at the top. There was one other fellow on a Tri Bike that was able to put up some decent speed, he started to lay down a 20 mph pace so I quickly went with him. After a minute or two I asked him if he knew the route because we had just dropped everyone. He laughed and said no so we slowed down to regroup. I had grabbed a map from the ride starter which would be somewhat valuable to me later in the ride, but I had wished I'd downloaded the route to my Garmin.

The first 1/2 of the ride to Johnson City was more of the same, the Tri guy and me off the front. This gave me a chance to work on a few tactics, I would let a gap form between him and me, about 2 bike lengths and then I would power up and sprint by  him up the hills dancing ever so poetically on the pedals. Once we turned on the last stretch to Johnson City I formed a sizeable gap of about 4 minutes on the Tri guy.

In Johnson City we filled up the bottles and regrouped and headed out. I was in the back of our paceline as we rode single file on 281 heading out of Johnson City. Tri guy got a good lead on all of us. At the first opportunity I bridged up to him.  We had gotten away from the main group, which was pretty easy as I don't really think they were concerned about chasing us down. We rode the rural country rode 301 at about 20 mph. Unbeknownst to my breakaway partner I was going to try to get away on a solo breakaway. I would push the pace up the hills but the small rollers weren't enough to shake him and I wasn't willing to burn any matches in an attempt to separate from him. I knew if I was patient slowly grinding away would be a better way to go.

Let me take a second to set the scene, CR 301 is a rural country road. I didn't count the total number of cattle guards, but I'd have to guess about 10-15 on the stretch from 281 to 962. It is comprised of several small rollers, nothing too steep and I didn't shift out of the big ring for any of the climbs. They were quite fun in fact just to stand and power up them.

About 5 miles into CR 301 I was starting to get a gap. As I shot down one of the hills at 25 mph there's cattle on the road and on both sides. I squeeze the breaks and slow down. They don't budge. The 2 cows in the road, one on the left side shoulder and one taking up the entire right lane. Just as I go through the narrow opening between the 2 obstacles the cow on my right gets spooked and decides to run. Instead of making a break for it and running in the direction he's facing, he decides it will be better to do a complete 180 and run right in the direction I'm going. I'm committed to the narrow gap and if I slow down I'll run smack into the steak so I gunned it and shot the gap.

My History with cows
I'm not sure what it is, I might have a cow curse. Growing up we had chickens, turkeys, pigs and cow(s). My mom was afraid of the cows and when my dad was away on work she had to milk the cow and feed it. On one particular occassion when my dad was away my Mom and sister brought me along as they tended to the cow. They sat me on a stump and did their thing. They then proceeded to leave me there. I still have memories of being left alone with the cow, they have since told me I was not alone very long, but in my little 4 year old mind it seemed like forever, but that put in motion the cow curse. Years later as my dad and uncle were out our pasture my friend and me went down to play in my tree fort. As we were walking out of nowhere the cow starts chasing us as we made a mad dash for the fort. My Uncle stepped in and showed the cow away, earning him the name Uncle DeWayne the Bull Fighter. Which I still refer to him as to this day. I've been chased by cows countless times crossing fields to go fishing on the Little Spokane River. Mountain biking in Vedauwoo whenever I'd ride through the open ranges a cow would give chase. Some people have to worry about being chased by dogs when biking, for me cows are my sworn enemy. I should have known better than trying to slice through the cows, but in a brief moment I had forgotten my history with cows as it had been more than 10 years since I'd come face to face with a bovine.

Back to the story
The tri guy seeing what transpired in front of him slowed down and took the necessary precautions. This was the last I saw of the tri guy as I took advantage of the decents and hammered up the hills till he was no longer in site and I rode the rest of the way by myself. I'd pull out the paper map every once and awhile to chart my course but it was starting to fade from my sweat and some of the turn cues were bleeding off the paper. There was one section on the route that really made the ride for me. On 3238 right after the Perdernales River (I think it was the river, not sure it could have been Roy Creek). The road winds around with a few switchbacks, nothing too steep, but it was a fun climb.

As the ride wore on my map wore down too, I missed a couple turns the most notable on Fitzhugh Road. I missed the left turn on Bell Springs that would take me back to the start. I went to map mode on the Garmin and it showed me moving away from the start/finish so I had to back track to catch the road I missed.

With my little diversions and looping back to regroup with the group I put in an extra 5 miles so I ended the day with 68 miles. Besides the cow incident there was one other noteworthy episode. I was wearing my favorite and most expensive bibs for the ride. When I put my saddle bag on the velcro strap that goes around the seat post was sticking up a little and on every pedal stroke was rubbing on the back of my leg. For whatever reason I didn't notice it until the friction burned or tore through them and then was chaffing my skin. Yes my saddle bag put a whole in my favorite bibs the size of a dime!

Avg: 18.5 mph
Max: 59.2 mph
Avg Watts: 203
Max Watts: 849
Avg RPM: 78
kJ/Calories: 2698
Distance: 68.26
Ascent: 5602

The Lake Travis Cycling Club (LTCC) has a Tuesday night club ride that I've been reading about on Training from a Barkalounger. For the past few months my Tuesdays have been occupied with soccer practice so I haven't been able to give it a shot. With soccer winding down I finally had a chance to give it a go.

When I left my house I thought I had given myself ample time to get the 14 miles to the start in Lakeway but an accident and evening traffic was going to cut it close. I pulled up to what I thought was the address but it was a car wash and not the 1st National Bank that the LTCC site says is the start location. So it appears google failed me when I looked up the bank. So with the start time looming I kept on looking. After a couple more premature turns off of 620 to look for bikes I finally found the bank. As I was pulling in the group was rolling out.

Luckily there was still 2 other LTCC riders in the parking lot and they waited for me to put my shoes on and to roll out. The route is affectionately called the Bee Cave Blitz as it is a quick 23 mile out and back that heads down 620 to Bee Caves Parkway over to Bee Caves Road and down Bee Caves Road to 360 and then back. We got caught at the Bee Caves Parkway light for a good 5 minutes waiting for the light to change so there really was no hope of regaining the group.

Shortly onto Bee Caves Road when we hit the hills I thought I was holding a steady pace but when I looked back my riding companions were no where in sight. So I soft pedaled at 10 mph up the other hills expecting them to catch me, but they were no where to be found. I decided to see buckle down and catch a rider that passed us on one of the hills before I inadvertently dropped them. On each of the hills I was slowly cutting down the lead the other rider had gained.

At the Bee Cave Road and Barton Springs Road the group passed me heading back to the start. I continued on trying to catch the rider as we approached 360 I was within reach of him and I missed the right turn. I guess the route is to turn on Knollwood and go through the neighborhood and come out at the light . With my sights firmly focused on catching the rider I missed the turn and next thing I know there's road construction and the entire shoulder is closed and we're riding in traffic. I ended up cutting through the business parking lots to come out at the light and catching the guy at the light.

On the return trip back to Lake Travis I had the wind at my back and set out to see if I could pick off any stragglers that might have been dropped. As it turns out I caught 3 or 4 LTCC riders before getting back to the start.

No ride report wouldn't be complete without some stats:

Avg. Speed: 18.9 mph (16.4 mph on the way out & 22.2 mph on the way back)
Max. Speed: 43.6
Avg. Power: 219 (NP: 268)
Max. Power: 802
Ride TIme: 01:16:02
Distance: 23.77

I was hoping to take away from this first one with the knowledge of where the primes for the sprints are so I'd be prepared for the next time I ride with them. After the ride the group stuck around talking and have cold ones. Everyone was nice, granted I only rode about 20 minutes with anybody, but talking with them afterwards was evidence to that. It's taken me over a year to make the short trip over to Lakeway to ride with this crew but I'll be adding their rides to my calendar when I can. One suggestion I'd make is to put the address on the ride notice on the Web site. This Saturday they are having a club ride down to San Marcos and back (105 miles). This looks like a great ride but we have our last soccer game of the season so I wont be able to make it.

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.

1st Annual Strawberry Classic (No power data)

• Avg. Speed: 16.27
• Active Time: 3'43:03
• Duration Time: 3'53:39
• Avg Cadence: 76

2nd Annual Strawberry Classic

• Avg. Speed: 19.8
• Active Time: 3'05:27
• Duration Time: 3'11:57
• Avg. Cadence: 79
• Avg. Power: 214
• Normalized Power: 237
• Energy (Kj): 2518

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.

This week I put together my training plan for the year using Traing Peaks Annual Training Plan Wizard. I penciled in a few of the races I know about along with a few event rides that I plan to enter as well. I started my training in the foundation stages as I want to build a solid base to build off of later in the year. This will help me as I progress through the year with speed work and give me the endurance to go 200 miles in a day. Right now it's a mix of lifting weights and riding. The riding is a little less than what I've been accustomed to so it's a little hard to take a step back as I've been wanting to get on and hammer it. All in due time though, this Saturday will be hammer time in the Copperas Cove race.

There was a little doubt as to my participation in the race come Saturday. It so happens that Jack and Ethan have their Cub Scout Pine Wood Derby that same day. Luckily Jennifer will take the boys to their race while I go to my race.

The rides this week were pretty good. Lauri and me did a lunch ride that left our office at Far West/MoPac down to Mellow Johnny's. This is good as we have a client right down there so now I know if/when I need to ride down there that it can be done. I also rode Volente loop on Saturday. It was suppose to be a hard effort, the wind that morning made sure of that. Once again I got a flat. I think that makes the 5th consecutive time that I've gotten a flat. They are almost all in the same spot, I'm beginning to think that one of the home owners there is discarding broken glass or nails to discourage bikes of pedal and motor powered. Although I haven't seen anybody else running into flat issues, it might just be me.

Sunday I went to the Austin Road Riders Sunday ride up Parmer. I really like riding with this crew. Chuck chimed in on the email list that this was going to be a training ride for him and let us know that we didn't have to keep his pace that everybody should ride how they want and to ignore him. Right from the start heading into the wind it was on. I found myself and Scott in somewhat of a break, Scott was a bit ahead of me, I knew the City Limit sign was coming up, I thought it was a ways further than what it was so he easily one that one as I didn't even contest it. Note to self, the Leander City Limit Sign is green. The Cedar Park City Limit Sign is white. The pace started so fast as we were averaging 22 - 24 mph the group split up fairly quickly. We waited at Hwy 29 and 3405. At 3405 Scott went back to see if he could see the rest of the group but at the pace we were laying down they weren't going to be coming along anytime soon. Scott decided to wait for the others while Chuck, Bruce, Andy and myself made the turn onto Indian Springs. The 4 of us regrouped again at Andice Road (RR 2238). At this point it was getting late in the day, everybody had on long sleeves, jacket, full finger gloves and tights. I on the other hand just had on a short sleeve jersey and bibs. I wasn't cold yet, but at the start everyone was saying how it was going to get cooler as the sun set.  I didn't want to get caught out in the cold, I really wanted to get a move on. I decided I wanted to see if I could ride the 17 miles back at/near thereshold. As I turned back down Parmer I started ramping up to 24+ mph. Andy and I rode together till about 3405 and then I was on my own. I didn't let up at all, my goal was to not get caught, to see how long off the front I could stay. I had hoped I could keep them off me all the way to the City Limit sign coming back in. For most of the time I was 24 to 29 mph, there's some big hills that I wasn't able to maintain that speed up of course so in the end my average speed back in for my solo effort came out to 21 mph (also factoring in slowing down for the stop lights). This was the longest sustained threshold attempt I've made. It would have been even greater if I could have captured the data with my power meter. However, as the ride started the hub wouldn't wake up so I was unable to record the ride with it, I only had my Garmin. It turns out the batteries in the hub died. I replaced them when I got home. Really bummed though that I didn't get the data, I guess I'll have to do it again.

That was a brief look at last week. This week should be another good week leading up to the race on Saturday.

On Saturday I was expecting about 6 or 7 other riders to join in the WFRR to Burnet that was called on the Hammerhead bikes forum. I was surprised to see a head count of 16 riders push off from the Leander High School parking lot. The ride turned out to be agnostic as well, there were several shop owners and shop teams represented. Out on Round Mountain we were joined briefly by Southwest Cycle Sport as well. The first 30 miles we averaged 19.2 mph with some spirited sections hitting 24+ mph.

I was still recovering from my head cold and at times was a little snotty, which was making it a little difficult to breath, but manageable. All and all I was feeling good. Then we hit Oatmeal, TX. I'm not sure if Oatmeal is really a town, it does show up on google maps, but as far as I can tell there's nothing there besides a church and a cemetery. Oh yeah and a steep hill. Oatmeal is the place where I almost sagged out during the Armadillo Hill Country Classic with mechanical problems. This time out of the blue, I started to have knee problems. My left knee froze up on me and wouldn't straighten up. As it slowly came back I found myself completely dropped from the main group. Luckily, Sol and Scott from Austin Bikes slowed up and got me back to the group. Whenever there was a roller of any size I couldn't put out much power without my knee hurting. I was fine on the flats and downhill for the most part.

As we approached Burnet some in the group called for a pit stop, but being so close the group ruled we would roll on. There was some banter amongst the group that real races don't need to stop to pee. Next thing I know Sol is preparing to relieve himself. That was all the motivation I needed to kick it up a gear and not to be hanging off the back.

We stopped in Burnet and the Shell station on Hwy 29 to refill. After a short break we headed East on 29. This was the busiest section of the route but there is a big shoulder for the 4 miles of riding on 29. Just outside of Burnet there's a pretty substantial climb that averages 7.5% and maxes out at 9.1%, the group lost me again as I had no power to get up the hill. This time Cody from Hammerhead Bikes was waiting for me to make sure I made the turn onto CR 333 and to get me back to the group. I told him about my lame knee and that I could get back on my own, something I would regret later.

I yo-yo ed back and forth with the group, whenever I had to put out more than 120 watts my knee would hurt.  There was a direct correlation between the amount of watts produced to the amount of pain. I'd catch up to the group whenever someone had a flat and the group stopped for repairs. I would unclip from the pedal and do some one legged pedaling to give the knee a rest. Somewhere along CR 1174 I finally lost contact with the group for the last time.

As if knee pain wasn't enough on CR 284 I got a flat tire which I changed and got on my way. Then the final nail in the coffin of the ride happened, another flat. This was a big problem as I seemed to only have 1 CO2 cartridge. With no means to inflate the tire I had to call for the team car to come get me. This posed another problem, I knew I was about 8 miles away from my car, but I didn't really know how to tell Jennifer how to get me. I knew I was at the intersection of CR 282 and CR 281 but didn't know how to get there in relation to Baghdad road. This is the biggest drawback to the Garmin Forerunner 305, when in navigation mode no streets are viewable. The small black and white screen only shows the path to follow. This is a good excuse to ask Santa for a Garmin 705 with the maps add on. After some google map work and Jennifer following the route on roadbikerides.com she was able to ascertain where I was.

I walked the bike down 281 towards Baghdad Road, the knee felt better to walk than ride. It probably was a blessing in disguise as not to further damage my knee. A warm soul in a gold dualie pulled over and offered me a ride. I took him up on the offer to Baghdad road where Jennifer and the rest of the pit crew picked me up.

In the past when my knee has went lame like this I was not able to walk up the stairs without the sharp pain. This time my knee did no hurt walking up the stairs so that's a good sign. Nor did I have any pain at night like I've had in the past. I'll spin an easy gear for the next few days to see how the knee holds up and start back up with the weights. I was laxed with the leg extensions the past couple of months. The leg extensions don't really offer a lot when it comes to cycling but it does help round out the quads and is involved with keeping the kneecap aligned.

Next week there's talk of a Dripping Springs WFRR ride in case anybody is interested.