Mike's Bike Blog

I started the morning with a good breakfast of red curry chicken, rice and eggs. The race didn't start till 11:20 so I had more than the 3 hour window to digest and build my glycogen stores. I also got to Walburg, which is only 32 miles from my house with plenty of time to pin on my numbers and warm up. I wanted to ensure I was ready to go from the start so I warmed up for 30 minutes getting about 267 kJ out of my system. Moving forward with other races I think I'm going to employ this warm up strategy of warming up with a 250 - 270 kJ effort. In true Walburg fashion it was pouring rain while I drove over and while I warmed up. However there was hardly any wind, that was something new.

This was probably the biggest field I've ridden with, according to BikeReg there were 84 racers signed up for the race. I'm not sure how many showed up for the start but we were packed in 4 across and plenty deep. From the moment we started to roll my position went from bad to worse. The rain did stop when we started to roll but the roads were still wet and in some sections someone had a little to much fun 4 wheeling their truck in the fields as there was mud tracks across the road. To make matters worse there was one area where the tracks were coming from a barn so guess what, that wasn't mud being kicked up. Anyway the entire first lap I spent at the back of the field just fighting to stay on and riding my breaks. It was a yo yo fest, go a little and then hit the breaks. Finally as we were nearing the end of the first lap guys were starting to get dropped and the field was starting to split. I found myself with a large gap between me and the leaders but I had to navigate my way through the mass of guys. Luckily for me rider #132 started to motor up to the lead group. Another guy grabbed his wheel and I grabbed his. #132 Graciously pulled us both up to the tail end of the lead group. Once we got up there I thanked him for the hard effort of getting us up there.

Not sure how many were in this group, probably 30 guys I vowed to get better positioning so I worked up to mid pack. It was good to see Enrique Varela (NWCC), a frequent commenter here in the main group. The problem with being so far back in the pack there was no way I could try and make it into any breaks. In fact I couldn't even see the breaks happening I was so far back. It wasn't until Enrique made the comment that there goes the winning break, I could see riders and the follow car a good 2 minutes up the road and the pack was not chasing it down. I said we should try to bridge up. He said he'd go if I go. So I threw caution to the wind and started to maneuvered my way up to the front. It took a little bit being so far back but I made my way up and then just took off laying out a blistering 3 minute effort to bridge up to 2 riders from Rockwall Cycling.  Those 3 minutes while trying to get away I was at 125% of FTP.

The 3 of us formed an echelon and picked up a few riders that were getting dropped from the breakaway group. I think at the largest our group got was 5 riders, but guys would get dropped from our group as well. We were getting reports from the motos that we had a 1 minute gap on the field and the breakaway was 1 minute ahead of us. On the final stretch leading into Walburg there was 4 of us. So far I was feeling pretty good, but a couple of my fellow riders were starting to struggle. There was one rider that was really strong and it was causing a problem with our group as he was causing guys to miss their pull as they couldn't pull through. This would leave me to close the gap and fill in so the other could rest and catch back on. This went on for a few miles but it took a toll on me and after I did a double pull nobody pulled through and I needed to recover and the strong rider pulled away. At first I wasn't too worried I thought we would catch him. It was appearing we were cutting into the breakaway group, it looked like we were catching a few riders but it turned out to be the junior field. This was a little demoralizing as we thought we were catching the leaders.

The final word from the moto was the main field had shut down and was not putting out a chasing effort, but there was a small group hot on our tails that had broken off from the main field and were a minute or so back. The 3 of us worked together and again I'd have to take a shorter rest to pull through for someone. Not sure if it was a good idea or not but I did not miss any of my pulls.

On the final 1km climb into Walburg I was hurting, I could feel the burn in my legs as I stood for the final climb. My bold move to ditch the main field paid off as I placed 7th. It looks like I was almost 2 minutes up on the main field and 1:30 behind the winner.

Anybody know how mixed Cat 4/5 fields are scored? Do I get the 3 points for my 7th place finish?

Belterra is a closed course curcuit race in the Belterra subdivison on the outskirts of Austin off of highway 290. Somehow I thought signing up for 2 races would be a good idea. I took advantage of the second race for $10 option as I signed up for the Cat 5 and the 35+ 4/5 race. The Cat 5 race started at 8am for 40 minutes followed up with a 40 minute break before heading out for the 50 minute 4/5 race. My plan for the first race was to just sit in as much as possible and to conserve the legs for the 4/5 race which I suspected would be a lot faster. My goal for the races was to show up and get through them unskathed to get my last 2 races as a Cat 5 racers.

2010 Course
From the start the course goes on a slight uphill and features a larger hill before making a 180 and heading down. So returning back down to the start area is a slight down hill. At the start there's a right turn with a little straight away before a short steep hill where the finish is. Right after the uphill finish is a 2nd 180 degree turn. Don't get me wrong when I say hills, at no time in either of the 2 races did I shift to the small ring, the course is a big ring course.

Cat 5 Race
The race started with around 50 racers on a brisk morning. By the time we reached the big hill at the first 180 turn the pack of 50 was starting to string out a bit. From that point on a group of 20 stayed together. A few riders tried to get away but nothing would stick, as soon as we would get on the downhill stretch heading back it would get chased down. Zach Horne (Austin Cycle Camp) gave a go and attacked on the big hill.  I jumped on his wheel but as we rounded the 180 turn at the top I could see that the entire pack was right there and it would be caught on the down hill section. I shut it down as Zach got a little gap. As I suspected he was caught around the 1KM mark for the lap.

One observation for the race on the uphill section the pace would slow down to 18-20 mph, but on the downhill people would let their carbon wheels spin faster and try to hammer it. I suspect if one would have attacked on the uphill stretch some damage could have been done.  At the very least the pack of 20+ would have been broken up. I contemplated giving it a go but decided to just sit in and conserve as much as I could.

I stuck with my plan and on the last lap just hung in the back staying out of the way as not to get caught up in any crashes. In the end I finished 17th. For this race my average power was 22 watts below my FTP.

Between races I went back to my car, ate a banana and refueled up. I felt pretty good and my average power for the 40 minutes was typical of some of the 40 minute SST intervals I've been doing once a week. I made a huge error between races however. I didn't adequately warm up again before the 4/5 race. All I did was ride down to the staging area, everything felt good so I assumed I was warmed up from the 1st race.

35+ 4/5 Race
I had 3 other Southwest Cycle Sport teammates in this race. Peter told me to stick to his wheel if I got into trouble as I wasn't sure how long my legs would hold up for a 2nd race. From the start I was right on his wheel, but as we left I was already in difficulty and wasn't able to hold his wheel. I soon found myself at the back as we made our way through the 1st 180 turn. Not a good place to be and then the inevitable I was off the back. It took 2 laps to get my legs back and then I had to objectives. To pick off as many riders as I could and to make sure I didn't get lapped.

I slowly made my way through small groups of riders that were dropped from the main pack. There were 2 Shama riders that I caught up to but I couldn't shake them on the downhill section, they go flying by me on the downhill of the big hill and then I'd catch on at some point before the next hill. I'd pass them on the uphill and would pull all the way to the 180 turn back down. We played this game for the remaining laps, we caught and passed several riders. Somewhere along the way a Toyota rider latched on with us. We finished out the race with this route, we even lapped a few riders as well. I am aware that for me to pull on the uphill section which seemed to be into the wind was not a good idea. However I had my reasons, when we would get on the uphill section the pace would slow down, this was allowing the main pack to get miles into us and I did not want to get lapped. So I would move to the front and keep the pace up. In the end I finished 37th. For the 50 minutes I averaged 20 watts below my FTP, the Normalized Power was a few watts above my FTP.

That should conclude my Cat 5 racing as I applied for a Cat 4 upgrade. Not sure how long it takes to get the upgrade, hopefully I'll have it in time for the next race. I'm debating Walburg or Pacebend. When I got home and looked at the power file for the 2 races something caught my eye. The average power for the cat 5 race which I stated was 22 watts below my FTP and falls into the wattage that I hold for 40 minutes for a SST interval the normalized power was a lot higher than what I was expecting. NP was 308 watts, this leads me to believe my FTP has risen.

The drama for the Hugel started Thursday evening, for me anyway. At Ethan's soccer practice, I coach his U8 team, as we were working on shots I dribble down to the goal and fired off a shot. Not a hard shot, but a decent shot and as I plant my left leg and kick the ball with my right, but the muscle in my left leg shrieked with pain and I instantly knew something was wrong. I don't believe I pulled the muscle in my quadriceps, but it was strained none the less. It hurt to walk on it, on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being excruciating pain that warrants morphine it was only a 4.

When I got home I stretched it and used the foam roller on it. It felt alright on Friday when I tested it out, but that was on the flat road of Shoal Creek and Great Northern. I didn't know what to expect when the grade went past 12%.

One last thing that is a crucial piece to my ride was on Friday night when I was getting everything ready for the ride I come to find out I only had 4 Endurolytes! That's no good as I typically take 3-4 an hour. I barely had enough Anti-Fatigue capsules and Energy Surge.

Now for the ride, there were a lot of riders again this year and clogged the roads as we started rolling. Things started to thin out a bit once we hit 360. I worked a bit harder on this section so I could put some space between myself and a lot of people for when we hit High Road. My plan worked as High Road was not littered with riders, there were still a few stoppers and people pushing their bikes but at least there was more space to maneuver around them. My plan for the first section was to carry to bottles of Perpetuem for fueling and Espresso gel when needed for some added calories. I didn't plan on stopping at any of the rest stops but go the entire 38 miles and refill my bottles back at Zilker Park. This plan worked and my quad posed no problems at all during this section.

Loop 2 is the doosie for the ride with most of the climbing packed into this section. I'm not sure how many of the starters go onto even attempt the second part, but I'd say 3/4 of the people go home after the 1st part. The first real challenge is Smokey Valley with it's 24% grade and then up the remainder of Ladera Norte. It's quite the 1-2 punch. I made it up both with little difficulty. I opted not to stop at rest stop #3, the rest stop house, as I had enough water to get me to the rest stop at River Place.

Then came Beauford. Beauford gave me a near knock out blow. Right at the base my right quad started to spasm and cramp up. I think I was over compensating with my right leg to make up for the injury on my left. Boy did I pay for it. Whenever I would stand and put any power to my pedal my quad would hurt. Somehow I made it to the top. Courtyard came too soon though, the lower sections I was able to sit and spin at about 60 rpms, but the top section was more of the same. Courtyard tried to inflict it's misery on me. I so wanted to zig zag up it but there was too much traffic coming from both directions. I did try a little weave but it was more like a drunken stagger. At the top I stopped to relax the legs a little and to take 2 of the Endurolytes, which didn't kick in till I got to the top of City Park.

Onward I pedaled to the River Place rest stop. Once you get on Big View you go down it for a little bit, but at this point you don't go all the way down that's a special treat saved for the return. Well I somehow missed the bright orange arrows for the right hand turn off of Big View. I got practically all the way down to the bottom. I got all the way down to the base, where the steep grade warning sign is. NOT GOOD, I had to go back up and find the turn. Back on track I finally made it to the River Place rest stop. I refilled my bottle with more Perpetuem, I had packed up 3 bottle servings into ziplock baggies so I could refill. I stopped long enough to refill grab a couple fig newtons and chat with Andy Webb for a bit to swap stories of the ride so far. Luckily the rest of this outter section was good, I ended up dropping the 2 guys I was riding with at that point. One guy on Bullick Hollow and the other one on 620 near Steiner ranch on the return leg. I stopped at River Place again to refill my bottle again and stretch a little. I also downed my last 2 Endurolytes.

Since I didn't get all the way down to the bottom of Big View I decided I'd better get my monies worth and do the entire Big View. Plus I wanted to take the chance that the park at the bottom would have a bathroom. I could have made it the entire ride without stopping to use the restroom, but I want to go up Jester with as little weight as possible. My hunch paid off and the restroom was open. A small price to pay of climbing up Big View, plus I didn't want to cheat and not do the entire route, I want to earn my t-shirt. On the way to Jester there was intermittent cramping in both legs now. I would try to sit and not stand as much as possible.

On a good day Jester can be difficult, even when fresh. I said a quick prayer to get me up to the top, oh yeah, I'll call on the big Guy in times of trouble. I sat as much as possible which was a bit past the strip mall, actually to a drive way, I think it's an office complex. I stood and managed the pain switching back to the saddle to relieve some of the pain. Didn't help much. It wasn't pretty, but I was able to get to the top.

All I had to do was get my tail the last 10 miles back to Zilker Park. This proved to be a hard path to the finish. Once I got on 360 I had a complete full on cramping. It was so bad it was not something I could get through or at least want to get through. I immediately pulled over at the Buddha Temple driveway to catch my breath. The pain subsided after a minute and I pushed on. The rest of the way was kind of a cat and mouse game to see how hard I could ride without red lining and overdoing it. I was able to catch and pass 4 or 5 riders on my way back to Zilker Park.

What when right:

• I bettered my time from last year. This year I had a time of 7 hours, with a 7 hour 31 minute duration. Compared to 8 hours 24 minutes of active time and a total duration of 10 hours.
• I vastly minimized my rest stop time, I went in with a goal of only stopping when needed and not sit around at the rest stops. I had more time spent at stop lights then I did restng at the rest stops.
• As long as I didn't have to stand I had ample power and my endurance was spot on and felt I could have kept riding.

What went wrong:

• Not enough electrolytes. It was way too hot, 80 degrees. In retrospect I should have brought along Heed which does have some electrolyte components. Not sure if it would have been enough but might have minimized things. Yes I could have taken in some Gatorade or Pickle Juice, but 1 it's not advised to mix Hammer products with a simple sugar drink like Gatorade. Since I had not tried either scenarios during a race is not the time to experiment.
• Forgetting to press start  on my Garmin 705 for 2.5 miles into the ride.
• Last year I had a lot of lactic acid build up, it would hurt on the down hills and my legs would get tight. This year I had no lactic acid build up in my legs, again which leads me to believe to think my conditioning was way better and I was better prepared for the ride.

STATS:
1st Loop (38 miles)
Average Speed 18
Max Speed: 43.6
Average/Normalized Power: 184/260 watts
Ascent: 4064 feet
kJ (Calories): 1344

2nd Loop (71 miles)
Average Speed: 15
Max Speed: 45.7
Average/Normalized Power: 167/229 watts
Ascent: 9708 feet
kJ (Calories): 2887

Footnote: The above accents would mean a total climb of 13,771 feet. However when I run it through some software that supposedly throws out bad Garmin data it comes out to 10,050 feet. 209 is the total number of times while in my 25 and knew I was in my last gear but still tried to shift to an easier gear to  see if I miraculously had one more gear to help spin up the hills.

By all indications the course favored the climbers and all the chatter on the TXBRA.org Forum reinforced this. The storyline was that the fields would get strung out in the first 10 miles on the hills. However, this was not the story that was written on Saturday. The only field to get any break up was the P12. All the other races stayed together.

As I was getting ready I talked with Scott Dalhover (AT&T Brain and Spine) about the Cat 4 race and he said nothing was getting away and for me to just sit in. If I felt good I might be able to give a go about 7 miles out at the Iraqi village. He kept telling me to sit in and not to do any work, the same exact insider info I got from Peter). He said if he heard that I was up front doing any pulling he would punch me.

On the way out we had a small headwind, enough to keep everything together. In anticipation for the hills I switched out to a 11x26, but at the rate we went up the hills it was not needed.  In the race the pack climbed the hills at a slow and steady pace. In fact the entire race was this way, there was really no part where there was an all out effort, nobody went up the road and with the downhills anything that did get up the road was easily brought back.

With about 13-15 miles to go there were 2 up the road, #529 and a UT rider. Since I had been sitting in all day I felt really good and thought this would be a good time to see if I could bridge up to them and see if we could get a break going. Me and the Sun and Ski rider made a go of it, but as we were closing in on the 2 I looked back and saw that we were just pulling the entire pack along so I shut down my effort.

I'm not sure how many were in the final group, but it was big at least 30 guys, we started with 60+ I believe. This made for a jam packed field sprint. My second plan was to go on the hill leading up to the finish. I found myself third or fourth row back in the middle and I couldn't maneuver to the right or left so I was at the mercy of those in front of me to clear a way for the final sprint. The winning lead out came up from the left but I was still boxed in. At the 200 meter flag the rider to my left lost control and went right into me. I had to bend over and with my shoulder protect my  handle bars. With the guy leaning against me I bumped into the rider on my right a little as I was still holding up the other guy. Luckily there was a little crack of daylight that opened up to the right. I shot through it just as the guy on my left hit the ground.

There was still chaos and carnage in the lead out group as I tried to close the gap to them. Not sure exactly what happened but after the fact I heard one rider was pushed and he ended up doing a face plant into the dirt. His teammate was yelling as we wound up the sprint for the line.

In the end I placed 10th and was able to stay upright, by far my best placing in a race this year. Andy Webb (Simpler-Webb) who rode up to Copperas Cove with me placed 13th in the race. It was a great finish to my inagural season of racing. Now I can't wait till February when the season starts again.

One of the ideas I was kicking around for the weekend was to get up to Copperas Cove and pre ride the State Road Race Championship course. Well Sunday morning Chuck sent out a tweet that he was thinking about riding the course. He was closely monitoring the weather patterns and was confident that it would be clear in Copperas Cove by the time we got there.

I met up with Chuck, Scott, and Tim, all really strong Cat 4 racers for AT&T in Cedar Park and we packed the bikes up and headed out in the rain and drizzle. Just as weatherman Chuck had predicted the clouds were starting to part the closer we got to our destination.

The course is outside of Copperas Cove on Ft. Hood and is considered "open range". Meaning not only is there livestock roaming freely, but also the military regularly shoots artillery over the road! Luckily for us there were no cows on the road and no sounds of mortar or AK47 gun fire, but the Iraqi village was interesting scenery. The course particulars: there's about 2900 feet of climbing on the 33 mile loop. I rode the course with a 11x23 cassette and was OK. For the race I'll opt for something a little taller though, I have a 12x25, but Peter from Southwest Cycle Sport hooked me up with a 11x26. With as many descents and the few flats I think the 11 will be beneficial as I was spinning out the 11 on several sections as it was.

The course definitely favors climbers, the talk after the ride was the predictions that nobody over 170 pounds would win any of the races and the climbers weighing in below 150 would probably take the win. Hopefully I can drop 3 pounds by Saturday to have a chance at 170. I do have a couple plans for the race, not sure how it will play out with 75 other racers in the field. My goal is to be in the front group as everyone gets strung out on the hills. Word is the promoter is looking for more follow vehicles to help SAG people in.

This should be fun!

Due to the recent rain my game plan going into today's Chappell Hill Bank Classic Road Race was to show up and hopefully the rain would keep the other 49 riders in my category away. At the very least it would dwindle the numbers down and hopefully then I could out sprint everybody at the finish. Of course the weather in Chappell Hill didn't cooperate, as the start approached the sun was coming out and there was very little signs of the rain the days prior. With that plan out the window I'd have to saddle up and go with the plan B.

Plan B was to stay up near the front and see what happens between the last 20 to 5 miles. My main goal was to finish ahead of the wheel truck. Let me get to the meat of this post, what mistakes I made and in the process hopefully it will detail the race.

Mistakes:
1. Didn't hydrate properly: I brought 3 bottles. 1 bottle of Heed (Strawberry), 1 bottle of Perpetuem (Cafe Latte) and 1 bottle of water in my jersey pocket. I also had Endurolytes for electrolye replacement. The plan was to start with the bottle of Heed to get me thru the first hour. At the 1 hour mark take the Endurolytes. The next hour I'd consume the Perpetuem, that should get me pretty close to the finish and if I needed more to drink I would drink the water.

This has worked for me on other races and group rides, but like a dote I got caught up in the race and didn't finish the 1st bottle till around the 1 hour 30 minute mark. I also forgot the Endurolytes until it was too late. At about the 1:45 point as I was countering an attack my left quad started to cramp. Luckily I caught onto the back of the group and was able to sit in and take my Endurolytes. A few miles later I felt fine and thought the worse was behind me.

2. I did too much work at the front. When I was walking my wheels up to the wheel pit before the stop I ran into Scott Dalhover(AT&T/Brain & Spine). He gave me some pointers on the course and some good advice. He said to stay near the front but don't do too much work, he pointed out that the guys that are doing the work early usually don't finish there. He also said I should try to break away somewhere on the last lap.

As it turns out I think I did too much work as I was up front the first 45 miles. I took my share of pulls. There were a few guys that wouldn't pull through at all. They got chastised for their lack of work but still just sat in. I did try to let Bike Barn pull me around as best I can. They had the highest number of riders in the field and seemed to be the most organized. I don't think this was a big mistake I was able to stay with all attacks and gave it a shot at the end.

3. Missed the winning break. I stayed with any attacks and attempts as not to get left out. I especially paid attention whenever a Bike Barn rider would initiate the attack as I knew they were working for someone, I just wasn't sure who they had designated to watch for. Around mile 30 a rider got away and had a 1 minute lead. I tried to initiate a few attacks to see about bridging the gap but I couldn't get anybody to go with me and found a little head wind, more than what I wanted to attempt solo. After one attempt a Bike Barn rider went and he had the legs to get up to the guy who was soloing. I'm pretty sure he caught him. As I saw him go I knew that I missed my opportunity. With the 2 off the front the paced slowed down a bit as Bike Barn wasn't going to pull the pack up to their breakaway rider. It was soon after this point that my quad cramped.

With 5 miles left I felt pretty good and had a decision to make, I could sit in and go for the pack finish and if I was lucky get in the top 10. The other possibility was to leave it all on the course and see if I could go for 3rd place and maybe even catch the 2 that had the minute lead on us. I moved up as the front was still not putting out a hard effort so I easily got to the front. I then stepped on the gas as best I could.

I didn't get the gap that I was hoping for and as I looked back the front of the pack was just a few seconds back. Then it happened, my left leg was in a total knot. It was like my cub scout was practicing his knot tying on my leg. My hamstring felt like it was twisted around my leg, my quad and calf muscle seized up. I was quickly engulfed by the pack and spit out the back. I couldn't apply any power. Everyone dangled just in front of me. The next few miles was absolutely painful, the rollers that I was able to power up with no problems in the big ring had regulated me to shifting down to my 39 and gingerly crawl up. I tried to stand up on one and that was no help, everything started to tighten up, even the arch of my foot was getting into the action.

Luckily I was able to fight through it and maintain 22 mph through the ordeal, but the grandiose notion of a podium finish was dashed. The wheel truck behind me was breathing mercilessly down my neck. The roar of the engine kept me going. I had to push on to stay in front of it. When I got my second wind I started making up time and passed 4 or 5 guys that were getting spit off the back as the pack geared up for the finish.

This was by far my best race to date. I could have sat in and probably made it all the way with the pack, but where's the fun and glory in that. A lot of guys were doing that already, I wanted to give it a shot, lay it all out there. Now I know, I just didn't have it today, but more importantly I learned a hard and painful lesson.  More importantly though I feel really good with my number pinning . In past races the numbers have been too loose and flopping in the wind or a corner came unpinned. At registration I snuck off with an extra 4 pins and used them on each of the numbers. The extra pins might weight me down a little but the added aerodynamics of not having floppy numbers makes up for it.

In day 9 of my VO2 Max training program called for either a criterium (crit) or fartlek (a form of conditioning which puts stress mainly on the aerobic energy system due to the continuous nature of this exercise). I haven't made it out to the Driveway Series Crit at all this season to race myself. I figured this was as good of a time to get back out as any.

It was a hot one out there, at the 6:10pm start time for the Cat 4/5 it was 104 degrees. I was a little apprehensive about the course they were running today. The City Course (pictured below) has 9 turns in .8 miles. The sharpest turn is turn 3 over by the house, I believe it was described as 120 degree turn. I'd heard from a few seasoned veterans  that called it a hard course because of all the turns and no long straight aways to get back up to speed and/or recover from the hard sprint out of the corners. The course fit nicely into the overall goal for my workout.

At the start the starter was going over the rules, he pointed out that unlike most races that due to the nature of the course with all it's turns that they would be pulling riders. I guess the last time they ran this particular course there were several pile ups and crashes. From the get go we were moving. The first 10 minutes I averaged 24.3 mph. It was around this time that on turn 8 I almost went down! I'm not sure exactly what happened, but my rear tire started to go out from under me and I thought I heard metal scraping. I thought I might have layed the bike too far into the turn. In any event I was able to keep the bike up, but I think the guy behind me clipped my back wheel on the corner. No sooner had I started to get back up to speed then there was an actual crash in the pack that sent 2 riders screeching to the pavement as they came out of turn 9. This forced me to slow and go around the carnage just as I was catching back on. At least I had the long straight away to work my way back up. For the next lap or so I was tentative around the corners because at the time I wasn't sure what happened if my tire slipped or what. It wasn't until after the race that it finally dawned on me that I might have been clipped. I base that theory on the comment from the guy directly behind me after I got out of the fishtail he said "Man that was scary", he just might have been scared I was going to go down right in front of him, but based on no marks on my skewer I'm pretty sure I was clipped by him.

For the next 5 minutes I teetered on the back trying desperately to work my way back up to a better position. It seemed I could make progress after turn 3, 5 and 9 but any gains would be quickly erased. What would make it even harder was there would be little gaps starting to form at the back where the very back on the pack was starting to lose contact with the main group. Unfortunately, I was in the back of this back pack and I was fighting desperately to get passed them. This constant battle finally took its toll on me and with a fizzle I was off the back. I continued to claw my way around the track, picking up and pulling a few others that were relieved of the pack status as well. I was cooked however and fading fast. At the 20 minute mark the officials directed me and my 2 comrades to hit the showers.

I am disappointed that I didn't get to finish the race, but in hindsight what I should have done was pulled over at the official tent when they flagged us off and asked to take my lap. Not sure if they would have allowed it or not, but if so got back on and tried to stay with the group as they came around, it appeared we still had 1/2 a lap before we would have been caught. Right after we were pulled guys were getting shelled left and right from the pack.

From a workout standpoint it met the goal of working out my aerobic energy system.    Other positives to take away from the race:

• I didn't crash
• I averaged 24.3 mph and was able to stay with the pack for the 1st 15 minutes. Far better than the other time I raced a crit.
• Until I popped the first 14.5 minutes didn't seem overly difficult and were manageable.
• Even when I was popped I averaged 22.8 mph
• The corners didn't pose a problem from a bike handling standpoint. I was quite pleased with that aspect and I quickly bounced back from my near miss.

I had a good time and I'd like to get out for at least one more race before fall hits and there's no more driveway races till next spring.

FunFar stages a bi weekly time trial on an 8 mile course down MoPac. Tonight was the first time for me to throw my wheels into the hat. It was a little on the windy side and very hot, 95 degrees. Lucky for me the Bike Noob showed up and gave me advice and pointed me in the right direction on getting my chip and explained the concept of riding over the mats. I was glad to have the seasoned time trial veteran to lead me through the process.

My plan going in was to break the 8 mile course into 4 segments of 2 miles each. The first 2 miles I wanted to start out at a conservative pace and ratchet it up every 2 miles. Having not done the route before the closest I could compare it to is a 20 minute threshold interval. Whenever I do these 20 minute tests I go out too hot and struggle the last 5 minutes.

There was one problem, I failed to set up the distance to be displayed on my Garmin for the lap! I knew the first 2 miles point was around Escarpment Road. The best I could do was keep an eye on my watts and speed. I figured the 1/2 way point was the turnaround point and I would just try to keep my speed as consistent as possible and hope for the best.

On the first 2 mile stretch I had a carrot to chase, the rider who started 20-30 seconds before me was in my sights. After I passed him I felt relieved that I wouldn't be last. I was worried about the turnaround point as you have to cross the 2 lanes. I could see some other riders up the road make the crossing early instead of waiting till you get at the turn and have to negotiate the cars making the turn at the light. With no cars behind me I moved over into the shoulder on the left side of the road. When I made the turn I came in a little too fast and almost came into the head on traffic. I'll have to be more careful with that turn.

Coming back in I just kept an eye on my speed, I knew I needed to be around 24 mph to have a 20 minute time. I passed 2 more riders but I don't think they were doing the time trial as they were riding side by side chatting. When I saw the finish line I turned it up another notch and caught another Time Trialist on the hill leading up to the finish line.

My official time was 20:35:55 and averaged 23.3mph. How did I do with my pacing?

Mile 0-2
Time: 5:17
Avg Watts: 300
Speed: 22.8

Mile 2-4
Time: 5:32
Avg Watts: 288
Speed: 21.7

Mile 4-6
Time: 4:53
Avg Watts: 264
Speed: 24.6

Mile 6-8
Time:  4:57
Avg Watts: 305
Speed: 25

I'm not sure if my pacing was very good when my ending watts were the same as the beginning watts. Next time I might try to not go so soft of miles 2-4. I think I was way to conservative on this hilly section. Bottom line I had fun and it gives me a benchmark to cut my time down by 36 seconds. I passed 2 riders on full on time trial bikes with skin suits and aero helmets. I felt good about that plus I was not passed by anybody.

Me warming up at the Veloway, photo courtesy of the Bike Noob.

On Saturday I competed in the 2nd Annual 100 Miles of Nowhere. The race the brainchild of Elden, the Fat Cyclist, is a 100 mile race on your trainer. For the 2nd Annual event Fatty lined up some great swag from the sponsors. Entry fee was $75 which $50 of it went to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Thursday was packet pickup for me as the package from Twin Six arrived. The swag included 2 team Slipstream camelbak water bottles, DZNuts, CarboRocket, Clif ShotBlocks, a saddle bag, a Pro Bar and the event Tshirt.

The concept is to ride your trainer for 100 miles, but since cheating is allowed I opted to do it on a 1 mile loop near my house. When I was explaining the concept to Jennifer she thought I was crazy. Not so much riding 100 miles, that's nothing, but doing it on a 1 mile loop. She thought for sure I wouldn't be able to do it, that I'd get bored as the miles dragged on. To be honest I had some doubts as well. I thought there would be a good chance I'd only get about 3 or 4 hours before I'd crack.

The plan going into it was after every 10 laps to go down the hill that is just off the main course and come back up. The down and up is 1 mile as well and would get me 220 feet of climbing each time. After 25 miles I would change directions to mix it up a little. The main course has 2 small rollers, nothing you have to get out of the saddle on in fact I stay in my big ring the entire loop and most times in a 14T cog. The longer of the bumps is about 1/4 mile long. The other other one is much shorter and a bit steeper. In most situations these wouldn't even register on anybodies radar, but after 100 laps the ascent adds up.

When I parked at the course and got out to get everything unpacked and ready a vulture was perched on the light pole where I'd parked. I thought for sure this was not a good sign. After the 1st lap the buzzard flew off, I guess he figured he would check in on me later.  Normally when I ride I don't bring along music, I don't like to ride with headphones. For this event I made an exception since I would be on a low traffic route. I only plugged in the right earbud in leaving the left open to listen for traffic.

It was a great morning to be out and there were a lot of walkers, joggers and cyclists out on the route. Most were going the opposite direction than me, I guess because I consider the counterclockwise direction to be easier. After passing one particular jogger for about the 20th time she gave me the funniest look as it finally donned on her that I was the same biker to have been passing her for the past hour. On my next time through I was going to stop and ask her for directions, but she ended her workout and I didn't see her again.

As the time rolled on I was feeling great and the worry with boredom was a non issue. I felt great the entire time. I brought 4 bottles of Hammer Perpetuem and kept one on the bike and the others resting in the cooler. Having cool bottles when needed sure was nice. I didn't use the products from the swag since I didn't know how they would sit with me and didn't want to risk any surprises. I also consumed 3 6oz cans of V8, Hammer Gel (Raspberry), and a granola bar. I did use the Camelbak bottles. Let me tell you, I'm going to switch to these bottles, they are so nice. I was a bit surprised when I first reached for one though. I didn't realize the concept to them I raised the bottle to my mouth and gave it a squeeze. My normal bottles nothing would come out, I'd have to put my mouth to the nipple and suck to get any water out. You can imagine my surprise as a gush of water shot out and ricocheted off my tonsils and down my throat. I was sold and fell in love with these bottles.

I only made 4 or 5 pitstops the entire time. They were short, long enough to pick up a new bottle or take in some other calories. The longest one was when I slathered on sunscreen. In all it looks like my total pitstop time was 22 minutes. At the 85 mile point I started calculating my time left and saw that I was close to my season goal of a Sub 5 hour century, my previous fastest time is 5'20". To get in at a sub 5 hour time I'd have to kick it up to 23 MPH and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold that pace this late. I wish I would have been better attentive to my pace to begin with, but I was too worried about getting through without the boredom that I didn't regulate my speed better. In fact I got into the ride so much that at the 60 mile mark I totally forgot to do my hill circuit. The wind was picking up so I abandoned doing the hill till the end and would shoot for a hill finish.

A few fans came out to cheer me on from their front porches, at least that's what I told myself each time I passed them. One older gentleman sitting in his rocking chair yells out, around lap 85 "where you going?" I replied "Nowhere".  Now that I think about it having all the joggers and other cyclists out on the route helped, it kept the monotony down to a minimum. I wish the other riders were going the same direction I was, when I was going the same direction as someone I could tell it motivated me to keep my speed up. I would work harder to pass them. Unfortunately, they only did a few laps and would be gone.

As soon as it began the 100 miles was behind me. It really did go by really fast. I finished in 5 hours 10 minutes (5'32" total duration). My fastest century to date! 6 times up the hill plus the gradual hills to the route added up to 3364.8 feet of climbing. I won all 6 KOM sprints. I averaged 19.44 mph. I reached 39.7 on the decent down the hill.

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.