Mike's Bike Blog

Hey Austin, today is perfect riding weather. For one it's not 100 degrees today and the wind isn't too bad. Today for lunch I rode the Volente Circle. As I was leaving my house there was a light sprinkle of rain. The rain picked up a little when I was passing  the lake (Cypress Creek Park), I was hoping for a good soaking but it stopped raining all together a mile or two later. I wasn't the only cyclist out on the route today. I passed 4 others heading the opposite way.

Getting out for 20 miles is a great way to spend a lunch break.

On Saturday Jared joined me for a couple laps around Volente. The weather was great and we had a good time. I did have 1 flat, this is getting quite common and now that I think about it, it might be the tubes. I started getting flats a lot regularly when the supply of tubes at Spin City changed. I believe it's the same manufacturer as before, but the packaging has changed so maybe in their overall marketing overhaul the tube company changed their formula. I don't know, all I know is I'm getting a flat at least every other time I go out. There's only been 1 flat lately that I knew was coming and that was last week on the Granger Dam ride. All the others have been a surprise to me. I didn't have a spare tube, Jared was kind enough to give me his so we'll see if it lasts any longer than what I have been getting out of the life of my tubes.

I had big plans to go 3 or 4+ times around the loop, but by around mile 30 my knee was starting to act up. When we rolled back to my house I didn't have much power left in it. It doesn't hurt to walk on it, the only time it hurt on Saturday was walking up the stairs. By Sunday it was feeling fine, in fact I even went for a 20 mile easy spin with no pain or problems. Looking at my rides it seems to start petering out at about 2000 feet of climbing. 

It had been awhile since I've rode the Volente Circle with anybody so it was refreshing to have someone to keep pace with. Getting up Armstrong Hill I shaved off 11 seconds on my fastest time. On Saturday, my time was 4:05! Next time I'll try to coordinate this better so more people can come and maybe end the ride with a BBQ lunch.

My all time favorite ride is a ride right out my front door practically, it's Anderson Mill Road (2769) to Volente Beach up Limecreek Road. The scenery along the lake is beautiful and the road for the most part is low traffic and there is enough bike traffic on it that everyone is use to getting along. The route is only 20 miles total, with about 1300 feet of climbing. My Saturday plan is to get out on it early and get 4 - 5 hours of riding it in, hopefully about 4 or 5 laps.

This is one of the Austin area must do rides, every group ride I've been on someone asks me where I'm from/live and I generally put it in context that I live over by Limecreek road. Once they hear this they ask if I've ridden on Limecreek and how they love this loop. They usually have a story about "Armstrong Hill" as well.

I'd prefer to get out on the road early, no later than 8am. Either drop me a comment or an email if you can make it and we'll coordinate this. You don't have to ride the entire time with me if you only have time/legs for 1 lap that's cool. Just let me know what you think you will want to do and what time.

Route Map & More Details 

Photos of the route 

Since I was in San Antonio most of the week for work and driving back and forth I didn't get much riding in except for my ride in San Antonio. Sunday before I left for San Antonio I got out on Lime Creek and hit the hill. Talking to a few other riders I've heard the hill referred to as the 3 Sisters and the 3 Witches. Since the 3 Sisters to me is the mountain pass outside of Evanston, WY on the East side on I-80, I'll start calling it the The Witches. The Three Sisters in Wyoming is 7,470 feet compared to the 961 feet of the Limecreek Hill. I made it up the hill in 4:19, which is a new personal record, my prior best was 4:21.

On Friday I was able to get out again and this time I went to Volente and back. On this ride I set two personal records. I did the 20 miles in 1:06:16. That was 3 minutes better than my previous fastest time. The second record was my time up the Three Witches. This time I made it up in 4:16, so my previous mark didn't last long. I averaged 18.21 MPH for the ride, the section from the top of the hill to my turn around in Volente my average speed was 21 mph. On the way back on Anderson Mill a gardening crew turned onto Anderson in front of me, they didn't cut me off or anything, but they didn't get up to the 45 MPH speed right away. I was catching up to them at 30 mph.

Saturday I got out for a club ride with the Spin City crew. This was the first time I have ridden with them. I went out with the intermediate ride which was suppose to be between 15 and 19 mph, they also have a beginner ride. The ride was a 30 mile ride from Milburn Park to Liberty Hill. Out to Liberty Hill my average speed was 18.9 mph. The group of 10 got split into 2 groups. I was in the 2nd group with 2 other rides, about 5 miles from Liberty Hill I tried to close the gap and catch the 1st group. I thought one of the other riders was going to come along, but they slowed a bit on the inclines so I was on my own in the cross wind all the way to Liberty Hill. In my attempt to bridge the gap I was cruising between 24 and 30 mph. We turned around at the Country Store in Liberty Hill after a 5 minute break.

On the way back the group was getting split up again, but this time I was going to be more proactive and try to stay with the front group. Again I thought I was going to have help from one other rider but as I broke away to the next group she didn't come with me. I was on my own and this time into the wind. The front group of 5 were working together it looked like and as the wind started whipping it really started to sap my energy. I never did catch the front group and was on my own bucking the wind all the way from Liberty Hill to the stop light of 2243 and Bagdad. While I had to stop at the light the rest of the group caught up. I rode back to Milburn Park with the group. Facing the wind my average speed was 17.42 mph.

One thing I need to work on is my positioning in the group. On a few occasions I couldn't keep up with the group when they would surge ahead because we were riding 2 up and the person in front of me couldn't or wouldn't stay with them when the front would surge ahead. There were a few times I was better positioned by being on the outside that I could maneuver around other riders if I needed to.

On Friday for lunch I did the Volente Circle route. It was a very windy day, the first 1/2 was right into the wind I only averaged 16.99 mph. The second 1/2 was a lot better where I averaged 18.38 mph. The climb up the Limecreek hill took 4:23, which is 2 seconds off my best time and I averaged 7.3 mph on the climb. Heart rate was 165/176 bpm. Cadence was 62/102 rpm. The overall time was 1:11:13.

Today I got out again, but this time I went out to Volente and then came back doing an out and back. This was my second hill ride for the day but I felt good, at least heading out to Volente. The time to Volente took 31:55, which is the fastest split time I've had. Now coming back was another story. Getting back took 38:53. The Limecreek hill portion took 4:32, averaged 6.94 mph, heart rate was 163/177 bmp, cadence 65/94 rpm. The overall time was 1:10:48, which isn't too far off of my best time for this route of 1:09:30. Not bad for the second ride of the day. I did try out my new positioning on the hill climbs. On the Limecreek hill sitting back on the saddle did have an odd effect on the steep grades, as I was sitting back on the saddle and pushing more with my quads the front tire felt like it was coming off the pavement. Normally when I'm going up the hills I'm pulling more with hamstrings on the bottom of my stroke. With this new position I'm still getting the hamstring pull but now I feel like I have more on the down stroke with my quads.

I'm going to spend the next 4 weeks hitting as many hill workouts as I can so I should have enough time during this period to hone my climbing skills.