Mike's Bike Blog

I thought that I had on my 2008 goals to ride the hill (the 3 Sisters), on Limecreek in 3:30, but I don't see it in my 2008 resolution or in my mid year review. However, the 3:30 mark up the "Sisters" is getting within my reach. Tonight after work I headed out on Limecreek, I went down to Volente and back. My protocol for this test is to stop at the base of the hill and then proceed up it to the top. At the top I stop the timer where the telephone/power line crosses the road.

My time tonight was 3:47, the previous best was 4:14 back in June.

The Numbers up the hill

Today's time is very encouraging, it's nice to see improvement. When you see results its the encouragement you need to keep training and pushing yourself. That's one good reason to keep track of your workouts but to also set goals. Bryan over at Riding to Live has a nice post on setting goals.

According to Joe Friel there are 3 athlete types, (artist, scientific & accountant). I guess I fall more along the lines of a scientific athlete. I keep moderate records, but I don't really pour over them once I download the numbers. I do find myself making more and more calculations while I'm out on a ride which is more akin to the Accountant type of athlete. I try to figure based on my power how many "matches" I have and calculate how much energy I've used and need to replenish my calories.

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. 

This was the first time I've done the full circle to Volente. I typically will go down Limecreek Road to Volente and then back. The main reason I hadn't done the full circle is because I'm a little leary of riding on 2769 between Bullick Hollow and DIes Ranch Road. Last summer they worked on the shoulders of this stretch of road adding a bit to the right of the white line. Also since the road from Twin Creeks now extends to 2769 the total length of riding on 2769 has been cut. I went clockwise on the circle, I did this so I could go up the big hill on Limecreek, it's about 100 feet more than the hill in Twin Creeks over the same 1/2 mile distance. 

As I came down from Twin Creeks a group of 4 riders passed me, I quickly caught up with the 2 leaders as they were waiting for their 2 buddies in the back. As we passed the Bullick Hollow turn off I took the lead and kept the pace at 18 mph and pulled away from them as we hit the hills. I ended up doing the circle twice. My overall time for the 39.09 miles was 2:18:55. I didn't track my time up the Limecreek hill, since I knew I was doing the course twice I knew I was going to need to have energy left so I didn't try to push it up the hill. I know the first time up didn't hurt as bad as the second time. Lap 1 took 1:06:59 and I averaged 17.2 mph,  149/175bpm, 79/115rpm, total climb of 1734.7. Lap 2 took 1:07:20 and I averaged 16.88 mph, 145/170bpm, 81/178rpm, total climb 1576.4.

I'm pretty happy with the 2 laps, the times were very close so I didn't lose too much power for lap 2. I felt really strong and on certain hills in the past I've slowed down to 14 or 15 mph but this time I kept my speeds up to 18 to 20 mph! I'm not sure why but the mileage between lap 1 & 2 are different, plus the climb for both are almost 200 ft off. The distance between the 2 is .26 miles and I can see that as when I passed the start I went a slightly different way instead of turning around. But that doesn't account for the 200 feet difference. The total climb was 3397 feet. Other noteworthy  items for this ride is it was the first time I'd used Hammer's Sustained product. I mixed up a bottle to give it a try even though I figured I wouldn't be out past 2.5 hours. I used Hammer Perpeteum in the Hill Hopper last month. I think I prefer the unflavored Sustained over the citrus Perpeteum. I also had an Apple Cinnemon Hammer Gel about 15 minutes before my 2nd ascent up the Limecreek hill.  Hopefully next time I can get in at least 3 laps. 

See the route on MapMyRide.com 

I found a great site for cycling tips, Cycling Performance Tips. I went straight to the Climbing Hills section to get their perspective. First thing I don't fit the mold for a pro tour racer, I'm not 5'10 and 156 lbs, far from it. I'm 5'11 and 207 pounds. I do plan to be down to 185-190 for my attempt at the Tour Das Hugel but still far from the Pro Tour riders and I'm sure the climbing specialists are well below the 156 pound mark. Doing the math my ideal climbing weight would be 144 lbs. I think I weighed that in 7th grade! There might still be hope for me though, Miguel Indurain was more my size and he did just fine, I just need to keep working on getting more power and practicing on the hills.

The article has good tactics and tips for training. I won't rehash it, you can read it for yourself. It does give some advice on the climbing volume I should be working up to for completing the Tour Das Hugel. I should aim to climb at least 60% of event elevation change volume on several rides. The Tour Das Hugel has a total climb elevation of 14,600 feet X 60% = 8760. That means I have to do the LimeCreek 1/2 mile hill 33 times to equal the  60% (8760 feet) of the 14,600 feet.

Today is a nice day, 66 degrees not too windy, a perfect day for a ride. When I went out I wasn't planning on pushing it too hard I didn't think I would have much in the tank after yesterdays long ride, but everything seemed to come together. I was able to move up the small roller up Limecreek pretty effortlessly. It continued like this all the way to Volente. I didn't have my forerunner set to show overall time, it was only displaying cadence, speed, distance and heart rate. I figured I was at least on pace for my current best of 1:12. Once I hit the hill and started up it I still felt good. I pushed hard at the base, maybe too hard as I was really feeling it later on up the hill but as I crested the top and hit the lap button on the forerunner and 4:41 showed up. That's the best time so far up the hill by 21 seconds. I was a bit out of gas for the last 3 miles, the rollers seemed to really take their toll, looking at the times the first 3 miles took me 9:59, and coming back the same 3 miles took 11:44. 

The overall ride was 1:09:30! that's 3 minutes better than my previous best that I set 1/12/08 

Check it out on MotionBased.com, click on player and you can watch the ride plotted on a map. I love this feature of MotionBased.com. I only wish you could watch it at real time, all the settings are faster like watching it in fast forward. I want to see it in real time so I could use it for training. I could have a laptop near the trainer and mimic the resistance and speed. 

This morning I did the 20 mile ride out to Volente Beach and back. I felt really good, the weather was warm and the wind wasn't bad either. I completed the 20 miles in 1:12:37 which is a personal best. My previous best time was 01:13:18 and on that ride I had a riding partner to push me. I made it up the hill in 5:02, which is the same exact time that I did it in when I did my baseline on the 6th.

Average Speed: 16.6 mph (17.5 there/16.7 back)
Max Speed: 40.4 mph
Average Heart Rate: 156bpm
Max Heart Rate: 178bpm
Avg Cadence: 76 rpm
Ascent: 1552ft
Descent: 1575ft