I added The Fat Cyclist Blog to my blog roll, I've had the blog in my aggregrator for the last week or two and have enjoyed his wit and humor. It looks like Fatty is from my old stomping ground of Utah. Be sure to check out his ramblings. http://www.fatcyclist.com/

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 dropped off our Expedition to get some work done at the dealer. I brought my bike to ride home. We're only about 10 miles away, but I decided to take the long cut and instead go down 360 to Bee Caves Road to Highway 71 then over to 620 back to Cedar Park. The total route is 39.24 miles, but it is rather hilly in spots. Looking at the stats for it the break up is fairly even 30.6% of the ride was uphill, 30.6% was descents and 38.7% was flat:

Distance Data	Total (mi )	% of Total
Distance	39.24	100
Ascent	12.02	30.6
Descent	12.02	30.6
Flat	15.20	38.7

 

Luckily the worst of the ascents were right at the beginning on 360. It had been a few weeks since I'd ridden this area of Austin and it felt great. But I had the ascent over at the Dam to Steiner Ranch in the back of my head knowing that it was waiting for me at the end. If anybody rides to Bee Caves there is a bypass so you don't have to go down Highway 71. Take Bee Cave Parkway and it will come out on 620 bypassing 71 all together. I didn't know this so I went all the way to 71. Luckily traffic was light this early in the morning.

Here's a picture from Lakeway over looking Austin:

 

The last hill that I had in the back of my head wasn't so bad. I went right up it with no problem, in fact I almost caught a group of riders on it, but I got caught at the Steiner Ranch light.

I'm evaluating MotionBased.com and I've uploaded the ride there. So far I'm liking the site, check out this ride on MotionBased.com. 

This past Tuesday and Thursday was classes 10 and 11 of Carmichael Training Systems classes.

Class 10: Time Trial Intervals with Jane Rynbrandt after the warm up there are 3 6 minute time trial efforts and then power intervals.

ncrease your maximum sustainable power

Class 11: PowerInterval Ladder with Abby Ruby after the warm up this class power intervals up the ladder 2 sets and then more power intervals before cooling down.

Both of these classes were great, both classes are similar to the work and effort it seemed like.  Both are good for increasing your maximum sustainable power and will increase your VO2 Max. Both classes are taylored for riders with power meters. I really need to pick one up but will have to save

I made it over to Georgetown to try my hand riding with the Cyclopaths of Texas. We met at the Berry Springs park and embarked on the 31 mile ride. There were 8 others in the group, the pace was about 14 mph. I took the opportunity to work on my pedal stroke and push bigger gears trying to keep my cadence around 75 rpm. The terrain was flat with a few rollers but it was windy. One thing about Georgetown, at least the area we rode through there are no trees, it's primarily farm or ranches. In fact we passed several longhorns in the pasture. The route was very low traffic, I think I can count the cars on my hands for the entire ride. 

It was a great time and everybody was friendly. I'll try to get out and ride with them again, the only downside is they start so late in the day, 1:30pm, that it eats up the entire day. 

 Route Map