Mike's Bike Blog

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. 

Off of 2222 on River Place drive as you wind through the subdivision you'll come to Big View road <See route on MapMyRide.com>. Turn onto Big View and proceed all the way down to the river. You should hit speeds of 40+ miles! This was my second time going up Big View. Back in October was the first time and it was  by accident, I was suppose to go down Big View and cut over to City Park thus bypassing the no shoulder of 2222. Well the night before when I got my route turns down I missed a road (Narrow Ridge) and by missing the road I went all the way down to the river and back up looking for a road (Westminster) that you don't access from Big View! The first time I had to stop 3 times for rest. This attempt was a lot different!

Here's the stats on this leg buster (yellow highlight is the uphill portion):  

Total Length from the park at the bottom to the River Place intersection: 2.45 miles
Max Grad: 18.1%
Total Climb: 583.4 feet
Duration: 16:38
Speed: 8.83 mph
HR: 160/176 bmp
Cadence: 68/101 rpm

As you can see it took a little over 16 minutes to climb, but I did not have to stop at all. In fact I felt pretty good going up and after the initial climb I thought the rest of it wasn't so bad.  On the ride back to my house my legs felt really good.  I have been playing with my positioning a bit on the climbs. Instead of having my hands on the brake hoods I am holding on the top of the bars. This puts my chest up a bit more upright and it feels like I'm getting more air through my lungs. Another thing I tried on this climb was to sit back on my saddle a bit more. This seemed to have the effect of getting my quad muscles a bit more involved. I'll keep fiddling with my technique, anybody have any pointers?

One thing about Austin in March and April it rains. The storms can be quite strong with flash flooding. This year we've gotten off pretty light, the weather has been great for riding and last week we got into the 80's! Yesterday it was raining in the morning, but by the time I went for my lunch break ride it had stopped. I was disappointed, I love riding in the rain. I got lucky, about 3 miles into the ride it started to drizzle again. It quickly escalated into a full fledged downpour! I was getting pelted with huge raindrops, they actually stung a bit.

When I got home I was soaked, I wiped down my bike and changed. When I road the trainer last night my shoes were still wet. The rain made this rather mundane ride great.

Date/Time    Title    Distance    Calories    MovSpd    MaxSpd    ActiveTime    AvgHR    MaxHR    AvgCad    MaxCad    MaxGrd    +VAM    Duration    Climb
18-Mar-08 at 11:07:25AM    Twin Creeks 3 mile    9.22    478    16.63    27.56    00:33:16    142    165    81    115    15.8    1254.6    00:33:19    695.6
Lap 1 at 11:10:11AM        0.49    31    10.85    14.80    00:02:42    123    137    65    82    11.1    2325.7    00:02:45    104.7
Lap 2 at 11:18:32AM        2.54    128    18.26    24.62    00:08:21    149    164    83    102    10.4    634.5    00:08:21    88.3
Lap 3 at 11:20:15AM        0.50    25    17.34    20.84    00:01:43    144    159    87    98    2.2    772.3    00:01:43    22.1
Lap 4 at 11:24:20AM        1.09    53    16.08    23.85    00:04:05    134    154    81    99    11.7    1884.3    00:04:05    128.2
Lap 5 at 11:25:07AM        0.23    11    17.41    23.31    00:00:47    142    152    0    0    2.7    1088.3    00:00:47    14.2
Lap 6 at 11:26:06AM        0.21    15    12.76    13.66    00:00:59    148    164    91    98    2.8    2030.9    00:00:59    33.3
Finish at 11:40:44AM        4.16    212    17.06    27.56    00:14:38    143    165    80    115    15.8    1224.0    00:14:38    298.5
 

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 

Saturday was Family Day at the Veloway sponsored by Bicycle Sport Shop and the Austin Flyers. We packed up the bikes and the family and headed out to South Austin to give it a try. I've never been to the veloway, it took a little finding. In case you are looking for it, it is on Lacrosse across from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower park. The Veloway is a 3 mile wide paved bike lane. Hikers and walkers are not allowed, the only use is bikes and inline skaters. At mile .33 Zeb and Jennifer took the first cut off to head back to the parking lot. Jack and Ethan and me continued on for the full 3 miles. The boys did a great job, there was 1 steep incline that they couldn't quite make it up and had to get off and push their bikes up, but they weren't the only one some of the adults couldn't make it up either. At the top of the incline we pulled over and got water and the kids eat their Hammer Bars. 

At 3 Zeb was the smallest rider out there not being pulled, he did a great job riding his bike by himself. Although Jennifer did have quite the scare with him on one of the hills. He took off and kept pedaling down the hill and as the Veloway is quite winedy when he came to the curve he about lost it. She said he was tetering on one training wheel as she was speeding after him to try and catch him. It gave him quite the scare, but he proceeded on and made it back to the parking lot.

After Jack, Ethan and me made it the full 3 miles I went around myself. I wanted to see how fast I could do the 3 miles. I did it in 9:22, my average speed was 19.19 mph, average cadence was 82. It took a little longer than what I was expecting to do the route in. I blame the curves, the course is flat but there are a lot of tight curves that I had to slow way down to navigate through. Plus there were quite a few other riders on the course.