Mike's Bike Blog

This week had me preoccupied at work as we were deploying my latest project, which entailed late nights. I wasn't able to get out for a ride last Saturday, I was at the office. I did get out on Sunday for the evening ride with the Hammerhead bikes crew. I met them at Cool River Cafe on Parmer and we rode up Parmer to Highway 29 and then headed West towards Liberty Hill to CR 266. CR 266 is 2.1 miles west on HW 29 on the left. It is a quiet 4.5 miles and will dump you back out on Parmer just south of Hwy 29, you will be able to see the Parmer/29 intersection to the left. There's a long hill as you make your way back to Parmer, the total 4.5 mile section is 273 feet of climbing. I'm not a big fan of going down 29, but it wasn't too bad. Might be safer to turn around at 29 and head back South on Parmer and catch the exit and go down it to 29 and then go back via 266. You'll get double the hills!

Now that brings us to this weekend. On Saturday I headed out on 620 to the dam and down to the water crossing and back up and back onto 620 heading back into Cedar Park. When I got to 4 points I turned and made my way to River Place. Normally when I go to ride up Big Hill I turn left onto Big View from River Place and then go down to the river and back up. On Saturday I stayed on River Place and went down to Big View that way. The views from River Place are a lot better than Big View, so go figure. It's not straight down either on River Place. There was a little climb, .3 miles that averaged 4.9% gradient that maxed out out 11.1%. Once I got down to the bottom I then went back up and then headed home. I got to wondering though, if going up Big View to catching River Place and then up River Place would be harder than going up Big View all the way. Looking at the Garmin data comparing the decent to the ascent there's about a 50 foot difference between the two. Going all the way up Big View would appear to have the slight edge. Looks like I'll have to investigate this further. The Saturday ride total 34.35 miles with 1862 feet of climbing in 2 hours.

This brings us to today, Sunday. I woke up with stiff legs, I was quite surprised actually. My little 2 hill stomp shouldn't have left me so sore.  Since I already confirmed that I'd ride Sunday morning with C.J. and Dan I headed out. My legs started to loosen up so I hoped I'd be fine. Once we got out on Parmer from Spicewood Elementary we averaged 19 mph up to 2238 (Andice Road). Dan dropped out at Hwy 29 to get back home, but C.J. and me proceeded on.

I was suffering keeping pace, on the way back we averaged 19.4 mph, I must have looked bad as C.J. asked a couple times if I was ok. I pushed on though, luckily he pulled most of the way as I suffered and cursed the lactic acid in my legs. I think I took the lead South of Hwy 29 and pulled us into the gas station at the heavenly oasis that is the gas station on Parmer and 1431, ice and tap water have never tasted better. Needless to say I didn't hydrate well on this ride either. I did manage to get a bar into me at 2238, but I didn't drink enough water and I was paying for it dearly. The pace was well within my means, the Hammerhead group rides have been averaging 19 mph and my past ventures on Parmer have averaged 19-20 mph.

The Theory

So what went wrong? This left me wondering what was different. Like I said the Saturday ride wasn't anything I'd think would leave me so sore. It finally hit me tonight as I looked at what I did for my recovery. Normally when I get home I mix up my own recovery shake of a mixture of Hammer Whey and Heed along with skim milk and a frozen banana. We've run out of Hammer Whey and Heed, so I bought a replacement whey from HEB. No it wasn't Hammer based. I'll be calling Hammer and placing an order come Tuesday.

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

	Max	Avg
Speed	20.67	8.37
Cadence	88	65
Power	686	377
Gradient	15.6%	8.5%

 

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.

For a few months now I've been having a problem with the Garmin Training Center on my Mac where it would not download imported tracks to my Foreruner 305. Whenever I would select Download to Device from the Training Center the device would freeze and I'd have to do a soft reset. Everything else with the Training Center  continued to work, it would download my data.

On Friday I ran the web update and downloaded and installed a firmware update and also updated the Training Center to the latest version. After the update once I plugged in the Forerunner the Training Center would immediately crash. I managed to make it even worse!

After some googling I found some hints that all that might be needed is to do a complete reset of the Forerunner. Holding down the Mode key while powering on will bring up the Reset Confimation dialog. Once I confirmed that I did want to reset and all my data would be lost I was able to plug in and not get a crash. Plus I could send imported routes to the device.

I didn't lose any information really, all I had to reset was the display fields. I think in all I was back up within 10 minutes.

You always hear of the professional riders scoping out a course beforehand. Lance would spend considerable time in France riding the Tour stages to gain advantages. On Saturday I did the same with the Outlaw Trail 100's 100 mile route. Last year I did the 40 mile route, this year I'll be doing the 100 mile route. I got up early, 5am, got 2 bottles of Heed mixed up, the hydration pack filled with water and a few bars. I'm out of gel so a few servings of honey would have to do. If I have the time I like to eat something small 3 hours prior to the start. This time I'd only have 2 hours since I'd be launching at 7am, I had a piece of toast with peanut butter. I loaded everything in the car and heading over to Old Settlers Park in Round Rock. I started the 100 mile recon a few minutes after 7am.

I would consider the route flat, however when I got back and downloaded my Garmin data there was more climbing than what I thought, I guess the small rollers added up. My unsmoothed Garmin data said there was 4219 feet of climbing, but after smoothing it was 2959 feet.

There is one spot I should point out that is really dangerous, it is on CR 100, the crossing over the San Gabriel River. As you come down CR 100 you'll make a hard right, the pavement is in terrible shape, it's littered with potholes and loose gravel. If you are going at a high rate of speed this can be very dangerous. If you make it through the turn and get onto the bridge it is not much better condition. It too is a terrible section of road with holes and rocks. Once you get over the bridge there is a small incline that isn't too bad, but at this point there can still be a lot of riders that will be scrambling to the top. Once at the top is Hwy 29 and there can be a stop. Last year they had a highway patrolman conducting traffic and thus it may or may not be clear to go. I think this is the most technical section of the course due to the sharp turn that leads to the bridge and the obstacles on the bridge and then the short steep hill up to the stop sign.

The first portion of the ride has you going through Weir, Walburg and Bartlett. I think each town has a population of around 1,000. I stopped in the historic district of Bartlett and ate 2 of my bars and headed back out. I debated if I should stop at the gas station in Bartlett and refill as I'd consumed 1 of the bottles of Heed. I still had 1 other bottle of heed and my hydration pack so calculated that I'd be fine and that I could make it all the way around Granger Lake and into Circleville.

One road condition worth noting was after Bartlett, I believe it was CR 357, it was very bumpy. Not broken road bumpy, just that rough asphalt, at one point my teeth were chattering along with the noise of my chain rattling over the relentless bouncing. After Bartlett it was desolate, actually there weren't many cars passing me either direction. As I was riding I figured if something happened to me they wouldn't find me until October when they run the Outlaw Trail 100.

I diverted off the course route a bit at the intersection of CR 412 & 619 to see if I could find a gas station. It looked like there was one and I had went through my last bottle of Heed but still had water in my hydration pack. I would have had to divert into Taylor so I got back on course en route for Circleville. Once I turned around I found the wind! It wasn't bad, it could have been a lot worse, this stretch of the route (16.8 miles) was my slowest split. I only averaged 16.23 mph. It was also right before Circleville my knee started to act up (not the same knee that had been hurting a couple months ago, it was the other one). Luckily the pain wasn't consistent, there would only be a moment of shooting pain in it. Surprisingly it didn't get worse, there was only brief seconds of pain and then it would be gone. I did adjust my gearing to lighten the load and upped my cadence. The gas station at Circleville never looked so good. I refilled my bottles, mixed up a batch of Heed and got ice and water in my hydration pack for the last haul back. Since I was out of honey and bars I did get a Coke to get some needed calories.

On Saturday the conditions were perfect, it was overcast, not too hot (93 degrees) and most importantly the wind wasn't too bad. It seems whenever I ride out east the wind usually plays a factor. Last year it definitely factored in. In the afternoon the wind did pick up a bit. Luckily the bouts with it were short, we can only hope come October 18, 2008 the conditions are the same.

Ride Recap

	Max	Avg
Speed	30.83	17.55
Cadence	114	82
Power	844	182
Gradient	15.6%

 

Tonight I did go for a short recovery ride and my knee felt fine, no hints of pain. I'll take it easy this week just to be sure. I should be ready come October. This was a dry run to get a feel for the course and to also gauge my fitness as my goal is to complete it in 5 1/2 hours. To come in at 5 1/2 hours I'll need to average about 18.18 mph, which is doable, especially if I can get with a good pace line and have other competitors to push me. One thing I'll have to do is double check the actual distance, when I mapped it on RoadBikeRides.com the total mileage came up at 98 miles so I was quite surprised when I got back to the park and saw that I had gone 109 miles. This means 18.18 mph might not cut it to come in at/below 5 1/2 hours.

Today concluded my 31 days of Training4Cyclists.com's Power Meter Projet 2008. Jesper gave me specific workouts and wattage ranges to hit for each of the 31 days. At the beginning and end I performed a 20 minute Time Trial to come up with my Threshold Power. The first test my power was 246 watts. Today when I did the test I was able to churn an average power of 276 watts for the 20 minutes. Not too shabby of an improvement, especially considering I lost 5 pounds over the 31 days, so my watts to weight ratio is 3.25. I was shooting for a range of 280-290 watts, next time.

My average speed today was 21.43 compared to 19.73 for the initial test.