Mike's Bike Blog

What a Sunday ride, I headed into Austin to climb a few hills. Here's the hills and the order I did them in:

• Mesa
• Ladera Norte
• Far West
• Adirondack Trail
• Mountain Ridge
• Arboretum
• Bluegrass
• Beauford
• Jester
• Twin Creeks

 

In all the total mileage was only 54.18 miles and it took me 4 hours of active time and 4:33 of total time. I took a little breather on top of Bluegrass and then refilled my bottles at the Subway at the base of Jester. Whenever I go up Beauford I always think it's a tougher climb than Jester but that is always erased once I start up Jester.

There is some construction on Jester, it didn't really get in the way, but if you are going to attack Jester be forewarned as I'm not sure what the construction plans are and I'd hate for anybody to have to turn around due to construction. I must admit Jester really had my number today, I crawled up it at 3 to 4 miles per hour (avg speed of 4.2mph). I need to adjust my rear derailleur as when I shift into my lowest gear it wont shift out. The shifter snaps and acts like it's going to shift but the rear derailleur doesn't engage. It takes some finessing the shifters to get it unstuck. Needless to say for this ride my workaround was just not to shift into my lowest gear.

I averaged 13.5 mph for the entire ride and burned 2351 kJ. Not bad for a 50 mile ride with 5000 feet of climbing. For this ride I started off with a 2 hour bottle of Hammer Perpetuem (4 scoops) and had my second bottle prefilled with another 2 hour bottle. I also brought along my hydration pack filled with good old water. I felt great the entire ride with energy, I definitely had more in the tank to keep going. Post ride I feel fine as well, no muscle soreness.

The training for the week was pretty strenuous. I ended up with 131.47 miles and 5189.7 feet of climbing. The week started off with back to back days doing climbing repeats. I'd been looking forward to Monday's lunch time ride as I was going to tackle the hill on Adirondack Trail for the first time. I found Adirondack Trail by going down it as one of the routes I take on my commute home. The route included Far West / Laredo Norte / 360 / Adirondack / Mesa.  The stats for Adirondack are as follows

Length	.6 miles
Max Grade	22.8%
Avg Grade	6.8
Climb(ft)	194.7 feet

 

The toughest part of Adirondack is the beginning, once you get over it the grade levels out, that is if you consider 6.8 level. I didn't find the hill too difficult. In fact I had to keep shifting near the top so I could keep my power at the prescribed levels for Climbing Repeats. Since it wasn't too taxing I decided to throw in Mesa. The climbing feet for the entire ride was 1484.6 feet, not bad for a ride during lunch. I followed that up with another climbing day on Tuesday. This time for my lunch hour I tackled Mesa then Far West and then back up Mesa. This ride was 1228.7 feet of climbing. On Wednesday I did OverUnders that took me up Far West to 360 all the way up to Jollyville. Of course on Thursday I raced the Kenny Hill Autoworks Crit. I didn't log any miles on Friday.

On Saturday Dan and I decided to combine 2 of the better Cedar Park routes, Parmer and Volente Circle. We met on Brushy Creek and headed up Parmer to Hwy 29 averaging 18.1 mph. At Hwy 29 we turned around to make our way over to Anderson Mill to start the Volente Circle. For the 20 miles that makes up the Volente Circle we averaged 18.3 mph. In the end we average 17.93 mph (we had a slow stretch between Parmer and Anderson Mill navigating through the neighborhoods where we average 16 mph while we chatted). The total climbing for the route was 1458.4 feet in the 50 miles for the combined route.

It was Dan's first time on the Volente Circle, he said he liked the route I liked combining 2 good routes into one to come up with something entirely new. The Volente Circle is like bacon, anything you wrap up with it will be good.

It's official, I've raced in my first race. Tonight I made my way out to the Driveway and raced in the Kenny Hill Autoworks Thursday night criterium. The course, "The Driveway", is a car and kart racing track in East Austin thus it's a closed course and the roadway is smooth.

The plan was to stay up with the main group as close as possible until the last lap and then to pull away for the win. Good plan, but the execution faulted when the started yelled go. I was starting from the second row. The rider in front of me had trouble clipping in and I almost ran into him. Unlike any long distance start these guys don't mess around at getting up to speed. After the mishap at the start I myself was not clipped in. RIght from the start the speed was at least 24 mph so here I am pedaling with my left foot not clipped in and once I do get clipped in the main group is starting to pull away. I do my best to get back up which I'm do, just barely hanging onto the back. I'm not sure exactly when and were it happened but I was no longer with the main group, in fact I think I was in last place. I did manage to claw my way back to past about 3 people, but in the end I didn't see them in the race anymore.

The Analysis

For the 25 minutes my average speed was 21.32 mph, max speed was 31.91 mph (when I was working to bridge the gap to the main group). My average power was 275 watts, max was 722 watts (again getting to the main group). Like I stated I fully expected my speed to be higher than what it was. So far the only thing I can come up with is the course really doesn't match up to the way I've been training. I've been working at sustaining my power and speed but that work has been done on relatively straight roads. The Driveway has a lot of curves. There's a lot of bursts of speed out of the corners

Next Time

Yes there will be a next time, I don't think there are any more races this year, but next spring I'll be back out. I think I'll be better prepared. It was fun, I think I'm better suited for longer distances and with hills. Now I want to try a bonified road race.

Lucky for the Austin area Hurricane Ike didn't bring much wind and no rain. It did get the Tour de Florence cancelled, so I was left to my own devices for coming up with my own ride. It was overcast in the morning, I waited till 8 am to hit the road. Since it was overcast I swapped out the lenses on my sunglasses to the yellow tinted lenses. The yellow lenses made the world of difference, it really cut through the overcast day, I didn't notice how dark it was with the yellow tint shades.

I didn't want to venture to far from home in case the weather turned for the worse. That meant I would ride down and back to Volente on Limecreek. A down and back is 20 miles. I did 3 of them for 60 miles and then threw another 10 miles in for good measures. I ended with 2 climbs up the hill behind Twin Creek Golf Course.

One observation I made when climbing up the Hill on Limecreek... I've heard the hill called the 3 sisters, the 3 witches and the 3 b!tches. I came to the conclusion the first time up it's the 3 sisters because it's not too bad up it. The second time up is the 3 witches, it puts you in more trouble. Finally the 3rd time it's the 3 b!tches, by the 3rd time it's all you can do to stay vertical. Not sure what to come up with on the 4th time up it.

Ike did bring a bit of wind, today was not the windiest conditions I've ridden to Volente, but I'd rate it as the 2nd windiest time I've ridden the route. One thing I like about Volente the exposure to the wind is limited. Due to the curves in the road and the tree line on the lake side and the hills on the other keep you isolated from the majority of the wind. There were a few spots along the route where the wind was whipping, more so on the way back in from Volente. I noted a particular section where I was into the brunt of the wind going downhill pushing 300 watts and only going 10 - 11 mph.

Ride Stats

Distance	70.02
Duration	4:14:37
Speed	16.5
Power	177 watts
Ascent	4013 feet

 

It's starting to look like Hurricane Ike is going to be wreaking havoc this weekend, thus it might put a damper on the Tour de Florence. I don't mind riding in the rain, in fact when the news first came out that we would get rain from Ike I was excited and wasn't throwing in the towel. I love to ride in the rain. As for the wind, growing up in Wyoming riding in the wind was something you had to deal with if you wanted to ride your bike. Normal wind was around 20 miles an hour while it could get breezy at 40 mph. However, the news is now calling for 75 to 100 mph wind along with tornados.

If the Tour de Florence is a bust I'll be throwing in the 1999 Tour De France DVD and see if I can put in at least 3 hours on the trainer. If anybody wants to join in let me know, all you'll need is your bike, your trainer/rollers and maybe a fan.