Mike's Bike Blog

This year one of my goals is to ride up the 3 Sisters in under 3 minutes. Throughout the year I've been whittling away at that time. I started 2009 with my best time at 3'24 and set times at 3'16, 3'11 and finally I had gotten it down to 3'09.

My last few times when I set out to try and beat the 3 minute mark something would happen. On one attempt I got almost all the way up to top of the 1st sister and I came unclipped. Another time I went to shift from the big ring to the small ring 1/2 way up the 1st sister and it didn't shift thus I lost my momentum. Today, I got a good warm up riding out to the water treatment plant and back to the base of the sisters.

On all past rides my time up the 1st sister is 1'20, today I was surprised to see it at 1'06! I knew with a good split at this point the goal was well within my grasp. I was feeling good, I hadn't overcooked myself at this point, I averaged 516 watts and 12.6 mph on this section. For the second sister I tried to keep the effort consistent but also to pace myself a bit so I have enough in the tank for the final sprint. I averaged 420 watts and 7.8 mph. On the last sister I averaged 473 watts and 8.6 mph for the final 36 second sprint to the top. For the entire effort I averaged 424 watts and 10.5 mph.

Now that I've beat the 3 minute mark (2'53) next year's bar will be set at 2'30.

As you may recall from a recent post for preparation for the Tour das Hugel I wanted to go from 177/174 pounds to 165/170 pounds. I'm happy to report on yesterday's weigh in I tipped the scales at 168. That aspect of my training is coming along perfectly.

I've been able to do this by cutting out not necessary calories. Since I already eat fairly healthy to begin with I cut some calories out of each meal. For instance at breakfast I would have 2 bowls of cereal and a skim milk latte. That would be about 500 calories. I've cut the latte out and on a recovery day or a complete rest day I only have 1 bowl of cereal. Actually I look at what my training for the day will be and that will dictate how many calories I will consume. If I know it will be a lighter day than I try to pull back the calories a bit.

Other ways I've cut calories is by watching the amount of bread that I eat. An example is we had tacos one night and 1 flour tortilla is 130 calories. I can eat 2 easy if not 3 tacos. After 1 taco instead of having another tortilla I opted to wrap it in lettuce. 15 calories for the lettuce versus 130 for the tortilla, plus I cut out other crap that is processed in with the flour.

I believe it is these 2 combinations of cutting some calories overall plus cutting back on days I don't need to consume a full plate of calories is having the effect I'm after. It hasn't been that hard either, I'm not walking around hungry.

The other side of Hugel training is riding up as many hills as possible and I've been doing that as well. I've got my 11x23 cassette on for an added resistance training. I've been doing repeats up Far West and Mesa along with some sweet spot intervals in between. Last Sunday Dan and me did a little hill ride. We started off on the road between Hippie Hollow and Bullick Road and climbed that one and then took the LCRA access trail off of 620 down to the river and up and back up 620 to Steiner Ranch Road. Back up Steiner Ranch Road and ended the day with some hard pulls back on 620. We finished with about 2800 feet of climbing in 2 hours.

If you haven't seen the latest contest put on by the Fat Cyclist here's the skinny:

• The winner gets an Ibis bike of his or her choice, color and size.
• We’ll fly you to the best possible riding spot in the US, according to you (and ratified by us).
• You’ll get to ride with Chuck, Fatty and Andy Hampsten

Pretty cool, bike, airfare and a great ride with 3 legends. What I propose if I win is I would have them come to Austin and ride here in Texas. I would then invite all my friends that donate to my LiveStrong challenge page to come ride with us. So if you want to be a part of this, go donate to my LiveStrong page.

You're probably asking yourself, wait Mike's already won a bike what would he do with another bike? Good question, I'd have it built in a size for my kids, Jack is starting to race and a Silk SL would more than make a decent race bike to say the least. Once Jack has outgrown it Ethan or Zeb will be waiting in the wings to take over ownership so we'll get 3 boys use of it before donating it to a team/club.

Every $5 donated at my LiveStrong page gets us a raffle ticket and a chance to win, but hurry the contest ends at midnight the 20th. This will be a great invite only group ride with the Fat Cyclist, Chuck Ibis and the winner of the 1988 Giro d’Italia and two-time winner of the Tour de Suisse, Andy Hampsten.

Don't get lulled into the rest stops for an extended period of time. The rest stops above Oak Knoll, at the house and the River Place will be inviting. The River Place rest stop will have warm potatoes with cheese and bacon. No food has ever looked so inviting than the warm cheese goodness on that brisk November day. Just stick to your plan, get water and get out. Take 5 minutes, maybe 10 tops. Don't stay any longer and let the lactic acid build up in your legs. 

By all indications the course favored the climbers and all the chatter on the TXBRA.org Forum reinforced this. The storyline was that the fields would get strung out in the first 10 miles on the hills. However, this was not the story that was written on Saturday. The only field to get any break up was the P12. All the other races stayed together.

As I was getting ready I talked with Scott Dalhover (AT&T Brain and Spine) about the Cat 4 race and he said nothing was getting away and for me to just sit in. If I felt good I might be able to give a go about 7 miles out at the Iraqi village. He kept telling me to sit in and not to do any work, the same exact insider info I got from Peter). He said if he heard that I was up front doing any pulling he would punch me.

On the way out we had a small headwind, enough to keep everything together. In anticipation for the hills I switched out to a 11x26, but at the rate we went up the hills it was not needed.  In the race the pack climbed the hills at a slow and steady pace. In fact the entire race was this way, there was really no part where there was an all out effort, nobody went up the road and with the downhills anything that did get up the road was easily brought back.

With about 13-15 miles to go there were 2 up the road, #529 and a UT rider. Since I had been sitting in all day I felt really good and thought this would be a good time to see if I could bridge up to them and see if we could get a break going. Me and the Sun and Ski rider made a go of it, but as we were closing in on the 2 I looked back and saw that we were just pulling the entire pack along so I shut down my effort.

I'm not sure how many were in the final group, but it was big at least 30 guys, we started with 60+ I believe. This made for a jam packed field sprint. My second plan was to go on the hill leading up to the finish. I found myself third or fourth row back in the middle and I couldn't maneuver to the right or left so I was at the mercy of those in front of me to clear a way for the final sprint. The winning lead out came up from the left but I was still boxed in. At the 200 meter flag the rider to my left lost control and went right into me. I had to bend over and with my shoulder protect my  handle bars. With the guy leaning against me I bumped into the rider on my right a little as I was still holding up the other guy. Luckily there was a little crack of daylight that opened up to the right. I shot through it just as the guy on my left hit the ground.

There was still chaos and carnage in the lead out group as I tried to close the gap to them. Not sure exactly what happened but after the fact I heard one rider was pushed and he ended up doing a face plant into the dirt. His teammate was yelling as we wound up the sprint for the line.

In the end I placed 10th and was able to stay upright, by far my best placing in a race this year. Andy Webb (Simpler-Webb) who rode up to Copperas Cove with me placed 13th in the race. It was a great finish to my inagural season of racing. Now I can't wait till February when the season starts again.

One of the ideas I was kicking around for the weekend was to get up to Copperas Cove and pre ride the State Road Race Championship course. Well Sunday morning Chuck sent out a tweet that he was thinking about riding the course. He was closely monitoring the weather patterns and was confident that it would be clear in Copperas Cove by the time we got there.

I met up with Chuck, Scott, and Tim, all really strong Cat 4 racers for AT&T in Cedar Park and we packed the bikes up and headed out in the rain and drizzle. Just as weatherman Chuck had predicted the clouds were starting to part the closer we got to our destination.

The course is outside of Copperas Cove on Ft. Hood and is considered "open range". Meaning not only is there livestock roaming freely, but also the military regularly shoots artillery over the road! Luckily for us there were no cows on the road and no sounds of mortar or AK47 gun fire, but the Iraqi village was interesting scenery. The course particulars: there's about 2900 feet of climbing on the 33 mile loop. I rode the course with a 11x23 cassette and was OK. For the race I'll opt for something a little taller though, I have a 12x25, but Peter from Southwest Cycle Sport hooked me up with a 11x26. With as many descents and the few flats I think the 11 will be beneficial as I was spinning out the 11 on several sections as it was.

The course definitely favors climbers, the talk after the ride was the predictions that nobody over 170 pounds would win any of the races and the climbers weighing in below 150 would probably take the win. Hopefully I can drop 3 pounds by Saturday to have a chance at 170. I do have a couple plans for the race, not sure how it will play out with 75 other racers in the field. My goal is to be in the front group as everyone gets strung out on the hills. Word is the promoter is looking for more follow vehicles to help SAG people in.

This should be fun!