Mike's Bike Blog

If you're familiar with the Austin bike scene you'll know what the Tuesday Nighter is, but for those of you not familiar it is the local World Championships, the hammerfest ride. It's not a real race, no prize money handed out, no photographers, no follow cars and no wheel trucks. It's just the opportunity to make your buddies suffer. The Tuesday Nighter has lost a little of it's luster over the past couple years as the roads had deteriorated, the suburban sprawl has reached out to the once country roads that  now see a steady stream of traffic on them. The potholes aren't a problem any more as most of the course has been repaved and the traffic is low on a Sunday.

As if we don't have enough options for a Sunday ride Austin Bikes has put a new spin on the Tuesday Nighter. They have introduced their version named SUMO (SUnday MOrning) which meets at 9am at the shop and departs to the Tuesday Nighter start line for a 10am unofficial start.

This past Sunday I made my way down to Austin Bikes to partake. I've never done the Tuesday Nighter on Tuesday so I wasn't too sure of the course and what to expect. There were some familiar faces in the group though. As we were waiting for the roll out a group of AT&T riders were discussing about Scott who was en route to the start. They good hearted banter was about how he would probably get lost. The statement was made that Scott mainly rides Parmer because that's the route he knows and won't get lost on. We had a good laugh ribbing him in his absence while we waited.

We meandered through downtown Austin making our way to the start. There were a handful of riders waiting, we rolled up to wait a few minutes for the 10am start. As we were waiting I looked back to a rider behind me and see he is popping the top to a Red Bull. I tell Chuck this is not a good sign and we both figure we'll be dropped before we can even get clipped in. Luckily for the first lap the group stays together for the most part. A few riders seemed to have formed a small breakaway a few minutes ahead of us. Or dare I say the A group had separated from the B group.

On lap 2 on the hilly section on Thaxton Road the group slowed as we negotiated the incline and a small crosswind. I got caught out of the protection of the pack as I was to the left of everyone and was unprotected from the wind as the pack organized. I was about to slow down and drop to the back and get into the group when a rider broke away and was going to try to bridge up to the group that was ahead of us. It sounded like a good plan and I was positioned well to attack as well. I quickly caught my fellow attacking rider and passed him. This left me all by myself to bridge the gap. I was making progress but I was quickly burning out. Just about this time Scott passed me and I grabbed his wheel. We each took pulls as we made our way to closing the gap picking off a few riders in the process.

We had the last few riders within our sites and would catch them in about 40 seconds at our current pace.  Then everything unravelled, Scott was pulling but instead of making the right turn on Old Lockhart Road the people we were chasing continued straight and so did Scott. I shouted up to Scott that I think we missed our turn. We came to a complete stop and looked back as the chase group rounded the turn onto Old Lockhart Road.

We turned around and tried to catch back on. At this point the wind in my sails had gone out, we never could quite catch back on and I slowly started losing Scott's wheel. The gap was only a few seconds between me and Scott but I couldn't close it down. On Old Lockhart we caught a couple riders that were off the back as well, however they didn't make the right turn on Nuckols Crossing but continued on Old Lockhart and so did Scott. I followed Scott trying to put more of an effort in to tell him we missed the turn and finally caught him but we were way off course and near William Cannon Road. Since we missed the final lap we decided to just head back to Austin Bikes and call it a day.

The SUMO ride is a great ride near race pace, just be careful on whose wheel you follow. I told Scott I'd give him a few weeks of learning the course before I come out again.

The drama for the Hugel started Thursday evening, for me anyway. At Ethan's soccer practice, I coach his U8 team, as we were working on shots I dribble down to the goal and fired off a shot. Not a hard shot, but a decent shot and as I plant my left leg and kick the ball with my right, but the muscle in my left leg shrieked with pain and I instantly knew something was wrong. I don't believe I pulled the muscle in my quadriceps, but it was strained none the less. It hurt to walk on it, on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being excruciating pain that warrants morphine it was only a 4.

When I got home I stretched it and used the foam roller on it. It felt alright on Friday when I tested it out, but that was on the flat road of Shoal Creek and Great Northern. I didn't know what to expect when the grade went past 12%.

One last thing that is a crucial piece to my ride was on Friday night when I was getting everything ready for the ride I come to find out I only had 4 Endurolytes! That's no good as I typically take 3-4 an hour. I barely had enough Anti-Fatigue capsules and Energy Surge.

Now for the ride, there were a lot of riders again this year and clogged the roads as we started rolling. Things started to thin out a bit once we hit 360. I worked a bit harder on this section so I could put some space between myself and a lot of people for when we hit High Road. My plan worked as High Road was not littered with riders, there were still a few stoppers and people pushing their bikes but at least there was more space to maneuver around them. My plan for the first section was to carry to bottles of Perpetuem for fueling and Espresso gel when needed for some added calories. I didn't plan on stopping at any of the rest stops but go the entire 38 miles and refill my bottles back at Zilker Park. This plan worked and my quad posed no problems at all during this section.

Loop 2 is the doosie for the ride with most of the climbing packed into this section. I'm not sure how many of the starters go onto even attempt the second part, but I'd say 3/4 of the people go home after the 1st part. The first real challenge is Smokey Valley with it's 24% grade and then up the remainder of Ladera Norte. It's quite the 1-2 punch. I made it up both with little difficulty. I opted not to stop at rest stop #3, the rest stop house, as I had enough water to get me to the rest stop at River Place.

Then came Beauford. Beauford gave me a near knock out blow. Right at the base my right quad started to spasm and cramp up. I think I was over compensating with my right leg to make up for the injury on my left. Boy did I pay for it. Whenever I would stand and put any power to my pedal my quad would hurt. Somehow I made it to the top. Courtyard came too soon though, the lower sections I was able to sit and spin at about 60 rpms, but the top section was more of the same. Courtyard tried to inflict it's misery on me. I so wanted to zig zag up it but there was too much traffic coming from both directions. I did try a little weave but it was more like a drunken stagger. At the top I stopped to relax the legs a little and to take 2 of the Endurolytes, which didn't kick in till I got to the top of City Park.

Onward I pedaled to the River Place rest stop. Once you get on Big View you go down it for a little bit, but at this point you don't go all the way down that's a special treat saved for the return. Well I somehow missed the bright orange arrows for the right hand turn off of Big View. I got practically all the way down to the bottom. I got all the way down to the base, where the steep grade warning sign is. NOT GOOD, I had to go back up and find the turn. Back on track I finally made it to the River Place rest stop. I refilled my bottle with more Perpetuem, I had packed up 3 bottle servings into ziplock baggies so I could refill. I stopped long enough to refill grab a couple fig newtons and chat with Andy Webb for a bit to swap stories of the ride so far. Luckily the rest of this outter section was good, I ended up dropping the 2 guys I was riding with at that point. One guy on Bullick Hollow and the other one on 620 near Steiner ranch on the return leg. I stopped at River Place again to refill my bottle again and stretch a little. I also downed my last 2 Endurolytes.

Since I didn't get all the way down to the bottom of Big View I decided I'd better get my monies worth and do the entire Big View. Plus I wanted to take the chance that the park at the bottom would have a bathroom. I could have made it the entire ride without stopping to use the restroom, but I want to go up Jester with as little weight as possible. My hunch paid off and the restroom was open. A small price to pay of climbing up Big View, plus I didn't want to cheat and not do the entire route, I want to earn my t-shirt. On the way to Jester there was intermittent cramping in both legs now. I would try to sit and not stand as much as possible.

On a good day Jester can be difficult, even when fresh. I said a quick prayer to get me up to the top, oh yeah, I'll call on the big Guy in times of trouble. I sat as much as possible which was a bit past the strip mall, actually to a drive way, I think it's an office complex. I stood and managed the pain switching back to the saddle to relieve some of the pain. Didn't help much. It wasn't pretty, but I was able to get to the top.

All I had to do was get my tail the last 10 miles back to Zilker Park. This proved to be a hard path to the finish. Once I got on 360 I had a complete full on cramping. It was so bad it was not something I could get through or at least want to get through. I immediately pulled over at the Buddha Temple driveway to catch my breath. The pain subsided after a minute and I pushed on. The rest of the way was kind of a cat and mouse game to see how hard I could ride without red lining and overdoing it. I was able to catch and pass 4 or 5 riders on my way back to Zilker Park.

What when right:

• I bettered my time from last year. This year I had a time of 7 hours, with a 7 hour 31 minute duration. Compared to 8 hours 24 minutes of active time and a total duration of 10 hours.
• I vastly minimized my rest stop time, I went in with a goal of only stopping when needed and not sit around at the rest stops. I had more time spent at stop lights then I did restng at the rest stops.
• As long as I didn't have to stand I had ample power and my endurance was spot on and felt I could have kept riding.

What went wrong:

• Not enough electrolytes. It was way too hot, 80 degrees. In retrospect I should have brought along Heed which does have some electrolyte components. Not sure if it would have been enough but might have minimized things. Yes I could have taken in some Gatorade or Pickle Juice, but 1 it's not advised to mix Hammer products with a simple sugar drink like Gatorade. Since I had not tried either scenarios during a race is not the time to experiment.
• Forgetting to press start  on my Garmin 705 for 2.5 miles into the ride.
• Last year I had a lot of lactic acid build up, it would hurt on the down hills and my legs would get tight. This year I had no lactic acid build up in my legs, again which leads me to believe to think my conditioning was way better and I was better prepared for the ride.

STATS:
1st Loop (38 miles)
Average Speed 18
Max Speed: 43.6
Average/Normalized Power: 184/260 watts
Ascent: 4064 feet
kJ (Calories): 1344

2nd Loop (71 miles)
Average Speed: 15
Max Speed: 45.7
Average/Normalized Power: 167/229 watts
Ascent: 9708 feet
kJ (Calories): 2887

Footnote: The above accents would mean a total climb of 13,771 feet. However when I run it through some software that supposedly throws out bad Garmin data it comes out to 10,050 feet. 209 is the total number of times while in my 25 and knew I was in my last gear but still tried to shift to an easier gear to  see if I miraculously had one more gear to help spin up the hills.

The first real test to Hugel comes at High Road. It is a short but steep hill. The hill itself I don't find to challenging, it's early in the ride so the legs are fresh and have had ample time to warm up. However, I suggest surveying who is around you when you approach the end of Toro Canyon Rd. Last year when I hit the base of the hill and looked up it was total chaos. People up near the top were zig zagging from shoulder to shoulder, riders were falling over or stopping, chains were breaking. It was a mess. Be ready for this and if you can time your approach do so. If you are weary of the riders in your group it might be advantageous to get some distance between you and them.

One other thing to look out for on High Road is this section is a lolipop route, you come down Toro Canyon take a right onto High Road, go up it, it loops around in sort of a circle and comes back out on High Road. Thus there is potential for mishaps if riders coming down Trail of the Madrones Rd. fail to stop at the stop sign and cross in front of riders going up.

For the past year I've been on the lookout for a road bike for the boys. The options for an entry level road bike for the 9-11 year old group is slim pickings. Redline, Felt and Fuji are the only current manufacturers that produce a 24" road bike. Trek discontinued their offering in 2008. Fuji a larger bike with 650 wheels as well. The other option was to purchase an extra small road bike, but the geometry is just a bit off for a kid, it really stretches him out when in the drops. I really didn't want to buy new so I'd been scouring craiglist and other boards.

Last week a used Felt F24 showed up for sale on Txbra.org classified at a great price. I quickly jumped on it and the next day the steed was in our stable of bikes! Jack was quite excited about the purchase as he's been hounding me for a road bike the past year. Jack was extra excited to learn the pedals were clipless platform pedals. He's been wanting to go clipless for the last year as well.

When we were in Southwest Cycle Sport getting extra tubes for his bike he found a pair of road shoes on the clearance table that fit. I really wasn't too keen on him going clipless at age 9 and was surprised to find that they actually fit him. He was willing to put down all the money he had on them along with me being a softy when it comes to sports equipment for the boys, he walked out of the shop with new road shoes. I took the SPD cleats off of an old pair of my shoes and installed them on his.

Earlier in the morning I set up the bike on the trainer so he could do a dry run of clipping in and out in a controlled environment. In the afternoon we headed over to Georgetown to ride the flat country roads departing Berry Springs Park. I had mapped out a 13 mile route for us. In the parking lot he was practicing getting a foot clipped in while I was airing up my tires. He had a couple crashes in the few minutes waiting for me. But he was undeterred from riding clipless and did not want to ride with his regular shoes.

Once we got out on the road he was fine, he did have trouble getting clipped in. The pedals are not double sided, so he has to flip it over and that did prove to be a bit difficult for the maiden voyage. We practiced stopping and starting along the desolate back roads. There were only a few stop signs on the route, but I'd give him ample warning about them so he could unclip well before them.

When we were about 4 miles away from the finish we could see 2 riders a mile or two ahead of us on the small rollers. I said we should go catch them. He thought they were too far ahead, I said "nonsense, if we catch them I'll get you a milkshake". With the reward of a milkshake as an incentive we picked up the pace and started attacking the hills. For the next 1.61 miles he averaged 13.5 mph over the next 4 rollers. We were cutting their lead, but he still didn't think we would catch them. I said if we kept pushing this pace we would catch them on the final hill, I pointed up to it and pointed to a couple big telephone poles near the top. I said that's where we'd catch them. On the final hill the 2 were starting to separate, the rider in the back was struggling up the hill. We caught him 1/2 way up the hill shortly after he dismounted and started pushing his bike up the hill. The other rider we caught at the exact point I pointed to.

At the base of the hill I let Jack get in the lead and I told him as we approach them to say "On your left" as we pass, it's the right thing to do. The look on their faces to see a 9 year old kid on a road bike go effortlessly up the hill was funny. We crested the hill, the big grin on my face was obviously causing a severe drag effect. Jack was so happy with himself as well. He's definitely hooked!

After his brother's were in bed I made him a small milkshake for his reward.

On Saturday I set out for one last Hugel tune up ride. I wanted to get in some hills and distance for final preparation for the ride. The Gawd Dam Loop is my own creation that basically follows the traditional dam loop, but I throw in a sprinkling of the Hugel route hills of Bluegrass, Beauford, Courtyard and Cuernavaca. I also threw in Alexan just for fun.

The Garmin reported back 5695 feet of climbing in 59 miles. It took me 3 hours 17 minutes of riding time. I stopped for 10 minutes, that includes 1 water stop and stop lights. I averaged 17.9 mph for the ride. Most of all I felt great the entire time even going up the Austin cobbles of Beauford. I also did this ride with my 11x23 cassette, not really the gearing I'd want to do the full Hugel with. Next week I'll switch out my cassette and put on the 12x25. I have been contemplating purchasing a 11x26 for my hill and all around cassette and leave the 11x23 for most racing. One last noteworthy piece to the ride was on the home stretch on 620 I opened it up a bit for a 5 minute interval I still had enough to average 23.9 mph and maxed it out at 30.8 mph.

Next week will be business as usual, I'll have hill repeats and intervals just no rides over 3 hours. I will pull back the week before Hugel, the number of intervals will be cut down along with the time. Since Hugel is not one of my A priority events I won't be doing a full taper. I'll just take a week of tapering to lower the fatigue and be fresh and ready for November 14th.