Mike's Bike Blog

I'm not one to shy away from getting out on the bike when there's water on the streets or a downpour. Really the only thing that makes me think twice about the weather conditions is if my bike is clean and how much I want to clean everything afterwards. If it looks like the bad weather is here to stay for a few days I'll get out and do my rides for a few days in the elements and clean it up when the weather clears up again.

This approach has worked well for me, no crashes or even close calls to speak of. That is until 3 weeks ago, it had been raining heavily the night before and the roads were still wet when I went for my lunchtime ride. While I was out on the ride it started to rain a bit, but not monsoon conditions. I was on my second 20 minute Sweet Spot Training (SST) interval for the day. In fact I had about 1 minute left on the effort and I had 1 hard right turn to negotiate. I let up on the pedals and applied pressure to the breaks. I wasn't slowing, I then realized I was hydroplaning! The back time started to slide to the left  and fishtail. Just about that time I hit a dry patch of road. When the back tire made contact with the road it catapulted me straight into the air like a bucking bronco. I went down hard onto my left side and slid a good distance. Luckily the pavement was wet, I hate to think how tore up I could have been. As it was the only damage suffered was to my Clear2Go bottle, it got totally mangled, I think a car ran over it as I didn't noticed it came dislodged and rode off before realizing it was missing.

Well that was 3 weeks ago, then today once again it had rained the night before and the roads were wet, but when I went out for my ride the skies were dry. I had another set of 20 min SST intervals to do and given the wet conditions I thought doing them on the Twin Creeks circuit (1 mile loop) would be the best option. I've done this workout on this same course in similar conditions and I know to take the roundabouts with caution. In wet conditions when I enter the roundabout I gently apply the brakes as I stop pedaling.  Before I started the ride I let some air out of my tires to compensate for the wet pavement.

About 13 minutes into the first 20 minute interval I entered the roundabout, stopped pedaling and as I started the turn the tires went out from under me at 24.4mph. I slid across the road a good 10 feet or so to the curb. I didn't sustain too much new roadrash, I seemed to land in the same exact spot as the previous crash so re-tore up what was just starting to heal. I landed on my hip pretty hard so along with the fresh roadrash I'm sporting a rather large lump

These 2 crashes got me thinking about my tires and how they might not be the best selection for wet conditions. Back in August I bought 2 Vittoria Rubino Intrepids from bonktown. Giving a quick search it would seem others aren't too fond of their handling in wet conditions. Another factor in this last crash could have been my speed, the other times I negotiated thru the roundabout this morning I averaged 23.9mph, 23.5mph, 24mph and 23.6mph. When I crashed I was going 24.4 mph, a bit faster than the other times. I felt like I was in control and nothing was different that is until I hit the pavement.

One thing I'm coming away from this experience with is that when it's wet out I'm not going to do SST intervals or anything with intensity. When I'm attempting to hold certain wattages, especially wattage around threshold it's too much for the conditions and it's not worth the risk. Next time I'll just do a regular easy ride and complete the intervals on the trainer or forego the interval all together. Seated hill repeats would have been a good alternative for a day like today too.

Actually it's 3 crashes in 3 weeks, I nearly forgot about the crash on Monday on the inline skates. I was skating around the neighborhood with Zeb. He was up on the sidewalk and I was in the street, we were going up a slight hill so we weren't going fast, 3 or 4 mph when I hit a pebble. I stumbled a bit and wasn't able to recover and went down. Again on the same darn side hitting my hip and tearing open the scap on my knee.

On Sunday I had a slight change of plans. I was scheduled to partake in the Super Squadra Advanced Race Tactics and Skills Clinics. But with a change in employment status I backed out at the last minute. Dave Wenger was understanding and quickly refunded my money.

My plan now was to ride over to City Park Road for the fitness testing that Team Austin Cycle Camp (AC2) was putting on. I'm having some serious car problems, check engine light has come on and it sputters and chunks along. However, not getting up in time put the kabash on that and I was lucky to get to the start in time driving.

The fitness test comprised of a weight in, body fat composition and VO2 testing. I've determined my VO2 by a 5 minute power test and plugging it into a formula so I was expecting this type of test. AC2 was not performing this kind, instead it was using Polar watches and heart rate straps. I guess this is a sub VO2 max test, I opted out of it and only did the body composition. In hindsight I wish I had so I could have compared my VO2 testing to the Polar watch method. I must say using the Polar method looked a lot easier, all it involved was pushing buttons on the watch and sitting and relaxing for 5 minutes. When I did my VO2 test I had to ride as hard as I could for 5 minutes!

I did opt to do the body composition test to see if the number I get on my home scale would be consistent with the commercial grade scale. You might recall one of my 2010 goals is to get my body fat down from 16% as weighed on my scale to 12%. The number returned on the AC2 scale was 6.5%! Woot! I've already beat my goal! I'll keep at it to drop down to 12% on my scale and that should see a drop on the AC2 scale the next time I weigh in. I think they said the next Fitness test would be April.

Up next on the Fitness test was a 3 mile ride up City Park Road. We all parked in the free parking before the Ranger Station so we rode down to the Ranger Station and up 3 miles to Pearce Road. This first time up was at a leisurely pace to get warmed up and to get accustomed to the course. The second time up was going to be a mass start but timed. The 3rd time up we'd do a time trial start with 15 second gaps between and the order would be close to how the placing was in the mass start, but reversed. Meaning whoever came in first in the mass start would get to go last.

As we started the mass start we stayed together for a little bit, but Zach Horne (Team AC2) and Trey Steele (Team AC2/Hotel San Jose) started to push the pace and get a little gap. Soon there after the pack started to string out. I wanted to maintain a consistent power output going up the slight grade (1.8% for the 3.03 miles) and was shooting for holding 315-320 watts the entire 3 miles. Before the 2 mile mark I caught up and passed Trey. Right at the 2 mile mark I passed Zach, that meant I was on my own the last mile with nobody to chase down. Interesting on this effort the 1st 1.5 miles I had a higher wattage then the second 1/2.  Here's my numbers for the Mass Start effort:

Time: 9:59:00
Avg Power: 318 watts
Normalized Power: 334 watts
Max Watts: 791 watts
Avg Heart Rate: 171 bpm
Avg Speed: 18.2 mph
Max Speed: 36.9 mph
Cadence: 85 rpm

We coasted back down to the Ranger Station, I stopped at the parking lot to drop off my second bottle. Since I wasn't drinking on the way up at all I didn't need to carry the extra weight, I should have left the other one there too. Since I won the mass start I had the luxury of going last. About .4 mile to the finish I caught up to the main string of riders and unfortunately there was a mini van trying to pass. The van passed me but they were stuck behind the string of riders on the winding road. I had to slow down a little to negotiate around the van and riders as well. With the finish in my sights so was my 15 second guy, Zach. I stepped on the gas for the last minute to catch Zach. I averaged 411 watts in the last minute and caught him at the line. This last effort was done properly with a negative split, so my 2nd half had a higher wattage then the first, part of that could be because of the 1 minute sprint to the finish. I didn't do that on the 1st effort. Numbers from the Time Trial Start effort:

Time: 9:57:00
Avg. Power: 321 watts
Normalized Power: 336 watts
Max Watts: 674 watts
Avg. Heart Rate: 168 bpm
Avg Speed: 18.3 mph
Max Speed: 36.4 mph

Next time I'll be shooting to ride the 3 miles under 9 minutes. Yes that's correct I want to shave almost a  full minute off my time. To do it I'll need to average 2 miles per hour faster and go 20.3 mph. To achieve this I'll need to weight 160 pounds and I'll need to average 335 watts. That plays right into my progression plan for the season. Also for next time I'll do a little bit more warming up and only do 1 real effort and leave nothing in the tank and approach it as a true all out effort.

Here's my ride file at TrainingPeaks.com

I was recently (1/07-1/11) in Sequim WA, over Christmas my father passed away so I was there for the memorial and burial. The service was on Friday and before I get into the biking portion one thing on the service... It was an overcast day with some off and on showers in Sequim. When we got to the cemetery and started it was overcast still but not raining. Midway through to the west the clouds parted a little and the sun shown through down on us. It's not like the whole area was sunny, it was like it was a beam of light directed down upon us. Then as we ended the service and got into the cars the small opening in the sky closed back up and the sun was hidden once again. When we got back to my mom's house we stood around asking each other if they saw what had just happened just to make sure we weren't dreaming. It couldn't have been scripted any better in a Robert Redford movie. It was very surreal.

On Saturday my brother Mark picked me up from my mom's place and took me back to his in Chimacum for some mountain biking. He has a cabin on 5 acres that is completely off the grid. He gets power from a generator and solar panels. Just down from his property is Gibbs Lake that has miles of single track mountain bike trails. We only scratched the surface of the trails there in our hour and forty minute trek of 5.77 miles. I would say the trails we rode were of intermediate technically. There were a lot of roots and logs that got us to dismount and walk over. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that it had rained the day before so the ground was still damp thus making the exposed roots slick. In the short distance we rode we climbed 2103 feet.

The next morning I got up early and drove over to his place so we could hit the trails at the crack of dawn. This time we headed out to explore the logging roads that meander around his property and the lake. This is more my speed of mountain biking, nothing technical just miles of logging roads. Plus the terrain was better suited for the bike I was riding. We spent 2 hours exploring the logging trails netting 10.76 miles and 2077 feet of climbing. As I was riding this day I thought how fun it would be to be on a cross bike riding the logging roads. The terrain was perfect for a cross bike.

After the ride Mark whipped us up a raw recovery smoothie. He mixed up some cilantro, spinach, and some other greens into his veggiemixer into the best recovery drinks I've ever had.

If you're ever around the Olympic Peninsula area (Sequim, Port Angeles or Port Townsend) I highly recommend the Gibbs Lake area for mountain biking. In fact you can probably drive up to Mark's for directions and an after ride smoothie. He also has plans to add cabins so let me know he might be taking reservations!

Riding with my big brother was great fun and it rekindled a little fire in me to do more mountain biking. I love riding around in the backcountry exploring new trails and taking pictures.  Although I only had the iPhone with me for pictures.

Saturday's Route
Sunday's Route
Facebook Photo Album

Before I get into the numbers for 2009, one disclaimer, I don't set a goal amount of miles to ride, nor do I set a goal for average speed. I train on too many hills to care about my overall average speed as doing hill repeats at 10 mph tends to bring the overall number down.

Here's my numbers for 2009:

Total Miles: 7,356
Total Climbing: 307,316
Calories: 285,606 kJ
Avg Speed: 17 mph
Max Speed: 69.68 mph
Avg Cadence: 77

For 2009 I set some lofty goals and my direction in riding got a bit more focused as I got my feet wet in bike racing. 2009 saw me pin on my first race number at the Tour of New Braunfels after missing out on the Copperas Cove road race.

    •    A 40K Time Trial in 1 hour or less - I never pursued this goal, this will turn out to be a longer term goal than one set for 2010. First I will need to average 25 mph in the Run Far Time Trial and once I can do that then I think I can start thinking about a 40K in under an hour.
    •    Ride 200 miles in 1 day - This is another one that I didn't go after. I had hoped to do the Texas Time Trial 12 hour race and get the 200 miles in during it. But as the season progressed I didn't train for that type of distance and concentrated solely on the Cat 5 race distance <50 miles. It is still something I'll keep as a long term goal but nothing I'm putting down on paper that needs to be completed in 2010.
    •    Ride up the 3 sisters in 3 minutes flat, (2008 goal was 3'30 current PR is 3'24) - This was my big goal for 2009 and I did it!
    •    Join a team/club - I started racing for Southwest Cycle Sport in 2009.
    •    Ride the Outlaw Trail 100 in 5 hours or less - I ended up not riding in the Outlaw Trail 100 in 2009 as I was focused on other races like the Chappell Hill Bank Classic and the Texas State Road Race Championships. I did come close to a sub 5 hour century when I did the FatCyclist.com 100 miles of Nowhere ride. Again this is not something I'm going to carry over for 2010.
    •    Increase my FTP by 20% - That's a big jump for 1 year, I've seen some increases in my FTP this year which is good. I did raise my FTP by 14 watts this year. For 2010 I'll continue to raise FTP as it will be needed to meet some of my other goals, but I'm not going to make it a line item for 2010.
    •    Increase my 5 second and 1 minute power to balance out my power profile - I was able to raise my 1 minute power this year as well as my 5 minute. I spent a couple weeks focusing on VO2 Max and was able to raise my 5 minute power. I'm going to carry over working on my 5 second sprint for 2010 as this is an area that is a limiter for me.
    •    Get my body fat tested so I know how much to lose. In High School my body fat percentage was 11%. Ideally I want to get it down to 13%, I'll have to see how realistic that is, but at this point I'd rather focus on body fat than solely on weight. If anybody has recommendations on where to get a true body fat test in Austin let me know. I want either the calipurs or one of the newer tests that use professional quality dual electron machines, not the consumer level scales that give you weight and body fat. - I did lose about 15 pounds this year getting down to my lowest weight for the Hugel (162 lbs). I'm going to carry over this goal for 2010 to get my body fat % down.
    •    Raise $1000 for Team Fatty and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. - I fell short of raising $1,000 for Team Fatty, but did raise money for the cause.

2010 Goals

• Average 25 mph for a Run Far Time Trial
• Get body fat down to 12% currently 16%
• Place in the top 10 in 3 targeted Cat 4 races this season
• Improve 5 second sprint power
• Ride up the 3 Sisters in 2 minutes 30 seconds
• Ride up the 3 Sisters 20 times in one sitting
• Get my USA Cycling Level 3 coaching certificate

On Saturday I headed over to Bee Cave for the Southwest Cycle Sport ride. I left early to make it by the 7:30am roll out time. You see the previous week I got the start time wrong, for some reason I thought it started at 8. I missed the roll out so did the Dam Loop solo. So this time I left with ample time to get there, but I missed Peter's tweet and Facebook post saying it was too cold to ride.

After giving Peter, a Buffalo, NY native, grief about going soft for not riding in the 26 degree weather he said I still had time to get to the ATC ride, but to be prepared to hold on tight as it can be fast. I've heard from others that the ATC ride can be really fast. As I left the parking lot I briefly contemplated heading back home and going back to bed but headed downtown to give this ATC ride a try.

The first thing I'd like to point out, there was not one person on a tricycle. I figured I would be able to hold the wheel of anybody on a tricycle, but maybe it was too cold for them guys. I didn't do an exact head count but I'd estimate there were 12-14 riders at the start. Most the of the local race teams were represented Violet Crown, Velossimo, Austin Bikes and AT&T all had several riders representing. There were a couple of guys on tri bikes as well. I was expecting to see more tri guys, but roadies seemed to be the dominate riders.

We rolled out at a fairly casual pace making our way to MoPac and then over to Southwest Parkway. I was told it was at this point that the hammer starts to come down.  On the rollers of Southwest Parkway I averaged 21.8 mph. The pace on the bigger hills was very manageable and there was times when the wheel I was following would start to lose contact with the group and I'd have to pull around and bridge the small gap before I'd get dropped.

On 71 the pace quickened once again, I averaged 24 mph from Southwest Parkway to Bee Cave. On the final hill leading into Bee Cave the group started to get strung out, I got out of the saddle and bridged up to the guy who was pushing the pace and followed him up. We regrouped at Bee Cave Parkway, 1/2 the group took the short route (30 miles) and headed back to the ATC shop via Bee Cave Parkway. The rest of us continued on to 620.

The group never really seemed to get organized, we did get a paceline going but nobody really rotated through. There seemed to be 1 strong rider pulling us all along, found out later his name was Stan, he was in town from Baton Rouge, LA. He never really pulled off per se, but as the pace would drop a little I would go around him and try to kick it up a little and push the pace to 24-26 mph at times.  At one point I couldn't get anybody to pull through and I was starting to get thirsty so I pulled to the right hoping someone would come through but had to take in some Heed so I wouldn't get dehydrated.  At the Dam coming up the hill at Steiner Ranch Stan opened up a lead as I got stuck behind everybody going up a little slower. This section of road is not condusive to passing riders as every few feet there's drainage grates that take up 3/4 of the lane. This makes going around people a littl hard. As we made it to the top at Hippie Hollow Stan had opened up a sizeable gap. I made my way up to the front and set the pace to try and reel in Stan. I hit top end speed of 28 mph, luckily he caught caught at the light so I didn't have to burn too much catching him. At the 2222/620 intersection the group decided to continue on to Anderson Mill and take Spicewood Springs to 360. Stan and I pushed the pace and when we turned off of Anderson Mill there was only 4 of us left. I'm not sure what happened to everyone else if we dropped them or if they decided to cut it short and go back via 2222.

At 360 one of the riders bid us farewell as he turned and headed the opposite direction on 360. That left Stan, Chris (one of the few guys on a tri bike) and myself. Chris and Stan were from out of town so that left me to navigate us back to the shop.

This was a fun ride, I was really expecting to get dropped at some point and that didn't happen nor was there any place I felt like I was riding over my limit trying to stay on. In fact I pushed the pace and took my fair share of pulls. I'll have to go back to give this group another go and see if the cold was keeping the true hammerfest riders home and maybe see if any of the tricycles make the ride.