Mike's Bike Blog

In case anybody is looking for a fun ride up north this Saturday, I should be riding with the Hammerhead Bikes crew on a ride to Burnet and back. I say should be because I've been sick the last couple of days so if I'm over the cold I should be going. The ride  leaves at 8am from the Leander High School football statdium parking lot. Here's more on the particulars:

-We usually leave from the Leander High Football stadium
-The route is about 78 miles.  Its essentially a lolipop loop in that it goes out and comes back the same way with a "loop" at its furthest point.
-The pace is varied based on who turns out.  I'd plan on an 18+ mph avg.
-Ideally the ride out will be mellow-er that the ride back.  However its hilly and thus not easy either way. 
-The last 5-10 miles home has been known to turn into a hammerfest.
-This is only a "no drop" ride if you consider that we'll wait for you if you don't get dropped...."no drop" 

I already had the general route mapped, only difference is in the roadbikerides.com route it has the starting point at the corner of Lakeline and 1431. Saturdays ride starts from the Leander High Football stadium, other than that this route should be the one they follow. The weather on Saturday should be good for the ride, 78 degrees and a bit overcast, Sunday a cold front is suppose to move in and the high temperature will be 49 degrees.

Sprints for city limit signs go hand and hand with group rides. If you're in a regular group ride everyone knows where the signs are so they can anticipate the attack. Last week when I road with the Austin Road Riders down Parmer there was a sprint on the way out for the Leander City Limit sign. I've ridden that route many, many times, but last week was the first time I'd ever noticed the City Limit signs. Same with the Cedar Park City Limit sign on the way back, I totally missed it.

Today I rode with the Austin Road Riders, I'm really enjoying their group ride. My schedule keeps me from making any of their other rides. On the way I made sure I was close to the front, but I wasn't 100% sure where it was. I was behind Chuck, who's a pretty big guy so I couldn't see around him all that good. I could only go when the group launched ahead. I went but alas just didn't have the kick to pass.

On the way back we headed into the wind, so we had a double pace line going. That was a first for me, I'd only done a single pace line. As we started the climb up the bigger hill at 3405 heading towards Hwy 29 the group was debating how to attack it, keep the pace line or everyman for himself. Bruce and a rider in Texas A&M kit started to pull away up the hill. I threw caution to the wind and attacked. I got about half way up and then Scott (races for AT&T/Brain Spine) caught me, we briefly dueled up the hill. I think he might have been toying with me. He put the nail in my coffin as he attacked. That left Scott, Bruce and me off the font for the rest of the ride.

We were taking turns pulling on the way back. I kept looking out for the city limit sign. Scott was pulling when I thought I could see it. The timing couldn't have been better. He pulled over to the side for me to take the lead. I shifted down as I came past him. It was automatic, I got up out of the saddle and exploded. I left it all right there on the road, it took about 13 seconds, but I claimed my first City Limit sign!

I had the biggest grin on my face as Scott past me and said "You'll pay for that". Which I did, Bruce attacked and I put everything into my effort and I needed a bit to recover. I couldn't keep up, actually I couldn't even start. However, my attack rendered a personal best for 5 second peak power.  All I can say is the City Limit signs have just been put on notice, here I come!

The Rest of the Week

I didn't have a lot of chance to ride this week, I spent Tuesday to Friday in San Antonio. Monday I did intervals on Limecreek. I did take the Fuji down to San Antonio and rode 2 days at the Radisson Hotel's parking garage, it's only 3 floors, was ok, who am I kidding it was pretty boring. I actually thought I might get a better workout on the trainer. Next week I'm only down for 2 days so hopefully I can get back to my normal schedule of riding during lunch. Saturday I rode out on 620 to the dam and back. It was only 25 miles of wind and cold.

For the month of November my mileage was down. I racked up only 474.41 miles, that's down from my 590 mile average the 3 months prior. On first glance you might be thinking I was slacking, but that's not the case. November I had my biggest and most important event of the year, the Tour das Hugel. Prior to the November 15th ride I did a taper.

If you are not familiar with what a taper is, a taper is a period of rest or reduced training immediately preceding a race. Starting the last week of October I cut back on the mileage and the number of intensity rides. This was my first attempt at tapering, as such it was really hard to get through the mental aspect of not training as much. I would worry if I was loosing too much fitness and how that would impact me during the Hugel.

One of the biggest advantages of training with a Power Meter is being able to see how many watts you expend on a ride. Training Peaks WKO+ software is great for this as it has built in tools to help athletes figure scoring for each ride. I'm not as sophisticated yet, so I look at the average power for a ride. On the PowerTap computer I have the power average to drops zeros, this will give a better average, something a little more accurate to what you would find in Training Peaks for Normalized Power. With this number I can see how hard I worked along with the amount of kJ's I burned in the workout. The more watts equals more kJ's which means a harder workout.

In the end I think it worked out great, I went into the Hugel feeling fresh and my legs didn't have that dead and achy feeling. Next time I will be able to go into my taper with a bit more confidence and won't be skeptical about the benefits and won't be second guessing it.

More Information on Tapering:

• Training: Easy Does It
• Tapering with WKO+
• Active.com - Hit your off-road peak with a well-planned taper
• 
  

What a great day for a ride, it was nearly 70 degrees and for the first time in awhile there wasn't an obnoxious amount of wind. Just a great day for a spin. I had to take Zeb to his skating lesson, which he passed Snowplow 2. Next was the leaves, I got those mowed and mulched. Finally around 3pm I was able to hit the road.

I got everything ready, turned on the Garmin Forerunner and as it turns on it starts freaking out about low batteries. I turn it off, take it inside and plug it in. I don't need it, the PowerTap keeps track of everything but the route. Finally I shoved off and the first few pedal strokes I hear a weird clicking noise. I unclip a few feet from my driveway, narrow the noise down and find a staple sticking out of the rear tire that was rubbing when the tire rotated. I pulled it out, luckily it didn't seem to puncture the tube. Off again, heading down Anderson Mill to Limecreek for a down and back to Volente Beach.

Heading down the 3 Sisters I get into an aero tuck, I'm flying down the road. My goal is to not touch the brakes at all on the decent. At the peak of my speed near the bottom of the sisters it happens. There is an unmistakable sound of metal clanking, however it sounded oddly familiar, but in the heat of the moment I couldn't place the sound. In my peripheral vision I see something, a spoke flying off perhaps. In a matter of seconds the air in my front tire was out and I was rolling on the rim.

If you know the sisters, you know at the base of the hill there is a sharp turn to the right. There was no way I could make the turn on the rim, I quickly glanced ahead to see if I was about to be struck by a car coming the opposite way or if I needed to pull the emergency shoot (i.e. take my chances with road rash and hope I didn't roll into oncoming traffic). Good for me there was no cars coming, so I kept it straight and came to a stop in the dirt.

I checked to see if I had a spoke sticking out of my leg, negative. I then looked over the wheel, no broken spokes. I set out to change the tube, a fellow biker rolled by, asked if I needed anything. I thanked him and said I had it covered. With the new tube in place I pulled out the CO2, twisted on the quick inflator head, but no air was coming out. Gave it a couple shakes, twisted it, but no air. Untwisted it and low and behold it was empty. SHUCKS!

About this time the thoughtful rider came bombing down the hill, he didn't slow. Can't blame him as I had just told him a few minutes prior that I was fine. So there I stood with no air I was about to succumb to defeat and call the wife to come get me. I call and get "the machine", everybody is outside! The good samaritan comes back, I flag him down, he gladly offers to let me use his frame pump.

I get it pumped up, it feels firm. Good Samaritan says he has a PSI gauge. He digs in his bag and pulls it out, he slaps it on and says I only have 60 psi. Darn that's not enough. I go back to pumping, man my arm is getting tired and then it happens... The valve busts off and shoooosh, out goes the air.

Once again I have to phone home, again the machine. I start walking up the Sisters, it's only 3.78 miles from the bottom to my house. I get to the Fisher Hollow Rd and prop the bike up against the mailboxes and walk down a bit to see if I can find what I ran over. On the side of the road I find the culprit.

A broken tape measure. The yellow metal tape was broken into 2 or 3 sections. I think this is the section I more than likely ran over and it explains what I saw in my peripheral vision. It also explains the familiarity to the noise I heard. Finally I get ahold of Jennifer and the SAG wagon is on the way.

It was a great day for a ride, but it wasn't in the cards for me. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for a ride.

I pulled the trigger today for the January 17, 2009 Copperas Cove Road Race. When I found the race I didn't want to delay as there were a few races last year I waited to sign up and the cat 5 field filled up. Not this time, I was the first to sign up!

This means I have a little over a month to get ready for the 54 mile race. This will be my first bonifide, sanctioned road race. You might recall my Driveway Crit, but this is my first road race. Another first will be my first time going to Copperas Cove, TX. According to google maps Copperas Cove is about 51 miles from my house. I've heard good things about the riding around Copperas Cove.

If time permits over Christmas I might make a recon trip up to Copperas Cove and preride the course. This also means I'll drop the cash for a full USA Cycling license at some point.