Mike's Bike Blog

My ride Saturday was the great. I started a little later than what I had anticipated leaving. I had my backpack full with water and 2 bottles, one with Hammer Perpetuem and one with Sustained Energy. Enough to last me the 5 hours I planned on being out and then some. The morning was overcast with fog. The plan was to riding into Austin from Cedar Park and hit the majority of the hills in Austin. When I rolled by Spin City Cycle I saw they were open and stopped in to pick up another tube just in case. I went down 620 thru Lakeway. In Lakeway it started to rain, not a lot more of a drizzle. It was refreshing. There was just a gentle breeze, nothing like the wind we have been experiencing the last couple of weeks. Right before Highway 71 there is a new road that cuts between 620 and Bee Caves Road. This is great because riding on 71 thru Bee Caves was very treacherous, nothing like cars whizzing by at 60 mph and no shoulder so use this new road! For this portion on 620 my average speed was 18.8 mph, cadence averaged 80.9, my heart rate average was 145.7 and climbing was 696.6 feet.

Bee Caves Parkway comes out on Bee Caves Road and from here I started to head to Curnavaca Rd. I've never ridden my bike through this area, I've driven part of it but never that far in. This is a very beautiful area and very hilly. The roads wind through some very expensive homes of at least a couple million. While riding thru this area remember to ride with your pinkie out it's that fancy. Curnavaca at some point turns into River Hills Road. I didn't quite know where, but it comes back to Bee Caves Road. This section my average speed was 14.8 mph, cadence 71.8, heart rate 133.2. The Max grade was 35.3!Back on Bee Caves down to Barton Creek Road. I've ridden on Barton Creek and Lost Creek several times, but always going the opposite direction. Going this way was just as hard. Going the distance of Lost Creek took 38:17. My chain came off once. It's been a couple months since I last road up the big hill after the golf course, it is still steep. Total climb on Lost Creek is 651.2 feet over the 8.3 miles and the max grade was 16.5%. My average speed was 13 mph, heart rate was 135.5/166. Lost Creek Road comes out on Loop 360.
I was briefly on 360 when I got off at the next light which is Las Cimas Parkway. I cut through the retail section road as it cuts all the way to Bee Caves Road. You could stay on 360 and exit on Bee Caves which is just past Las Cimas, but there is not much of a shoulder on Bee Caves so I try to limit my exposure there. Once on Bee Caves it's a quick sprint to the next light and turn left on Redbud.

There's several roads back here I was on, but the overall distance was 6.4 miles for 31:24. Max grade was 15%. On Toro Canyon there were at least a couple steep but yet short climbs. My speed average was 12.2, cadence 70.1, heart rate 131.7/163. It was someplace back in here my legs were starting to hurt. It was at this point my form was starting to break down. I was having difficulty staying seated on the hills. Onward I peddled I came out on Westlake and nearing 360 my chain came off again. I got on 360 and headed towards the 360 bridge and to Courtyard.

This is another section I've never ridden on. I've been on Courtyard in my car a few years ago, but it was in the darkness of morning, so I really wasn't prepared for what was in store for me. The max grade only comes out to 21.6%, but I think that is pretty consistent up the 1.3 miles for a total of 336 feet of climbing. At least it felt like it anyway. I slowly churned up the hill averaging 7.7. I think that is pretty generous though, for most of it I don't remember seeing my speed above 5 mph. My cadence only averaged 55.7 and my heart rate was 148.4/173. It took me 10 minutes to get to the top. At this point I've ridden 47.9 miles and climbed 3121.8 feet. It was getting hard to talk my legs into any more hills. Originally I was going to go down City Park Road to 2222 and take a stab at Jester. After Courtyard and looking at the time (3:05) I wasn't able to talk my arms into steering down City Park Road, my legs were in control at this point.

Once again this was my first time on City Park on a bike. I do remember at least one hill where I hoped I wouldn't just fall over. I swear it was steeper than the 15.5% grade my Garmin says the max was. This 1.9 mile stretch from Courtyard to Westminster took 9:10, total climb was 170.4 feet. My average speed was 12.3 mph, cadence was 68.3, heart rate of 149.1/171. I missed the turn for Narrow Ridge Road, so I had to turn in the cul de sac, it wasn't that big of a mistake, but in case you look at the route map that's what happened.

Narrow Ridge is a short distance to Big View. Here again I had planned to go down Big View to the river and go back up to get the full effect. My legs took over and talked my arms out of turning left. It took me 9:08 for the 1.5 miles. I averaged 9.7 mph, heart rate of 138.6/165, cadence of 67.5. The climb on this section was 212.6 feet. This was the last climb of the day and gave me a second wind to know the worst was behind me, this was a hill I've tackled before and knew it. Once I got to the top and then back on 620. My legs started relinquishing control. Back on relatively flat roads I felt good. I was able to sustain a good speed on the 3.4 miles on 620, I averaged 18.3 mph.

As I was getting off 620 and navigating back home I felt like I had a couple hours left in my legs as long as it was relatively flat. I ended my hilly epic journey in 4:18:21 with a total climb of 4461 feet for 64 miles. Be sure to see the route and ride photos on RoadBikeRides.com!