Mike's Bike Blog

You always hear of the professional riders scoping out a course beforehand. Lance would spend considerable time in France riding the Tour stages to gain advantages. On Saturday I did the same with the Outlaw Trail 100's 100 mile route. Last year I did the 40 mile route, this year I'll be doing the 100 mile route. I got up early, 5am, got 2 bottles of Heed mixed up, the hydration pack filled with water and a few bars. I'm out of gel so a few servings of honey would have to do. If I have the time I like to eat something small 3 hours prior to the start. This time I'd only have 2 hours since I'd be launching at 7am, I had a piece of toast with peanut butter. I loaded everything in the car and heading over to Old Settlers Park in Round Rock. I started the 100 mile recon a few minutes after 7am.

I would consider the route flat, however when I got back and downloaded my Garmin data there was more climbing than what I thought, I guess the small rollers added up. My unsmoothed Garmin data said there was 4219 feet of climbing, but after smoothing it was 2959 feet.

There is one spot I should point out that is really dangerous, it is on CR 100, the crossing over the San Gabriel River. As you come down CR 100 you'll make a hard right, the pavement is in terrible shape, it's littered with potholes and loose gravel. If you are going at a high rate of speed this can be very dangerous. If you make it through the turn and get onto the bridge it is not much better condition. It too is a terrible section of road with holes and rocks. Once you get over the bridge there is a small incline that isn't too bad, but at this point there can still be a lot of riders that will be scrambling to the top. Once at the top is Hwy 29 and there can be a stop. Last year they had a highway patrolman conducting traffic and thus it may or may not be clear to go. I think this is the most technical section of the course due to the sharp turn that leads to the bridge and the obstacles on the bridge and then the short steep hill up to the stop sign.

The first portion of the ride has you going through Weir, Walburg and Bartlett. I think each town has a population of around 1,000. I stopped in the historic district of Bartlett and ate 2 of my bars and headed back out. I debated if I should stop at the gas station in Bartlett and refill as I'd consumed 1 of the bottles of Heed. I still had 1 other bottle of heed and my hydration pack so calculated that I'd be fine and that I could make it all the way around Granger Lake and into Circleville.

One road condition worth noting was after Bartlett, I believe it was CR 357, it was very bumpy. Not broken road bumpy, just that rough asphalt, at one point my teeth were chattering along with the noise of my chain rattling over the relentless bouncing. After Bartlett it was desolate, actually there weren't many cars passing me either direction. As I was riding I figured if something happened to me they wouldn't find me until October when they run the Outlaw Trail 100.

I diverted off the course route a bit at the intersection of CR 412 & 619 to see if I could find a gas station. It looked like there was one and I had went through my last bottle of Heed but still had water in my hydration pack. I would have had to divert into Taylor so I got back on course en route for Circleville. Once I turned around I found the wind! It wasn't bad, it could have been a lot worse, this stretch of the route (16.8 miles) was my slowest split. I only averaged 16.23 mph. It was also right before Circleville my knee started to act up (not the same knee that had been hurting a couple months ago, it was the other one). Luckily the pain wasn't consistent, there would only be a moment of shooting pain in it. Surprisingly it didn't get worse, there was only brief seconds of pain and then it would be gone. I did adjust my gearing to lighten the load and upped my cadence. The gas station at Circleville never looked so good. I refilled my bottles, mixed up a batch of Heed and got ice and water in my hydration pack for the last haul back. Since I was out of honey and bars I did get a Coke to get some needed calories.

On Saturday the conditions were perfect, it was overcast, not too hot (93 degrees) and most importantly the wind wasn't too bad. It seems whenever I ride out east the wind usually plays a factor. Last year it definitely factored in. In the afternoon the wind did pick up a bit. Luckily the bouts with it were short, we can only hope come October 18, 2008 the conditions are the same.

Ride Recap

	Max	Avg
Speed	30.83	17.55
Cadence	114	82
Power	844	182
Gradient	15.6%

 

Tonight I did go for a short recovery ride and my knee felt fine, no hints of pain. I'll take it easy this week just to be sure. I should be ready come October. This was a dry run to get a feel for the course and to also gauge my fitness as my goal is to complete it in 5 1/2 hours. To come in at 5 1/2 hours I'll need to average about 18.18 mph, which is doable, especially if I can get with a good pace line and have other competitors to push me. One thing I'll have to do is double check the actual distance, when I mapped it on RoadBikeRides.com the total mileage came up at 98 miles so I was quite surprised when I got back to the park and saw that I had gone 109 miles. This means 18.18 mph might not cut it to come in at/below 5 1/2 hours.