Mike's Bike Blog

This might not necessarily be a bad habit, but on yesterdays ride it proved to be troublesome. Yesterday was a rainy, dreary day in Austin. Throughout the morning it rained off an on, but there was a 2 p.m. ride down Parmer called by the Austin Road Riders. I've never ridden with this group, but I've been on their yahoo group for a couple months.

At 2 there was a slight drizzle and a a strong wind from the North. One other rider showed, everybody that confirmed for the ride earlier in the day backed out. At 2:05 we rolled out on Parmer heading North into a strong headwind. David lead out but as I got onto his wheel I started to get pelted by the stream coming from his rear wheel. The problem arose with all the wind that even in the draft I was exulting a lot of energy so I was breathing heavily through my mouth. My mouth was being sand blasted in David's wake. If I didn't do something the enamel on my front teeth would be worn out from the sandblasting. I tried to breath through my nose but as much air I was sucking I couldn't adjust, if I moved a little to the left or right I lost any benefit of the draft. I ended up taking the front and pulling most of the way down Parmer.

David thanked me for pulling so much as he was coming off an injury and it was one of his first rides coming back. So it worked out for both of us. Heading North on Parmer we averaged 17 mph into the wind. We rode all the way to Andice Road and turned East (right) to Indian Springs for a hockey stick route. On the way back in with the wind at our back we averaged 21 mph with several sections we cruised at 24 mph.  It took us 1'03 to get out to Andice Road and 53 minutes to get back and that included the extra miles on Indian Springs Road. That was the fastest I've ever went South on Parmer.

When I got home not only was my bike a mess but I had gravel stuck in my teeth, ears and nose.