I took off Saturday morning on the Corsa and did my first ride since moving to my new Gun Barrel City home. I did a loop out to Martins Mill and back, adding just a bit of riding in my neighborhood at the end to reach 60 miles for the ride. A stiff east wind kept things cool the first few hours, but it was warming up quite a bit as I finished.

Saturday’s route.

This morning, I took off on the Corsa and did my usual 25 mile weekday ride. I’m thinking that this route, or something like it, will be my regular weekday route. The turnaround is so close to the Purtis Creek State Park, I think I’ll investigate an annual State Park pass. Purtis Creek Lake is very pretty, and a restroom at the turnaround would be nice, too.

Today’s route.

Most of my blog entries are about my longer weekend rides. I also try to do some 25 mile rides on weekdays. I don’t usually deem them worthy of writing anything about, but today’s ride was different. I tried a new route, and, after all my talk about how flat it is around here, I discovered there are decent hills closer than I thought, close enough to reach, even on a 25 mile ride.

While I’ve been waiting to close on my new house in Gun Barrel City, I’ve been living with friends north of Mabank, just off FM 90, and starting most of my rides there. With most of the afternoons being 100 degrees or more right now, I’ve been trying to do my weekday rides earlly in the morning, before work. Taking off and riding north has kept me out in the country and away from much traffic. That is, it did until school started. Now, the early morning traffic on FM 90 is a bit more than I like to deal with on the bike, so I decided to start transporting my bike somewhere else, and start my ride there.

This morning, I tried starting out in the middle of Mabank itself. I think that after I move, I can reach that area by bike from my new Gun Barrel City home without too much traffic, so it seemed a logical place to start a ride. I took off a couple of blocks north of Business US 175, got on Bus US 175, and headed east out of town. On the way back, I remembered a quieter street that parallels Bus US 175, and rode it instead.

I then rode the US 175 shoulder for two miles. This stretch is not much fun. It is really rough boulder seal, with a rumble strip to cross if you want to move into the slightly smoother right lane of traffic instead. I then turned north on CR 2836. This is a quiet, tree lined road which travels northeast to near Purtis Creek Lake, where it dumps into FM 316. FM 316 is boulder seal, but the auto tire ruts are worn enough that it really isn’t that rough. I rode about a mile and a half east on FM 316, then where FM 316 turns north, I turned right onto FM 1861, to keep heading east.

After about 2 miles on FM 1861, I turned right onto VZ 2804. This is the the old Prairieville Athens Road which, it turns out, goes to the Big Rock Ranch. I was very surprised to find myself climbing an almost 10% grade, at the top of a mile long hill, following 4 miles of steady elevation gain, at this point. I ended up in my lowest gear on the bike, pedaling at 4 mph with a 160 heart rate, a decent hill any day in my book. At the steepest part of this hill, I was joined by a very large black dog. Thankfully, all he wanted to do was jog along beside me.

It turns out there is some pretty high ground in this area, compared to how flat things are near Cedar Creek Lake. “The Rock”, which is the highest point just off the road on this hill, is no longer accessible by the public, but when it was, it offered a view of all of Cedar Creek Lake. Its elevation is over 700 feet. I usually keep my 25 mile weekday routes pretty easy, but if I feel like some climbing, this may be where I go. I ended up with 25.2 miles this morning.

Today’s route, along with a grade and elevation chart.

I took off on the Corsa this morning and rode north and east into Van Zandt County. I had intended on riding longer, going to Martins Mill, but it was almost 8:30 before I took off on the bike, they were forecasting well over 100 degrees for this afternoon, and I already had 75 miles this week, so I decided to just turn around when I reached SH 19, and settled for 60 miles.

Today’s route.

It was another grand adventure for me at HHH this year. As usual, the folks at the Lamar Baptist Church gym did a great job, and I really enjoyed my stay there. But I’ve never seen so many cancellations at the gym before. Recumbent riders were especially hard to find. There were actually more recumbent riders from Oklahoma than Texas in the gym this year. We changed our route to ride to the start, with the new security measures requiring everyone to get to Scott Ave from Lamar St. We were there plenty early, and visited with lots of recumbent riders. Rbent was better represented at the start than in the gym.

With my riding mileage down so much this year, I had my doubts about how my HHH ride would go. I remember three years ago, when DJ and I were talking, he said that anything under 6 hours was probably a good ride at HHH, for old guys like us. I decided he was right. HHH classifies riders who can finish the ride under 6 hours as “Scorchers”. They start Scorchers ahead of all the other 100 mile riders (except for tandem and recumbent riders), and require verification of a century ride finished in less than 6 hours in the last 3 years, before they’ll classify a rider as a Scorcher. So, I’m thinking that as long as I can do HHH in under 6 hours in my old age, then I’m not too bad off. So that became my goal for this year. I knew I was in no kind of shape to threaten my best HHH time (5:01 two years ago), but I figured if I paced myself to try and finish in just a little under 6 hours, maybe I could do it.

I started 10 minutes earlier than what was scheduled. I had just turned on my Garmin, and while it was still looking for satellites, someone yelled, “Go!”, and off we went. I fell in with a paceline of tandems, but they were riding too fast for me. I kept thinking their adrenaline would die down and they would slow, but that didn’t happen. At mile 9, I fell off the back, and joined a more moderate paced group. I stayed with them until that first hill at mile 16, where I fell off that group. And so it went. I would ride alone for a while, then behind a tandem or group for a while.

I still had over a 21 mph average at mile 20. I knew that was too fast for me, and slowed down. But I still felt blown up by mile 43, and my legs were getting crampy. Not good. I kind of expect that at mile 80, but not mile 43. Nothing to do but ease up, and I did. As I passed Hell’s Gate at mile 60, my average had fallen to under 19 mph, but I realized that I had recovered well and felt pretty good. I was much more optimistic. Still feeling good past Hell’s Gate has to be good.

At mile 70, I started having thoughts about riding the entire 100 miles without stopping. I’d never managed to do that before. Just about that time, Mark L passed me. I had to smile for a moment. Any time you get to mile 70 without Mark passing you, you must not be doing too badly. Of course, it turned out that he had started later than me. He passed me several more times, as he was stopping at rest stops and I wasn’t. At mile 73, my endurance drink mix ran out. I was almost out of water in my Camelbak, but still had a 24 oz bottle of water. I also had two GU gels, one designated for mile 80 and one for mile 90. So, I figured I would be ok for water and nutrition to finish the ride. The big question became whether or not my bladder could last until the finish.

The weatherman missed on today’s Wichita Falls forecast. It was supposed to be cloudy and cooler, but it was hot and muggy at the start, sunny during the ride, and my truck temp gage showed 102 degrees after the ride. I was really feeling the heat, and the sun beating down on me, before the ride was over.

I was fading by the end, but still holding up better than I would have expected. As I made the turn at mile 98, two different volunteers who were directing traffic shouted, “8 more miles! Just 8 more miles!” I completely failed to see the humor in that. By the time I got to the overpass at the end, I was barely moving, but I finished pretty well on the flat roads from there on, and did finish the ride without stopping for the first time. I don’t have the official time from the timing chip yet, but my Garmin says 5:36. So, I can still call myself a Scorcher. I ended up with 101.8 miles, and an 18.2 mph average. I was pretty wiped out at the end, but pleased with my ride. I drank two bottles of water, got on my bike and rode the 2 miles back to the gym, and then, and only then, did I finally make a bathroom stop.

The start.

The HHH 100 mile course.

8/26/13 EDIT: HHH gives timing chips to everyone, and the results are now up at Cadence Sports. Mine shows 5:19. I have no idea how it ended up so much less than what my Garmin showed, but I think I’m just going to brag about my 5 hour and 19 minute century, and go on about my business. I don’t know what this year’s HHH rider count was (probably around 13,000), but it looks like only 3,763 of them signed up for the 100 mile distance, finished it, and actually wore their timing chips.

I took off this morning just before 8:00 and headed north, then east to Van Zandt County and Martins Mill. It was 65 degrees with a stiff north wind, and with the first part of the ride directly against the wind, it was the coolest morning I’ve seen in quite a while. But this is still August, and it was 90 degrees before I finished the ride.

I rode on past Martins Mill, then made a loop to return to it for my only lengthy stop of the ride. The countryside really gets pretty past Martins Mill, starting to look like piney woods, but with some rolling hills and really beautiful ponds.

I had my usual hotdog at the Martins Mill store, then headed for home. I turned off. At mile 87, I turned west on FM 1391, intending on riding to Kemp, making a store stop there, and ending up with 100 miles. But, I had already been on the bike six hours and was hurting in enough places that I turned around after just over a mile on FM 1391, and rode on home. I ended up with 92.6 miles.

Today’s Martins Mill route.

I took off on the Corsa just after 7:00 this morning to try another version of the Martins Mill route. I had really planned on riding close to 100 miles, but it was already hot enough when I made my stop at Martins Mill at mile 38, that I decided to turn around there, so I’d have a bailout for a shorter distance if the heat was getting to me too much when I got closer to home.

That ended up being a good choice as I decided not to break off for more miles at the end. These sunny 100 degree afternoons can be a bit much, sometimes. I decided that with all these new (to me) scenic roads, I needed to start taking at least a few photos on these rides. I ended up with 75.3 miles today.

There are lots of beautiful farm ponds in Van Zandt County.

Redneck modern art.

Today’s route.

I took off this morning to explore some new Kaufman and Van Zandt County roads. The convenience store at Martins Mill is the only one I’ve found on the rural roads in this area, so even though I was trying out a lot of new roads, I kept that stop on my route.

I got up early enough to get a good early start again this week, but there was a fairly heavy drizzle and everything was wet, so I went back to bed. When I got up later things had dried out quite a bit and there was nothing showing up on the weather radar, so I settled for a late start, and took off.

I didn’t push things, and stopped often to double check where I was on Google maps on my phone. That sure is nice, at times. There was a stiff northeast wind all day, and it was cloudy until the last three hours or so, so the heat wasn’t bad until late. Van Zandt County does have some smoother county roads than the Kaufman County roads near me, and some of them are really scenic.

A few random thoughts from today’s ride: (1) There sure are a lot of beautiful country homes in Van Zandt County. There must have been a bunch of people who made better career choices than me. (2) In Van Zandt County, there is no such thing as a county road too small to have a Baptist church on it. (3) The favorite Saturday activity of people in that area seems to be burning trash, and (4) There must not be a lot of bicycle riders around here; I still haven’t seen a single rider on any of my rides since I moved here.

I ended up with 90.5 miles.

The Martins Mill Revisited route.

Wow, over two months since I have posted to this blog! And a week longer than that since I’ve ridden 100 miles or more. Today was only my second ride in July. This has to be my lowest level of fitness in quite a few years. Between moving, out of town work, and the every afternoon thunderstorms we’ve been getting, I just haven’t gotten in any rides at all.

I took off on the Corsa just before 7:00 this morning, early enough that I thought I could get a good ride in before the afternoon storms showed up. I had ridden just 4 miles when I went to take my first drink from my Camelbak, and realized I’d left it at home. Convenience stores on the country roads I ride here are few and far between, so I decided that was a deal breaker, and rode back to get it.

I rode north on FM 90, then back south on FM 47, took some smaller county roads to FM 1256, then rode east on FM 1256 all the way to SH 19. Things are pretty flat near Cedar Creek Lake, but there are some rolling hills once you ride east into Van Zandt County. Still, the overall elevation gain for the route wasn’t much, perfect for the slacker condition I’m in these days.

SH 19 is a fairly busy highway, but it has wide shoulders. Once on it, I did a 15 mile loop twice, riding north on SH 19 to FM 858, then east to Martins Mill, when south and back west on FM 1861, then back down SH 90. On my second trip through Martins Mill, I noticed what I had completely missed the first time through, a nice convenience store at the intersection of FM 858 and FM 1861. It was just after 11:00, and I had already ridden 56 miles, so I decided to stop, cool off, and eat something. The store had tables inside, and the very thick hot dog franks they offered caught my eye, so I had a hot dog. It was either an extremely good hot dog (possible), or I was extremely hungry after my miles ridden (more likely).

I had hoped that clouds would show up this afternoon to keep things from getting too hot, and they did, although there were still periods of sun. It was pretty nice when I had clouds, but pretty hot and steamy when the sun made an appearance. I hoped I would finish the ride before the storms showed up, and I did manage that, only getting sprinkled on a couple of times. The ride was a good reminder of just how out of shape I am. I was pretty wiped out at the end, even though I didn’t attempt that fast a pace. I ended up with 100.7 miles.

The Martins Mill Century route.

I took off from a private picnic area east of Burleson at 7:30 this morning to ride the Fort Worth Bicycling Association Picnic ride. I arrived just a few minutes before the ride start, and forgot to get a cue sheet when I hurredly signed in. I figured this could be a problem if I ended up by myself as I so often do.

And I did end up by myself quite a bit on this ride (chasing faster riders that I couldn’t catch, like I always seem to do), but it wasn’t a problem at all. I had downloaded the route into my Garmin 305, plus the club did a great job of marking every turn, so staying on the route wasn’t a problem at all.

The route starts east of Burleson and heads mostly south to Grandview, then back, on mostly different roads. I really liked this route. It looked a whole lot like the route of the upcoming Burleson Honey Tour ride. The fierce south wind made the first half of the ride pretty tough, but it was a great tailwind on the return. I haven’t done many FWBA rides lately, and it was great chatting with members during the ride and afterward at the picnic. This is a great club, and I always enjoy riding with this bunch.

After the ride, there was lots of food to be devoured. I had chicken fajitas, and they were great. Good food is especially appreciated after a hard ride. Everyone was supposed to bring a side dish. Don’t tell anyone, but I forgot about that and showed up empty handed.

I was slow today, just like I have been on all of my rides lately, but at least I had gotten in 75 miles on the bike during the week this week, so maybe I had a better excuse than usual. I ended up with 67.6 miles for the day.

FWBA Picnic ride route.

I joined 9 other LSR members and took off from Venus, Tx at 7:30 this morning to ride the Elm Mott Trot 200k route. This route goes south to Malone at mile 42 for its second control, then on to Elm Mott for the next control. It’s an out and back, so it returns to Malone for the next control, and then back to Venus.

The usual south wind wasn’t there this morning, A front came through last night, and we had a north wind, instead. We rode a very easy pace for the first 42 miles, and still made good time with the nice tailwind. Then the group picked up the pace considerably for the remaining 22 miles to Elm Mott. I stayed with the group, but probably shouldn’t have. My knees were really starting to hurt by the time we reached Elm Mott.

I fell off the back of the group fairly quickly when we turned back against the wind. Even pedaling an easier pace, my knee pain just kept getting worse. I really haven’t experienced that kind of knee pain before, during my years of riding. It may just be that I overdid it, trying to stay with the group too long. I’ve experienced a long list of maladies from doing that, over the years, but that list had never included knee pain before.

We regrouped just before the Malone control at mile 86, and made a long enough stop to eat a sandwich. The hole-in-the-wall store there has very good barbeque. Most riders had a chopped beef sandwich, but I had a hot link sandwich, which was very good. Beef tends to lay like a brick on my stomach if I eat it during a ride, so I usually opt for a sausage or hot link, if I’m having a sandwich.

When we left Malone, my knees were quickly shouting at me again. I eased up my pace a lot, and by just soft pedaling, I was able to get the pain down to a tolerable level. But soft pedaling against that strong of a north wind for that many miles makes for a long day on the bike. I finally finished the ride, 10 hours and 37 minutes after I started. I ended up with 128 miles even. I kept thinking I would recover and my knees would feel better, but that never happened. If it’s true that some days you’re the windshield and some days you’re the bug, I was definitely the bug today.

Elm Mott Trot 200k route.