I took off on the Xstream this morning, just before noon. I hadn’t ridden in a week and a half. Here in Gun Barrel City, we didn’t get the ice storm that DFW did, but between work and the cold and wet weather, I just haven’t ridden. I had planned on starting my ride much earlier today, before the wind got up so much, but it drizzled most of the night, and the roads were very wet when I got up. They finally looked pretty dry by late morning, so off I went.

It stayed pretty chilly on today’s ride, cloudy with drizzle at times, and the temperature slowly cooled from the mid forties to 39 degrees by the time I finished. The 30 mph north wind made it feel colder than it was, too. For the first time since my bike commuting days, I broke out my handlebar mitts, and put them on the Xstream this morning, figuring that would help. And, they certainly did.

I rode out to Purtis Creek State Park, then made my usual loop into Van Zandt County, then stopped again at Purtis Creek on the way back. I ended up with 50 miles. That spiced Chai hot tea is tasting pretty good about now. I definitely got a chill from the ride. But at least I can say I managed a few miles on the bike this week.

I was armed (handed?) with bar mitts today.

Today’s route.

The forecast for later in the week is pretty bad, cold with freezing rain or sleet. So, I figured I’d better get my riding miles early in the week. With that in mind, I got up at dark-thirty yesterday (Monday) morning, and took off on the Xstream in the darkness and pea soup fog, and rode out to Purtis Creek State Park. I ended up with 25.2 miles.

When I got home from work, there was still a couple of hours of daylight, so I did the same ride out to Purtis Creek again, for another 25.2 miles. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever done 25 mile rides both before and after work.

I got home from work early again today, so I took off on the Xstream and rode to Purtis Creek, then on into Van Zandt County. I ended up with 50.3 miles. So, I have 100 miles for the week so far, and it’s only Tuesday.

Looking at the blog, I haven’t made an entry since the beginning of November. It isn’t that I haven’t been riding. I did 13 rides in November, for almost 500 miles. That’s not a great mileage month by my standards, but it’s not bad, either. But, all the rides were solo rides from home, all 50 miles or less, nothing that seemed worthy of a blog entry.

Today’s route.

This friend joined me at the turnaround point of a 25 mile ride out to Purtis Creek on November 18th.

My 25 mile ride to Purtis Creek on November 13th was the first time I’d ridden the Xstream after work into the State Park, rather than early morning when there’s no one at the entrance. One thing about riding the Xstream, when they give me that state park receipt for taping to a windshield, I actually have a windshield to tape it to.

I didn’t get to ride the bike at all this week. With the rain early in the week and the hours I worked later in the week, it never worked out. So, I figured I would do a longer ride today. Rando friend Stephen Hazelton was hosting my Itasca Disasta 207k permanent this morning. It starts in Midlothian, which is about 60 miles from here, so I decided I would just drive over and join him.

It was 43 degrees with gusting north winds when I arrived in Midlothian for the 8:00 am ride start. That must have discouraged some of those who were going to do the ride. There were just 5 of us who showed up. I had doubts about whether or not I had brought enough clothes. And I was wearing shorts with leg warmers. With a high of 68 degrees forecast, I figured I would shed the leg warmers some time during the day. It only reached the low 60’s this afternoon. And with that north wind blowing, it didn’t feel close to that warm. I should have just worn tights.

But, it was a good ride, with good company. It was nice not to be toasted from 100 degree weather. But, this chilly weather definitely takes some getting used to. I hadn’t ridden a 200k since May, so knew I would be wiped out at the end, and I was. I ended up with 129.1 miles, and finished the ride in 10:08.

Itasca Disasta route.

I installed a new chain on the Corsa yesterday, and took off on it this morning, headed for Martins Mill. It was my first ride on the wider tires. I’ve ridden this size tires (559 x 28 rear and 559 x 25 front) on it before, so knew what to expect. At slower speeds on rough pavement, it adds a noticeable amount of speed, along with a more comfortable ride. At faster speeds, the lesser aerodynamics becomes obvious, especially coasting down a big hill. Overall speed gain or loss, I guess would depend on the route. On the rough roads around here, I don’t think I’ll lose any speed.

It ended up being one of those days where you ride against the wind all day. I rode east to Martins Mill against a southeast wind, then rode back west against a southwest wind, which changed to a northwest wind 13 miles from home. That’s where I hit the cold front. It was pretty impressive, with the temperature dropping 15 degrees or so instantly, and northwest winds gusting over 30 mph. But, I didn’t see any rain, and it was still in the low 60’s when I got home, so I didn’t get chilled at all. In fact, the cooler air felt pretty good, but that wind sure slowed me. I ended up with 62.1 miles.

Today’s route to Martins Mill.

Until my back yard metal building gets built in the middle of October, a lot of my stuff will remain in storage. But, I brought home some stuff from storage this week, including our Screamer tandem and the Xstream. I also found my bike tool kit, and brought it home. Rose and I did a 25 mile ride on the Screamer yesterday morning. Then, I broke out the bike tool kit and did some maintenance.

I dug out my old HED wheels, put a 28mm wide tire on the rear wheel, and a 25mm wide tire on the front, and put them on the Xstream. I moved the A23’s that were on the Xstream, which had the same width tires, to the Corsa. So now, neither the Screamer, Xstream, nor Corsa have skinny road tires (at least not on the rear wheel). A bit wider tires seem appropriate for the rough roads I too often end up on around here. I also installed a new fairing on the Xstream.

The Corsa’s chain had been making some noise and shifting a bit funny, so I broke out the chain checker and inspected it. Sure enough, it’s dead. Not only did the .75″ side of the checker fall into it, so did the 1″ side. So, the Corsa will remain parked until its new chain arrives.

I spent the first couple of hours this morning spreading topsoil in my back yard (got a dump truck load of it yesterday). Then, I decided to try and get in a ride before the rains show up. I took off on the Xstream, my first ride on it since early spring. The brand new fairing didn’t stay new long. At mile 15, it started raining, and it rained on and off for the next 15 miles to Martins Mill. I managed to avoid the showers on the return ride, and the roads dried out pretty quickly. I ended up with 60.3. miles.

On the road with a new fairing.

Today’s route.

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.