Steve, Peggy, and I, along with Dan and Pam from LSR, rode this 200k permanent Saturday. It was pretty tough going out mostly against the wind, but nice finishing up with a tail wind. It wasn’t a hammerfest pace; our mph average didn’t even get above 15 until we turned and had the wind at our backs, and we ended up finishing in 10:03. But it was great company, and I really enjoyed the ride.

I do believe this is my favorite of the LSR permanent routes that I’ve done so far. It leaves from Lynn Creek Marina at Joe Pool Lake, heads west through Arlington onto some of the roads on my Briaroaks routes, then turns and goes through Alvarado. It then continues south on some tiny roads, some of which I hadn’t ridden before, and some which I had only ridden when Greg, Ray, Steve and I had to make a detour on a club ride. Then it turns east to Maypearl, travels some of the small roads south and east of there, turning northeast at Italy. Then it turns north and passes by Lake Waxahachie, leaving the chipseal there to go down Lakeshore Drive beside the lake, a very scenic road which I had never ridden before. It then takes familiar roads through Midlothian and Cedar Hill, finishing up by going down the big descent on Lake Ridge Parkway from Hwy 67.

The route has less chipseal than just about any of the permanent routes I’ve done, and while the almost 4,000 feet of climbing was enough to let you know you’d ridden up some hills, it wasn’t enough to completely wear me out. I look forward to riding this route again.

We passed Mark Metcalfe, Vickie Tyer, and Jerry Austin, going the opposite direction, twice as they rode a different 200k permanent. Rose joined us at the Oasis for dinner afterward, and it was a fitting end to a very enjoyable day. I ended up with 127.2 miles, at a blistering 15.6 mph average. Thanks, Steve, Peggy, Dan, and Pam for a great ride.

Speed-wise, I was already pretty slow at last year’s TTTT, and that was when I had two lungs, so I had pretty much ruled out riding it again. But when Nelson had to cancel three days before the event, I couldn’t bring myself to refuse Ray, Steve, and Peggy on the mixed recumbent team, Mixed Bag O’ Nuts.

Ray, Steve, and Peggy are great teammates, and I thank them for their support and encouragement, and having me on the team. As for me personally, I guess this was a good test to let me know where I stand. With smart bike riding, I had managed a personal best at the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred, but with these hills in a no-drafting event, there’s just no faking it, and I was 31 minutes slower than last year, doing the same six twenty mile laps. Part of it was missing lung tissue, no doubt, but part was also lack of hill training, I suspect. It has been such a monumental feat to drag myself up hills this year, that I just haven’t sought them out as much as I did last year. I have recovered further than I thought I would this year though, so I won’t complain.

Volunteer DJ seemed to be everywhere helping everyone again this year. Thanks, DJ (but you really need to be riding this event next year, instead of me).

And here are the holders of the TTTT 500 mile mixed recumbent team course record: The Mixed Bag O’ Nutz, Ray, Steve, Peggy, and me.

After Rose got off work Saturday afternoon, we headed to Oklahoma City and spent the evening visiting my sister. I got up Sunday morning and headed to Mitch Park in Edmond (16 miles from my sister’s place), and rode the OBS Streak.

The first 40 miles of this ride were constant rollers. Most were not as long as those on the Goatneck route, but they were plenty enough to have a hill slug like me huffing and puffing. The route flattened out a bit for the last 25 miles.

This was a very good ride. I don’t know exactly how many rode it, but it had to be several hundred. There were a few rough stretches of road and some chipseal, but most of the roads were good, and the traffic control was very good. Johnny Corino’s provided a pasta lunch at the end of the ride, and that truly hit the spot. I left just as the live band was getting started.

It was great seeing you again, Trey, and meeting Mrs oumed. Trey also has two of the cutest kids you’ve ever seen. I ended up with 64.5 miles at a 17.3 mph average. The Garmin showed 2650 feet of climbing.

This ride, hosted jointly by FWBA and GDB, rolled out of the Venus town square a few minutes after 8:00 am this morning. There were a little over a hundred riders, not as many as the last time I did this ride, but still a nice turnout. richardr joined me on the hundred mile route, ready to tackle his first century. We rode a pretty brisk pace the first 10 miles down FM157. As I turned into the store parking lot at Maypearl for the first stop, my average was 19.2 mph. Hardly anyone stopped there, so Richard and I swung right back out of the parking lot, and headed south onto FM66.

At that point, Richard and I were pretty much by ourselves, but FWBA members Don and Susan on a tandem caught up to us on one of the hills there, and we did the rest of the ride with them. The next turn was onto FM308, going to Milford. I had forgotten what long hills there are on that stretch. When we got to Milford at mile 26, the store we were supposed to stop at there was closed down. That would become a theme for the day. We were also scheduled for a stop at mile 62 at Avalon, but that store was also closed down, so we just took a shade break there.

We turned east on SH22 at Mertens, straight into the east wind, which had started to pick up. We finally reached Blooming Grove at mile 43, our first real stop. Gary and Dana on their tandem rolled in a few minutes later, and joined us for the rest of the ride. The route next turns north and heads toward Waxahachie, giving a scenic view of Lake Waxahachie before you get there, for the last stop of the ride at mile 81.

Then comes FM875, with the rollers and tough traffic until you top the hill at mile 91, and it’s a 40 mph downhill followed by a relatively flat finish. At the top of that hill, I couldn’t resist taking off and hammering the rest of the way in. Like first centuries usually are, Richard’s first century was tough, especially when he hit the wall at around mile 75. I’ll let him tell all the details in his report, but just say that he finished the ride strong. Congrats on the first century, Richard!

Most of the roads on this ride are low traffic roads, but like so many rural low traffic roads in this area, there is a lot of chipseal on the ride. It also needs to be modified some, because of the two closed stores. I ended up with 98.3 miles at a 15.3 mph average. I sat in the shade and chatted with several FWBA folks after the ride, and was reminded that this club has a lot of really nice people. I grumble about their routes now and then, but I really can’t say enough good things about the club members.

I had a blast at the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred again this year. Sleeping in the rec center the night before the ride makes it all seem like a camping trip, and there were even more rbenters in the rec center this year than last, and it was great getting to spend some time with everyone. A couple of meals out with rbenters, and spending time looking and shopping at the MPEC show was lots of fun, too. I’m still amazed at the effort that Wichita Falls and the area puts into this ride. It’s just an event that any rider should try to do at least a few times.

Because HHH is a relatively flat route with good traffic control, it’s always a great place for riders to try for their best century time. I was especially curious to see what I could do after all my health issues since last year’s ride. I knew I couldn’t physically do now what I could then, but I wondered how much riding smarter could help me with my time.

I like to go for the best overall time, and compare there, but since we had discussed a recumbent paceline here, I decided that if I rode with rbenters and spent too much time at the rest stops for an overall time comparison, I would settle for an on the bike time comparison. Last year, I had finished HHH in 5:34, with an on the bike time of 5:16, both personal bests for me for a century ride.

I had a 3 point plan for getting as good a time as I could this year:
1. I would not go out too fast this year like I did last year. Last year, I hit the wall at around mile 60, and was pretty much just turning the pedals to finish after that. I wanted to watch my heart rate early, and save some matches for late in the ride.
2. I would suck more wheels. Last year, I spent way too much time out in the wind, hammering on my own. There are 10,000 bikes to draft here; I figured I should be able to find a few to ride behind.
3. I put a coroplast wheel cover on my rear wheel this year. Last year, I didn’t add one until after HHH, just before TTTT. On a flat route like HHH, good aerodynamics does help.

As soon as the jets roared overhead, the cannon fired, and we were off at the start, I found a tandem doing a steady 21-22 mph and got on its wheel. I decided this was a reasonable speed for me, that I wasn’t willing to ride much faster, and that I would resist chasing any of the many rabbits sure to race by. I waited behind the tandem to see how the rbent paceline would shake out. I didn’t have to wait long. Paul came blasting past me, and Steve and Peggy took off in pursuit, at a pace way too fast for me, so I let them go, and figured I was on my own.

It turned out that the tandem I was behind was very slow on hills, and when we hit the small rollers at mile 15, I found another wheel to ride behind. And so it went. I felt good, tried to pace myself well, and changed pacelines from time to time. Several riders I knew said hi as they zoomed past me. I resisted the temptation to join any of them. I knew my water and mix would take me to mile 50, so when I didn’t need to stop for any other reason, I made that my first, and as it turned out, only stop. It was a long stop. I spent 12 minutes eating, drinking, visiting mother nature, and refilling my Camelbak and mix bottle. I realized shortly after taking off again that I hadn’t taken electrolyte capsules, so I downed a couple of those as I rode.

I reached Hell’s Gate just a few minutes after 10:00 am, and still had a 20.5 mph average there. That’s much slower than the average I had at that point last year, but I felt MUCH better. I knew there were rough roads, and a wind to face ahead, though, along with fewer pacelines at my speed to join, so I knew that speed would come down. It fell to 20.2 fairly quickly, but held there until I turned into the wind at mile 78. I had passed the paceline I was riding with on the big downhill just before that turn, but I spun an easy pace and waited for them after the turn. What had been a pretty big paceline got whittled down rapidly on the next stretch; riders were hitting the wall, it seemed.

On the hills that start at mile 88, the last of the paceline broke up, and I was pretty much on my own after that. At mile 90, my average speed finally fell to 20.0 mph, and I realized that if I could pick my speed up just a little, I might be able to finish with 5 hours of on the bike time, and a 20 mph average. Both were things I considered way out of reach before the ride. I also knew by that point that I wasn’t stopping again. I downed a GU gel pack, and set about seeing how fast I could finish. I figured that even if I blew up at some point after that, I was still going to beat last year’s overall time.

Although I was feeling pretty tired, things were looking good, and I was still on my 20 mph pace until mile 98, when my legs started giving me one of those “we’re done, and can’t do this any more” cramps. I knew I had to start spinning easy, or have my legs lock up with cramps. I eased off, keeping a good fast, but easy cadence. I was going so slow up the overpass at mile 100, I think the crickets were passing me, as they hopped along.

As I passed the finish, the loudspeaker announced the ride time, 5:18. That made my on the bike time 5:06, and my average speed 19.9 mph. My total miles were 101.8 It was a bit disappointing to come that close to a 5 hour riding time century and 20 mph on the bike average and not get them, but that overall time is 16 minutes faster than last year, which I never thought would happen. It says a lot about pacing yourself well, which I seem to be better at these days.

It sounds like most other rbenters were pleased about their rides today, too, although I expect Joe would rather have had those tire woes another day. Congrats to all who rode well and those who had personal bests. I’ll let them tell you about their rides.

One last note: watch out for Steve if he sneaks up on you after a ride…

Steve at Hell’s Gate

I enjoyed the 70 mile version of this ride last month, but the 100 mile route is more challenging than I care to tackle again. I thought I had ridden all the roads inside the triangle of Venus, Maypearl, and Waxahachie, but plainly, I hadn’t. And this ride seemed to pick the roughest and toughest roads in that area, coming back from Waxahachie.

The other problem area was also unexpected. Going west, we crossed FM157 south of Venus on FM2258, which is further south than any of the rides I’ve done in this area, then went to turn north on CR206, to head to Alvarado. But CR206 was gravel for as far as the eye could see. Not just plain gravel, either, it was deep and perfectly smooth gravel, like it was going to be new chipseal as soon as they poured the tar on. It was so smooth, it looked almost like pavement, and obviously fooled Ray, as he turned too fast onto it and went down hard when his rear wheel slid out from under him. Greg and I were behind him, and it was a very scary looking fall to us.

But, Ray got up and rode strong the rest of the ride. I hope no serious injuries show up from it tomorrow. I think it’s another reminder that one of the nicest things about a lwb is that when you fall, you don’t fall far. Not knowing how far this gravel might go, we ended up taking a detour which added 1 or 2 miles to our ride, but kept us on good, low traffic roads.

In spite of how fast we took off (I still had over a 19 mph average at the first stop in Venus, 25 miles into the ride), the problem roads ended up slowing us down a lot, and I only finished with a 16.5 mph average. Total mileage was 100.9. Just as I suspected it would, the 100 mile route had a LOT more climbing than the 70 mile route. My Garmin had shown less than 1100 feet of climbing on the 70 mile route, but 3264 feet of climbing on the 100 mile route. That’s still not a lot of climbing for a 100 mile route, but it does have some tough, steep, albeit short hills.

It was great meeting Thomas and Cookie. Doing a shorter route than us, they were long gone by the time we got in, so I’d like to see a ride report here from them. There was also a tandem recumbent there (I can’t remember y’alls names, so if you read these reports, refresh my memory), so there was a total of 7 recumbents on this ride. That has to be some kind of record for an FWBA ride; I’m often the only one.

Riding with Steve, Greg, and Ray is about as fun as it gets, and the weather was really great, but we need to pick a little better route next time.

Like these brevets often do, this one seemed like an epic adventure. Around 30 of us left Italy, Tx at 6:30 am, with most riders doing the 300k brevet. As always, I opted for the 200k. The first disappointment came quickly: FM667, just south of Italy had new chipseal, and it went all the way to our turnoff onto SH31 at mile 25. The 300k group was hammering quickly, at a pace too fast for me, and I fell off the back of the group before that turn. Even with a slow start, riding mostly on rough chipseal, going against the wind, and falling off the group, I still had an 18 mph average at mile 25.

When the lead group stopped at the first control in Dawson at mile 28, they were in and out of the store faster than any brevet group I’ve ever seen. George Elizondo was standing in line behind me, waiting to get his brevet card signed at the counter, when they took off. His mouth dropped open; he had intended on leaving with them.

Steve, Peggy, and I left a few minutes later, and kept a more reasonable pace against the wind after that. When Peggy stopped a few miles later to investigate a Camelbak leak, Sharon Stevens joined us, and rode with us the rest of the way to Mexia (which was her control stop; she was doing the 300k). We continued on to Groesbeck for our control stop at mile 64.

We stopped a bit longer at this control, but still tried to get going fairly quickly to get as far down the road as we could before the heat got too bad. With all the new chipseal at the beginning of this ride, it now has an awfully lot of chipseal, and that combined with the heat had my feet really screaming before we reached the next control, which is the famous Dixie’s Little Stop at Mount Calm, mile 93. Steve and Peggy were both also complaining of their feet, so we all shed shoes at this stop.

I don’t know what the official high temperature was today, but by the time we made that 93 mile control, the heat was really oppressive. I usually tolerate heat very well, but I had to admit to feeling as wiped out at this control as I have in a while. I wondered how I’d hold up the rest of the way, and since we were still 38 miles from the finish, we all agreed to make an unscheduled stop or two on the last stretch. As we left Dixie’s, we spotted Richard Wittenburg just about to pull into the control. Peggy said she thought he was doing the 300k, and even though I know he’s a strong rider, we were all amazed that he had gotten this far already.

Steve and Peggy are some kind of strong riders. They still had the energy to sprint for city limit signs and such on this stretch. I was content to just try to pedal myself in, riding behind them. Even though we were now headed mostly north, the wind was so southwest, it still felt like a head wind at times. But, our average speed was showing gains now, so it had to be a tail wind a good bit of the time, too. The bad part of a tail wind on a 100+ degree afternoon is that with no breeze on you, a slower speed up a hill gets you with almost unbearable heat.

We made an unscheduled stop in Malone at mile 109 to cool off and give our feet another break. I downed an RC Cola to see if the caffeine and sugar would help. I still felt pretty wiped out, but was turning the pedals ok. We stopped on a shady sidewalk in Milford, 6 miles from the finish, getting another soft drink from a machine, and resting our feet one more time. As we were packing up to take off again, Richard rode by. We were blown away, thinking that a 300k rider was going to finish before us. I should have known what was going to happen next…

After dropping a bottle, and having to go back for it, Steve went zipping past Peggy and I, and I had a feeling that I knew what was on his mind. Somehow I found the energy to speed up too, and did 20 to 21 mph most of the rest of the way in. I didn’t come close to catching Steve, but I caught and passed Richard, as did Peggy behind me. It turned out he was just doing the 200k, too. He had gotten started a bit late, and had stomach issues early. It’s a good reminder that, in this kind of heat, even strong riders can easily have a tough day. Richard said his watch was showing a temperature of 109 while riding.

I finished the ride in 10:24, with a 15.9 mph average, and a total of 131.8 miles. My gps showed 3100 feet of climbing on the route. As always, it was great riding with Steve and Peggy. I suspect I slowed them down a bit today, but it was the kind of day that being slowed down a bit probably helped them. I told Rose I was going to be pretty worthless tomorrow. She asked me what else was new…

Steve, Greg, and I joined this FWBA club ride, and left from the shopping center at Sublett and SH287 in Arlington shortly after 8:00 this morning. It wasn’t a very big turnout for an FWBA ride, but there looked to be 25 bikes or so doing the 60 mile route.

I was on seriously tired legs today. I don’t know if it was from Goatneck or the 800+ miles I’ve done this month (probably both), but I struggled to keep up with the unusually brisk pace of the main group, and spent as much time off the back as in the group.

This ride tries to stay on small, low traffic roads south of Arlington and Fort Worth, and makes a lot of turns to do it. In fact, I think it makes more turns than any club ride I’ve ridden. Today, we seemed determined to see how many of those turns we could miss. There were bonus miles to be had all over the place.

At around mile 47, my chain jammed. I was only stopped for a minute, but that was enough to put me far off the back of the group. I recognized a turn that would let me shortcut and probably catch up with the group, so I took it, but then missed the next turn and ended up far off the route. I decided the only thing to do was just ride in by myself. I took the shortest route I could think of from there, and arrived back at the parking lot a couple of minutes ahead of the main group. I ended up short about a mile from the other riders. I’m feeling really guilty about that mile, but somehow I think I can live with it.

As usual, there were lots of questions about our bikes. I enjoyed the always friendly company of the FWBA riders, and especially enjoyed having Steve and Greg along. I’m usually the only recumbent on these FWBA club rides. I ended up with 56.0 miles and a 16.2 mph average.

I, along with a nice turnout of rbenters, rolled out of Cleburne with the masses at 7:32 this morning. I resisted the temptation of having so many rabbits to chase, and kept my pace pretty moderate on the first part of this ride. That’s always the most crowded and dangerous part of a ride like this, plus I knew there were some tough hills later in the ride (and my struggles with hills this year are well documented), and I’m planning on doing a club ride tomorrow. So, a sane pace for this ride seemed to be the way to go.

There were no real problems with the mass rollout, and we were soon in the rolling hills. I had forgotten how difficult riding with huge numbers of upright bikes in rolling hills can be. They’d pass me on uphills, then surround and roadblock me when I’m ready to pass them all on the downhills.

I only made two stops during the ride, both at the same rest stop, at an intersection we went through at miles 13.5 and 47. I can’t testify how the other rest stops were manned, but this one was well stocked and had lots of friendly folks. When I carried my Camelbak in to refill it at mile 47, I immediately met a guy with a pitcher of ice water who promptly filled it. Now, that’s service!

Twice, early in the ride, Steve had pulled over and waited for me to see how I was holding up against the hills. I repaid his kindness and concern by passing him while he was in a rest stop, and never letting him catch me again.

There were a couple of rough stretches of road on this ride (that short stretch of new chipseal was awful), but most of the roads seemed pretty good to me. Traffic control was outstanding. I never had to stop at all. The route was well marked, and every turn well staffed, too. The Paluxy and Brazos rivers, along with all the surrounding hills, make some great scenery on this route.

I was slow up several of the hills, but really didn’t have any problems at all. Near the end of the ride, I was reminded that a good many riders aren’t really prepared for a ride like this, as there seemed to be a bike under every shade tree, along with a rider either sitting down, or laid out. After riding up Goatneck Hill, at mile 50, I had an average speed of a little over 16 mph, but I felt good enough at that point, I put the hammer down a bit the rest of the way, reached 35 mph on several of the remaining downhills and held good speed on the next uphills, passed a lot of riders, and ended up with a 17.1 mph average.

I enjoyed this ride a lot, and will definitely do it again. I finished with 69.5 miles, a 17.1 mph average, and 4:03 of riding time. I finished at 11:50, so both of my stops were pretty short. My gps showed 2800 feet of climbing.

I had a blast on this ride, although it did get a wee bit hot in the afternoon. Around 20 of us left out of the Duncanville parking lot promptly at 7:00 am, and I was instantly off the back of the group, as I had forgotten to do my inhaler, and I stopped to do that. Steve and Peggy hung back with me, and it was only a couple of turns later that we found Greg and Ray stopped, waiting for us. I figured the main group must have really been hammering already, and both Greg and Ray had ridden hard the day before, and said they weren’t going to stay with a hammering group. So, the five of us rode the rest of the ride together, although we did run into various other riders at times, including Terry.

I think I’ve finally figured out how to keep up with the faster rbent riders: have fresh legs while catching them the day after a hard ride, and I can kind of keep up (as long as the hills don’t get too steep). I was the only one of the five in the group that hadn’t ridden yesterday. I’ve been trying to do a fair amount of tempo riding on these long rides, since that’s what seems to be working best for my long recovery, and I did it a lot on this ride. Sometimes that put me off the front of our group, sometimes lagging off the back. I did a bit of sprinting, too, but when the last couple of sprints I did quickly raised my heartrate to 4 beats higher than I’d even seen this year, I figured I was getting tired and had better ease off the sprinting for the rest of the ride.

The pace of the lead group was plainly too much for some other riders too, as we caught a group of them before the first control in Maypearl. They were quicker out of the control than us, though, so it was just the five of us again when we left. The wind had picked up a bit, and it was getting kind of hot when we reached the turnaround at Covington, but it wasn’t terrible hot or windy yet. By the time we got back to Maypearl for the third and last stop, though, it was seriously hot. We made a quick unscheduled cool-off stop in Midlothian at 85 miles, and finished the ride just before 3:00 pm.

It is truly fun to do one of these rides with this many recumbents and friends. Thanks, y’all. Good job!