I was so excited about actually getting in a ride this week, I figured I’d better do a report.

As I sat at home this evening, I noticed that storms were moving northward, both east and west of me, but it looked like a couple of hours without rain here, so I decided to ride. The Joe Pool dam dries out more quickly than anything else around here, so I loaded up the Nimbus and headed for Lynn Creek Marina.

Before I even got there, a light rain started. It was still coming down as I took off on my bike. Heading east across the dam, I hadn’t even gotten a mile before I saw really heavy rain a short distance in front of me. So, I turned around, rode back to the west end of the dam, then turned around to try again. I saw really heavy rain at nearly the same place, and this time I could see heavy rain coming across the lake toward me, too. The storm that had been east of me wasn’t going to stay east of me. I made a high speed run (at least, as close to a high speed run as I get on the Nimbus) back to the truck. Of course, before I got there, the downpour hit, lightning and all.

I waited out the worst of it in the truck, then got back on the bike and tried again. There was a light rain for several minutes after I started riding again, then it quit for the rest of the ride. I saw one other idiot……..err, I mean rider……. and one man walking a dog. A coyote also crossed the dam just in front of me. From the sounds coming from all around, the frogs were having a great day, too.

I ended up with 21.8 miles, at a 14.6 mph average. That Nimbus handles so solidly on wet pavement, it really is a great rainy day bike. It was my most exciting (read that: ONLY) ride of the week.

Since no one wanted to do the Cow Creek ride, I decided to ride the FWBA Peaster Pedal Backwards ride today. The FWBA tends to do hillier rides west of Fort Worth on Saturdays, then flatter, closer to home routes on Sundays. I ride more of the recumbent friendly Sunday rides. These rides are usually slower, since many of the riders are doing recovery after hammering in the hills the day before, and I’m usually in the lead group. I do like to do a Saturday FWBA ride now and then, just as a check of my progress against the club’s real hammerheads, on a hilly route.

This ride started at the Peaster School in Peaster, Texas, which is about 10 miles north of Weatherford. Sure enough, the ride had lots of hills. The 64.6 mile route which I rode had 2700 feet of climbing, but it honestly didn’t feel like that much. I think that’s partly because my weekly trips up Texas Plume are helping my climbing, and partly because the hills on this route just aren’t really long or really steep. My gps showed no grades greater than 8 percent, and there just weren’t any hills that were long like the Muenster ride hills, in spite of the fact that the view from the northern edge of this ride very much reminded me of the countryside in the Muenster ride.

I started the ride with intentions of seeing how well I could hang with the lead group of hammerheads, but that plan came to an abrupt halt just 8 miles into the ride when my chain broke. Then I stopped to help another guy who had flatted, then he flatted again, and the end result was that it turned into more of a conversational ride. My mph average for the ride was 16.0.

I really enjoyed this route. Most of the roads were just super low traffic country roads, with much better pavement than I expected. There were a couple of stretches of narrow highway with more traffic than I liked, and one stretch of rough chipseal, but I really would like to ride this route again. It’s really pretty countryside, and the weather was really nice for the start, but of course it was a bit hot by the end.

There was cold watermelon, lemonade, and cookies served afterward. This FWBA group is always friendly, and I had the usual comments and questions from those who hadn’t seen my bike up close before. It was a fun ride, and not a bad recumbent route, for those who might want to ride it the next time FWBA does this route.

This was to be my longest distance to date, 209k. The afternoon ended up being 93 degrees with a high humidity. If Italy is this hot in June, remind me never to schedule a visit with the Pope in the summer. It was a beautiful morning, though. Nelson, Ray, Jerry, and I set out from near Park Row and Bowen in Arlington at 6:30, and rode south down Bowen all the way to Sublett, then east on Sublett all the way to Lake Ridge Parkway, then south on Lake Ridge.

After a quick restroom stop at Lynn Creek Marina, we rode on south through Cedar Hill and Midlothian, stopping at the first control at mile 26, the Whataburger at Hwy 287 and Midlothian Road. Somewhere during this stretch, it occurred to me that I hadn’t gotten a brevet card from Nelson, and he said the cards were back in his vehicle. This oversight would end up making my day longer.

We next rode small rural roads until we hit Hwy 157 just north of Maypearl. We made another quick stop at the Exxon in Maypearl at mile 43, then continued on toward Italy. This stretch of roads had less traffic than just about any I’ve traveled, but during a five mile stretch of it, it had the same amount of elevation gain as the Lynn Creek Marina to Cedar Hill stretch, 270 feet. Jerry ended up put some distance between himself and Nelson and Ray on this stretch, and just like I had good sense, I stayed with Jerry. I knew Ray’s knee problems had been keeping him from riding as fast a pace as he would like, so I figured that was the reason for his falling back, but it now seems there was more to it than that.

We arrived at the second control in Italy at mile 60, and took a longer break here. Nelson and Ray arrived just a few minutes after Jerry and I. After leaving Italy, we rode east on Hwy 34, turning north on FM 877, just past Avalon. This road took us past some seriously fast sprinting dogs, and across the Lake Waxahachie dam, before bringing us into Waxahachie, and the last control, a Shell station on Business Hwy 287 at mile 86. I had to stop along this stretch and free a bug from under my cycling cap. It had apparently been there since the last control stop, and I kept having the sensation of something crawling on my head, only to discover that it wasn’t a phantom sensation; it really was a bug! Besides the dogs and dam and bug, the stretch of road from Avalon was memorable for being rough new chipseal, and a steady incline, and somewhere on this stretch, I hit the wall.

The rest of the ride, I was fine on flats or downhills, but I was plainly slowing Jerry down on any uphill. I would try to crank harder, but I would get no power, just a rise in heart rate. I don’t know if it was because it’s the first serious heat of the year, or I had maintained too fast a pace earlier in the ride, or if it was leftover effects of hammering Thursday evening. We made a fairly quick stop at the last control, and without waiting for Nelson and Ray to arrive, set out for Midlothian and Cedar Hill.

This stretch is also mostly gentle uphill riding, but with my lack of power, the uphills didn’t feel that gentle. The heat was brutal during this time too, and I had serious doubts about being able to finish the ride. Once we turned onto Lake Ridge Parkway, with all its downhills waiting though, I knew I was ok for the distance. We stopped at Lynn Creek Marina for water, and it ended up being a much longer stop than we planned, as we waited in line to pay for our water, and listened to the woman running the marina arguing with a group of kids (tip: don’t rent a boat at Joe Pool Lake and plan on them letting you take alcohol on it …….. on second thought, don’t take a boat on Joe Pool Lake on a summer weekend at all; leave it to the drunk kids). I think this longer than planned stop helped me recover some.

The remaining ride down Lake Ridge Parkway, Sublett, and then Bowen, was flat and easy, and we made good time, except for all the traffic light stops. The traffic on this stretch was a lot heavier than I like riding in, though. Just before the end of the ride, as we turned from Bowen onto Park Row, we smelled rain, and the pavement was wet. It was the second time in the ride we smelled rain, and was as close as we got to actually being rained on. The clouds that had showed up were certainly welcome.

Jerry and I finished the ride at 4:03. Total time was 9:33. Total miles were 128.5. Time on the bike was 7:48, for a 16.5 mph average. I was so slow during the 450 feet of elevation gain from Avalon at mile 70 to Cedar Hill at mile 105, that I surely lowered my average for the entire ride quite a bit. I’m glad there was only 3300 feet of climbing on this route; I might have had a tough time of it on this day on a route with bigger hills.

Because I had forgotten to get a brevet card from Nelson, I would have to wait for him, so I could get my card. It was my first brevet, so I did want to make it official. Jerry said Ray and Nelson would probably be along in 20 minutes or so as he rode off……… yeah right. I drove to a store and bought myself an ice cream bar and the persistent object of my craving after a long, hard ride…….. a bag of Fritos.

I sat in my truck at the ride start (a residential neighborhood) with the air conditioner running, doing my part to kill the ozone, for an hour and a half. Still, no Nelson. The neighbors were starting to peek at me between blinds, so I figured I’d better leave before they reported me as a stalker. I drove the route backwards until I finally spotted Nelson (with no sign of Ray), at Sublett and Collins in Arlington. This is very near my house, so I dropped off my bike at home, changed clothes, then drove back to the start.

Nelson arrived to finish his ride at 6:30, 12 hours after starting it. He informed me that Ray was back at Lynn Creek Marina, waiting for Nelson to pick him up. After several stops to try to recover, he was unable to continue.

I braved the howling winds to chase the hammerheads once again. I did not feel that strong at the beginning. The peloton really took off fast tonight, doing 22 mph straight against the wind, and kicking it up to 24 mph once it became a cross wind. I was dropped on the first Lake Ridge hill, and there were six others dropped before Texas Plume Road. This paceline was flying!

The 250 feet of climbing (mixed in with 50 feet of descent) on Texas Plume put me further behind, of course, but I seemed to get moving after I got over the top. I reeled in and passed all of the six bikes which got dropped after me, but didn’t catch anyone else. Two of the bikes passed me back. One, a tandem, passed me several times before it was over. Tandems tend to have a speed profile similar to bents, and while the young, fit couple on this one wasn’t quite as fast on downhills as me, they could certainly pedal uphill faster than I can.

I passed a couple of riders on the downhills right after Texas Plume, but they gradually gained on me on the Midlothian Road uphill stretch, then caught the wheel of a faster rider who came from somewhere, and caught me just as I made the turn onto Mount Lebanon Road from the Hwy 67 service road. It was at this same point that I caught the tandem and two other bikes, so there were 7 of us riding together for a short stretch.

It didn’t last long; I took off on the first good downhill, then the tandem and another bike passed me on the next uphill, and I followed them down the Texas Plume Road hill. Once back on Lake Ridge, I passed the tandem and the other bike again, and kept putting distance between me and the other bike, the remainder of the ride. But, though I put some distance between me and the tandem on the downhills, once we got on the flatter part of Lake Ridge, it made up the distance and got on my wheel shortly after the first lake bridge. It went by me on the small incline just past England Parkway, and I was glad Greg wasn’t around to see me huffing and puffing, heart rate in the 180’s, trying to stay on the wheel of a tandem. I really struggled to stay close on the last little incline before the second bridge, but on the short downhill just before the bridge I passed the tandem, only to have it pass me right back, and once again, I struggled to stay close.

As tired as I was, I’m not sure where it came from, but near the end of the bridge (which is just a few hundred feet before the turnoff into Lynn Creek Marina – the end of the ride), I found myself doing a 32 mph sprint, and as I zoomed by the tandem, I could tell they had no answer. Racing at the end of this ride always seems to give me my best times, but I still didn’t quite reach my 20 mph goal, ending up with a 1 hour 35 minute ride, for a 19.8 mph average. The gps showed 31.3 total miles, with 955 feet of climbing, and my average heart rate was 166.

I am really toast right now, and probably won’t be recovered for the 209k ride Saturday, but that’s just a minor detail, huh. I’m sure Nelson will pull me up those hills.

Well, it sprinkled some, enough to get the pavement wet for a little while, but we got three laps in on the TTTT course today. The five riders were myself, Greg, Terry, DJ, and our special celebrity guest upright rider, Kalleen Whitford.

The second lap, we went for time, with DJ, Greg, and I all finishing within a few feet of each other. Acording to my gps, my time for the lap was 1:00:47 for a 19.7 mph average. That’s a lot closer to the less-than-an-hour time that was my goal, than I expected. I’m not sure if it was the course, or just me today, but I really seemed to struggle climbing anything. Either the hills are tougher than they look, or I was just not that strong today. It wasn’t for lack of effort; my average heart rate for the lap was 173. I’m not sure how much more than that I can sustain for 20 miles.

The roads aren’t that rough at all, as long as you avoid a few serious chuck holes in the middle of the lanes. Traffic wasn’t bad, either, although I did have to report one road rage infested driver to the authorities.

I enjoyed riding with everyone. It was nice to meet you, DJ. If DJ ever gets around to buying clipless pedals, I’ll never be able to keep him in sight. And if Terry ever figures out how to get himself up hills, I’ll have the same problem with him; he really moves on the flats and downhills. With all the rain, I hadn’t been on a bike since Tuesday. This ride did a great job of curing my cabin fever.

I had intended to visit the Cleburne State Park after the ride, but forgot. Since there seems to be quite a bit of interest in TTTT among rbenters, I went ahead and reserved a campsite for that weekend, anyway. State Park campsites typically get booked up months ahead, and it just cost $18 to reserve a site (the $15 first night fee, and a $3 internet booking fee). If I cancel before then, it will all be refunded except $5 plus the $3 internet fee, losses I think I can handle.

I figure if we participate in TTTT, a campsite there would provide us with three nice things:
(1) A place to recharge headlight and gps batteries, without competing for a probable limited number of outlets at the New Hope Church.
(2) A more quiet place to nap between laps, for those competing on a team, and for support people who need some sleep.
(3) Showers.

I reserved for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, figuring we would want shower access after the normal checkout time, Saturday. All rbenters are welcome to share in this site, but campsites are supposed to be limited to two vehicles, so if quite a few of us are going to participate in TTTT, another of us might want to consider reserving a second campsite.

In addition to campsite fees, there is also a daily park entrance fee per vehicle, another incentive for us to shuttle back and forth to the church with a limited number of vehicles. I have an annual park entrance pass for my truck.

Thursday Night Torture – May 17th
05/18/07 at 12:13:30 Quote Modify Remove
This was just the usual Thursday night Texas Wheels ride, but there were some notable things about it. I got my first look at Greg’s new Tica (awesome looking bike). He was settling for a Joe Pool dam ride while he learns to handle this bike, and looked like he was having quite an adventure taking off in that crowded parking lot (reminded me of my first takeoff tries on my first bent, a USS Tsunami which I first rode around a parking lot, except that I chose an EMPTY parking lot). How’d the ride go, Greg?

It was a perfect evening, close to 80 degrees with a light north wind. Mark Metcalfe showed up, decked out in his new 2007 RAAM jersey. Wow, spiffy! He explained to me that he was still in recovery mode after his Kansas City 600k last weekend, then promptly dropped me and slowly disappeared ahead of me in the distance, never to be seen again by me on this evening.

My average speed for the ride was 19.7 mph, so I’m still slowly gaining on my goal of 20 mph for this ride. A little maneuver I did let me once again discover that I hadn’t reached my max heart rate on the Corsa, yet. As we made the Lake Ridge turn and started up the first hill, I was, as I always am, riding at the back of the peloton. The three riders in front of me got dropped off the back. There was no point in my trying to catch the peloton, since I would get dropped a couple of miles ahead, on Texas Plume Road, anyway, but I couldn’t resist finding out if I could. I pulled out and sprinted up the hill and reeled in the peloton. It was only after I got home and uploaded to my pc from my gps that I found out what my heart rate had reached during that little sprint: 205.

I did the GDB Airport Ride today. Paul wasn’t able to make it, but Mike (mschwitz in the yahoo group) brought his Corsa, so there were two bents. This time of year, the ride starts at 8:00 am, and the shopping center parking lot it starts in is west of Preston, across the street from where it used to start.

It was a nice turnout as always, and a beautiful morning, although it got pretty warm and humid later. The wind stayed fairly light. It was the usual trip out to the store, with traffic lights breaking the group into several smaller groups. Mike and I talked and hung out at the back most of the way, speeding up a bit and moving up later.

When we left the store for the airport loop, I kind of got caught up in the middle of the group and let a small lead group get out in front a ways, but then sped up and rode with them the rest of the loop. This group kept a fairly fast pace, but believe it or not, I took the sprints at both the water tower and end of the loop.

Mike was among those who headed back after the loop, but 8 of us stayed for a second loop. We did this loop at a much more relaxed pace. We didn’t get far into the loop before I heard the unmistakable sound of a tube blowing, then the dreaded hiss. It was my front tire. I didn’t find anything in the tire; it looked like a pinch flat. With plenty of help, it was fixed quickly, and the rest of the ride went fine.

I ended up with 69.6 miles with an average speed of 17.3 mph. The biggest thing I noticed was how much better than last year I was able to hold my speed on the short hills on this ride. I guess all that riding up Texas Plume is helping. With only 1538 feet of climbing, and light winds, it was fun to ride this speedy course again. Traffic lights and stop signs were the only things to slow you down today.

This Lone Star Randonneurs’ ride started at the corner of Danieldale and Clark Road in Duncanville, went south through Cedar Hill and Midlothian, then west to its first control stop at Maypearl, then on to Covington for the second stop. Then, it reversed the route for another stop at Maypearl, then back to Duncanville. The roads were low traffic, with only a few rough spots. I thought it was a very good route. This was my first century ride.

Since I had never done a 100 mile ride, I decided I’d better pace myself for the first three legs of this ride, then see if I had enough left to speed up a bit for the last leg. I used my heart rate monitor to pace myself, trying keep my heart rate under 160 on climbs, and under 150 the rest of the time. That worked out well. I still managed to stay in the front half of the riders, and though I kept a little faster pace than I intended on much of the third leg, just to keep riders in front of me in sight, I still felt good enough after three legs that I sped up and rode with the lead group for the last leg. Jorge pulled into the finish first, and I was right on his wheel.

This group takes time to regroup and chat at all the control stops, and as always, was one of the friendliest group of riders I’ve seen. I also met Kwijybow, and rode with him quite a bit. Nice to finally meet you, Nelson!

I ended up with 101.3 miles, at a 16.7 mph average, and an average heart rate of 141. My gps recorded 3618 feet of climbing. It didn’t really seem like that much. I guess that’s because there are no really brutal hills on this route, and lots of flats. My max heart rate for the ride was 173. I can’t remember the last club ride I did without a higher heart rate than that. I guess that’s why I had energy at the end. There is probably something to be said for pacing yourself well.

I enjoy riding with this group enough, I guess I should join and tackle a 200k brevet. If I can ride 100 miles, I can ride 128 miles, right?

It was a fun ride, but it was some tough climbing on a recumbent. It was 2700 feet of climbing on the 100k route, but it felt like more, because of the way it laid out. I learned early on that the best way to climb a hill on a recumbent is to use your downhill speed advantage to take a run at it on the downhill leading to it, then hold speed as long as you easily can going up the hill. Of course, that doesn’t work for a hill that’s preceded by a long flat, or a long uphill that’s preceded by just a short downhill. And that’s what this ride had so much of: a short downhill followed by a longer uphill. Of course, that would gain you elevation, but then you’d give it all back in one big downhill, then it would be back to short downhills followed by longer uphills. So Greg and I kept passing uprights on the downhills, then getting passed back on the uphills. I’ve never seen 5 mph on my bike so many times in a ride. Even after such a fast start, I only ended up with a 17.0 mph average.

I had my doubts about getting up a few of the hills, especially toward the end, and it didn’t make it easier seeing so many riders walking their bikes, or laying beside the road. It was some good hill training, and I can see I need more.

There were lots of law enforcement people and volunteers all along the route. I thought they did a really good job, and everyone was very friendly. All in all, I thought it was a great ride. I’ll do it again next year, but I’ll make sure I’ve done my share of hill training beforehand, again.

My first Senior Games did not go smoothly. Everything seemed fine when I arrived at the Texas Motor Speedway Saturday morning. The race routes were to be on a public road that makes a 5 mile loop around the racetrack, and everyone was gathered in a gated parking lot on this road. There was a PA system, canopies over the registration tables, an ambulance, and 70 riders getting ready to race. I was one of just three recumbent riders. Bob O’Connor was there with his P-38, and Gary Schmidt from Alpine was there with a Tour Easy.

The first hint that there was trouble in paradise came shortly before the first race was scheduled to start, when the Texas Motor Speedway people showed up, and unceremoniously evicted us from the parking lot, then locked the gate. We were instructed to park beside the road we were to race on (right next to the No Parking signs). They also locked the large restroom facilities which were just across the road, leaving some distant porta-potties as the only remaining restrooms (the porta-potties didn’t seem all that far away to those of us with bikes, but the non-riders were complaining about it).

We were told the Fort Worth Police, who were supposed to be there to help with traffic, weren’t there, but that there were plenty of volunteers to control traffic, and the races started. We raced the 5k time trial, then the 10k time trial, then the 20k road race. The other two events were supposed to be today. With all the cones marking the routes, and volunteers handling traffic, I didn’t see any problems with the races, other than a down rider near the finish line of the road race. I stopped to check my times in the 5k and 10k time trials, but left while they were still working on the road race results. That would prove to be a serious mistake, because they canceled the remainder of the races right after I left, and I made a 45 minute drive back to the Texas Motor Speedway this morning to find that out.

I don’t know exactly why, but as was explained to me, the ambulance left when we were evicted from the parking lot. When a rider crashed near the end of the road race, and was lying injured in the road, with no police or emt’s close by to respond, the race organizers apparently considered the liability possibilities, and thought better of continuing the races with no police or emt support.

The Senior Games rely on volunteers to conduct the different sports, and the volunteers running the cycling events of the Dallas Area Senior Games didn’t get the job done very well this year.