I took off on the F5 just before 6:30 this morning and did my 80 mile loop out to Ben Wheeler. It was cloudy and breezy when I took off, but soon cleared off and was getting pretty hot when I finished the ride just after noon. I had done 30 mile rides Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning, so ended up with a total of 140 miles for the week.

Today was my first 80 mile ride of the year. The Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred is only six weeks away, so it’s time for some longer rides to get me ready. I was trying to do a brisk pace and wasn’t very happy with the 15.3 mph average I managed, but I battled a low rear tire for much of the ride, and I think that was the main reason I couldn’t muster a faster pace. I was pretty wiped out at the end. I’m still running tubeless tires, and they do successfully stop leaks, but not until the tire is down to about 40 psi, it seems. That’s enough to get me home, but much too low for a road tire, and makes for extra work to move the bike. Time to me to pull off that rear tire and patch it.

Today’s route.

I took off on the F5 this morning and rode to Martin Mills, adding some extra miles on State Highway 19, to end up with 70 miles for the day. I was on the bike shortly after 7:00 am, and finished well before noon, but it was still a hot day on the bike. I ended up with a 16 mph average on bike today, a very brisk pace for me. I did 30 mile rides on Wednesday and Thursday morning, so ended up with 130 miles for the week.

I ended up with a total of 520 miles on the bike in the month of June. That’s a good mileage total for me. I would like to get that much or more in July.

Today’s 70 mile route.

I took off this morning on the F5 and did my Martin Mills Metric route, adding another 10 miles on State Highway 19, for 70 miles. I did two 30 miles rides during the week, so had a total of 130 miles for the week. I started today’s ride just after 7:00 am and finished just before noon, so I was finished before the hottest part of the day.

And it is hot right now, heat training time in Texas, you might say. The last few days have seen temperatures in the 90’s with high humidity, so the heat index has been 105 plus. I finished up early enough today to avoid the worst of the heat, but both Wednesday’s and Thursday’s 30 mile rides were done after work, in the heat of the day.

By the time I ride the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred in late August, I’m used to the heat. But this first heat of the year is always tough, with the body not being acclimated to riding in the heat yet, and I don’t think I’ve ever been as wiped out after a 30 mile ride as I was on Wednesday. But it’s good heat training, and that’s what I kept reminding myself as I was suffering on the road.

Today’s 70 mile route.

After work this afternoon, ahead of the storms that are closing in now, I managed to get in a 30 mile ride. Between working out of town and continued flooding, I didn’t manage a single ride during the week last week. I rode my Ben Wheeler route on Saturday for 80 miles, my only ride of the week. Today’s ride gave me 453 miles for the month, not as many as I would have liked.

Most of my rides are done at an easy pace, but in the summer, I start picking up the pace to get myself ready for the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred at the end of August. On Saturday’s 80 mile Ben Wheeler ride, I finished with a 16.3 mph average, my best ever average for a solo ride on the rough roads I ride around here. I have no explanation for that, but looking at my other rides this month, my average looks much better than it did at this same time last year, that, in spite of the fact that my weight is five pounds or so above what it needs to be for HHH in August. Whatever has me stronger this year, I’ll take it.

Saturday’s 80 mile Ben Wheeler route.

I ended up with a total of 531 miles ridden for the month of April. That’s a good April mileage for me, and I was hoping to get near the same mileage this month. But all the storms and flooding have made it tough. I got 120 miles the week before last week, but last week, after two 30 mile rides during the week, I had a 60 mile ride planned for Saturday, to give me another 120 miles.

But when I got up that morning, weather radar was showing a storm bearing down on Gun Barrel City from the northwest. My ride routes take me straight east, and it looked like I should be able to stay east of the storm, so I took off on the F5. I was staying ahead of the main storm, but a new cloud in front of me built up into a smaller storm with lots of lightning. I don’t like riding in the rain. Skinny bicycle tires and wet pavement aren’t a good mix. But if I don’t like riding in the rain, I REALLY don’t like riding in lightning. I cut off the route and rode to nearby Purtis Creek State Park to take refuge.

I hadn’t noticed it on the rough roads I’d been on that morning, but as soon as I reached the smooth state park roads, I could feel an unmistakeable thump, thump, thump coming from my front wheel as I rode. As soon as I stopped, I found the problem, a large knot on the almost new front tire on my bike. At that point, I gave up and called a friend to pick me up. I only had 19 miles for the day. I waited at home for the rain to clear out, put a different wheel and tire on the front of the bike, and just past noon, took off to try again. I rode another 31 miles to give me 50 for the day, and 110 for the week.

This week, between work and storms, I didn’t get a ride in at all until Friday. I rode 40 miles after work Friday, then got up Saturday morning and rode my Martin Mills Metric route, but added another 10 miles to the route to give me 70 miles for the day, and 110 miles for the week. There is more rain in the forecast for this week, so getting my rides in will continue to be a challenge.

Martin Mills Metric route plus 10.

Another week, and again, more days of flooding in Texas. By Wednesday, I was starting to wonder if I was going to be able to get any riding miles this week, but after big storms during the night, it dried up enough Wednesday that I was able to get in 30 miles that afternoon. It came another round of storms that night, but had dried up pretty well when I got another 30 miles in on Friday afternoon. I took off this morning and rode my Martin Mills Metric route for another 60 miles. The weather was truly nice today. Today’s ride gave me 120 miles for the week.

Today’s Martin Mills Metric route.

Wednesday’s 30 mile route.

Yesterday’s 65 mile ride to Martins Mill, combined with a Tuesday ride of 40 miles, gave me 105 miles for the week. I ended up with 410 miles in March. That’s about average mileage for me in March.

There is a fairly popular thing among cyclists called Ride My Age. On or near your birthday, you do a bike ride, the length of which in miles, is equal to or greater than the number of years of your age. I’ve never gotten into riding my age. During my club riding years, I was doing rides greater than my age on most weekends. And during my randonneuring years, I did lots of rides much longer than that. On April 4th, 2010, one day before my 59th birthday, I completed a ride of 241 miles. That was more than quadruple my age!

But these days, most of my rides are much shorter, while my age number is starting to get up there. So, I’m thinking that maybe the Ride My Age thing may be becoming a worthy challenge for me now. With that in mind, since last Tuesday was my 65th birthday, I’m calling yesterday’s 65 mile ride this year’s official Ride My Age ride.

Yesterday’s 65 mile Ride My Age route.

Today’s 30 mile ride, along with a couple of short rides during the week, gives me a total of 100 miles on the bike for this, the first week of February. I ended up with 390 miles on the bike in January.

My mileage goal these days is 5,500 miles a year. That’s around 106 miles a week or 458 miles a month. But I don’t ride close to that mileage every month. I ride more than that in the summer, and quite a bit less in the winter. I try for 100 miles a week in the winter, but don’t ride on the coldest days, and ease up when I’m sick. If I can get close to 400 miles for a winter month, I’m happy with that. Last year, I only managed 220 miles in January. So I’m off to a better start this year.

I’ve also managed to keep my weight down better this year. I weigh 188 pounds right now. That’s just four pounds heavier than the 184 pounds I managed to get down to at the end of August for the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred ride. If I can make it through the winter and its associated baking and candy making onslought of mine, without gaining any more than that, then I’m doing well, I think.

I took off on the F5 yesterday afternoon,rode to Purtis Creek State Park, and did my 40 mile route. It was only my second ride of last week. I had also done a 30 mile ride on Tuesday. I had intended to do another ride later in the week and before the end of the year, but it stayed so dark and chilly all week, I never got it done. So Tuesday’s ride was my last of 2015. It gave me 5,503 miles total for the year.

Tuesday was a full two days after the flood had ended, but Purtis Creek Lake was still flooded. The parking lot looked like this.