At 8:00 am this morning, Greg and I left the Shell station at Crowley Road and Main Street in Crowley to ride my Crowley Cricket Crunch 158k permanent. This route goes through Burleson and southeast to Grandview for the second control at mile 32. From there, it’s south 4 miles, then west all the way to Blum at mile 51 for the next control. It then heads northeast to Cleburne for the next control at mile 75, then north back to Crowley.

It was 46 degrees with heavy fog when we left. That made it pretty chilly, and kept my sunglasses covered with mist for the first miles. And an unforeseen problem turned out to be all the mud on the roads. With all the wet weather we’ve had, so all the muddy fields, with trucks dragging that mud onto the roads, there was more mud on the county roads than I’ve ever seen. The morning fog made it really slimy in places, and it really trashed our bikes, and made riding dicey here and there.

But the sun finally made it out, and things dried up nicely. We had a nice tailwind coming back north, and it was a great ride. We rode from my house to the ride start, so I ended up with 103.3 miles. On the bike average was 15.7, and total time was 7:42. Thanks for joining me, Greg!

Crowley Cricket Crunch route

Steve, Mark M, and I joined Peggy for this easy pace 200K yesterday. Peggy is recovering from a stress fracture in her knee, but bound and determined to keep her R12 alive, so rode today. We left Lynn Creek Marina at 7:00 am, and the wind was already blowing hard, so we knew already that we were in for a tough wind day. Sure enough, the further south we got, the harder the wind blew. A lot of the county roads this route uses have lots of trees to block the wind, but it was still a lot of southbound riding the first 70 miles, and the open stretches from Maypearl to Italy were brutal. We were all glad to see the Italy control.

The route turns northeast out of Italy down SH 34, so there was a quartering tail wind, then it turns mostly straight north, so it was a great tail wind most of the rest of the way.

One of the nicest things about an easy pace 200k is that you get to converse more, and we took advantage of that, laughing and cutting up most of the ride.

In retrospect, a route that didn’t finish on Lake Ridge Parkway might have been a better choice. The traffic at almost dark thirty on a holiday weekend Saturday evening was a bit much for me.

But we all finished safe and sound, with the main worry being about how Peggy’s leg would feel today. The Oasis had great food, as usual, although we saw a cockroach there that was so big, I thought it was going to carry Peggy off.

Thanks for inviting me along, y’all, I had a great time! Take care of that leg, Peggy. The easy pace ride was great fun, but I won’t gripe at all when you drop me like a bad habit next time. In fact, I’ll have a big smile on my face, knowing you’re back to yourself.

Magical Mystery Tour 200K

With the Stratus XP now my designated commuting bike, I had added disc brakes to it on Friday, and decided to do a test ride on it this morning. I did my usual 25 mile route from home, heading out the the Johnson County roads just south of me.

I got a comment I hadn’t heard before. It was a dark morning, so I had my helmet Superflash blinking, and a lady in a standard issue SUV slowed beside me and said, “I like your little light.”

Total miles = 25
Average speed = Slow as mud

But the bike does stop well.

The Stratus XP now has disc brakes.

The Aerotrunk I got from Nelson holds a lot of work stuff.

A lean, mean, commuting machine! (Well ok, not that lean these days, neither bike nor rider…)

At 7:00 am this morning, Steve and I rolled out of Italy to do the Prairie Hill Roundup 200k permanent. Nelson was supposed to join us, but wasn’t there at 7:00 am. It turned out that he overslept.

Nelson, who is having knee issues, chose this route because it has a reputation as a fast and easy 200k, just what the doctor ordered for a problem knee, it would seem. But the route wasn’t that easy on this day. All but about 30 miles of the route has become boulderseal, and the wind made things tough, too.

The route leaves Italy and heads east, then southeast, to Wortham at mile 53. The wind, which wasn’t blowing very hard early, really started to pick up from the SSE by mile 25, which is where I had a flat. After I fixed the flat, and we started to ride away, there was Nelson, riding up behind us.

From Wortham, the route heads WSW to Prairie Hill. Right on cue, the wind changed from SSE to SSW. If the local weather reports here are to be believed, the wind was blowing much harder where we were. Nelson’s knee was already bothering him by the time he reached Wortham, and this long stretch against the wind was brutal. By mile 66, Nelson had decided to nurse his knee back to the start by a shorter route, and we parted ways with him. The remaining 10 miles to Prairie Hill, with the roads turning a bit more south, were really tough, and by the time we reached the control there, I was toast. I was glad there wouldn’t be hardly any more miles against the wind.

The Prairie Hill control turned out to be Mark M’s double secret ice cream stop, and Steve sampled that ice cream, while I ate my peanut butter and honey sandwich. After leaving Prairie Hill, the route soon joins more familiar roads, down FM 339, then FM 308, and US 77 back to Italy. It was much easier sledding on this part of the ride, but I was fried enough that I struggled on every small hill.

With .3 in bonus miles, from a wrong turn the only time I rode out in front of Steve and Nelson, I ended up with 126.0 miles, with an on the bike average of 15.7 mph. I finished in an overall time of 9:30. My Garmin showed 3,600 feet of climbing. We rejoined Nelson for Subway sandwiches at Italy, and called it a day. The wind and boulderseal made it a tough day, but for a November day, it was truly nice, and I always have a blast riding with these two. I hope your knee is better soon, Nelson. Thanks for the ride, y’all!

Prairie Hill Roundup 200K route

It was a beautiful fall day here, and I rode a solo century from home, today. I am putting the finishing touches on a 161k (100 mile) permanent route, and decided to ride the route today (starting from home rather than the nearby designated start), taking notes and making final corrections for the cue sheet. Since I would be riding an easy pace and stopping often, I grabbed Rose’s camera, and took it along.

Mile 7: It doesn’t take long for the route to get out of Crowley and Burleson and onto tree lined Johnson County county roads.

Solo Century
10/24/09 at 18:57:39 Quote Modify Remove
It was a beautiful fall day here, and I rode a solo century from home, today. I am putting the finishing touches on a 161k (100 mile) permanent route, and decided to ride the route today (starting from home rather than the nearby designated start), taking notes and making final corrections for the cue sheet. Since I would be riding an easy pace and stopping often, I grabbed Rose’s camera, and took it along.

Mile 7: It doesn’t take long for the route to get out of Crowley and Burleson and onto tree lined Johnson County county roads.

Mile 10: Up the hill and around the curve.

Mile 12: Two weeks ago, I was dropped on this short, steep hill, by a man walking a dog (I smoked them on the downhill, though).

Mile 17: The Buel Cemetery has been there quite a while.

Mile 19: Curses, it’s a short stretch of genuine Texas boulderseal.

Mile 51: The halfway point of the route is the thriving populace of Blum, Texas.

Mile 56: The tentative name for the route is Crowley Cricket Crunch (bikely map here), and here’s the route namesake, although he did escape on this day.

Mile 57: Hilltop view south of Rio Vista.

Mile 70: My driveway is wider than this county road.

Mile 90: Nothing more fun that a good hill that pitches up steep at the top, at mile 90.

Mile 92: Ridgetop view looking east; that’s Burleson in the distance.

Mile 93: Northwest view from the same ridgetop.

I ended up with 101.4 miles (a bit extra since I started from home).

This morning at dark-thirty, I hopped on my SXP, and joined the ranks of those who bike to work. After moving to Crowley last month, I have been a lot closer to work, so this morning, I filled the Aerotrunk I just got from Nelson with a load that evblazer would be proud of (well, maybe not quite THAT much), and headed to work. The weatherman had predicted no rain today, so of course, it started misting before I got a mile from home, and misted all the way to work.

You can see the bikely map of the route I took here. I used side streets to get out of Crowley, then took Crowley Road all the way to Sycamore School Road, a little over half a mile down Sycamore School Road, then side streets the rest of the way to work. Crowley Road has a wide, paved shoulder on the stretch that I rode.

I had no issues at all. I think it’s a good route. Traffic this morning was very light. The only heavy traffic I got in was on the way home, riding down that stretch of Sycamore School Road. There are three lanes each direction, two traffic lights and a railroad track on that short stretch, so the traffic isn’t really high speed, and people had no problem getting around me.

I rode an easy pace on this new route in the dark going to work, averaging 13.2 mph for that stretch. It’s more uphill going home, but I averaged 14.1 mph on that part of the ride anyway, being confident in the route and more comfortable with riding in daylight. There are a couple of short, steep hills to climb on the return route, but it’s a fairly flat route. It was 12.6 miles to work, and 12.5 miles coming home.

I’ll be a fair weather commuter, skipping the really rainy or cold days. Hopefully, I can ride to work two or three days a week. Comments at work ranged from, “I should ride MY bike to work” to “You rode from Crowley, are you CRAZY?”

Steve, Peggy, Nelson, Ray, Greg, Paul, and I left Bolivar this morning at 6:30 am to ride Ray’s new St. Jo 125k permanent. This route an out and back that goes through Forestburg, then on to the turnaround control at St. Jo. It’s plenty dark at 6:30 am these days. Lights were definitely needed for the first miles.

It’s pretty steady elevation gain from Bolivar to Forestburg. I pushed pretty hard to keep from falling too far back, but lagged behind anyway. We made an unofficial stop at Forestburg, then rode on to St. Jo. There are some pretty tall hills between Forestburg and St. Jo, made even more scary by wildly driven trucks hauling some kind of wide load monstrosities. They looked poised to tip over at any second going down these hills. I didn’t see it, but heard that Ray got a closer look at one of them than he wanted.

Nelson had some bike issues starting in St. Jo. I struggled coming back on the hills to Forestburg, but there’s lots of downhill on the rest of the route, and I finally started to feel like I was moving decently. This was a truly beautiful day, mostly cloudy with a low in the upper 60’s and a high in the lower 80’s and not much wind, just great riding weather.

I was a tired camper by the finish, and a cheeseburger from the Valero that’s the start and finish control was very good. I finished in 5:35, ended up with 78.6 miles, and had an on the bike average of 16.8 mph. It was great company as usual with this bunch, thanks everyone. To rest and recover from this hard ride, I went home and hung a ceiling fan. Nothing like relaxing on a Saturday afternoon…

Between my move and the rain, my total riding mileage for the first 14 days of September was less than 60 miles. It was raining when I got home today, but I decided to ride anyway. If it’s never going to stop raining, I’ll ride in the rain. So I hopped on the SXP and took off.

I can get out of town quickly from my new place in Crowley, and I have worked out a 25 mile route for evening rides that I like (Greg, you’ll be happy to know that there are, indeed, some trailer houses on the route). You can see it on bikely here. It has a little over 800 feet of climbing, quite a bit more than the flat 25 mile Arlington route that I’m used to, but it’s not like I couldn’t use the extra hill work. It has even more blind turns than the new TTTT course, so it’s not a great speed route, but I still like the small county roads better than anything else. It’s going to be exactly 25 miles, if I can get to the point where I quit missing turns (got .2 in bonus miles today).

It starts with a mostly gentle incline for 5 miles, then has rolling hills until mile 18, then finishes with a long mostly downhill run. The elevation profile is shown below. Do you ever ride these county roads west of Burleson, DJ?

The rain was light, and on and off, for the first 12 miles, and the roads were wet enough in a few places to bother me a bit, but not too bad. Then the rain quit, and the pavement dried out very quickly. I thought I was going to get home dry, but it wasn’t to be. With 4 miles left, I was hit by sheets of rain while riding against a 30 mph north wind. I was drenched when I got home. If this had been the usual rain coming from the south and west, this route would have had me moving away from it at the end, but this strange backing in system had a howling NNE wind in my face at the end of the ride.

Why the title of this post? At mile 14.6, I hit a rock that squirted out to the side in such a way that it loudly hit the side of a pickup that had just passed by, coming from the opposite direction. I figure that’s revenge for all the rocks that trucks have hit me with over the years.

I moved from Arlington to Crowley this week. The big casualty of the move, it’s the legend of the headless cyclist.

Here’s the other main casualty of the move. When I take that tape off, the toenail will likely come with it. Ah, the joys of moving…

This is such an event, everyone should go ride it at least once. Wichita Falls really goes all out for it. There were apparently over 14,000 riders this year. I got there Friday afternoon and walked a few laps around the bike consumer show, after picking up my t-shirt and registration stuff. It’s always fun to wander through that much cycling stuff in one place.

The rec center outdid themselves again this year. This year, they added a pizza dinner Friday evening, and a breakfast with all kinds of choices for Saturday morning. The gym was cold, as usual, and I remember tossing the covers over my head a few times during the night, but I slept pretty well.

I took the usual 6:00 am route to the ride start, cutting across Wichita Street, which takes you to Scott Street in front of the start. There were no recumbents and tandems on the Wichita River bridge this year; everyone was lined up at the start line just before the bridge. As I approached the start from the front, it reminded me too much of a can of sardines, everyone was so packed in, so I turned around and made my start from Wichita Street.

This is a flat route and has great traffic control, so I always use it to try for my best century time of the year. I made it past the thickest bike traffic at the beginning ok, and settled in to see how fast I could finish the ride. I have been slower this year, and today was no different. The past two years, I made it past mile 90 before my average speed dropped below 20 mph. That happened today before mile 70.

But my real problems came at mile 74. I hadn’t made a stop yet, even though my arse had been hurting for more than a few miles by then. I think the filter foam seat cushion is completely worn out on the Roadster, and that may have a lot to do with what happened. At mile 74, I had the strangest muscle spasm I’ve ever had, such a serious cramp in my right arse cheek that I stopped. As soon as I stopped, a knot the size of a pear showed up, just beside my tail bone.

I layed on my side in the ditch with the ants and goatheads for 15 minutes, before a SAG vehicle showed up, policed me up, and hauled me back to the rest stop at mile 68. There, I was tortured by a massage therapist for 20 minutes or so, but the knot just wouldn’t go away completely. There was just no way I could sit on the bike, so I asked to be SAG’ed in, and was told a SAG truck was on its way, so I waited.

And waited and waited. Every 15 minutes or so, I would sit on the bike again to confirm there was no way I could ride it. Finally, at 12:45, after an hour and 15 minutes of waiting for the SAG truck, I sat on the bike and said, “Maybe”. So, off I went.

It’s a very different view of the ride that I got, riding during hours when I’m usually finished. I figured I’d better keep a moderate pace to better fend off further cramps, but even with a moderate pace, I was pretty much passing everything on the road. 6 hours after the start, it seems there aren’t too many racer types left on the course. Riding with the strong riders that I do, I feel pretty slow, but passing all these bikes today was a reminder that slow and fast are relative things.

And it’s a different style of riding at this time of the ride. Many riders just ride side by side, and are pretty much oblivious to anyone coming up behind them. You need to use the oncoming lane for most of the passing you do. And at every rest stop that I rode past, at least one rider pulled out directly in front of me.

By mile 98, I was starting to cramp pretty seriously again. When you cramp at mile 98, there’s only one thing to do. I stopped and had a free beer. Unfortunately, as soon as I stopped, the knot showed up again, and the beer wasn’t nearly enough to numb the pain as I took off again. But within a short distance, the cramp was better, and I was pretty sure I could finish.

When I crossed the finish line, I didn’t stop, for fear of a knot again. I just made a u-turn, and rode slowly back to the rec center. I ended up with 107.8 miles (rode from mile 68 to mile 74 twice), and a total time of 7:50. That likely qualifies this as the slowest century I’ve ever done.

The last few miles, there were more than the usual number of comments about how comfortable my bike looked, and offers to trade bikes. But they didn’t bring the smile to my face that they usually do, because on this day, my arse was likely hurting just as much as their’s was.

14,000 riders at the start.