I had an excellent day, riding this 200k brevet. Steve, Peggy, and Ray are great company, and it was so nice to be doing the ride with a pack of recumbents who’s uphill and downhill speed characteristics match my own. This ride starts in Italy, goes southeast to Groesbeck, then takes a more westerly loop back to Italy.

As I loaded my bike onto the rack this morning, I noticed how cool it was, and turned around and grabbed my arm and leg warmers, and tossed them into the truck. That was a good move. In Italy, the temperature was 57 degrees this morning, with a stiff south wind, and even after I put the arm and leg warmers on, I was still shivering. It’s hard to believe it made it up to 91 degrees in the afternoon, and with a big time tail wind, it was downright hot the last bunch of miles.

Within a few miles from the start, the four of us settled into a group by ourselves. We passed Nelson. He was doing the 300k, and conserving energy with a modest pace at that point. The southwest wind, which had been blowing at 10 mph or so when we started, kept picking up, and shortly after we turned west on SH-31 at mile 24, it really started blowing. The eleven miles down SH-14, from Mexia to Groesbeck, mile 52 to 63, were just brutal, against a wind that was really howling by then. Everyone arrived at Groesbeck tired.

But most of the miles after that were with the wind, and we really started moving down the road. At the last control stop, mile 93 at Mount Calm, Ray decided to wait for his friend, Dennis, who had had a blowout and another flat, so Steve, Peggy, and I took off by ourselves from there. We had started the ride with intentions of keeping our pace moderate, since it was Steve and Peggy’s first 200k, and I’ve tended to crater myself lately, when I try to hammer too many miles. For most of the ride we did a good job. We would get the pace a bit fast, then catch ourselves, and slow a little. At this point, however, we just kind of took off. There were a few miles west, against a quartering wind which really slowed us down, but once we turned north on FM-308 at mile 101, we really cranked it up.

After we turned onto US-77 in Milford at mile 125, we made a quick stop at an outdoor pop machine, wanting a rejuvenating soft drink for the last few miles, but the machine was out of order, so we just rested a few minutes, and continued on. I can’t believe how strong Steve and Peggy still were as we pulled into the finish! Congrats on your first 200k, you two, that was a great effort!

We finished with 132.2 miles, and a time of 9:30. Average speed was 16.6 mph, for an on the bike time of just under 8 hours. This ride was just too much fun; I look forward to more brevets with these bent riders!

This ride starts at the Crowley High School, goes south on small roads through Cleburne, through Rio Vista, to just west of Covington, then turns northeast and goes through Covington, then north to Grandview, and down small roads, staying just west of I-35W, back to Crowley.

I really like this route. Most of the roads are small, low traffic, country roads. Many of the roads are tree lined, and very scenic. Even the stretches of highways are pretty low traffic roads. There are hills, but nothing really steep, and none are really long hills, either.

Greg joined me on this ride, and we both decided at the beginning to keep the pace reasonable, on not spend this whole ride hammering. And so we did. I finished this ride feeling better than I ever have after a century.

It was 63 degrees with a stiff south breeze when we started at 8:00 am. It actually felt a bit cold until we got underway. It was just a few miles down the road that a few bikes took off ahead of everyone else. Greg and I, both needing to make an unscheduled pit stop anyway, resisted the urge to join this group, and just stayed with the main group. When the 58 milers turned off in Cleburne, there were just six bikes out of the main group headed on for the century: two road bikes, two tandems, and two recumbents.

We kept a comfortable pace for the most part, but the south wind got pretty tough until we turned northeast near Covington. From there on, it was easy sailing, and I do mean sailing. It was a fun, spirited group. The tandems were experts at spotting the city limit signs first, and won all the city limit sign sprints (although Greg did claim the cemetery sign sprint). We also took our time at the stops, and didn’t finish the ride until after 3:00 pm. I ended up with 98.3 miles, with 2967 feet of climbing, an on the bike time of 6:05, for a 16.0 mph average.

My usual winter route roads south of home have gotten very torn up from the oilfield truck traffic. I do enjoy roads without terrible hills for my winter rides on the Nimbus. I’m planning on incorporating some of the roads from this route into some winter routes for myself for this year.

It was a fun ride, like the airport ride always is, even though I really don’t like riding in the rain. There was great chat and camaraderie with riding friends headed out to the airport, then a rabbit that I just couldn’t catch as I blew myself up on the airport loop, then feeling the drizzle start, and watching Paul slip-slide on the wet roads as I dragged my tired self back to the start. Did I mention that I really don’t like riding in the rain?

Then, war stories were swapped over a sandwich, while the air conditioner froze my soaked self. Someone remind me to pack a towel and dry shirt next time the weatherman says a 40% chance of rain. I ended up with 54.3 miles at a 17.4 average. It was great riding with you, Paul, Steve, Peggy, and all the GDB folks.

It was last winter when the seeds of entering The Texas Time Trials was first planted in my head. All winter long, my most frequent riding companion was Mark Metcalfe, on the Joe Pool dam. He was recovering from his late spring crash, and therefore spent the winter riding at speeds I could usually keep up with. We talked about a lot of things, but of course his long distance riding was a frequent topic. He told me I should enter an event in the next TTTT, but I hadn’t even done a century, and felt my best in even the shortest TTTT event would be too embarrassing to be posted for the world to see. He said that a four man team for the 500 mile race gave you over a day to ride 120 miles, that there had never even been a four man recumbent team in TTTT, and that I should think about putting a four man team together.

When I mentioned it to Paul, he sounded reluctant, even though GDB folks had bugged him about doing something at TTTT last year. I only later found out that he just wasn’t going to consider it until he test rode the course, and was sure his lap times would be at least close to what other riders had averaged. When I asked Steve about joining the team, he also expressed concern that he wasn’t fast enough for something like this. I pointed out to him that I had ridden with him a little and he seemed fast to me, that we were all amateurs and none of us other than Greg on the TiCa were likely to post any times that looked like anything resembling pro times, and that no one was going to judge him too harshly if he was willing to come out and try (of course, both Paul and Steve ended up smoking the course).

Looking back, we were pretty clueless about so much of what was coming. We had picked up tidbits here and there, questioning people who had done it, like Nelson and Ray, but we still barely had an inkling of what we were getting into. Brenda had just recently mentioned to Paul that having two riders alternate for two laps during the night, while the other two took a longer break, was the best way to get a little sleep during the event. It also occurred to me that some kind of hint about what time a rider’s next lap would start would help, so just two days before the race, I wrote out a tentative schedule, with night breaks like Brenda had brought up, and passed out copies the night before the race. We ended up doing WAY better than the schedule, but at least it gave us starting times to adjust from.

At first, I had Greg pencilled in as the first rider to start, since he was sure to be the fastest on his new TiCa. Eventually, it occurred to me that Paul as the first rider would make more sense, because the crazy beginning mass start would be in the dark, an awfully tough challenge for Greg on the lowracer, and because the first rider has to do a 7th lap, 20 miles more than anyone else, and Paul’s endurance had looked better than any of us this year. While Greg and I were trashed at the end of HHH, Paul seemed in great form at the end, and with ample breaks, had maintained a 20 mph average for the 100 miles.

Focusing on the training and riding, you also have no clue about how much work will be involved with crewing an event like this. Ray’s saving us space at the start/finish, and Paul bringing a canopy for there, worked very well. Rose was less than enthusiastic about even going, and sitting around while the other riders and I alternated riding for close to 30 hours. She took her own car so she could make a trip or two home for sleep and tending to home matters. Once the race started, though, there was no way she was leaving. The crew work done by Rose, Terrie, Peggy, and Alexis were far more necessary and important than I had ever thought of, and Rose’s masseuse work on my legs were a big part of my being able to finish my laps.

Neither riders nor crew got much sleep. I’ve never known anyone else who can fall asleep on cue any better than me, yet when I finally got time to lie down, even in my exhausted state, it took 10 minutes for me to fall asleep, and the 2 hours and 20 minutes of sleep I got was more than any other team rider, and some of the crew.

Considering how we marched headlong into the unknown, I thought we did pretty well. Our relay handoffs could have been a bit better, but it all went a lot better than could be expected for a complete rookie team and crew. There were no flats or major breakdowns, but I had my trials and tribulations during the race. On my second lap, construction people laying tires to move a tracked bulldozer across the road, stopped me and made me wait. It was only a couple of minutes, not much in the grand scheme of things, but it seemed like life and death as I sat there. I also lost my main light during the second night lap. The battery died. It charges up today, but takes hours to do so, and only shines the light a bit over an hour. I don’t know if it’s dead, if I never charged it up and ran it down enough for it to be working right yet, or what ( a rookie mistake from a non-night rider). I had to stop in the middle of the lap and retrieve my puny Cateye EL300 from my bag, and use it the rest of the way. That was a very scary lap, with not enough light to see well. For my last lap, also a night lap, Paul lent me a helmet light which did a great job, but as I retrieved stuff from the back seat of my truck before the lap, my night glasses fell to the ground, and of course, I stepped on them. Paul also lent me glasses.

Mark Metcalfe had said what an uplifting thing a team challenge like this can be, and Nelson mentioned in another post how meaningful a team experience like this is, but without a reminder, you forget how team camraderie can be with the right teammates. I’d go to war with these guys, now.

Who knows if and when we’ll do something like this, again. Unless I can get faster, I don’t think these guys should keep me around for a second go-round. It will take a few more days for everything to settle in, but I can already tell that this was one of those adventures that I’ll always remember and cherish. Adventures like that are too few and far between.

Even with Mark Metcalfe’s prodding, I’m not sure this team would have ever gotten together without the steady chatter and exchange of thoughts that the rbent forum provides. Thanks, rbent.

I don’t know what others thought of the Lamar Church facility, at which several of us slept, but it worked out very well for me; I enjoyed it. I had a feeling that doing a 100 mile ride with bronchitis wasn’t going to be easy, and I was right. I figured I would hit the wall sooner than usual, and that’s exactly what happened.

I felt great at the start, and Paul and I kept a pretty fast pace to mile 30, where we stopped. I had loaded up two Camelbaks, and two bottles of mix, figuring to keep my stops brief, few, and far between, and when Paul seemed like he was staying at mile 30 for a while, I went on and left, figuring he would catch me soon enough. I fell in with a fast group, until they all stopped just before Hell’s Gate, and I kept going.

I passed Hell’s Gate before 10:00 am, still having over a 21 mph average, but almost as soon as I turned against the wind there, I hit the wall, and by mile 60, I was just turning pedals the rest of the ride, nothing more. At mile 63, Greg passed me, and this started a trend that lasted the rest of the ride: Paul and Greg kept passing me, again and again. They were the hares, I was the tortoise. They would zoom by, but stop at the rest stops. I just kept going.

I made my only other stop at mile 80, and stayed longer than I had wanted to. I was pretty cratered, needed to fill a Camelbak, needed to mix another bottle, and needed a bit of solid food to keep my stomach settled. I ate half a granola bar. Greg pulled into the stop right after me, and laid down on one of the cots. I stepped up and gave him my best Mark Metcalfe motivational speech to keep going, but I don’t think he appreciated it.

I fought leg cramps on and off the last 40 miles of the ride. Stopping pedaling made them really bad; I had to find the right pedaling stroke to keep going, and I could not let my heart rate stay up in the 160’s for long, without cramping. I’m not sure what caused the leg cramps. I was well hydrated, and had downed plenty of calories and electrolytes. It may have been plain old muscle exhaustion, helped along by the fast early pace, and my bronchitis.

My total miles were 101.8. Total time was 5:34. On the bike time was 5:16 with a 19.3 mph average. Not as good as I had hoped for, but under the circumstances, I won’t complain. This ride is one of those that is a grand adventure; it has to be done to be appreciated. I’ll be back.

Margaritaville.

Hell’s Gate.

The spaghetti dinner.

Behind Paul in the morning sun.

Drafting the tandems.

Paul at the end.

As tall as the Nimbus is, it will never be the fastest bike around, but I wanted to make it more aerodynamic, and I’m planning on making a bodysock for it for winter riding. The first step in improving its aerodynamics was the used Windwrap fairing I picked up last month. Next, here’s the tailbox I finished for it, today. It’s fabric covered coroplast. (Does that handlebar look familiar, Nelson?)

I had bought a closeout tailsock from Terracycle, to use in the summer, and for a pattern for the back half of the bodysock I plan on making. I decided to make the tailbox to go under the tailsock (and later, the bodysock), rather than making a frame for that. Here’s the tailsock over the tailbox.

Just for a “before and after” comparison, here’s the bike the day I brought it home last year.

It was a good turnout for this permanent. A group of 25 or so rolled out of Lynn Creek Marina this morning at 7:00 am. This route first runs south from Joe Pool Lake to Venus. I was surprised at how bad these roads have become. I rode these roads quite a bit last year, and they did not have as many gravel spots, and holes as they do now.

From Venus, the route turns west, going through Rio Vista, then turning south through Blum, and taking a more southerly route back through Maypearl and Midlothian. I ended up with a group of five strong riders, which included Val and Robin, Shellene, Clay, and Sharon. As expected, it was hot and humid, with a pretty stiff southwest wind that we fought until we made the turn at Blum.

I felt great most of the way, but the pace of this group took its toll, and I seemed to hit the wall between Maypearl and Midlothian, at about mile 105. About this same time, Sharon, seeing that she was going to have her best 200k time, by quite a bit, picked up the pace. This strung out the group a bit, and I could no longer match the pace, and was dropped. I kept the group in sight most of the time, and on one downhill just south of Midlothian, actually made brief contact with the group again. But, I could not stay with the group, and by the time the group turned from the Hwy 67 service road onto Lake Ridge Parkway, I was a good half mile behind.

I just typed the magic phrase: “Lake Ridge Parkway”. Going down these big hills, I blasted past the entire group. The gas tank was pretty much still empty, so predictably, the group caught me on the flat part of Lake Ridge. Val proceded to lecture me on how uncool it was to drop the group. I was like “HUH???” I never did manage to understand why it was ok for a rider to pick up the pace at mile 105 and drop me, but not ok for me to pass the group at mile 120, knowing they would catch me shortly afterward, so I wasn’t a happy camper at the end.

I ended up with 125.6 miles and 3600 feet of climbing. My on the bike average was 17.0 mph. Official ride time was 8:06.

Rio Vista Rumble route

I decided to spend the day after being beat up on by the TTTT course doing this nice, easy 100K LSR Populaire. So much for that thought. I ended up with 63.6 miles with an on bike time of 3:22 for an 18.7 mph average. Checking my journal, that’s the fastest average I’ve had for a ride of over 60 miles. I actually spent most of my time cruising at 20+ mph. Only the dozens (well, it seemed like dozens) of traffic lights and stop signs on Danieldale and Pleasant Run roads brought the average down to 18.7. This came, surprisingly, on a day when my legs were already feeling like toast from yesterday’s TTTT lap.

Only 4 of us showed up for the ride, which starts in Duncanville, and is an out and back to Combine. The pace was slow at the beginning, but when Richard took off ahead, I joined him, and we ended up hammering the whole way to Combine and back. Actual time was only 12 minutes more than bike time; the one control stop was our only stop. The ride started at 6:05 am. We finished at 9:39 am, and I was home by just after 10:00 am. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten home that early from a 60+ mile ride.

Now, I think I’ll enjoy some TDF coverage between snores…

A bunch of rbent riders did a ride out of Celina yesterday, 7/7/07. Foorider (Mike Schwitzgebel) did a very nice report on this ride on his blog. Read it here.

I still don’t think my breathing is quite back to normal, but it was much better on this ride.

Leaving Celina.

Peggy and company.

Me on my Corsa.

Well, I guess it was my turn in the barrel. Greg and I joined 6 others in Italy to ride the same route we had tackled Sunday, and this time it was me who cratered early. Almost as soon as we started riding, I felt short of breath. I figured it was allergies acting up, and I’d be fine after a few miles, but that’s not what happened. I simply could not take a deep breath the entire ride. If I tried to exhale deeply, I sounded like the worst smoker’s wheeze you’ve ever heard.

And it didn’t get better. I’m here to tell you it’s pretty tough getting up hills if you can’t take a deep breath. And it seemed to sap my strength more, the further we went. I didn’t feel too bad at the first control stop at 28 miles, just a bit puzzled why I couldn’t keep up on the same hills I had been fine on Sunday. But the bigger hills just after the first control let me know this was going to be an extremely tough day. Greg stayed with me as I slowed. By the second control at 64 miles, I had doubts that I was going to be able to finish, and by the last control at 94 miles, I was sure I wasn’t going to finish.

But I did finish. My total was 132.5 miles. On the bike average was 15.4 mph. I forgot to check total time, but it had to be around 10 and a half hours, with many more stops than usual. My mysterious illness was only one of the indignities I endured on this ride. I ended up with body aches, much like you get when you have a fever. Every joint I have which has arthritis issues, was screaming. My Garmin Edge 305 wouldn’t power on. Even now, plugged in to power, it still won’t come on. It appears to be dead, pending repair. I really would have liked to have that heart rate monitor today. On this day when I felt so bad, it would have been nice to watch that window into my engine.

I also had two flats. With only one working co2 cartridge and a bad pump, I finished the ride with less than optimum pressure in my rear tire. When we stopped at mile 110 to water a roadside tree, I found out the hard way that I was doing my business while standing in a fire ant bed. I also had a wasp fly inside my sunglasses, but escaped being stung.

By the end, I was barely able to turn the pedals, and when we stopped in front of a Milford store with just six miles to go, I was certain that I was done. Greg bought a Dr Pepper from a machine. At first I decided against a soda (I don’t drink carbonated beverages at all), but then remembered all the times I’d seen a pro peloton racer down a Coke, so I bought an RC. That old racer’s sugar and caffeine trick does seem to work. I still had no leg strength left, and was still wheezing like a terminal smoker, but I felt a lot better, and kept the pedals turning for the final 6 miles.

I still don’t know what to make of my strange symptoms. I never coughed up much, so I was left to believe that it was just constricted bronchial tubes or such. Sure enough, when I chased down and took an ephedrine pill at home, I was able to breathe better. We’re talking classic asthma symptoms here. I don’t know what to make of it, but I’m going to discuss it with my doctor.

As I break out my dictionary now, and look up the definition of the word, “fun”, I wonder if it will match today’s story. Somehow, I don’t think so. Thanks for dragging me in, Greg.