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.

I did the Tuesday night ride with the Texas Wheels this evening……….. sort of. Apparently, Tuesday night is their night to do climbing work, and Mark Metcalfe wanted to do a flatter route, so he and five others (including yours truly) split off the main group of 20 or so, just south of the first bridge on Lake Ridge.

We rode the same route through those neighborhoods that Rose and I used to, then after passing Britton Park, Mark’s wife turned around and called it a night, and the pace really picked up. We were climbing one of those hills on FM661 heading south to SH287, against a south wind, and I glanced at my gps (an awesome new toy, btw), and saw we were doing 20 mph! After we dropped one of the riders and his friend stayed back with him, Mark slowed the pace some, so they could rejoin us, but it still ended up being an 18.6 mph average for the 30 miles, and no stops. That’s what I call a brisk ride!

After crossing 287, we rode some rural roads I hadn’t ridden before, circled back to Britton Road, then went back the same way we had come, through those neighborhoods on Grand Peninsula, and back down Lake Ridge.

I’ve never known much about the Texas Wheels because they don’t have a web site. This ride starts at 6:00 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and they try to finish before dark (but I always carry a light if I’m going to ride that close to dark………… one problem and you are finishing in the dark).

Friend Greg and I rode the old Baker Road club route out of Aledo today. Planning on doing the 50 mile route, we missed a turn and added 17 miles to end up with 66.35 miles. Baker Road, itself, is not fit for a bike ride these days. If you ride the area, you should avoid it. There are a dozen or so spots where the pavement has been destroyed, and replaced by very large packed gravel. It was way too rough for the 650 wheels I was on today, but I navigated it without a fall.

I downed plenty of carbs today, and the hills, wind, and rough roads kept our pace down to a 14.0 mph average, and I had no problems like last weekend. I was a bit tired afterward, but Greg looked like he was ready to ride another 66 miles.

It was a small turnout by FWBA standards, with 20 – 25 riders. It was another beautiful morning, 62 degrees at ride time, with a light southwest wind that became more brisk as the ride progressed. This is a good route which I’d like to ride again, mostly flat, but with a few small hills. It starts and ends on Kelly Elliot road, and follows the SH287 service road for a ways, but most of it is on quiet rural roads south of Arlington. I ended up with 51.0 miles, and a 15.9 mph average.

EDIT: Well, I guess I missed the excitement on this ride. Kevin (I don’t remember his last name) and I dropped everyone else on the return loop from Lillian, and I left in my truck without seeing anyone else after the ride. It turns out that 10 miles from the end, Bill Skau stuck his wheel in a pavement seam, crashed, and broke his neck. He is not paralyzed, and is in John Petersmith hospital, but that’s about all I know at this point.

I rode 64.3 miles of the FWBA Decatur ride today. The main problem with that is that it’s a 66 mile ride. I cratered less than two miles from the finish, and had to be sagged in. A bonk seems most likely, though looking back, I suspect some dehydration may have been involved, too. I guess it’s a good reminder that if you try to do a 66 mile hilly and windy ride at a brisk pace, you should probably do a good job of preparing yourself.

I’ve been trying to teach myself to use a liquid diet when doing a long ride, like most who do long rides at a fast pace do, but I guess I need to work on that some more. The Accelerade/maltodextrin mix that I thought was enough for this ride, apparently wasn’t. I guess there’s something to be said for estimating high on nutrition, especially when there’s hills and wind involved. I had also ordered one of those small Bento Boxes to stash a couple of gel packs in, but it hasn’t arrived yet, and I forgot to put gel packs in my regular bag. When I ran out of my mix at 50 miles, I was out of nutrition. I thought I could finish fine, but I was mistaken.

My day-before-the-ride routine wasn’t very good, either. I left for Lake Fork at 4:30 am, and got home at 9:00 pm. My nutrition for the day wasn’t so good, and I must have dehydrated some too, because I weighed 190 pounds this morning, 3 pounds less than any other day this week. I also woke up in the middle of the night with a leg cramp, something that hadn’t happened in over two years. If I’m going to make these long, grueling fishing trips from March to May, maybe I should restrict myself to shorter rides the following day.

I felt fine most of the ride. The two lead riders had dropped me on some hills at 45 miles, but I reeled them in at mile 51, and they were drafting me down the next hill. When I started up the next hill, I didn’t seem to have much strength, and it worsened from there. Each hill after that, I struggled more to get up, until I finally had to stop and walk my bike up a hill. I rode down that hill, but as soon as I started up the next, both legs locked up with cramps, my right leg with a cramp on the front of my thigh, my left leg with a cramp on the back of my thigh. After stopping and waiting for the cramps to subside, I walked my bike up this hill, but when I reached the top and started to climb back on the bike, I realized I was too weak and dizzy to continue, classic bonk symptoms.

I sat down beside the road, and a horse wandered up to the fence right behind me to keep me company. One rider had passed me as I walked up the first hill, but after I stopped, it was over 15 minutes before the next rider showed up (even after walking up two hills!). As I explained to him that I couldn’t continue, I realized that my speech was slurred, and he said he’d be back for me. A rider gave me a Payday candy bar, and as I sat beside the road eating it, I had this inexplicable craving for a large bag of Fritos, and when I stopped for a subway sandwich after the ride, I did get the Fritos too. A fun sport, isn’t it?