I did 41.3 miles from home on the Nimbus yesterday and 25 miles today on the Joe Pool dam on the Corsa. It looks like these will be my last rides before lung surgery, and therefore last rides of the year. I ended up with 6161 miles ridden this year.

These rides have a way of turning into epic adventures, and this one was no exception. There were six riders on this permanent brevet. We started the ride in Princeton, at 7:00 am. I got to riding along, talking to Peggy, and the next time I looked around, there was no one else behind us. The crosswinds were already pretty gusty, even early, but we made decent time to the first control, and before we were ready to leave, the rest of the group arrived.

At Ladonia (which is home to one of the friendliest Deputy Sheriffs I’ve ever met), we turned north, and had a good tailwind the rest of the way to Honey Grove, the turnaround point. Peggy said she wasn’t feeling her strongest, and I had to admit I wasn’t either, so we didn’t really try to fly down the road while we had the tailwind. We just pedaled a comfortable pace.

At the Honey Grove control, John Droese pulled in just a few minutes behind us, saying he would keep his stop short, and wanted to join us. John is new to LSR, but is a strong rider. Before we left, the rest of the group arrived, so they were still just a short distance behind us. By then, the winds had to be blowing 30 mph, and the 12 miles straight south back to Ladonia were brutal. That stretch isn’t hilly, but it’s so open it really catches the wind.

After we left the next control at mile 95, it sprinkled lightly for a few minutes, but that was all. The 6.4 mile stretch from Lane to Merit is straight against the wind, with some tough hills, and that was one of the hardest stretches I’ve ridden in a while. My legs were toast by the time we turned west again.

With 15 miles to go, my rear derailler shifting cable broke. This instantly clunked the chain into the 11 tooth gear. This gives you a 3 speed bike, and you ain’t going to like the gears you have. The 3 gears are high, higher, and highest. It had been progressively getting darker outside, and of course it chose this time to start sprinkling again. I don’t know of a quick fix for this problem (if you do, this would be a good place to post it), so, knowing the skys could open up at any minute, I decided the best approach might be to keep going, doing my best to keep enough speed to get over the hills. I can tell you that I do not recommend trying to climb a tough hill at 9 mph with a 50 cadence, especially when your legs are already fried. By picking up my speed to try and keep going, I eventually lost sight of Peggy, and of course the minute I did, she broke down.

I knew I would eventually get stopped by a hill, so John said he would go back for Peggy. Sure enough, after walking my bike up a steep hill, John and Peggy showed up, and we spent a few minutes trying to do a fix to get me in a lower gear. John pulled the cable while I pedaled to get the bike into a lower gear, then we tied the cable. It did not work. As soon as I took off, it clicked into the 11 tooth gear again. I decided to keep going. I only had to walk one more hill, but I did struggle mightily on several. The 9 mph with a 50 cadence seemed to be my limit. If I fell below that, I had to stop. But, I sat right on the 50 cadence on several hills, my legs boiling in hot oil.

After my cable troubles started, I was so intent on just getting in that I neglected to keep drinking my carb drink, and I paid the price for that. As soon as I pulled in the parking lot, I bonked, and could hardly stand. A few minutes of sitting in my truck downing sugar made me feel much better (thanks for the Herseys chocolate, Peggy), but my legs were so fried, they looked like this:

Well, maybe they didn’t look like that, but they FELT that way. I ended up finishing in ~10 hours. Mileage was 125.6. On the bike time was 8:21, for a 15.0 average. Total climbing was 3958 feet. The wind made it feel like more.

Rose and I arrived at the Arlington Bicycles Inc about 12:15. My new tandem carrier setup worked perfectly; I think this setup would be fine on the highway if I want to make a longer haul with the tandem. The ride start time was 1:00 pm, so we took time to explore the new Bicycles Inc store. It is really big and well stocked. The ride signup sheets were inside the store, and there was also all kinds of fruit to snack on.

We enjoyed the route. The main change on the short route is the return, which comes back on Turner-Warnell then Calender, rather than a long haul down Sublett, which gets pretty busy in the afternoon. It still makes a longer run down Rendon Road than I like, but the traffic this time of afternoon was much less than the after church traffic we caught last time, and the short route doesn’t stay on Rendon Road nearly as far as we did on the LSR ride.

I never got an official count, but it looked to be 50 riders or so, in all. There were a half dozen or so tandems, and there looked to be plenty of newer riders. We started out at the back of the pack, not having done any of these group rides on our tandem, and not sure how well we would keep up. But, we soon found the speed at the back too slow, and started passing folks. We soon ended up with a group which included some slower riders from the 60 mile route, and the fastest of the 37 mile riders.

We rode out against a howling south wind. The clouds kept the temperature mild, though. This is great weather for November! The break at the Rendon Store at mile 20 was very welcome. The more upright seating of this tandem isn’t as comfortable as my other bikes, and 25 miles or so is all I usually do on it.

With the big tailwind behind us on the return, we kept up with the fastest riders on the short route, except for the usual getting dropped on hills. We ended up with 37.2 miles, with an on the bike average of 15.5 mph. I guess having a pace set for us by riding with this group speeded us up some; we don’t usually manage that fast an average on the tandem.

There was pumpkin pie waiting at Bicycles Inc after the ride, but we settled for more fruit, and headed home for dinner. We both enjoyed the ride; I’ll think we’ll do this one some more during the winter. A 1:00 pm starting time like it has will be good when the temperatures get cooler.

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