Atlas Ride

This past weekend friends Pattie, Kevin, Alex, Peter, Regina and I drove up to Austin for the annual Atlas ride. This year we made it on time and got to roll out with the crowd. It was a great 70 mile ride with hills and tons of sun. I was so hot at times that it was really a challenge to not decide to SAG. Anyway I'm glad I did it after it was done. =D

Update on Life

So this month has been crazy with having to go to St. Charles for work and then Seattle for fun. I haven't had too many weekends for riding, so this weekend I tried to cram in a lot of miles.

Yesterday was Head for the Hills in Chappel Hill. I forgot how hard this route was. 63 miles and tons of hills and 90 degree weather was crazy. The morning felt great with a little bit of tail wind and fresh legs, but the last 20 miles were horrible. Thanks to Arnel for sticking close by and not moving too fast to chase. It was good motivation to try and stick with him. Plus it was less boring to have someone to talk to. Finished in like 4 hrs and 35 mins.

Today was just a free Bike World ride. Very little signs and mostly on our own for directions. We had a map and a group of about 9 so it was fun. I didn't really stick around too many of the others close enough to talk with. Today was a fast day. Weather stuck below 70 all day and we stayed under cloud cover, so we went 15-20 the whole day. Finished 61 miles in just under 4 hours. Fastest 60 I've ever done. Felt great. I'm glad I went today. It saved my weekend.

Oh yea, Cycling is better than Partying

This weekend served as a good reminder as to why I stopped going out and why I love cycling.

Friday night was just an all day happy hour extravaganza ending up at some club on Washington. It had been a while since I had more than 1 drink consecutively and they were not that great. For a gastro lounge I was disappointed. It was actually fun during the fact. I had a good time listening to music and chatting with old acquaintances. There was plenty of wild and it reminded me that I like it wild.

But when I woke up at 1pm the next day I was like. Shit. No I didn't have a hang over. I had just slept the whole day away. I wanted to wake up early to go cycling. Instead I pressed snooze one too many times and then my whole day was gone. To put it simply. I was pissed. Mad at myself for letting it happen. Mad at myself for giving into peer pressure. Horrible.

Today though. Today was a cycling day. I registered last minute for the Continental Cycling Classic and got up at 515am for the ride. 67 miles of beautiful weather, rolling hills through Sam Houston National Park and good friends. They keep our pace above 15 and made riding all the more fun. That was the best ride I've had in a long time. Got home at a late 4pm and fell into an exhausted sleep. This is the kind of day you want to have. At the end you feel so accomplished, healthy and hungry. Everything is twice as good after a long ride. Showers are warmer. The bed is more comfortable. Food is more tasty. Why would I give up something like this?

Not to knock down partying. But that I will be doing only on special occasions. I still like it, just...I would rather wake up ridiculously early and ride. This weekend reminded why I chose cycling over clubs.

Tour de Pink

This year I decided not to join my team for the Tour de Pink. But then I got an email in Steve Moskowitz's periodical cycling newsletters that the TdP needed SAG wagons.

Side pause. For you non-cyclers out there, a SAG wagon is the support car that drives around helping cyclists that are having mechanical or physical problems.

I figure I do so many rides, but never offer to volunteer that now it was time. And it would be a good change to go to a ride and not ride. I'm always up for a change. I got to get up well before dawn and drive the 1hr trip over to Prairie View A&M. But when that sun came up...man. I tried to get a good shot, but didn't stop my car soon enough to capture the best scene. This is the best I could do.



Anyway it was good because my company hosts a rest stop every year, and so I requested to be on that route and got to hang with some buddies I haven't seen in a while and meet some new folks. My SAG was route was pretty uneventful. I guess cause it was on a route where you would expect to see experienced riders. I was pretty much a traveling tire pump. But that's OK. I heard that other routes had a lot of action, so maybe I will ask for routes that travel the shorter distances? Also I think there were a lot more volunteers than expected, so there might have been one or two extra SAGs that weren't needed. Sometimes you can have too much support. There were plenty of people encroaching on my territory, and I bet that helped with my boredom.

Oh well. Next ride I will definitely be on my bike.

Houston Police Dept Moonlight Ride

Last night I went downtown to ride the Houston Police Department's annual Moonlight Ride benefiting the the HPD. It was cool. They shut down 5 miles of Memorial (from downtown to Shepherd and back). It was a family thing so there were also 3 mini rest stops on the loop. It was super cute. Saw Fabrice and Derek, so I rode with Derek while we lost Fabrice somehow. Saw Andy and SuJohn at the end but they left for a Spazmatics show. Finished 20 miles in 80mins.

The humidity made breathing all the harder. I don't know what's up but I've been having problems with my heart, getting flutters, breathing heavily after too short a time. I had felt my anemia creeping up on me and started my iron supplements again, but it's been 2 weeks and they don't seem to be working. So maybe it's time for a trip to the doc.

Anyway it was a cool change of pace from waking up super early to ride in the still-hot and humid mornings with the sun in your face. Still was hot tho.

BP MS 150 2010

Sweet. I do have to say this year's MS 150 was sweet. The first day started out with clouds a little bit of rain, but most importantly a tail wind. I breezed through the first 20 milesto the first Accenture rest stop in a little over an hour. Awesome.

After that Andy and I caught an ExxonMobil paceline and we took off flying. We were probably going 25-27mph. holy hell. I couldn't stop my heart from beating like crazy, but I also couldn't stop smiling. That was amazing.

If you're not familiar with pacelines, here's how they work. I usually average 15 mph on my bike by myself. So you can imagine how fast you can go when all the wind resistance is eliminated.


Unfortunately I could only keep up for about half an hour or so. Andy took off with them, but my heart couldn't keep it up. So they flew away and I made it to lunch around 10 or so. Saw Alex, saw Raza, Dan, John, Fabrice and a Matt. The rest of the day went ok, jumping on and off people's wheels. There were more rolling hills than I expected. I lost of a lot of other people, so spent most of the ride by myself. Eventually I caught up to a group about 30 miles out of La Grange, so that was nice. I would have like to have the chance to really get to know my team better. Then we could have ridden together, but at the time it seemed like we were all at different speeds.

Got into La Grange around 3pm I think. Don't remember. I do remember that it took me about 6hrs on the bike to get through 95 miles. Pretty good. When I do a century, hopefully I can get a better time.

In La Grange, hung out, met people, showered, ate a lot, slept as best I could. Next year I will bring games or something fun to pass the time.

Next morning 830am start. Decided to take the express route this year. Last year was just too much pain and I still have those chain ring scars. Got through the first 30 miles pretty ok. Didn't get to meet up Alex like planned because of my late start. Was about 25 mins behind the guys and my front derailleur was giving me problems. I had the Bike Barn guy check it out, but he was like, it's fine...What?! then why can't I shift right!? I dunno it worked 30% of the time, so I tried not to shift out of my big chain ring.

Anyway after that I was tired and ready to be done riding. It wasn't fun anymore and I couldn't pin point my unhappiness. Got to the Accenture rest stop through a nice paceline cause the wind turned and was pushing us back. Picked up Ashley and we made it there fine. Saw Theresa and Candy. At the stop we met Danny and John. Decided to leave the stop and make the rest of the way together. ACCENTURE PACELINE! That was amazing! I was so happy. No wind, I could rest up my legs. Got some Guu gel in my system and we were flying.

I think we were going 16-17mph in a 5-10mph head wind. Sweet. Why didn't we do this before? That's when I figured out what was missing from before. Why I was bored and tired and not caring.

I was missing friends. They made all the difference. Working hard together for one goal. I haven't had that in a long time. That's what this weekend needed more of.

I think we got through the last 20 miles in an hour and half. or something fast like that. At least it didn't even seem like an hour cause we were having fun, picking up people along the way. First we saw Matt and then Jenna. We conquered the last of the hills together and all of a sudden we were rolling into the capital. We didn't look quite like Caisse d'Epargne above, but I think we were close to it. Danny had a helmet cam so hopefully he got some cool vid of us.

Rolled in at around 245pm. Covered about 67 miles in a little less than 6 hrs. Whoop. Next year will be the challenge route and definitely more team pacelines. Laura asked me to take over co-captaining next year with Debra, so that will be fun and hopefully we'll get a bigger team out next year. And we'll all get in one big paceline.

WHOOP!

Good Weekend

For those of you that keep up with my blog, yes I did post date the last three posts. I have been pretty busy this weekend so I didn't have time to write until now. If you don't feel like reading them, don't worry. I really like having this blog cause it helps me keep track of my progress and thoughts; I don't expect people to read it, though it makes me feel good to know people enjoy my writing. Anyway, to save you time I can give you a quick run down of my workout weekend through short phrases and adjectives.

Here we go.

Friday
Ran. 2 miles.
Banana.
Good.

Saturday
Hip Hop Class. Awesome.
Banana.
Ran 6 miles. Paced slow.
Abs hurt. =(
Apple.
Pasta lunch.
Pasta dinner.

Sunday
Oatmeal.
ConocoPhillips Training ride. 37 miles.
Fig newtons, regular pretzels, animal crackers and peanut butter filled pretzels. Yum.
Fish and bread lunch.
Tired. Nap. Yay.

Spring Breakaway

This morning was the Spring Breakaway ride with the ConocoPhillips Bike Club. Have I not told you about the CP bike club? Oh my bad. So Daninmal introduced me to the bike club a few weeks ago. This is a training series set up by CP. 12 weeks. One ride a weekend to prepare for the MS 150. $125 for late registrants and you get full support on your rides. If you get to ride all 12, then that's a pretty damn good deal considering charity rides are all at least $25 each. I joined about 4 weeks in, and I've missed one, so I'll get 9 fully supported rides. Still a good deal. They have been partnering with organized charity rides recently, so that's why I've been posting on those.

Today was the last charity-partnered ride, called Spring Breakaway. And the last flat ride. I did the 37 miler today, finished in a little less than 3 hrs. That's 12.3 mph. Yay. I feel like I improved, but I have to factor in the tail wind. Man was that fabulous. Today I also have to claim hypocrisy as I...turned on my Serfas bike computer. haha. I know I said I don't like to workout with too many measurements, but really the overall timing myself was getting me down and I was beginning to question my ability to gauge my speed. However, thanks to the wind I had a good measurement day. I was getting up to 19mph on flats and averaged about 16.5 mph after 30miles. I was flying. Best morale boost ever.

But what's a ride in Katy, without wind in your face? So yes. The last 7 miles I got a good dose of wind in my face. This leg I averaged about 11-12 mph. At the end of the day my computer said I had been on the bike for 2.5 hrs and averaged 14.6 mph. woo! Maybe I should keep using the computer to really know my speed and not my overall speed. That might help my training cause I am freaking tired and kind of sore right now. The 6 miles yesterday probably helped. Ah so my workout philosophy is changing. I will flip flop in and out for a while until I decide what works best...

Pedaling the Prairie

Yesterday I pedaled 41 miles in the prairies of Houston. The first ten miles were pretty miserable - numb toes, cold face, my sweat wipe became my snot wipe. Gloves are definitely going in the wash this week. I also felt like I should be going faster than what my bike was outputting. So I stopped at the first stop, raised my seat about 3-5cm, ate some Fig Newtons, and got back in the saddle. Wow I probably upped my speed by 1 mph just by changing the seat height. The change in my performance was so noticeable. The physics of riding is so cool.

The whole ride took me 3.5 hrs. That averages out to 11.7 mph. There was less wind this time, so that's where the .7 came from. But seriously? just 11mph? I feel so slow. Maybe I should put the bike computer back on and really keep track of that...NO. The reason I stopped using it is because I don't believe in constantly using numbers to gauge my strength. You should ride however fast you feel comfortable for as long as you feel comfortable. Just listen to your body and you can tell how far you can push or not. That's how I work out. That's how I ride.

Now I just have to develop the mental strength to push myself harder and harder. Not sore today, so I'll prob go for a run. My knee doesn't seem to be hurting me, so that's a good sign. Maybe all I needed was to give it a good low-impact workout.

BTW can I just say how HAPPY I was that this ride had Fig Newtons? I hadn't seen these delicious babies for years. It's the little pleasures in life that keep you going. =D

Puddle for the Ducks

First organized ride of the year!

Damn do I love this stuff. Today I popped out of bed at 5:15am. Yes, 5:15am on a Saturday. It was awesome. Got my oatmeal, bike gear, hooked up my Saris trunk rack, hitched my Jamis to it and we were a go.

I wanted to do this ride cause it was relatively close to me and I have heard good things about it. Plus its for ducks. Who doesn't like ducks?

Riding was good. It did two things: solidified my decision to get a new bike and gave me a good gauge of how much training I still have to do. A couple weeks ago I took my Jamis out and felt pretty good on it...like why am I blowing so much money on a new bike? This one is perfectly good. But today, like clockwork, my back started to hurt right around 30 miles. And then my seat had fallen back and stretched me out for a good 8 miles...further pain. I'm praying that with my new bike I'll be able to get a perfect fit. I didn't get to try the size out in the store cause they didn't carry it. I just tried one size up and knew it was too long, but still ride-able like my Jamis.

Not to sound like I don't like my Jamis. It has treated me well, taken me hundreds of miles. Enabled friends to ride with me. But we don't fit as well as I thought we would.
Now some of you out there might say, just get a shorter stem. Well the stem on my bike is 0 mm. It basically clamps the bars to the fork. So the only solution is a smaller size. Plus carbon will be a plush ride...and maybe the stiffness will help my performance.

There were a lot of Specialized, Trek, and Scotts out today. It made me miss my Scott. I miss how it used to sing that hollow aluminum sound that made me feel like I was going fast. Funny tho I didn't see the model I had out...I guess not too many people bought the Speedster S20 in 2009? I did see one Blue Pinarello FP3 and a good handful of Cervelos - R3, TT bikes, no soloists.

So I was ambitious and signed up for the Metric century thinking it was 62 miles. Cause 62 miles I've done before. My best time was just under 5hrs - including stops. But this ride lied and instead it was really 70 miles. And they wanted us done by 1pm. We started 7:15, 730ish. So I was thinking ok, if I book it - I can make it just in time. But then, the wind came out. haha. So instead I took the 46 miler and made it back by 11am. So it was just about 4 hrs including stops - just over 11 mph. merp. Not a good time. I even drafted in and out as the wind got gustier. I need to bust my ass in the coming months if I want to ever make it to averaging 15mph - with stops.


On a happy note, I love my Castelli Mito Jersey. This was my first cold ride and it kept my body warm throughout. Although my arms were cold in and out. It was still warm and soft.