Well We just completed Hotter'n Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls, TX. What a ride. Vanessa and I arrived in WF early on Friday so we would have plenty of time to check out the expo.
We found a few deals, but the most interesting part was Polar was demoing their new polar CS600 with power. They had a contest and were giving out a free Polar HRM to the person with the highest 2 minute average wattage. They start out with a 3 minute warm-up, then a 2 minute all out effort. I figured that I can do this, it will be interesting to see what my average wattage will be. I watched the guy in front of me give it a go, when he finished he was able to average 354. The previous high before that was 256, which I knew I could beat. I figured that I would fall somewhere between the two riders. I did my warm-up and when we started I had to quickly ramp up my resistance. I ended up getting into the big ring and smallest cog before I topped out. This put my wattage above 400. I reached the point where the only way I could increase the wattage was to increase my cadence. Since I trained around 90 RMPs that is where I topped out. When I finished I held a 2 minute average of 370 watts. Which held up for a couple hours but finally was beat by about 6 people. Most of them were racers even some pro/former pro racers.
Friday evening we met Michael and Chad who I worked with at McLeodUSA. They also brought Michael's neighbor. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. After dinner we met Sheldon and the rest of Team Spoken.
Saturday morning we got up early and went to breakfast at the hotel. As we headed to the start line about 5:00 am, we saw Bill we rode with from team BTX. Bill said Richard was at the start line. Like last year we were able to start first in line. I called Michael and told him where we were. Michael, Chad, Slade, and Marcos was able to join us. Sheldon and crew were a little ways back. The start was delayed a few minute while we waited for the fly over. Once the cannon went off I felt the shock wave before I heard the boom. We were off.
I rode with Michael and Chad to rest stop 3. Traffic was a little busy until we got to rest stop 2, after that it opened up a little. Rest stop 3 was our first stop. There I saw my old boss, Scott, from HP. He headed out a little before we did. Just before Michael, Chad and I left, Sheldon and Rick arrived to the rest stop.
Our next stop was rest stop 5. Once the rest stop was in view, I backed off a little and eased into the break. Again I saw Scott at the stop. When we were ready to go, I rode with Scott for a little bit. Micheal and Chad got ahead of me and I could not catch back up. So I rode by myself to rest stop 7. I saw Scott again at RS 7, but I did not see him once I got through filling up my bottles. So on to the next rest stop.
I was beginning to feel the effects of the heat by this time but it was not too bad yet. I still passed several people, but I was also being passed regularly. When I got to rest stop 8 I saw Sheldon and Rick. I rode with them until just before rest stop 10. We stopped briefly at rest stop 9 also. Between rest stop 9 and 10 I was really feeling the heat. I had to spray my legs down several times.
I stopped briefly at both rest stop 10 and 11. The stretch from Dean back to Wichita Falls was tough due to the wind. I would get passed and jump on a wheel for a while. I did this until I got into town then I just was happy to keep my speed around 15.
I finished with a total ride time of 7 hours and 31 minutes, with an average rolling speed fo 17.5 mph. On the way back to the hotel I stopped off for a short stay in the mist from the fire hose. Boy did that feel good.
We got our room and are ready for next year.
