Tri County Hill Hopper

OUCH!!!!

I did not ride last week, and Saturday I worked on the house. Not quite done, but I did not let that stop me from riding Sunday. The Tri-County Hill Hopper started from the Big Red Barn out in Round Top, TX on 2/25/07. This is a nice challenging route with lots of nice hills to climb. Check out their web page for more info. www.hillhopper.org

It was about 40 degrees when we got to the ride. It warmed up pretty quickly once the sun came up. By the time I got to the first rest stop, I decided to take off my jacket. It was a little cool standing around, but once on the bike, I was nice and warm.

Vanessa decided she was going to skip the loop and turn the 76 mile route into the 60 mile route. I worked this ride as a ride marshal also, so I stopped to help 2 people on this ride. The first was a flat tire between two nice hills. It was about 6-7 miles into the ride. I caught Vanessa at the first rest stop.

We left the rest stop and I was talking to another ride marshal when we noticed a guy that seemed to be hurting a little. We pulled over and helped him raise his seat a little. It must have worked because he took off and it took a few minutes to catch him. Making that one change seemed to make a huge difference for him.

So off I went again to catch Vanessa since she kept riding. Turns out she followed Sheldon and realized she missed her turn to skip the loop after she got back to the first rest stop. Needless to say I made the turn. I waited for a few minutes at the 3rd rest stop, then decided I can wait at the car for her. Sheldon's friend, Pat, was at the rest stop and was ready to leave. I decided I would ride with him for the rest of the route.

Off we headed. Down about a mile or two from the rest stop, there were two calves out of the fence. They were standing in the ditch minding their own business, then one of them started to walk towards me. I moo'd loudly and the second calf started to run. First he turned to the fence, then he turned around and headed into the road. Right in Pat's path. We both got a good laugh about that.

We finished up the route. I like this ride, it is a nice challenging route with nice roads and nice hills. Great training for the MS150.

Bulldog Ride and other Training

This week I got one ride in on the trainer. I got an hour in and boy did it feel good to get back on the trainer. Unfortunately that was the only weekday I got to ride. So much for my training plan.
I worked my first training ride as a ride marshal. Saturday 2/17/02, Vanessa and I did the Bulldog Ride. This ride is put on by the Waller Jr High School. It was a good route. Vanessa was able to keep up with me on several of the hills. The morning started out in the mid 40s but warmed up to the upper 50s. We fought the wind for the first half of the ride. But as we headed back down 362 into Waller, we flew. At one point I was holding 27-30 mph. What a rush.

Sunday morning we rode with Gary, JC, and Mike on 2978 and did the 30 mile loop. It was pretty uneventful. I realized it has been a while since we rode on 2978. It was a good riding weekend. Not a lot of miles, but at least they were good.

Just simple rides

After doing two organized rides the last two weekends, we decided to join our team on Saturday 2/10. Team BTX met at Charm & Charlies at I-45 and SH 242. We rode up to Conroe and back. It was good to ride with the team again. Since the last time we rode with them was before Christmas. This route was about 40 miles. The temps were in the mid 40s and did not warm up much before we were done. I did attack one hill and decided to not give up until I had no more to give. I saw a new personal high HR. I hit 199.

On Sunday we met Sheldon in Katy again. He was riding a route with another Team Spoken member. It was a nice route out through Fulshear, Brookshire, and back to Katy. Over all it was just over 40 miles. Not bad.

After skipping my training plan the last few weeks. I need to get back on it. Not likely to happen soon because I have to do some repairs on the house. Maybe I can sneak in a few weekday rides.

Big Chill Bike Ride

We headed to Katy on 2/4/07 to ride in the big chill bike ride. This was the first year Vanessa and I did this ride. It was fun. Pretty well organized and supported. It was also a very nice route. For the second week in a row the weather was cold and windy. The wind was out of the south this week and the ride started around 42 degrees. Luckily as the day wore on it warmed up to the upper 50s.

We rode with our friend Sheldon and some of his friends from Team Spoken. This ride was a lot smaller than the Frost Bike 50 so it did not take nearly as long for everyone to be out on the course. We ended up doing the 45 mile route which took us from Katy, TX to Monaville, TX and back. After making good time heading out, we turned around and found out the return trip was a little more difficult. It was a good ride. Just what I needed after not riding for the last week.

Frost Bike 50

Frost Bike 50 was the first training ride of the 2007 BP MS150 training season. The ride started at Cy-Fair College and had a pretty good turn out. There were two things that made the ride a bit challenging. The weather was cool and windy. At the start it was around 40 degrees. It warmed up a little during the day but not much. For most of the day the wind was out of the north, and seemed like it was 10-20 mph.

I had decided I was not going to do this ride this year because the last two years the route had one stretch of road that was very rough. Found out the day before that the route had been changed and we would not be riding the bad road. So Vanessa and I figured what the heck. Might as well ride.

We started out and saw our usual friends at the start. The wind was at our back for the start, which meant that we would be heading into the wind from the first turn and up the back side of the route. Nearly half to two thirds of the route was a head wind or a cross wind. But the finish was all tail wind. All in all I was pleased with the new route. We finished the day with a 52 mile ride.

Getting back to it.

After taking most of two weeks off, it has been difficult to get back into training.

After riding last weekend, I got my new training plan last Monday. I did pretty good sticking to it. I rode Tuesday for and hour on the trainer. I was supposed to ride Wednesday, but found I could not find time to get the training in with everything else I needed to get done.

Thursdays for this training plan is intervals. This week it was quite a work out. I was supposed to ride 20 min in zone 1 and then 8 intervals of 4 min zone 4 followed by 4 min of zone 1. The first two sets were not bad. The third was tough, but I was able to recover and try one more set. After completing the 4th set, I was spent. My goal is to complete all 8 sets next week, but I will be happy to complete 5 or 6 sets. The point of the intervals is to decrease my recovery time between high intensity efforts.

This weekend was rainy, and we had to pickup some things out of town so this weekend was a bust for riding. So here is to sticking to the plan for all next week.

Training Zone update

Yesterday I got my new training zones. I was a little disappointed in the test Tuesday. I finished the test and did not feel as strong as I did while training last week. The results were not as bad as I expected, but knew that when my heart rate was high while warming up, it was not going to be a great test.

I got to Trivantage at 5:45 am. The test was scheduled for 6:00 am. So I got the bike on the computrainter and started warming up. The bike did not feel quite right, I felt like I was leaning to the left and could fall over at any time. I can't help but wonder if my heart rate was high because I was also trying to fight the "I am going to fall to the left" feeling.

Anyway the test started at 130 watts and I felt good up till about 220. I was able to finish the stage at 250 watts, but could not go on. My heart rate was up over 186 (max is 196) and I just did not have any more strength in my legs. I was not short of breath though, so I was probably not properly rested, and/or I was a little dehydrated.

The results of the lactate test increased my zone 1 a little. I went from 130-170 watts to 140-175 watts. I don't know that I trust my heart rate training zones because they changed from 136-151 to 153-163. Which matches up pretty close with my old zone 2 and low zone 3.

I was supposed to be on the bike last night, but I have been a little tired since taking the test. I decided to skip the training last night and skip the weights tonight. Back to the training this weekend. I think I can do 60 minutes each day. :-)