Bleat. Whimper. Moan. We cyclists have become really spoiled—but that's another topic.
The point is that the organizer, instead of wasting energy getting defensive, really put in a lot of work addressing all concerns, whether reasonable or not. It showed, and I think it's safe to say that the Collin Classic has reclaimed its place as one of the premier rides in the area.
My ride
Turtle was signed up for the 22-mile route, and since I serve as her "pit crew" when she does a ride, I was still futzing around, waiting while she made her final preparations. But not to worry. One of the improvements for this year's rally was the more organized staging for the start. I was doing the 55-mile route, but because I didn't want to mass start on the recumbent amid tightly-packed upright bikes, I made my way to the rear of the 75-mile staging and went off with that group.
Picking my way through the pack. I get some strange looks on this thing. (photo courtesy of bicycle-stuff.com)I skipped the first rest stop, which came at about 8 miles (and made for a longish wait for the second one). With some much-needed breathing room, I was able to pick up the pace a bit and was soon rolling along at about 20mph. Before long, I caught up with a couple recumbent riders. Not long after that, we picked up a fourth, and we rode together in a little pack, chatting and getting a kick out of the DF riders' comments. The pack fell apart when we were climbing a steep hill, and a rider in front of me threw his chain. He panic stopped, which forced me to panic stop without time to downshift to my granny ring, which meant I had no chance of getting started again on the hill. So I walked it. Meanwhile, one of the other 'bent riders—a diabetic—took the opportunity stop and check his blood sugar. I didn't see any of them again until much farther down the road.
Once I got going again, I just rode my ride, looking around at the scenery, and trying to find a good compromise between passing as many DF riders on the hills as I could and saving my strength by keeping my average heart rate low. I ended up with an average of 84% maxHR and a maximum of 91% maxHR, but considering the heat (which indexed at 105 °F) and the amount of climbing I did, that seems pretty good.
It's certainly better than last year, when the heat nearly destroyed me and I dragged across the finish in my granny ring behind some 300-pounder on a mountain bike.
I didn't eat along the way, wanting the 2350 calories I burned to count toward the 10 pounds I've been trying (and failing) to lose since I started road cycling a year and a half ago. I did stop briefly at each stop after the first for a couple cups of PowerAde and some ice chips, which I loaded into my helmet vents to help keep my head cool.
You know what they say: "Cooler heads prevail."
And so it went. I had a great, challenging ride topped off at the finish with some bottled water and some soft tacos from Chipotle. The Corsa was a joy to ride out on the flats, and even with the climbing, I finished with a 16.6mph rolling average. That's close on the pace I've ridden hot, hilly routes in the past; however, while I don't feel like I left much out on the course, it didn't kick my butt and leave me wrecked for a couple days, as others have.
Yesterday was a good day.
8 comments:
I'm glad to hear the rally went well. I'll have to reconsider doing that one next year!
Your first sentence made me gasp. Nothing like putting an eye out with gravel to make your cycling worth while. That had to have been quite rotten but good to hear you and Turtle had a super day.
sorry, what I meant was rotten last year. PS. Don't try posting when kids are banging on the keyboard and making a racket while sitting on your lap. Makes for comments that sound a bit rummy.
Allez: We would have enjoyed meeting you and your husband, but we always have Paris.
(I'm so ashamed, but I really couldn't resist.)
Emma: Never fear about the gravel. The chip seal purgatory was last year (as you've already observed), but even if we'd traveled those same roads again this year, there's not a lot of danger from flying aggregate (rocks). The chip seal I'm talking about uses aggregate that's maybe 1/2"-3/4" in diameter and is significantly smoother than the smaller, sharp-edged stuff that you're probably used to. That's the kind I used to see a lot of when I was a kid up north, and there was a lot of loose aggregate flying around, especially on recently surfaced roads. The stuff I'm talking about is like small cobblestones. They're mashed in to the road pretty firmly, and there's not a lot of loose aggregate left lying around to squirt out from under someone's tire and hit another rider.
Besides... I always wear riding sunglasses.
Eric: It was a good ride, but not without its cost. Turtle was sick from the heat for most of Saturday afternoon and evening. I didn't have any lingering effects from the heat, but yesterday I was painfully aware of every muscle between and including my butt and toes. So that's what They mean by earning your recumbent muscles.
As to not eating, it's probably not as bad as it sounds. I was doing that on the advice of a professional bike trainer who told me that if your goal is to try and lose weight, you shouldn't be eating during any ride shorter than 60 miles.
So I had a good breakfast, partook of the "orange-flavored" protein-enhanced energy drink at the final rest stop (I don't know the name of the stuff, but I tried it, figuring it was probably better at that point than eating a gel shot), and ate three shredded beef tacos after the finish of the ride.
Susie: Whether a word does or doesn't exist in some official dictionary has never been any sort of barrier to me. I'm not above making something up if it suits my purpose. I think "futzing", like "schmutz" is probably one of those many Yiddish-/German-/Dutch-influenced words I've heard and had stick to my brain at some point in my life. I don't remember where I get these things; they just seem to come out when required.
"DF" is an acronym for "diamond frame", which is how recumbent riders seem to refer to "normal" bikes. Of course, die hard recumbent (or "'bent") riders consider their bikes "normal", hence the DF designation.
For future reference, you may have noticed that a lot of the acronyms I use in my posts have dotted lines under them. This means I've tagged them as acronyms, and if you draw your cursor over them, you should see a tool tip that spells out the full text.
Unless that doesn't work on Safari and other Mac software. I have no way of telling.
And finally, it's not uncommon to see people riding mountain bikes on rallies like the Collin Classic. There typically are packs of "racer boyz" who form up in packs, ride 30mph pacelines, try to tear each other's legs off, and make disparaging comments about all us lower lifeforms; however, that's a relatively small group, overall.
The people riding mountain bikes are often actual mountain bikers just out for some cross training or very casual recreational riders who don't own lightweight road bikes. Some of them, like the big man I mentioned, ride mountain bikes because that's the only style of bike build sturdy enough to carry that kind of weight.
One of the things I enjoy about riding charity rallies like this weekend's is seeing the huge variety of different types of human-powered vehicles... and their riders.
"It's certainly better than last year, when the heat nearly destroyed me and I dragged across the finish in my granny ring behind some 300-pounder on a mountain bike." Ahahahaah*snerk*
Wow. I can't believe you admitted that!
Tink: the heat can sneak up on anybody.
Bygones.
Sounds like a fun ride; are you going to attempt the Hotter 'n Heck this year? Some friends have suggested it, although I'm suspicious they're just trying to get rid of me.
After 10 days of vacation, I got out for a vigorous 33 miler on Sunday in the heat, and it was just glorious. I think I'm addicted.
Bret: I don't know about the HHH yet. Turtle had been talking about wanting us to go up together for the rally, but I wasn't quite sure how we were going to pull it off. With all the motels in the area already booked a year in advance, I was having a hard time picturing how to get us up early enough to drive up there, pick up packets, unload, etc. in time to start. Then, since I hope to be ready for a century by then, there would be the question of what Turtle would do while waiting for me to finish.
After Saturday's misadventures with heat exhaustion, Turtle has decided she has to get the heat related issues resolved before trying something like that. So she's out for this year's HHH.
I'm chewing on the notion of driving up early in the morning, doing the ride, and then driving straight back (with the help of Monster or Red Bull). I'd look into the possibility of pitching a tent, but I don't know what I'd do with my bike, and my sleeping bag seems to have gone missing when we moved to the new house.
If you have some folks to go with, though, you should do it. I did the 50-mile route on my mountain bike in 2004, and it was quite an experience.
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